Notes on a Foggy Morning

Pretty misty out there. Not too humid, though, so we'll likely go for a walk in a bit.

I love electronic bill-paying. I have a reminder that pops up every month, the day that my credit card bill is posted (and how long did it take for me to realize that it is posted the very same day every month?). I log in, look at when the payment's due, back off a week, and tell them to charge my bank on that day, then switch over to Quicken and put a post-dated entry for that day, showing the payment, and what my balance will be after I do it. Finally, I transfer their electronic statement to the running spreadsheet that shows all of our spending, specifically, to the one that shows my credit card -- run the macro that formats the input, then the one that categorizes each line - Groceries, Daughter, Home, etc. Ten minutes, max. I love this stuff.

My daughter made a point of telling me yesterday that she was working hard on her grades. I think that she was primarily telling me that you don't need to contact my teachers, I'm doing it myself, which I think is goodness, though I think that there was also a subtext of If I don't do well, at least you know I tried really hard. In fact, as I think of it, she literally said that, and - after I swallowed the first comment - I told her mildly that it was good that she was trying, and pursuing these alternatives, but the bottom line was, what were her grades; if they're not good, we'd have to take steps. She didn't like that. Fortunately for me, she doesn't know that I'm virtually clueless about what those steps would be. She did admit that she doesn't like it when she compares grades with her friends, and her ranking is always way further back than theirs. Why is that, do you think? I asked her, and she said she didn't know, so I just said This is the time to be compulsive, kiddo. Work hard, and then work hard some more. Do more than you think you need to do, more than you thought you COULD do. She was not, shall we say, happy to hear this. As for me, I was not happy to, once again, be wondering what could be done to improve her grades. Our thoughts on that are always so damned barren. I get pretty frustrated with The Educational System. Both of us do. There has to be a better way -- but I suspect that even the good teachers don't know it. Either that, or the rote statements -- Have a designated study area free from distractions.... Study with a pen... Review notes -- really IS the best that can be done.