redneck winter wonderland

We had another round of Arkansas winter-ish weather yesterday and possibly today.  There's nothing like a couple of inches of snow to bring out the moron in everyone.  You expect the normal rush to buy gas, generators, candles, bread, milk, cereal, sugar, matches, batteries, bottled water, cookie dough, pizza, bottlecaps, whoppers, sleds, gloves, snow shovels, driveway melt stuff, and whatever else a family could need for the apocalypse of winter.  But then there are the other issues that pop up.  Schools.  Should they cancel school, should they let school out early, do they run the buses, do they call parents to come get there kids, do they just sell the kids to a sweat shop making Ipads, what do they do with all of these miniature adults they are charged with guarding every day?  Yesterday in our little slice of paradise that is Greenwood, Arkansas, the weather forecast showed that after lunchtime the weather was going to start getting bad.  So the school day started cold, but normally, but then it became apparent that the roads were going to end up a lot worse than had been anticipated.  So the decision was made not to run the school buses and to send out notifications to parents of all of the students that they needed to come get their kids.  This apparently caused a ruckus with some folks. Then, apparently one of the local news outlets thought it was in the best interest of the community to run this little jewel.  http://5newsonline.com/2013/02/20/winter-weather-halts-greenwood-buses/ .  By all means, we need to pile onto the school administrators in the midst of dealing with crappy weather.  There were those who said they just should have called school off that day. (The same ones who would be griping about the extra day they might have to go in may/june) Some people said they should have called school off early.  Maybe, but the roads got pretty bad, pretty quick, so there would probably have been the same issue with the buses.  Some said they should have just run the buses anyway.  Really, slick roads, no seat-belts.  There's about a thousand lawsuits waiting to happen.  But they didn't do that.  Instead they cancelled the buses, and sent messages to people to come get their kids.  For the whining parents who "didn't get the message quick enough", HEY, GROW UP.  Were you watching the weather?  If so, and you're so concerned about your kid, get your tail in your car and go get them.  Don't wait for school to be called off if you think it should have been cancelled or let out anyway, just go get them.  Don't sit around waiting for the someone else to look out for your kid's best interest.  Take it upon yourself to be a parent, and go get them.  At work? Tell your boss the weather's getting bad and you need to go pick up your kid.  If you're going to lose your job over that, then maybe you should reconsider your present employer.Don't want to lose that 2 hours of pay? Really, would that be an issue?  Most of the whiners probably just didn't want to turn of Dr Phil, or General Hospital, or whatever was on their idol, and drive across town to get their kids.  Start making safety decisions for thousands of kids simultaneously, before you pile on the administrators over this.
All that being said, I'm not sure what the deal was with the special Ed kids on the buses.  There may have been a breakdown in communications as to how that was handled.
Even with that being added, I think they made the right call.  Safety over convenience.  My kids are car-riders anyway, so it didn't affect me. :)

the Best decision I've made since 1996

The best decision I've made since 1996 was my decision to marry my best friend in 2000. Wendy and I were acquainted through church, and circumstances transpired that pushed us into a dating relationship in the summer of 1999. It didn't take more than a couple of dates for me to realize that I needed to hang on to her. The last 10 years have been interesting to say the least. We have our ups and downs, but overall I can't imagine trying to live my life without her. Today is her 33rd birthday, and I haven't gotten her a gift. I told her to go get this big picture of our kids framed as her gift, but that sure seems crappy, so we'll see. Tonight we'll go out to eat (monsters and all) to celebrate her birthday, but I still feel like I need to get her something. Maybe I will think of something in the next 3 hours. I highly recommend marrying someone who you would consider one of your best friends. It just makes it easier. And if your already married, do whatever it takes to make sure that your spouse is your best friend.

Don't pray for rain without an umbrella

As I type this, I've just found out that our company will be wiring a new tornado shelter at a local Jr. High. This comes with mixed feelings, first I'm glad that we got the job, but second(and more disturbingly), I'm trying to figure out what I left out of the bid. Whether you realize it or not, our economy is at the bottom of the toilet right now. Non- residential spending is at a historic low. Take away money coming from government projects (like this one) and the commercial construction industry is virtually nonexistent. So every job that comes along has an abnormally large number of electricians, plumbers, etc... bidding. We all need the work, and more often than not, whoever gets the job, is who left the most out of their bid. So back to my question. What did I forget. Oh well, it normally works out, God seems to have found a way to keep us in business this long, there's no sense in losing faith now. It's an odd position to be in, praying that we get this job for the last 2 weeks, and now that it's happenned, I get scared that we won't be able to make any money on it. Have you ever wanted and prayed for something to happen, only to be secretly terrified of what you would do if it actually did happen? I've had a desire to "step up" my walk with God over the last couple of years. Once I really started praying about it, and making an effort to get to know who God is through studying, the feeling of urgency I felt about it really started growing. Then several weeks ago I sat through a study of discipling (is that how you spell that?) for 6 weeks with our pastor. Simultaneously I was reading the book "Radical".

Side Note: Radical...... I highly recommend this for any Christian who is serious about growth. READER BEWARE, it will change your entire mode of thinking, and possibly how you want to live your life.

Anyway, all of this has made me realize that I was praying for rain, but I was doing it without an umbrella for a long time. I wanted to be a more mature Christian who was closer to God. But I didn't want to have to invest my time, money, effort, or abilities into any of it. I really just wanted it to happen. So now I'm trying to gather my umbrellas together and prepare for the rain.