Tag: education

Educate Yourself…

by Napswithcats, posted in Site Preparation

I am very aware that I earn a fantastic salary, posess excellent medical benefits, and a have a pension fund that can’t be beat.

I have the luxury of retiring in June. My CUPE colleagues — no.

My colleagues in CUPE (especially in caretaking, as a CYW, or performing EA duties) often do the same tasks as I do. Cleaning up labs? De-escalating students in crisis? Tutorials? Restorative justice? Classroom supervision? They’re in the thick of it — just like me.

CUPE education staff are also thrust into high-risk learning environments. The caretakers I know also have to clean up disgusting messes left by teenagers. Caretakers are on the stop-watch, and must complete their backbreaking labour during the odd hours of the day.

Ontario Federation of Labour. Educate yourself here (link).

CBC Ontario. When my peers do get some (measly) pay increase, it’ll be gobbled up by basic living expenses. Grocery bills. Educate yourself here (link).

October 2022 360-degree image

by Napswithcats, posted in Site Preparation

You are looking at my 2nd attempt at making a full-sphere image of our driveway at the build-site. My iDevice did its very best at knitting together images into an image bubble. Yes, PN is wearing red wooly socks in his Birkenstocks. TS is accepting of my fashion crimes.

PN & TS also cut away that risky blind-spot on the West side of the enterance (so that we can avoid the locals who bomb along that gravel road).

To my students & colleagues: don’t speed like a maniac down such roads. These speeders cannot stop in time. If they fish-tail and Tokyo-drift off the side of the road… there’s no way in hell they are getting their vehicle out. Trust me… several winters ago, I got my hoity-toity SNOWKAT (Toyota Tacoma) into the median. And it slowly slid off the embankment. Despite my 4WD, I had to get towed out by a neighbour who happened to drive by (and then THEY got stuck).

Oh, and if one were to injure oneself in a self-imposed MVA (motor vehicle accident), it will take the ambulance 1/2h to reach that victim… and another 1/2h to return to the nearest ICU (tiny hospital at Lions Head, somewhat bigger trauma centre at Wiarton, helicopter EVAC might be possible from that site [with the victim possibly footing the bill]).

Now, we have to deal with the blind-spot on the other side of the driveway!

Another year of stand-up philosophy!

by Napswithcats, posted in Current (?!) Events

I’m looking forward to this contract year (as a high school science teacher). Would I rather be on the property clearing the build site? Would I rather be pulling out deadfall and Widowmakers on our 10Ha woodlot? Would I rather be maintaining the tractor/ATV trails with my Sthil saws & cutters? Would I rather be chipping branches for our soil operation? Would I rather be bucking & splitting logs for storage (for eventual sale or for fueling an outdoor oven or soaker tub)?

Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. And, yes.

…I’m still learning how to embed RSS feeds onto our site. I visit HOW TO GEEK and its daughter sites (essentially) daily. This week, there was an opinion article about how unpleasant it is to watch movies at stand-alone theatres (link). TS also enjoyed the article.