fundraisers in pubic schools

My wife and I are old timers. I'm in my late 70s and my wife isn't far behind. As a kid I went to private schools and my wife went to public schools. Many of my friends went to public schools.

In private grade school we sold magazine subscriptions for fundraisers. I didn't particularly like hawking magazine subscriptions door-to-door, but I did what I had to do. My friends in public school didn't hawk magazine subscriptions door-to-door and their parents didn't have to pay tuition like my parents did. Their parents (and my parents) paid taxes for their children's public education.

It began when our four kids went to public school. First it was for supplies--paper, glue, crayons, etc. They were even required to bring rolls of toilet paper to school.

Today we got an email from our grandson saying that he was helping our granddaughter raise funds for a "fun run" to remodel and buy new furniture for her classroom. Contributors were encouraged to pledge $$$ per lap. My granddaughter's goal (she's in kindergarten) is $360!!!

WHOA!!! In this state (and many others, I suspect) public schools are typically the responsibility of local government. One would think that includes school remodeling and furniture.

The fundraiser is very sophisticated. It looks like it was put together by a professional fundraiser/snake oil vendor.

What's this world coming to?

https://www.flickr.com/photos/howardlake/3698848347/

attribution: Howard Lake and flickr

https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/2.0/

brutal cold, heat pump and space heaters

The cold weather has been brutal. 

In 2017 my wife and I bought a new, relatively small home with a heat pump. It's our first experience with a heat pump. The problems are:

1. the fan unit is located just on the other side of our bedroom window. It's noisy.
2. the thermostat is located in a hallway towards the back of the house. When we set it to 70 degrees, it's 70 degrees in the hallway and colder everywhere else.
3. The heat pump itself is located in a utility room that is accessed from the garage which is located inside the perimeter walls of the house. The heated air from the heat pump is transmitted by ducts located in the crawl space under the house. When it's brutally cold, by the time the "heated" air reaches the back of the house it's barely warm--and that's with "auxiliary heat" from the heat pump (electrically heated coils similar to a space heater).

To solve problems 2 and 3 I bought two space heaters (dr. heater)--one for the front of the house and the other for the back. With them the heat from the space heaters goes directly to the spaces where the extra heat is needed. No more expensive, barely warm "auxiliary heat" from the heat pump. I save a little money by paying less for the direct heat from the space heaters than paying for the barely warm "auxiliary heat" from the heat pump.

Stay warm! (and pay a little less)

https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Cold_day_in_Lagarelhos,_Vinhais.jpg

attribution: Lagarelhos Vinhais via Wikimedia Commons

https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0/deed.en