Tuesday, August 24, 2010

"Do Something" @ Staples. Pine Needles!!

"New data shows that approximately one million students across the United States are homeless. In Sioux Falls, South Dakota, the number amounts to an average of one homeless child in every classroom.
School districts are also in need. Budget cuts and teacher layoffs mean that schools have to make do with less. As a sign of the times, some of these costs are being passed on to students and their struggling families.
It's not uncommon for class supply lists being handed out to include more than just the traditional pen and paper; some schools are now also asking for general classroom items such as Clorox, garbage bags and hand soap.

Nobody's saying that these aren't tough times for everyone. But with the number of homeless students and burdened families on the rise, shouldn't free public education, the most democratic path to self-sufficiency America has to offer, be the last thing cut?

As big as the problems facing our education system are, there are small things we can all to do help.
Our friends at DoSomething.org have partnered with Staples to collect school supplies for students in need, which you can drop off in the collection box at any Staples store and have delivered to local kids. And our friends at the homeless advocacy organization Hear Us have started a campaign calling on Congress to fully fund programs targeting homeless students."
 http://www.dosomething.org/dosomething101/home
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Points to Ponder:
1. Before they invented drawing boards, what did they go back to?
2. Does the Little Mermaid wear an algebra?
3. Do infants enjoy infancy as much as adults enjoy adultery?
4. How do I set my laser printer on stun?
5. How is it possible to have a civil war?
6. If all the world is a stage, where is the audience sitting?
7. If God dropped acid, would he see people?
8. If love is blind, why is lingerie so popular?
9. If one synchronized swimmer drowns, do the rest have to drown too?
10. If the #2 pencil is the most popular, why is it still #2?
11. If work is so terrific, how come they have to pay you to do it?
12. If you're born again, do you have two bellybuttons?
13. If you ate pasta and antipasto, would you still be hungry?
14. If you try to fail, and succeed, which have you done?
15. Is a castrated pig disgruntled?
16. Why are hemorrhoids called "hemorrhoids" instead of "asteroids"?
17. Why is it called tourist season if we can't shoot at them?
18. Why is the alphabet in that order? Is it because of that song?
19. What happens when none of your bees wax?
20. Where are we going? And what's with this hand basket?
21. If the black box flight recorder is never damaged during a plane crash, why isn't the whole airplane made out of the stuff?
22. Why is there an expiration date on sour cream?
23. If most car accidents occur within five miles of home, why doesn't everyone just move 10 miles away?
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Today:

Jim, the mechanic, checked my van out yesterday, and said I better have the radiator rodded.    He said he would take it off and take it into Conroe for me.  I still had the cargo trailer wheel in the back of it that needed the tire mounted on it, and a list of things I needed to do, so I went down there and got my van back.

 
I called the place where he was going to get it done, and it had changed hands and they no longer do it, they just sell you a new radiator.     All the people that do that around here have closed down, so I searched for someone else, and the only place was in Spring, TX.

  
I found out the price for a new radiator, but as we shouldn't have too many more weeks of hot weather, I am going to hold off for now.  I don't know for sure if that is the problem, as it doesn't start to overheat unless I have to let it idle, so I can manage.  It has never got near the danger zone.


We really are in a 'throw away' society, and you know that they will keep your old radiator and sell it for scrap.   So it is a win-win situation for the shop.

Ray came and cleaned up my little patio area out back.  The rain had made pine needles drop all over it.  The hot dry weather we have had, has made the pine trees all dry and molt.  As the dogs do their thing in the back yard next to patio, I am always raking that to keep it clean, but now I have a lot more needles there, too.

There is a space under the eaves of my roof, where the porch roof ties in, and it lets the hot air out of the porch.  It is under the eaves, so rain doesn't come in.  It is covered with screen wire, so birds and mosquitoes can't get in, but pine needles had collected there, too.  Ray took the blower on the porch and blew them all off there from the underneath.

After he had fixed a lamp for me, he had to go, and I went into town.    I went to the closest tire store, and they won't mount your own tires, as they sell tires!!  But the second store did it for $5.  So now I just have to get it back on the cargo trailer.


Bear made of pine needles.

"Needle"-less  to say, not much going on today.

3 comments:

A couple of newer paintings 2019 said...

That's a beautiful bear. Someone had a lot of patience!

Gypsy said...

That bear looks interesting, to say the least.

pidge said...

Loved the bear and also liked #'s 8 and 16. Nice post today.