The Hunter/Gather of Surburbia

Are we where we live?

April 18, 2012

Hump Day

It is another beautiful day here in Hermiston and the other good part of this Wednesday? One week until payday! Yeah! My trip home for only two days sucked the money right out of my bank account. Not because I lavished presents on my beautiful grandchildren, but because of the darn gas prices! Here in Hermiston, at that time, gas was about 3.87. At Biggs junction 2 hours away it was 3.99. In Portland it was over $4. In Salem, hometown, it was 4.06! Craziness! When I drove through Hermiston to the dam over the weekend the gas at the Chevron station was 4.16 and the gas at the Shell station just down the road was holding steady at 3.99. According to my son Chevron has the "best" gas, but at nearly .20 cents more a gallon I'll stick with Shell or the Space Age station on 84 where, I think, the price was 3.89 last week.
Argh! The good thing is, I don't really have to drive anywhere other than work so I don't have use my minuscule remaining dollars on gas. To the dam this weekend, avoiding the ticks if we can, and then the slide to payday.
One of my colleagues asked me what I thought about working at Hermiston High School yesterday. The easy response, "A dream," with the qualifying how horrible my last year at Willamina really was. Having administrative support, even if it is a polite "no," is far superior to the feeling of no support but increasingly more time consuming demands with no training.
But enough of the dark thoughts. I have found Hermiston School District to be very supportive, the community too. I relied on DonorsChoose.org to fund my classroom library in the past, as soon as I posted a project on the website I got a call from the principal that a school board member had seen my post and wanted to know why the school wasn't giving dictionaries and thesauruses. I was amazed, and also chastened by the concern, how very refreshing! But that is why I think I have found my dream position, now nearly at the end of my first school year, I feel invigorated to expand how my program works next year. I am not overwhelmed by mandates, I am motivated to do ever better by my students. As I always have been.

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