And Now, For Something Scientifically Different

Tomorrow is a working day off for me. It's the annual science fair at the local junior college. I will be supervising Newmentia's contingent. We are cautiously optimistic. What with me being a merely mediocre teacher and all.

This fair is all over the place. Not literally. What kind of a junior college would THAT be, all over the place. It would be like those Phoenix commercials. I'm a Phoenix, he's a Phoenix, wouldn't you like to be a Phoenix too? I mean that the date changes yearly, depending on the sports schedule at the college. We've also had floods keep some deep-woods Hillmomban schools from attending. Some years, other conference events are scheduled at the same time, necessitating Newmentia's best representatives to choose. Science fair is usually the loser. After all, the only thing you can win is a scholarship that pays all tuition and books for two years. The #1 son won that his sophomore year, but he won't be using it. He's not going there, he's going to Rolla to be a heck of an engineer. Don't tell Georgia Tech's Ramblin' Wrecks he stole their slogan.

It will be a long and different kind of day. Some years the sponsors get free cookies and water and juice. Some years they don't get crap. Some years we sit in the sponsor's lair behind the folded up bleachers, and peep through the cracks at our charges. Other years we sit with the public, and suffer smart-mouthed middle school girls from other schools who don't realize that we're teachers, and will have our principal call her principal in a hot New York minute to report her sauciness. Kids are really bold when they think it's simply a random adult they're kicking in the butt and smarting off to.

I am looking forward to the end of the day.