Into the Wild Wood and Home Again

 We've hit summer temps-- 66 when I got up at 5am, and foggy/humid. I don't really mind all that much, since the A/C units are in. This 1890 house stays pretty cool downstairs until about noon, but then it gets sauna-like rather quickly. And the upstairs is wretched without A/C. We tried window fans when we first moved in, and that was iffy at best. And ceiling fans just blow dust around, which brings up other issues like dry eyes and throat. So, A/C it is.  I have to go to work today to help clean things up and turn in my paperwork. I'll see if my colleague in the English Dept needs any help counting books. Mine are done. In fact, my everything is all done. That's the blessing/curse of having seniors graduate a week before school is out-- I have had ample time to do the chores.  That all said, I hope you stay as cool as you wish to be. Heaven willing, we'll put up the pool on Sunday, and yes, temps are expected to moderate, but it'll be there for the hot days. ...

So, I called the ophthalmologist from work yesterday morning, right after students left. I had started with eye floaters right before bed the night before, didn't think a lot about it (dust? pollen? eye strain?), but at 3:30 am, the bright light flashes when I got up to use the potty. O damn. And my eyes were super dry. Have been for days. (Again, dust, pollen, dirt, computer screens, grading exams...) So I, of course, went to a reputable medical site (Mayo Clinic), looked up the what it could be, and panicked. I mean, full heart-racing panic. Possible retinal detachment or tear. Get help immediately.  So, I called. I got squeezed in at noon, and after an hour, it was determined that I did, in fact, have a condition.  I'm old.  What the actual hell.   Who knew that as one ages, starting around age 60, the vitreous of the eye starts getting all liquidy, and send out occasional protein strands like freaking New Year's eve streamers. And the flashes are also attributed ...

It's Wednesday, and as per usual, school stuff is still being sorted out. One down side of being connected to the local community college is that their process for managing student enrollment is unwieldy, and I have a student who has been caught in the digital paperwork (is that even a thing?) snarl. He says he's got proof he registered and paid, but yet he's not on my roster. I chased that down weeks ago, and they said he was not a paid student. But he says he's got the proof. I can't fix this mess, and he's trying to register for his college classes for fall.  So, another bumpy landing. I hope that the family and the community college can sort this out. I can't.  Three more days.  I hope yours is a good one. Hug your favorites. Keep the faith. C

Yesterday after work I went outside and, in my slightly plodding way, I got the rest of the garden planted. It's all in the dirt now, and it's up to the garden sprites to keep marauders out of the plants. How I ended up with thirteen tomato plants again, I'll never know. Well, I do know. I want to try this one, then that one, and o, that looks good, too. And G "rescued" a couple of yellow tomato plants... well, if it goes like last year, I'll have more than enough tomatoes to go around. The beans are starting to nose their way through the dirt, and the peas, and omg, I have tiny little beet greens! The lettuce and spinach in the deck box are going well, too. When G got home yesterday, he helped me immensely by laying out the soaker hose, and then the boxes --all of them-- got a good, long drink. Yes, we had a lot of rain this past weekend, but the dirt dries out pretty quickly in boxes.  Next up, the new strawberry bed. It is scheduled to arrive next Wednesday...

At last, the week we've all been waiting for... It's a foggy Monday morning, both outside and in my noggin. What a week last week was, which, to be honest, went along a lot better than I'd predicted. And graduation was good, too. So, now I'm left with two kids in class for the next few days. Today, they will present their projects. Then what?  I'm going to show a film. Okay, one that is adapted from a series of books that I happen to think is insanely fun, Ransom Riggs' Miss Peregrine books. They are technically young adult fiction, but I love them all the same. So, since it's creative writing class, why not?  That said, I am hopeful that I'll finally get the garden finished up. Well, as finished as I can. I ordered another raised bed box (of course I did), this time to plant a whole new strawberry bed. We have a kind of rocky/gravelly area that, at the moment, is hosting a pile of nothing important. But the space is potentially perfect for a new raised ...

Raining. And we had a helluva boomah last night-- lots of rain, wind, lightning, and so on. I hope anyone who was having a grad party had an indoor option. And I'm awfully glad Lisbon's graduation is indoors, too. It hasn't been outdoors since the early '90s-- bugs, rain, and the whole uncertainty of it all forced the decision to make graduations indoors. It makes more sense.  And this week is the last week of school for undergrads. I won't say "classes" because it's just marking time, at least after tomorrow. We have actual gradable things to do tomorrow, but then the Chromebooks are collected on Tuesday, and then we have to figure out what to do with the kids who are left... and I will have exactly two of them, and in my first block class. I'll get my end-of-year stuff done (it's mostly done anyhow), and we'll do who knows what. Maybe I'll cave and we'll watch a movie.  Field day on Thursday is a misnomer for the older kids; it...