I love the kind of weeks when I feel like I get so much done—at home and at school. This week is a full week, no holidays or days off because of parent/teacher conferences. I get to have the students in their seats all week. Every day. After a couple of partial weeks, it feels good. Next week, of course, is another partial week due to the Thanksgiving holiday. Wonder how much I can shove into those little minds.
As I was driving home on Tuesday evening, I passed the veterinary clinic and saw on their billboard that it was vaccination night. Each vaccination was just $12. Lucky had his shots just before I got him last summer, so I hadn’t had him vaccinated yet. I’ve had him for almost a year and a half, so I thought it would be a good time to do so. I am thinking that I might take him home with me on the plane this Christmas, so his shots would definitely need to be updated. I went home, ate, watched Frasier on the early feed, and then took Lucky-boy to the vet’s. All went well. He had two shots and a liquid something or other. The vet said that if he coughs for an hour or so that it’s normal. He didn’t cough. He was fine. I had no worries about my pooch.
Wednesday was a full day for me. I went into school early and left very late, something that I’ve been doing a lot of lately. (That’s a whole different journal entry!) By the time I arrived home, Lucky had been in the bathroom for ten hours. This isn’t anything traumatic, but when I let him out, his usual butt-wagging greeting was missing. He came out of the bathroom with his head down and if he had a tail, it would have been between his legs. He usually runs out of the bathroom, through the kitchen, and out into the garage to look at the car, then look back at me, then out to do his business. This time he wouldn’t go outside. No matter how much I tried to encourage him, he sat in the kitchen just looking at me like he had done something wrong.
I went back to the bathroom to see if he had tinkled or pooed, but the bathroom was as clean as I had left it. There were no cords chewed, nothing lying on the floor chewed. All was clear, but Lucky was just not right. The poor little guy. I picked him up and took him outside, sitting him on the ground. I told him to “go”, and he did. Everything seemed normal, if you know what I mean. However, the rest of the night he acted very strangely—not following me around wherever I went, lying down and sleeping most of the night, not eating, etc. I was worried, but I really thought it was just maybe a reaction to the vaccinations. I told myself that if he wasn’t better the next morning, I would take him to the vet.
Thankfully, he was. He wasn’t a hundred percent, but he was definitely much better. Tonight I had a Math workshop that was to last until 8:15 P.M., but I left at 6:15 so that I could come home and check on Lucky. I had visions of him convulsing on the cold tile floor of the bathroom. Fortunately, when I let him out of the bathroom, he ran out, through the kitchen, and out to the garage. My Lucky-boy was back! Yay! I’m sure it was just a reaction to the vaccinations. Whew.
Before my Math workshop, we had a quick meeting for those of us who are in our local teacher’s union. Last year we tried negotiating a raise to at least cover the COLA (cost of living), but the district really held us back claiming to have a deficit budget. Well, we are trying again this year. The district will give us a bit of a raise if we start paying for our benefits. We don’t want our benefits to be touched, but the district is really making a strong case. They have shown how much of a deficit we have and trying to convince us that unless we take cuts somewhere else, there is absolutely no money for cost-of-living raises this year. We were shown a couple of options, but none were very satisfactory. This is going to turn into a big mess. I can tell. My happy little home is quickly turning into an uncomfortable and frustrating one.
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