Sunday bullets, just a few

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• I'm trying to eat healthier, so in the oven bakes old fashioned oatmeal. With a handful of raisins as sweetener, and a little condensed milk for taste. This might sound like a roast sawdust casserole, but it's actually quite good, and I enjoy it.
• The Ruger bought as investment was fired yesterday, by myself and #2 heir. The thing is accurate far beyond my expectations, landing it's first five rounds within an inch from the seven yard line. That includes a first round fired double action. We are pleased (g). Silver coins in the safe never made me smile, but this investment does.
• School..... Monday starts the countdown to beginning State Inspection tactile testing. I am think the end of the week will see us with clipboards in hand, applying appropriate stress to the testees. I'm hoping the new Audi donations will be in by then, but that remains to be seen. If they are, they will be used for the tactiles. I have great hopes for the boys... their written testing impressed me.
  
• March is also the month we administer NOCTI end of program testing to our students. Yes... end of program... two months before the end of the school year. I shall leave the rant regarding government ordered testing stupidity for another day. Let me just say this.... I think anyone working in a 'Department of Education' should suffer through a basic intelligence test that involves a man standing behind them with a cattle prod. A wrong answer=BZZZzzzzzzt! Anyone left twitching and drooling will be summarily fired.
  
• I said I wouldn't teach evening certification classes this month. I wanted a break. Now.... I am scheduled to teach evening certification classes this month. Sigh. Sure, I am paid decently to do it, but I really wanted a break from it. The thing is.... people use these certifications to get jobs, or to keep jobs. I'm pretty good at teaching that class, and there aren't many shops in the county that don't have someone in them who I certified. I'm finding it hard to say 'no' just now. Jobs are getting harder to come by, and people need every edge they can get.
• Underground economy....... that thought has been on my mind. More and more I hear quiet discussions about cash deals, bartering, working under the table, finding way to make/buy/build/survive that doesn't let the tax man into the equation. These activities have always been there... but lately it's gone from a background murmur to an underscored drumbeat. In the last two weeks I have witnessed maybe $5k in business dealings that didn't involve paper. I'm trying to work that little fact into the grand picture.
  
• I smell oatmeal :-) Ya'll have a good day, Ya hear?