We are in the midst of a “major” storm which is supposed to leave somewhere between 12"-20" the next 48 hours. School is closed today, and will likely be closed tomorrow as well. That is a problem since we have now taken 4 snow days while the school calendar only allots 3 of them. That means we will probably lose a day of Spring Break in April.

The new governor has decided to balance the state budget partly on the backs of state workers, including teachers, firefighters and police, even though it is totally the state government’s fault that the pension system is underfunded since they violated the law for over a decade by not making their mandatory payments in order to use that money to cover over-spending in other areas. Based on what I have read in the media, many residents of the state agree that we are all overpaid and do not deserve our pensions and medical benefits, even though all public employees make considerably less money our entire careers than we would make in the private sector. I earn about half what I could have earned with my masters’ degree in mathematics, but I guarantee that I work just as hard except my hours are compressed into 40 weeks instead of 48 weeks. But still many people believe that I should live at a much lower economic level than they do. Can anybody spell G-R-E-E-D?

Currently Reading. Because of the likelihood of a four-day weekend, I have started reading Jack McDevitt’s Odyssey, the fourth book in his Academy series of far-future mystery-adventures. While his stuff is not as “serious” as other writers I enjoy, nobody plots futuristic mysteries better than he does.