It was another hectic, scatter-brained week, the kind to which many of us are accustomed. There were plenty of aggravations, but there was some good news, too.
A big part of the problem was that I had to make an unavoidable run out of town in the middle of last week. Mary Ann and I left about 1 p.m. Wednesday. I returned to McComb at 3:45 p.m. Thursday, just tired from all the travel.
It seemed like I spent more time on I-55 than anything else. But it was worth it.
Still, it sure messes up the routine. Anybody is already going to have some unexpected activities in the course of a week, but when you toss in a road trip, it gets worse.
A lot of work has to be done in advance. You have to let co-workers know what you’ve completed and what they need to tidy up. I hate asking others to finish my assignments. It is so aggravating.
Plus, some of the news of the week was dispiriting.
There is no way to sugarcoat the 3-2 decision of the South Pike school board not to renew the contract of its superintendent. Dr. Angela Lowery. As the school board president put it, a majority of the trustees have decided to go in a different direction.
No offense to the school board, but South Pike has been going in a different direction for some time now — in two different ways.
For one thing, the board keeps getting rid of its superintendents, often after a three-year work contract expires. They have the right to do this, but were all these superintendents really not worth keeping? Does the board not value a little bit of continuity in the top job?
South Pike’s other different direction has been much more positive. Since Lowery became superintendent, the district’s grade from the state Department of Education has gone from a D to a B. Evidently that is not acceptable.
South Pike has a lot of trends working against it — a small tax base and a small population. It’s a shame they keep cycling through superintendents, too.
Another thing that comes to mind is a bill by state Rep. Daryl Porter, D-Summit, that would allow higher speed limits on interstates and state highways.
I got a phone call Friday afternoon from a reader who asked what I thought of the bill. I only learned of it Thursday evening, when I was editing the front page of Friday’s edition.
I told the caller that I didn’t have much problem with raising the speed limits to 75 mph on rural interstates and “controlled access” four-laned highways. (They are currently 70 on interstates and 65 on four-lane highways.
But I was concerned that raising speed limits to 70 mph on two-lane highways would make those roads far more dangerous.
That was the caller’s fear as well. We talked about a couple of two-lane highways in this area that have no business holding a 70 mph speed limit.
Porter’s bill gives the state’s three transportation commissioners the authority to decide where to raise speed limits, so it doesn’t sound like it would happen on all highways.
If some speed limits rise, fine, but what will happen is that a lot of people who currently drive a little bit faster than the speed limit will settle in at a speed that’s a little bit faster than a new speed limit.
I’d like to hear estimates of how many more accidents and fatalities this may cause before this bill becomes law.
There were plenty more interesting things during the week, but all of them, including the speed limit bill and South Pike’s inability to be satisfied with a superintendent, were insignificant compared with the big event of Monday, Jan. 27.
Grandson No. 3, Oliver Fitzgerald Landers, arrived at 2:04 p.m. in Memphis, weighing in at 10 pounds even, at 21 inches long and with a shock of black hair.
His mother Audrey is fine. Papa Zach has no idea what he’s in for now that two little boys are in the house. Mary Ann stayed there to help out.
That midweek trip to Memphis to meet him was an ordeal, but as I watched that swaddled little baby sleep quietly in the crook of my arm, the world’s drama just didn’t seem that important.
