Friday, July 30, 2010

Riverdog goes home soon.

Ellie visits the "mud flats" in West Elmira.  Soon she will be heading for the hills of Big Flats, returning to MamaDog and thier new home.

In the meantime, she's getting plenty of exercise during our River Visits.

pb
Little Pond

Wednesday, July 21, 2010

Enough is still not enough!

What the frick?

The Itawamba County School District must now pay $35,000.00 to Constance McMillen, as a settlement to a suit brought in her behalf by the ACLU.

You may remember that the school district simply canceled her Prom, rather than allow her to attend it as an openly gay lesbian.  She battled on, hoping to reinstate the prom, but to no avail.

The bigots in the school board would rather have no prom at all, than allow the girl to attend.  Well, they got more than they bargained for.   The ACLU wanted damages, and they got them.

Before I could open the champagne to celebrate the decision, the final line in the USA item (in my hometown paper) caught my eye.

"District Officials said in the settlement offer that they don't believe they violated McMillen's rights."

Did those officials never study the Constitution and its Bill of Rights?

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Little Pond 

Sunday, July 18, 2010

To the River, Ellie!

The Chemung River is very low.  The sites we usually visit make my little buddy stink.  We head just down-river from Elmira, where the water is shallow but still clean.

These geese don't give a darn about a little HuggaMutt.  Ellie is paddling about in the shallows where Huge Dogs generally plow their way through the flocks.


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Little Pond

Friday, July 09, 2010

De Facto Evidence

For all intents and purposes, I am on disability. For those interested in the legal, financial, and work aspects, check the MS Companion, for past and future details.

And there were certainly struggles. The worst enemy was my own ignorance. I have been tilting at windmills in the workplace arena. Gannett has been very cooperative since the thing became official. Especially Luann in HR, who has patiently explained --again and again-- anything I did not understand.

My living expensives have been met by Gannett short-term disability. They will end shortly, and long term will take over, along with Social Security payments, to cover my needs. Unfortunately, those need include many bills, most not related to my illness, but to the everyday troubles generated by raising teenagers and living through good and hard times.

The RiverBlogs will rise again. For now, I must rest, do some healing, homemaking, mothering and grandmothering, until the creative juices compel me to grab the keyboard and blog for dear life.

Bear with me a few weeks while it all coalesces into my new lifestyle.

Love to all.

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Little Pond