East Coast Happenings

[Diane Amberg]

Woo! I'm finished my part of Safety Town! The 25 parents seemed to enjoy my presentation and then they went out to hang around and watch the stranger,danger part. One of the park employees, who the kids have never seen,.tries to get one of the kids out on the town to go with him with some excuse. Every year someone does go with him, to the horror of the parents who thought their child knew better. Now we have a working fire. The friends who did the the tour at the firehouse had just finished when it came in. Perfect timing.

[jarhead]

Diane. Just to show you that I care, when I read this in the politics section I just knew you meant it to be in the Delaware thread so I moved it for you. No need in thanking me----just trying to be helpful. Oh yea, I think you mis-spelled" requirements" but that's fine by me because I know what you meant. Like you, I don't believe in nit picking and fully realize you probably did it on purpose trying to keep people on their toes..

Quote from Diane:
They all have con ed requirments and I was one of the instructors. Do you care? No? Neither do I.
When I retired from the fire school that's part of what I gave up. They handled many of my medical assignments.
I even ran the front desk in Al's father's dental office for a couple of weeks when school was out when his mother was in the hospital with cancer. She was his hygienist until she retired and ran the front office instead.
I had no office experience of any kind, and had no idea what I was doing. I was scared to death. I didn't want to do it for fear of screwing things up, but I was given no choice. But it worked out just fine. I even did all the insurance papers correctly. None came back for correction. I was amazed too. I was scared to death! I did learn a lot about the business side of things.

[Diane Amberg]

Actually I did miss "requirements" ...not sure how, as I did spell check it. Yes, I do sometimes put one in wrong for "bait," but this was not one of them. Good catch!
As far as your moving my posts from one place to another... GRRRRR. I don't do that to you.

[Diane Amberg]

The end of another day. Al had his three month bladder cancer check up this morning, with the scope up the you know where. Still all clear.
Unfortunately he still has to go every three months for another year and a half and then every six months for two more years after that. His legs still bother him a lot and will never be any better, but his back is finally showing some improvement. Not as much night pain now. He went to a directors' meeting and I'm going to watch TV and try to stay awake. We spent some time at the new charter school this afternoon and met with the builder and the architect again. They still haven't put the right door locks on the classrooms.There must also be a quick twist lock for the teacher to do a lock down, not just a key lock that had to be retreived, inserted and turned to lock the door from the inside. For some reason the maintenance chief can't make the builder see and understand what we need and why.
More of the punch list work has been checked off and the parts that were missing have been put on the sprinkler heads and they have been uncovered. The landscaping trees were planted today except for the coffee trees that can't go in until fall. After all the rain we've been having Jimmie won't need to worry about them drying out. We're to go back tomorrow and Friday with the blue tape again and do the outside too. I don't think there will be much more to find. Have a good evening all.

[Diane Amberg]

Another beautiful day. The rains have been going across south of us, so we have finally gotten a chance to dry out.
Friday night we had another crab feast at the firehouse to finish out the season.  Big jumbo crabs have gotten VERY expensive. $240.00 and up per bushel. Fortunately we got a nice discount and  we all chipped in to pay for them. I could only eat three and I do love to sit and chat and pick crabs.
Today we took a friend and went to Elkton M.D. to a good mom 'n pop place for a big breakfast.  Stopped by the new charter school on the way home to show it off, and drove around the other two also, (elementary and middle school) as they were just up the road on the way Tom had never seen them either since they don't show from the road. He was impressed.
We go back again tomorrow to finish up blue taping the outside. I don't think there will be much to do.
We received our official invitations to the ribbon cutting on Aug. 20, at 6:00. I'd post photos, but since the skeptics don't believe there is such a place, nor do they believe we had anything to do with it, I guess the photos would be blank, so I won't bother.
It finally came in at $85.00 per square foot ( 125,000 sq feet renovation) and the addition of the 15,000 ft. new construction gym. Now I think $85.00 per square ft. for 140,000 sq. feet total is really good.  (I was even given my silver hard hat  to keep as a souvenir).  It will eventually hold 1,200 students when it's up to full speed. This year it will start with 7th, 8th, and 9th, and will bump up one grade each year until the first graduating class in June 2017. It's designed to operate as two separate schools under one roof with the Jr. High separate from the High school.

[Diane Amberg]

 I have new fun project to do. I was asked by the Newark Historical Society to help design a display about the fire company because of our anniversary. In particular, they want to borrow from my collection of burned items that have stories behind them. I've used many over the years as props in my fire safety programs.
I have a melted pull station from a U D fraternity fire, a tea kettle with the bottom burned out, a drip coffee machine that the off switch failed and turned back on when nobody was home, eventually set it's self on fire and spread. There are several melted smoke detectors that got people up and out of their houses in the middle of the night, and big tubs of more stuff. Should be fun.
I was privileged to do a similar display years ago at U D. Their Museum Studies class did a big exhibit on the New Castle County fire service  I was able to add some of my things and some photographs representing our fire company. Some of my pieces were mounted on display boards by the students and were given back to me later to keep for our use.They also took my big quiz boards and built some little versions so they would be interactive. It has learning materials and information on the top.Then a question. Flip the top and there is the answer.The one girl I worked with went on to work for the Museum of Natural History in New York.

[Diane Amberg]

Interesting how attitudes can be so different in different areas. Ross is all head up about the placement of a sign. I still don't get it.  So everyone in Howard who didn't complain about the sign placement is, by Ross's extension some kind of a crook?
So the school isn't quite in Howard.  AND?. It had to go somewhere when it was built. I remember seeing it under construction. There wasn't enough room on the old school site. What is the high school's mailing address anyway?
Our Christiana High School is not in Christiana. Many others here, as out there, are not in the towns where they were originally. They out grew their land holdings and went out side town to build. Look at how many little one room schools out there were closed down in favor of a bigger school in town. Did they fuss and fight over doing it? I suspect some did but the economy of scales says it's cheaper in the long run.
As far as being close enough to a town to be annexed into it... Why not? Here we do it if a community asks.. The taxes immediately go down and we get all the city services the county doesn't provide. Even though we pay city and county land taxes we come out ahead. The county school tax is by far the most expensive, but there is no city school tax. Some districts set up their own "special "tax district. They tax themselves at a higher rate to provide more to their schools and pay the teachers better.
But the schools here can't raise taxes without a referendum.  Often they fail.  Smoking loco weed? Why ? It makes selling bingo really entertaining. Which is exactly where I'm off to right now. Ross, don't pop a vein over a sign!
You folks seem to have high taxes for where you are. The fact that there are so few of you must make it hard to do a lot of things. Especially roads.... long and many roads and few people to support them. I'm sure a few would prefer that all roads be toll roads like many were many moons ago.

[Diane Amberg]

Another day working at school. The teachers are setting up again today and it was nice to meet more of them.
We had a major storm come through this morning and the new school had some major water leaks. Some of the windows leaked and rain ran under the doors. Water poured through the roof over the front entrance. The builder came shortly after, once he could find a way to get there because of so many flooded roads, and grumbled around making repair lists. Better to have that happen now before the school opens.
Several trees came down and the brick facade fell off one of the apt. buildings across from one of our firehouses. Three small tornadoes were reported, but I know of no damage.
I took American flags to all the occupied classrooms. The teachers who were there today took them with big smiles and put them up right away...makes it official.  Some had their own kids with them who were having fun helping load book shelves and open boxes
The builders still owe us the foreign material traps in all the science rooms, the in room fire extinguishers and the trap in the art room, the locks are still wrong and some gouges in the walls still are waiting.  The big show cases still need their glass, one light doesn't work and one outlet is dead. Many of my blue tapes are disappearing though as the touch up painters, cleaners and patchers are working their way through our lists. The fire alarms do work and the general sound system is great. We had wonderful music to work to.  Many of the Jr high band kids came today to help set up the band room. They said they can't wait for school to start again. it was a fun day.

[Diane Amberg]

Another beautiful day. I'm not sure how long this will last, but in the 70s with low humidity is wonderful.I went through my bags and boxes of fire safety burned props and will meet some folks at the Newark Historical Society at 1:00 today. It's in the old train station and is a neat little building.   My pieces, collected over many years, will be part of an exhibit honoring our fire company's 125th anniversary. Some will go to another exhibit at city hall and some to the library for another exhibit later in the fall. They also want to do one at the senior center.
There is a melted drip coffee machine that the off switch failed and over heated, starting a fire, a tea kettle that boiled dry and the bottom burned out, a melted pull station from the U D Sigma Nu fraternity house fire, a burned toaster and more. All have stories that will be placed by each piece, with their teaching points.
A long time friend, fellow firefighter and sheriff's deputy is in town for his 50th high school reunion in North East MD. He has lived in Wilmington, NC for many years after the DuPont Co transferred him there. He retired from DuPont and his still enjoying his other job.    Carl and his wife June, were competitive shooters for many years.
Dinner out with him tonight will be fun.  My red hen tote arrived from one of my imaginary, invisible Kansas friends, or so says Ross. It's very nice and I highly recommend it. I'm sure the other choices are just as well made. Have a nice day all.

[Diane Amberg]

We had a really nice visit with Carl. He's a Detective Sergeant with the Sheriff's Dept. in Wilmington, NC. Left us yesterday after enjoying his class reunion on Saturday. Another school with a very small graduating class...60 some, in North East MD. He drove back to several murder cases that were waiting for him back in North Carolina.
He's the one whose 13 year old grandson was murdered by his step mother while we were visiting in Kansas in 2008. Saw it on TV at the Crooked Creek Lodge. Assumed it wasn't him, but it was. Terrible!
Our Newark Little League kids ( Newark Nationals) went to the World Series for the first time this year. ( Mid Atlantic)  They won their first game and lost the second. More play to come.
Back to school soon for one more day's work. Have a nice day everyone.