School with PJ

on May 27th, 2020 at about 6:25 a.m. I started writing today's blog entry

It was a bright summer night, dark and nasty weather, overcast with brilliant sunshine everywhere,

This morning I want to take a minute and report a success story. Not mine, god no but two of the little rug rats that I have semi adopted as pseudo grandchildren. These two little curtain climbing yard apes I'm talking about are underage so I won't mention their names, so let's just call them X and L. Both of them had to go to Grandma's house for further education and sessions in practical life counseling when school was canceled after the coronavirus pandemic started. Both of them had no option, and had to attend the "Grandmas School of Combat Math and Physical History". Neither one of them is particularly interested in school, I mean they are NOT bad kids, however, they can be a handful to get focused and directed towards the goals you have for them. Neither one of them knew exactly what to expect, however, they loved their MawMaw (is that how you spell it?) so they trusted her to do the right thing.

Both immediately leaned two real basics. One was it wouldn't work to say they "didn't like" a subject or a task given to complete because at MawMaws house there was no 3 o'clock bell and the second one was this teacher don't take any shit from people that are 3 feet tall. Both tried the old "My teacher says blah blah blah" and "That's not how we do it in my class." Both tried to argue fundamental facts until they were blue in the face but to no avail. 9 X 7 is not 63? Well let's write that down a hundred times after we figure it out to see if you can remember it and remember it's not a real smart idea to stand and argue with the teacher about things you don't actually understand. And you didn't like something? Well, that's just too damn bad because like it or not, attitude or not, tantrum or not, foot stomp or not, it was still going to be there when they got done with the display and they still had to do it and now it took longer than it would have because MawMaw doesn't play. Get a pencil.

So anyway to make a long story long, as the spring progressed and they found a rhythm with each other and with MawMaw the teacher, they figured out that she isn't an old fuddy-duddy dumbass and My God! MawMaw actually knows what in the hell she is talking about. Their poor regular teachers next year are going to get blasted every day with "Un-uh, that's not what MawMaw says" especially with the dumbass common core math stuff. They may as well dump that strategy in the trash because I am sure that parents all over the nation did within the first week of homeschooling because that stuff doesn't teach children math, it just confuses them and interrupts their thinking.

Pretty soon, within a week or two both of them started to be able to complete assignments at the right pace, they both learned how to fix MawMaw's coffee, they both learned other skills like sewing and shooting (PawPaw was involved too when he could be, cause he had to work for a bunch), and both of them started to enjoy learning (but would never admit it) at MawMaws house. When the time finally came at the end of 6 or 7 weeks of learning, they both had to take their online tests to see if they would score high enough to pass onto the next grade. Something surprising happened! Both of them not only surprised themselves by scoring higher than usual but X was even awarded a Merit Award for all A's and B's, and that I think is a historic event. I am sure L did very well also but I haven't heard details about hers yet.

It goes without saying that we are all very proud of them, and are very proud of their individual efforts. I know that it seemed very hard for them at first but near the end of the school year and after only 5 or 6 weeks a curious thing sorta happened. They stopped fighting with the teacher and more importantly stopped fighting with themselves. They found out it just wasted time, didn't make anyone feel sympathetic, and didn't work to get what they wanted anyway. Knuckling down and doing the work got it done quickly and they had more playtime. They sorta figured this out all on their own. I just think it's funny how they both were able to perform when the teacher was not afraid to get in their ass and call them on their nonsense.

Maybe the school teachers should attend a couple of weeks of school with PJ too?

Tiger Woods teamed up with Peyton Manning and played a for charity golf match against Phil Mickelson (whom I like) teamed up with Tom Brady (Mr. I'm a Buc now!) in a live broadcast event. That's how desperate America is for sports right now, Golf matches and Korean Baseball along with championship Cornhole tournaments and 40 years ago world series. Like I said, I like Phil Mickelson so I will not bash him, however, it sure was good to see Tom Brady get beat by Peyton again at something. It could have been darts or checkers and I would have liked seeing Brady getting his ass beat at something, anything.

Ken Jennings won something like 74 games on his amazing streak. I missed all of them.

1. I really enjoyed watching Jeopardy when James Holzhauer was winning all those games. He won 32 games in a row and was only about $60,000 behind Ken Jennings when he finally lost. The guy is funny and charming and smart and easy to like.
2. The number of available ICU beds keeps declining at a steady pace nationwide. They open up in one area like NYC only to decline in others like Alabama. This morning Alabama says they have no effective beds available and are backing up people who need ICU beds into their Emergency Departments. For the first time ever doctors nationwide are openly expressing frustration with having no effective treatments available except for support and palliative care. Predictably those states that opened up early or had a very weak stay at home order, to begin with are seeing the second round of Coronavirus cases peak at higher levels. I talked about that a week or two ago and guess where one of those places is? Right here all around me in good old boy country in Georgia.
3. Nasa and Elon Musks company Space-X are launching astronauts into space to visit the International Space station today. This marks the beginning of US-originated manned space flights that feature a public-private partnership leading the way. If they launch today, and maybe not because of bad weather, this will be the first time a rocket with American astronauts has launched into space from American soil since the shuttle program was canceled in 2011. Good luck and GodSpeed fellas.
4. Really I will never understand how people like this guy ever rose to a position of power in the first place. It is disgusting to think this guy was making decisions about people's lives. It seems like it takes up years to figure out that a pig is a pig.
   
   The State Supreme Court of New Jersey has removed State Supreme Court judge John Russo Jr., from the bench and has precluded him from ever presiding over a state courtroom ever again. He was found to have violated the NJ Code of Judicial conduct on several occasions (at least 4 times) and specifically when he asked a rape survivor in open court among other stupid things "Why didn't she attempt to stop the rape from occurring by closing her legs", intimating that because she was an exotic dancer she must have had more practical experience than many would have and should have known better.
   
   Jesus Katy H. Christ on a crutch what a flaming dipshit!
5. My county yesterday had a for-real episode of S.W.A.T. play out in one of the local "dollarwaller" hot sheet motels yesterday. Three total people were arrested from the motel, two males and one female when the police were called on the male subject for displaying some kind of behavior that got him noticed. The woman and one man was taken into custody without incident however the man showed officers a gun and went inside the room and had to be smoked out with tear gas.
   
   He was then arrested, naked wrapped in a sheet.
   
   Stupidity abounds in Gordon county Georgia.
   
   
   Toga, toga, toga
   
   BigMike