Paul's Infrequently Updated Blog

We took Irene’s car to Greg’s Auto to have it looked at after all the damage it received in the recent storms. As I expected, they totaled, or wrote off, the car. They said it would cost at least $3600 to repair and they appraised the value of the car at $2300 minus our $500 deductible. Since we opted to keep the car, we got a check from them for a little over $1800, which we have put in our savings account. We also went to our insurance agent to change the coverage on the car.

There is little point keeping full coverage on the car if the insurance company has totaled it. We now have the basic coverage which costs less than $150 for six months. Although the car has hail damage, it is not too bad and makes it look like the car has dimples. The paint and bodywork are intact. I think the car will be good for at least another 75,000 miles and that is why we are going to keep it.

Today was a pretty interesting and scary day. It started out okay, but in the afternoon, the storms arrived along with more big hail (and more hail damage), and the sirens went off for a tornado warning.

Until today, I had never seen a tornado. I have actually always wanted to see one and assumed that, at some point, I would get to see a tornado. The thing was that I never expected to see one pass close to where I live or cause damage in town, but as I looked out of the back window during the storm, I saw a funnel form over Scottsbluff and then head for the ground.

Right now, the NOAA (the government weather service) and the media have not officially said that a tornado passed through town, but I know what I saw and you can see the video that someone has posted on YouTube. Take a look and judge for yourself.

We are now well pasted Memorial Day and our communal swimming pool is still not open. I have asked around and from what I found out work needs to be done before the pool can open. I assume that this must be the same work that I kept telling them about last year when I ran the pool. The townhouse association chose to ignore what I was saying then then gave me a hard time when I had to close the pool early.

Even though I hear they are going to open the pool after they have carried out repairs the fact of the matter is that this should have been done in March and April before the pool was due to be opened. Instead it is now June, the pool is supposed to be open and I am paying for a pool that is not open. Its a pity they did not listern to me last year, they might not be in this situation if they had listened to my concerns.

The school year is finally over and summer is here! It feels good to know that I do not have to worry about school until August. A whole three months for me

The last few days of school were a huge waste. Most often, this is always the case, but this year it was even more so. On Monday we got to spend what seemed like most of the school day hiding in the hallway or in the boiler room at school. We got a couple of pretty large storms pass over us, which came with tornado warnings. So no teaching or much of anything else got done.

The thing that always bothers me with the end of a semester or school year is that they always end on a Tuesday or a Wednesday. I do not understand the reasoning behind this. It would have been better to make the last day Friday and then have teachers come in on Monday to clean their rooms and check out. Monday and Tuesday this year were a complete waste of time, but when the powers that be ask for your opinion on the school calendar you just get ignored.

The storms that passed over us on Monday did quite a lot of damage. Irene’s car suffered hail damage and has lots of dents. We were lucky compared to a lot of people who lost windows on both their cars and homes. When we drove past Reganis Auto in Scottsbluff, it looked like their entire inventory of cars had been damaged. There was not a single car or truck on their lot that had not had its windows broken.  In addition, one of the apartment buildings a few blocks from where we live lost its roof. I hope that all those affected carry insurance to repair the damage.

I will have to call Progressive in the coming days to see if Irene’s car is worth repairing. Since the car is ten years old and not worth that much money, the insurance may decide to total the car.  Right now I am just lounging around enjoying the first days of the summer break, the car and pretty much everything else can wait a few days.

I finally got through graduation and all the graduation parties again for this year. It seemed like all the graduation events this year would never end and, indeed, this year I got about 50 invites from students, which for me is a record.

I do of course appreciate all of the invitations, but being the homebody that I am, I hate being out and about the weekend of graduation. It’s a relief that it is over for another year. As always, I handed out a graduation card and the “mystery” gift to each student and I do wish them all the best for the future. Now that it is all done, I can look forward to the summer break and not have to worry about school until August.

Next school year I will have tenure, so no formal observation and a lot less pressure. That will be nice for me and nice to know that I will be staying in one place for more than three years.