Jekyll and Hyde

The student fought me at every turn. Off-task. No homeowrk turned in. Little classwork done. Had to listen to me tell him every day to pull his pants up to cover his butt, to turn around and face the front of the room, to stop talking to other students: basically, I was on his back the entire term, trying to get something worthwhile out of him.

And he didn't like it. "Why are you always picking on me?" he asked. He was even belligerent at times; earned a couple of detentions. I may have even taken him outside for a "counseling with student" in the hallway, when the whole class knows he's being chewed out by the teacher for something.

He barely passed, and only because I cared more than he. That 62% was hard-fought.

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This year, he calls my name across the quad whenever he sees me, and waves & smiles. He stops off in my room to tell me news about his life: driver's license, car, whatever.

Those are the rules of the game.

How Not to Spend $140

My frigid morning commute is not due to faulty vacuum switches, but to a clogged heater core. I had the whole cooling system flushed out this last weekend, and now that some of the grit and hard pieces are gone, the core is clogged slightly less: I can almost feel heat coming from the vents when the car is fully warmed-up, which happens about halfway to school. Not enough to make the slightest difference in my comfort, though the windshield does defrost slightly more quickly.

It's time to think about dumping this car.