Meridian, Idaho

I was sitting at the airport in the cell phone waiting lot and googled ‘sick of summer’. It was nearly 9 p.m. and the temperature was still well over 90^o.

I thought I’d find a fun picture to post on Facebook to see who else is sick of summer.

Instead I came across this blog posting. Within a few short minutes I was laughing out loud because the author exquisitely wrote what those of us who are sick of summer feel exactly like in early August…

I’m Sick Of Summer

I’m tired of shaving and swimsuits and sunscreen, sick of days so long they stretch out for miles. I’m sick of looking at my shadow and thinking about my body and I’m tired of you looking at it. I’m tired of the dresses and how they cling to my torso like wet newspaper or blow in the hot thick wind, revealing all my secrets. I’m bored with showing my toes, bored with giving everything away.

I’m sick of watching the shirts with sleeves hang lonesome in my closet, I want to put them on and let you take them off. I want to wear the kinds of things that don’t slip off in an instant, the kinds of things with zippers and buttons and layers and depth. I want to feel soft, I want the comfort of a comforter, I want to spend Saturdays in bed with all the windows open.

I want to spend Sundays in cars with the windows open, too, driving to fields where apples and pumpkins grow. I want to taste the thick of fall in my mouth, in pies and brews and hot coffee. I want confusion over whether or not to wear a jacket and confusion over what hue that tree was three weeks ago, I want everything to change so that I can feel like there’s reason to be alert, like there’s a reason to wake up again.

Because I’m sick of waking up and going to work and being reminded that summer is just summer and not ~!SUMMER!~. I want the feeling of going Back To Something, the feeling that something has moved or morphed even if it’s just the pigment of the leaves or the size of my jeans. I’m sick of the stifling summer, its constant heat and relentless greens. All I want is fall, so I can pretend a drop in temperature and a shift in color means things will be different from here on out.

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Meridian, Idaho

I went for a bicycle ride to the store the other day.

Actually, it was a ‘Bikram’ bike ride–similar to Bikram yoga done in a room where the temperature is at least 95^o…

Remember me writing about how dogs behave differently towards people depending on the temperature?

I have decided that people are the same way…

While I was bicycling the other day, nearly all the drivers passing me by were nasty. And the only difference between then and the last time I rode along the same route at the same time was the temperature. It was 95^o compared to 80^o.

I won’t be riding again if the temperature is over 90^o.

One of the things I noticed yesterday was that people driving expensive cars are less likely to pull over and give me a bit a room than people driving regular cars.

Those driving a Cadillac or Porche cut the drive-around space between their car and the bicycle in half of what those driving a clunker do.

I came too close to death by Cadillac than I wanted to. 🙂

Meridian, Idaho

Dear Gentle Blog Reader,

I wondered when I wrote yesterday’s post about the police and the new mental health coordinator why that was so important to me, and it finally dawned on me late yesterday.

Aside from the obvious fact that there’s a lack of knowledge and understanding about mental illness and how it affects us, what struck me about the hiring of a mental health coordinator is that it represents a fundamental change in how we approach situations.

In the past, we relied on experts within specific fields to answer questions. Then for a period of between five and ten years, everyone was expected to be experts on nearly everything. Now, it appears that we are moving back to segmented experts.

Bear with me as I show an example of this…

I used to work as a liaison between computer users and computer programmers. Here’s how it worked:

1. The users would describe a problem they were having with the information system.
2. I would determine if there was a technical solution to their problem.
3. If there was, I would submit the specifications to the programmers who would alter the system code to solve the problem.

While researching the problem, I would interview subject matter experts (SMEs)–a individual who an level of expertise in the area involved.

This was extremely effective. Users who worked with the system daily, got input into making the system more effective and them more efficient in their jobs. The programmers who think differently than users didn’t have to decipher was the users wanted because I had done it.

But something started changed about five years ago in the business world which phased middle level positions including liaisons and SMEs.

I think the reasons included the following:

1. The explosion of the Internet both in usage and content available,
2. the exponential use of Google to find answers, and
3. most importantly, the reduction of staffing to make organizations as lean as possible.

And, in my humble opinion, many organizations lost their efficiency and effectiveness.

When the Boise Police Department hired the mental health coordinator, in essence a subject matter expert, they have increased both their efficiency and their effectiveness both for their police officers and for the mentally ill.

Efficiency because each police office doesn’t need to research solutions and resources for the unique situations they come across when helping the mentally ill.

Effectiveness because they will be better able to do their job knowing that they can easily get answers.

This is a change for the better…

Meridian, Idaho

What if our society changed its ways and treated teachers like we treat pro athletes?

What if we deeply focused on teachers–how they teach, who they engage in their lessons, and recognized each and every little thing they do in and of a school day, let alone a school year?

Here’s a great parody found by my brother-in-law, Dan Cohen. Thanks, Dan!

Be sure to watch until the end to see the perfect BMW commercial with the teacher as the owner… 🙂

From Slate

By now, the lament about how our culture privileges athletics over education is an old one—but Key & Peele has breathed new life into it in their latest sketch, “TeachersCenter.” A spot-on parody of SportsCenter’s hyperbole-laden talking heads, busy CGI ticker screens, and obsessive play-by-plays, the clip cleverly reimagines athletes as the educators we entrust our children to every day.

Unsurprisingly, it’s a biting critique that says a lot about the economic and symbolic power we assign to an industry in which men are considered exceptional for throwing a ball. But the best part of “TeachersCenter” might just be the incredible ads dropped in throughout—being a teacher has never looked so sexy.