prepping to vote

I skipped studying Greek this morning to do some last minute homework about voting today. When I looked at the ballot a few days ago, I admit that I decided I could only put my little x next to Democrats in all partisan elections. Usually I research more, but this year I am personally very unhappy with Republicans (and actually all the other parties).

So that left only a few local races. I am very encouraged at how well the information can be found about people these days online. The League of Women Voters put a video of the candidates running for the Holland Public School Board on YouTube. How cool is that?

As I have watched newspapers struggle to deal with financial problems and then the internet, I have witness an increasing difficulty of getting good local news. It seems to me that news providers in Michigan (especially the public radio stations) have attempted to improve this. Although U of M’s stupid stupid approach of changing their slogans (Your State, Your Stories to which I always think back: not MY stories), I do think that they are making an institutional effort to fill a void.

I listened to about 25 minutes of the video linked above as I researched the candidates.

I now have a good idea of how they might function in this job. I will check Eileen’s choices if she’ll share with me because I think she has a good handle on education.

last piano lesson

Yesterday I gave my last piano lesson to my last student. I have been teaching him for years. He is about 85 years old and I love our time together. However, this past summer he has not practiced at all. When I asked him about the half of the year that he spends in Washington D. C. studying with a different teacher if he practices. He said he did.

I suggested to him that what we were doing was not really lessons, but that I enjoyed it. In the spring, I suggested, we could still meeting in a weekly structure but it would more about playing duets together and chatting. No charge. I assured him if he had musical questions, I would be glad to address them with that sort of forum.

He wasn’t happy about this, of course. The money’s  no problem, he told me. I told him that it was a problem for me to take his money and not exactly teach him piano. We have pieces with technical problems that I have outlined numerous solutions for him to rectify. He has trouble keeping track of my comments and does not usually follow my suggestions. Consequently, many pieces I have been listening to him make the same mistakes for years. Time for a change.

I love the dude and value our times together. I hope we can continue meeting next spring. But I have no intention of taking this man’s money if he doesn’t practice.