It's not About Being Efficient

Work is a bit sucky these days...budget shortfalls, bla bla. Today, we heard from the hill that they wanted our suggestions for "efficiencies". In other words, whose job isn't worth what yours is worth...justify your own in five words or less.

You know, elementary teachers are inherently kind, middle-aged, motherly types. It's why we're drawn to spending our days with 8-year-olds. Some of us are there because we're plump and we hug well. Some of us are there because kids make us laugh. On Halloween we actually work dressed as pumpkins, robots and scarecrows. People leave the business world for teaching because there aren't enough scarecrows in the workplace.

Bottom line, it's fun. But, it's also tough work. There are kids who aren't so huggable. There are heads that are a bit scary to look inside. There's required testing that masks real learning. There are constraints in budget, manpower, materials and assistance. But, we're all in it together, and there's the beauty: it's a place of support, honesty and ethics.

Given who we are and why we're there, it's tough to diminish each other's work to the point that it's an efficiency.

In the middle of the day as the buzz in everyone's conversation was on the morning's lousy beginning, my mind was on the morning's beautiful commute...and on the fact that I would be getting back on the bike at the end of the day for the ride home.

And my mind was on the couple we laughed with outside Cub Foods yesterday as we wolfed down brats and chips during our grocery-getting ride...and on the guy on a smoke break outside Costco wondering how-the-heck we were going to haul a load from the warehouse home on our bikes.

I have no neat or cute wrap-up message for this post. Things just suck sometimes.

But you know, life isn't only about what we do during 8 hours of our day.

-OB

Wisdom is Seeing

- TOB and Prudence made an evening grocery run

100% Rain

...didn't deter me from taking a grocery run.

Part of my ride to Cub Foods.

Halfway home.

Dear Prudence.

- TOB (when does anyone ever see a prediction of 100% rain?!)

Cold Enough Fer Ya?

OK, my profile lies who wrote that thing?? I don’t really actually live in Minneapolis...technically. At least technically not anymore -- I guess not....since.....1886. Although, I do frequently receive mail addressed to me living at my current street address in Minneapolis....and there are times after entering my zip code online that the gremlin on the other end insists the zip and the city I’ve entered don’t naturally correspond SO WHERE SHOULD THIS PACKAGE BE SENT TO, ANYWAY?!? at which point I know better than to argue with this Gollum so I hit the submit button in the dim hopes that the wool slippers I’ve ordered from Sierra really will show up on my Minneapolis doorstep thereby saving me from a winter of misery in my old house with no insulation where the walls meet the floor isn't that what baseboards are for whaddayawant?

Besides, I still have the holdovers of living in Eden Prairie: anything east of Highway 169 is urban and urban = Minneapolis.

So, welcome to Suburbanites Anonymous.

Hi. I'm The Old Bag and I live in St. Louis Park, once a Minneapolis neighborhood called Elmwood, which is a friendly community of diverse racial and religious populations including walkers, bus-ers, and cyclers. Anything I could want is within 4-15 blocks from home: library, post office, service station, LBS, pizza, videos, oriental takeout, groceries, beer, Target, Big Lots, Ax-Man, bank.... For anything outside the radius I’ve got road shoulders and trails. I’m smack in-between the Cedar Lake Trail (AKA the bike highway) to the north which leads into downtown and through its pedestrian mall to the Mississippi River and its old flour-milling district; and the Midtown Greenway to the south which takes me into Uptown with its sidewalk cafes and urban lakes on over to the Grand Rounds and off to the parkways of St. Paul.

I'm still working on changing the way I think. When I first moved here, I continued to operate under the assumption that everything was at least 15 minutes away by car. Last-minute to the core of my being, I suddenly found myself arriving early...to everything! The first time I ordered pizza from the local Beek’s I hopped into the car and drove myself 5 short blocks (yes, as opposed to 5 long blocks...things are rectangular here) then sat for 10 minutes at the red and white checkered table while supper finished baking.

When I finally adjusted I found the gift of time. The gift of fresh air as I walked my errands. The gift of friendly people out in their yards.

The one thing I just couldn’t quite get my thoughts around was the walk to the grocery store. It’s at the outer edge of my radius...and walking back with BAGS?! of CANS and MILK CARTONS?!

So, I was at Cub Foods the other blustery day locking up my bicycle. A friendly soul hurrying in from the parking lot asked if I was cold -- he had that Minnesotan I-know look, and he even nodded as he asked since he knew what my answer would be. I got a kick out of his surprised change of face when I caught myself saying Actually no! Windblocker is a beautiful thing! We smiled and wished each other a good day as we headed inside.

- The Warm Old Bag