Wednesday  semi-early

I would still be sleeping if it weren't for the loud thunder claps - a lot of them - that hit in rapid succession. Baam, right out of what was a wonderful dream I was in the middle of.  Even worse, we barely got any rain out of it.  

Yesterday evening, Taylor was busy with work and James hadn't even left work.  The oldest kid had open house and so I took both of them. We landed at McDonald's for them for dinner.  I have to admit I caved.  10 piece chicken nuggets, fries and a small milkshake.  It was far too tempting, especially after the fat free, taste free, just free of anything that you would consider a nice meal.

But, that's my current situation and I expect it takes a while of dedicated effort to bring elevated cholesterol levels down. It put myself into this situation, now I have to get myself out of it. I'm not going to sweat one night of eating one meal that is out of the "low cholesterol" category, especially considering how long I've been doing it.  Going out to eat is especially challenging, there are very limited options on say, Applebee's menu.  They have  a chicken breast meal that is nothing but plain chicken breast, broccoli and mashed potatoes, of which I sub for a house salad. 

The open house was nothing to write home about. It was a required meeting forced on the school because it's a "STEM" school and they have to lay out Title 1 objectives and mission.  Then, you go to the kid's room, meet the teacher and then the child reads you a card greeting you to the open house and you get to see what projects he has been working on.  

I was a bit disappointed in the teacher, wholly unsociable with everyone, didn't seem to even want to be there.  Trying to get into a conversation with her, she brushed me off quickly.  She did that with all the parents tho, I was watching her.  I was also rather appalled that the boy was at a desk area by himself.  There is a cluster of 3 small desks that all adjoin together where he sits, but there are no other kids sitting there with him.  The rest of the classroom are the same types of desks, excepting there are 6 at each cluster and there are 6 kids at each cluster.  

I wondered out loud why the teacher had him sitting there alone?  Apparently, I'm guessing here because I could see no other answer, the 3 desk cluster where he sits is the last 3 desks that the classroom could have and apparently this teacher doesn't have a full class, ie: short 2 students.  He's a good kid and he doesn't like to get into trouble, so I knew it wasn't because he's difficult to deal with.  I asked him anyway and he got this look on his face and got very defensive: NO, I don't get into trouble!  I would like to think that a teacher would just move kids in and out of that lone setup on a weekly basis so one child doesn't have to sit there alone all the time.  She doesn't do that.  

No one stayed long, that was the other thing that stood out.  I blame that directly on the teacher.  Parents came in, took a look, no engagement from the teacher excepting those basically forcing themselves into her realm and then left.  I can only hope she is more engaged with the children, I'm not sure why one would want to become a teacher if they can't deal with the parents. 

Out the door, they were serving free nachos.  They were pretty good actually, it was part of the cheat.  Chips covered in cheese, then the option for salsa, pico de gallo and sour cream. Yup, I put all of that on there.  Home after that and back on the "special diet", I haven't even eaten since then.  I even had to change my coffee habit.  I was putting heavy cream in there, now it's fat free powdered creamer.  It's a big adjustment. I used to eat and drink like this long ago.  I figured since I'm forced to do this, I might as well start drinking milk again.  Fat free and very light on the sugars.  It's actually quite good, but then again, I drank skim milk for decades.  

Today. Well, I need to go get some supplies for the boat work to continue.  Allen forced the son to start working on it.  I didn't ask him to do that, he just said yup, he'll be fixing that boat. Allen is gone again but I suspect he's dealing with them via phone or perhaps some sort of wifi driven messaging for the boy doesn't even have a phone atm.  

I am going to spend quality time on the tractor, that's a fact unless the boy has taken it out of there. It was sitting there yesterday.  I have 2 people coming in for the Boogie Woogie event.  It's some sort of music festival that occurs here every year.  You can look it up, lol, it's definitely a thing.  I decided to open up a 3rd lot for anyone needing it since I have had people leaving lately. Another one leaving Saturday.  It sucks and particularly so with the idea that I am getting very few new people calling, except thing one yesterday.

He calls. Yes, I have lots available. Do you have any shade? No, I do have some trees but not really shade trees. He shows up, looks around and leaves, I saw this on the cameras, I was still on the road.  He had stopped, asked someone about shade trees? and decided he didn't like it.  I didn't promise him shade trees or even artificial shade. There are some parks around with mature trees providing shade. My only option for that would be to install RV carports.  I fully intend to do that at this point, I just need the money for it.  

To that end, I am still waiting on a quote from the contractor.  Until I get something from him, I'm stuck.  I knew it would take time to get that quote, hurry up and wait. 

The temps have finally come down.  The storm probably brought that in, it was forecast for quite a while now that temps would start coming down and stay down.  Not going to burn up on that tractor, in other words.  

I watched 10 minutes of news this morning and then shut it off.  Just don't want to hear it.  This was about a report from an investigation the House is doing into the attempted assassination of Trump and the SS failures.  You'd think the SS was a bunch of amateur, armchair agents from what I was listening to.  

Anyway, I'm going to finish my cup of coffee and get out of here.  Lots to do today and I am going to redeem the time. 

G'day