Not much to report, week 2

I have concluded I should stop talking about sheetrock since we still don't have any. But the framer's trip to China apparently paid off for we passed our framing inspection last week without any problems.

A few folks raised questions about his trip to China. While the details of the trip should probably remain with him, I too found the whole concept alittle unusual.

I've known him for four or five years and have worked with him on several office building projects. I also know he, after a great deal of effort, got unmarried a year or so ago. Earlier this year I was talking with the lumber salesman who asked who I was going to use to frame the house. I mentioned this framer and he looked somewhat surprised and asked, "don't you know he is going to China?"

Actually, I didn't know that. And, when you think about it, scheduling the framer to come frame is an important piece of the house building puzzle. So I immediately sent word we had work and would be needing him to frame.

In the end all worked out well as he had time to frame the house before the plane left.

He apparently met the new Mrs. Framer (and her nine year old son) on the internet. And love came a-calling. I hope the rest of the story, which has yet to occur, will have a "happily ever after" ending. And I hope she learns to speak English without too much trouble.

On an unrelated subject, I think there are times in every ones life where they wonder what it is all about and what exactly is their purpose in life.

I received an email from my sister last week about the blog that may help shed some light on that topic for me. She wrote:

"After reviewing your blog last week, it occurs to me that not only can you do math, you also write. My next thought is why do I recall many home challenges during the third and fourth grade years with you "not working to potential"?"

I will admit there were some challenges in my educational career, which I am not proud of but did occur for many years (more than just the third and fourth grade). These challenges were usually triggered by . . .

- a note home from a teacher
- a phone call from a teacher
- a test or paper that had to be signed by a parent and returned to the teacher
- a parent-teacher conference or
- a report card

Invariable, the phrase "not working to potential" would come up, at which point my parents would implore me to work "up to potential". These sessions were usually traumatic (at least for me) and in the end I would agree to try harder, which unfortunately would only last for a week or two before I was back to watching Hogan's Heros and reading Popular Mechanics (where I could learn cool stuff about the tensile strength of bolts and how to bend wood and stuff like that).

(I should also add that once you saw the teacher do a problem a few times on the board, why did they have to beat it into the ground for the next week? We already saw it! And what's with this trying to find the symbolism in Franz Kafka's Metamorphosis? He's writing about a man who turned into a six foot cockroach! I still don't know what to make of that!)

My thoughts on the world of education not withstanding, my sister went on to write:

"You provide hope to those who have children who aren't working to potential!"

So there you have it. My new found purpose in life is to provide hope to parents whose children are not working to potential!

Hopefully, by this time next week I will have something exciting to report.