You know that John Prine song, In a town this size? Well if you don’t, its about small town gossip. Our town has its favorite juicy tidbits. There are some people who are constant sources of good conversations. Mostly though, we talk about our institutions, the store, the bar, the soon to open(maybe) nursery, the nonprofit groups, and the juiciest of all, the school district.
There are strong supporters of the school, and very strong detractors. The two groups seldom agree on anything. Although, lately they seem to be finding common ground, in the maintenance man. The district does not have enough money for a janitor, but because of the wisdom of state budgets it has enough for a full time deferred maintenance employee. Deferred maintenance is anything that has been put off so long it has become a hazard, like the water system. Only one person applied for the job, a nonlocal. He drives an hour and a half to his job.
Small towns have hidden rules as in, it’s just the way things are done. It is easy to spot people who are visitors because of a million tiny things. The way they drive, the look on their face as they walk into the store, you know stuff like that. I am sure the locals can make them a little nervous also. We see the same people so much we stare at a new face. Not a, “I think you have something in your teeth” stare, a “who are you and what are you doing here”, stare.
Back to the new guy. At first he seemed to be doing a good job. He didn’t talk to anyone but he was making the place look nice. Then he decided that he need to make sure things were safer. There are a lot of rules for schools, I mean can you imagine the lawsuits over hurt kids… scary. So newbie decided to put cones up in front of the school gate and in the middle of the road, he felt that peoples parking, and driving habits were unsafe. Extremely difficult to find fault with, but mildly irritating all the same. Next it was the school garden, its locked now because kids would go in by themselves and that was unsafe. We have to have a babysitter at all school meetings because that many kids running around after school hours is unsafe, even though the parents are there. All mildly irritating.
He recently decided to push his authority over the line of mildly irritating. He was giving the insurance lady a tour of the school grounds, and 
a couple of preschool parents were pushing their kids on the swings. When asked if he knew who they were he said no. He should know, they are there three days a week. There is not that many parents to keep track of. Any one else at the school would have known them. Preschool parents or visitors of any kind now have to sign in at the office to play on the playground. I understand the validity of this rule at big schools or even moderate schools. Everyone in our town knows everyone else. Even if we have never talked to them we know who they are. If one of the teachers didn’t recognize someone on school grounds they would walk up and introduce themselves, it does happen about once a year. City rules are seldom practical for rural places and vice versa, unfortunately bureaucrats, and insurance companies keep trying to get away with one rule fits all.
Once a month the preschool holds a board meeting at the school. We had requested that the principal share with our board the repercussions of the newbies day with the insurance lady. Newbie came and stood over her shoulder as we asked questions. He whispered something in her ear walked off, and two seconds later the fire alarm went off. Uh oh end of the meeting we need to practice the fire drill. Fine, I need to find something to throttle anyway.
STAR testing is just around the corner for school children across California. My oldest is in second grade so this year she will take the test for the first time. I live in small town. Their are only fourteen kids in my little girls class, and it is a multi grade classroom. K-3 Theoretically this would be great. Can you imagine the one on one time? Can you imagine it being a part of the older kids curriculum to teach the younger ones? It seems like you retain information better when you have to teach it. Unfortunately this teacher sucks.
Its funny, I totally did not mind missing out on the MySpace craze. This new one however is tempting me. It is such a waste of time though. Now that spring is sprung I can barely make time to keep this blog up to date let alone post a little note first that I am going to be working on it. My husband has an account so I live vicariously through him, which sates my FOMO (fear of missing out) a little bit. The only time I want my own is when an old high school friend pops up. No that is not completely true either, my whole community is on the thing. My own mother even, you know the one who wouldn’t allow TV because it wasn’t meaningful enough, has a page. What are they all talking about ? For now I am resisting the temptation to find out. God I am stubborn, just like my mother. Oh gotta go my husband just got a message.
I am a naive person. I love believing everything will turn out beautifully. Most of the time this works for me. Actually all of the time. I was fortunate to marry a worrier and a hypochondriac, which allows me the freedom of blissful optimism. He has been worried about the economy for a couple of years now. He updates me every morning on the DOW and the price of oil, which I cheerfully ignore. He would like me to stock up on seeds today so we are fully prepared for total collapse. Great, I get to go shopping.
Sohumborn ended as she began, with lots of gossip. Hers (I guess maybe I am assuming she was a woman) was the only blog I read. She was a great storyteller, riveting and controversial. She brought up issues within me that I had glossed over a long time ago.
I am back from a computer vacation. I was housesitting for some friends and they lived beyond telephone lines. Their house is beautiful and comfortable. I really enjoyed being out of touch. I didn’t go as many places because I didn’t now anything was happening. I wasn’t concerned about the economy or the war because I was not getting daily updates. I had fun being with my kids and not being so concerned with what needed to be done. Without the computer or the phone I had more time to catch up. I wonder how much of my day is spent waiting for pages to load or trying to fix little glitches. I must admit at the end of two weeks I was a little anxious. I had finished three books and knitted a ball of yarn (I am a beginner so this is exciting for me). I wasn’t home so I couldn’t really start new projects. The last two days I became irritable and lazy. 
I have been married for five years now. We have been together for ten years. I recently had a friend ask me how I knew things were going to work between us. I told her very bluntly that I didn’t… still don’t. As a matter of fact my husband and I had just been through a series of brutal arguments, and it had crossed my mind several times that we wouldn’t work things out. 
In Retaliation 