Well, Good News Buna.....

 I was there a couple of days ago and did not see them, but I am been told by a reliable source that the " Pecker in the Gift Box" are up in town...

I know I make fun of them, but you know, it just wouldn't be Christmas without them. 

For years, when I was still teaching in South Jasper County, when I first saw the " Gift Boxes" all I could think was, " Am I the only one seeing this?" 

Am I that much of a deviate?"

For those of you who did not know, I took a class as an undergrad called " Deviate Behaviour." I always worried they might see that in my college transcript. And if they were a Lamar grad, they would know the class was taught by Ray Drennen and well, Ray was " Mr. Deviate Behaviour." 

But it wasn't just me.....

So, it is officially the holidays as far as I am concerned.....

Okay, I Was Reminded of This Buna.....

 

More proof, I am in reality still about 13 years old in my mind.

Was sent this earlier this week, and just now have had a chance to post. 

The anglophile in me at first said " British Broadcasting Corporation." 

Then, 13 year old me thought something else. And ladies, I am not going to tell you what it what else it could mean, so ask your husband or boyfriend......And yes, I know it is supposed to stand for " Buna Bridal Club." But folks, run some of these signs, like the " Sex Toy in the Christmas Gift" by some 13-14 year old boys. 

You can't rest assure folks not from the town passing through look at the Christmas decoration and the photo above and go, "Whats the deal on this town?" "Let's get the hell out of here before we're sex trafficked."

Acronyms change folks, they have multiple meanings, and sometimes, not for the better.

Bunaites, Silsbeeites, Vidorians, Mauricevillians, Gistoians, Evadalians, Kirbyvillians, Etc.......

 Not sure what the correct term is of each community and in truth, I am going to use whatever term I want to anyway.....

We are in the holiday season.

As I looked around the table this Thanksgiving, I wonder how many more we all have? 

I seriously wonder. 

To paraphrase an old saying, " Enjoy every Holiday Season you got, you just get so many." 

You don't know who will be missing at the holiday table in the coming year. 

Heck, it might be you. 

Enjoy your life. You only get one, and just so much time.

Nope Buna, Probably Not Getting Any Bigger

 And I know a lot of you are happy the Buna area is not going to have a huge growth spurt, but this entire area is losing people. 

Yesterday, the media announced that 68% of all Texans lived in 4 urban areas. 

Houston, Dallas-Ft. Worth, Austin, San Antonio. And of course the suburbs in those regions. 

Now Houston by tradition has grown west and north, but there is some growth to the east into Chambers County. Trouble is, I do not know if it will really grow past the Trinity River. 

Then, it was reported that 2 of the areas that were losing people were Corpus Christi, and the Beaumont-Pt. Arthur-Orange areas. 

And to be honest, other than the petrochemical and to a less extent the industry surrounding the wood/paper manufacturing. And with the closing of the International Paper Mill in Orange County, it is bleak.  

I know the " City Fathers" in Orange County were all jumping up and down with excitement about the new Chevron plant opening here in a couple of years, and the 5000 construction jobs, and 500 jobs to be at Chevron itself, well, with the lay-offs at International Paper and Invista, the area is still behind on jobs. And many of the people coming in to work on construction are only temporary to this area. 

And as I have said, so many of the youth from this area leave and go to Dallas or Austin in search of a better life. This is especially true if they have a 4 year degree from university. ( And don't be telling me you have a degree and stayed, well, so did I. But many go away.)

The economy is not well folks, it just isn't. And whoever is hiding it from us. I know Stellantis ( Dodge, Ram, Jeep, etc.) has laid-off 1/2 of their salaried workers. People are just not buying vehicles right now. ( Will talk about this later.)

No, this area will always be a satellite to Houston, but people moving here? Look, there is a reason why it is called " Bore-Mont." The city fathers tried with Ford Park, but there is rarely anything there, and the re-vitalization of downtown has been tried several times, and it has been a failure. And Beaumont-Pt. Arthur-Orange are becoming less and less safe.

No, unless you are from here, why would you and Gen Z doesn't want refinery jobs, and in a few years, robots and AI is going to take over a lot of the work that people perform now. 

Say what you want, if you are not a long time resident, or your family has been in this area for generations, why would you move here?  

Buna ISD....This is Probably Not Going to Work

 So, the latest, new invention, or technological invention coming from the Buna ISD administration is this jewel....

The school district is going to a computer substitute program.  

Teachers will be required to go to the school's website and schedule the days they are going to be absent and then, schedule their own substitutes. 

I am wonder, I know there are people who have been super ill and a family member has had to call the school and arrange a sub for them.( It happens more than you know.) Will that person be able to navigate the district's sub program on their own? 

I know other districts have tried it before and in most cases, it was a disaster. ( See Beaumont ISD)

There are people who barely have phone service in South Jasper County, much less internet. What are they supposed to do? ( We passed a broadband internet service proposal for rural Texas in the last election, the question now, is....How will they implement it? And the answer is, they do not know.)  

Supposedly if the substitute the teacher chooses isn’t available, then you must continue to search until one is available.

Trouble is, the district is short subs. 

The district's secretaries have already warned the administrators that this is not going to work... Want to know who really runs the district, look at the secretaries in every school, the ladies down in the administration office. Without them, the place falls apart, quickly. You may think I tease when I say this, but I am serious, they're the most powerful people in any school district. 

How, and why does this effect you as a parent? 

There is a good possibility that glitches might occur and there will be no one in class for the kids that morning? 

And the internet is not always working at the schools themselves now, and without the internet, announcements can't be made. 

Sometimes, heck, a lot of times changes is not always good....

Gen Z is so Damn Dumb....

 I am glad I am retired. So glad. I may have killed a kid in this day and age....Then again, Gen Z is what age 11-26 now, the prime age for both high school and college.

A couple of days ago, I was in a hardware store in Orange. The product I bought was $9.84. Normally, I go ahead and put most products on a card, and just pay the balance off through the card company at the end of the month. 

This time instead, I gave the clerk a $10 bill. I expected 16¢ change. I do not know what the clerk did, but they rang up the money and it said, I should get back, $18.52. And the clerk started pulling bills out of the register. 

When they started to hand me back the money, I stopped them and told them, I should only be getting 16¢. 

To which they said, ' But the machine says' $18.52. 

We then argue. They call the asst. manager. And the asst. manager must have been all of 20 years of age. Both stood there and could not figure out what to do. I suggested clearing the machine and starting over, and both looked at me like  I had 3 eyes. 

Finally, I said, give me a receipt and keep the money. ( Which the asst. manager did....Meanwhile they were still discussing what to do as I exited the store.)

You can't make this stuff up. I dare you to try. 

I took a 'snapshot' of my teacher's certificate and posted it on Facebook, just to show people that apparently, the state has lost their mind and I can still teach in this state, well, I am eligible to do so. I couldn't do it. I'd swear or throw someone in the hall and hurt their "Widdle feelings." I can just about see the parent conference I would have. If it was a former student's kid, I would wind up yelling at them.

Ole Miss had a football player who took several weeks off for " Mental Health" reasons.  And while mental health is serious, the player after being asked several times to meet with the head coach, didn't do so for 2 weeks. 

And he didn't understand why coach was upset with him for not meeting with him in a timely fashion. 

With NIL monies, college players, well, today's college football is a job. I can't imagine not talking to your boss in any job when they ask you to speak to them, unless you are literally physically to come in to meet. 

18-22 years olds in the past, and today were/are in the sands of Iwo Jima,  In the Mekong Delta, and today in remote outposts in the Middle East. But, it is hard for the military today to even get Gen Z to serve.

I worry about us. I really do. I seriously am glad my time on earth is on the back-end.

I'm Going to Be Ugly This Morning-

 I'm in a surly mood this morning. Really bad mood. Back is just bad. It gets this way in Nov-March. Yeah, the weather.

First, I want to thank all of you who voted for Prop. 9 yesterday. As Larry Peveto reminded me yesterday, it's been 20 years since retired teachers have had a COLA.

I appreciate it more than you know.  

The Proposition 9 passed with 84% of voters approval. Around 1.6 million votes 'For,' which means 300,000 people in this state voted against the COLA for teachers. 

So, to you sumofabitch feckers who voted 'Against' the retired teachers,.....Unfriend me on Facebook, X, the blog, life. I don't know why you hate old teachers, but apparently, you do. 

Hell, you probably hate teachers period. 

Hell, if you find this blog offensive, feckin' unfriend me. 

Sorry, just in a bad mood this morning....