Into the Wild Wood and Home Again

 Friday!  In class, we've started along the usual paths, with APLang starting to pop the hood on narratives (exigence! claim-evidence-rationale! diction!), and the sophomores are plowing ahead into Beowulf. All's well. Today is also my first payday since June. Again, all's well! The Sox didn't play last night, the Patriots might as well have not played (ugly, I went to bed just after the half), and Holly did get into the pool again for what might be the last time of the season.  Autumn is waiting in the wings.  I didn't get to see any of the celestial excitement last night due to rain. At least it wasn't a huge t-storm, just rain, which is pleasant enough. Maybe it'll help remove some of the ragweed pollen.  In short, things are going along as they do.  I hope your day is awesome--  C

Thursday, and it's supposed to be 80 degrees with possible t-storms later on. If it doesn't storm, then maybe, just maybe, I can get Holly in the pool one more time before we drain it. It's a sad occasion, the draining of the pool. I didn't get in it as much as I'd have liked-- the water was always a bit too cold for me, since we had cool night temperatures and we had to keep refilling it due to the slow (and now, not so slow) leak.  We can't keep summer in our hands, can we?  That said, day one of the new school year went relatively well, with few hiccups (not mine, for once), and the kids were pretty decent. As always, the new ones (to me) have all heard I give a lot of work and I grade hard, that the class is hard... I don't know who tells this tale, but gee whiz. We started the day with a general chat, then moved to a fun activity-- tell me about yourself, but you have to use three paint color names in the description (I had paint chips that G brought ho...

Okay, today is real day one.  My computer issues are moderately solved, the room is ready, the books came in, and open house was sparsely attended (fine by me)-- in short, let's gooooo.  I have to wear shoes, sort of. That's a thing. I have new sandals, so they'll do.  This semester, it's Brit Lit and AP Lang. I have nine kids rostered in each class, so it's a really small but workable number. And the part that the heating/cooling/whatevering system is on order, so maybe we won't roast entirely. (Ahhh the woes of complicated systems that depend too much on tech-- I would rather just open a window, but hey...here we are.)  I hope your day is wonderful. I'll catch you all up later. And no, I didn't watch the Mary Oliver documentary yet-- I was too tired. I will, however, recommend a short (one season long, sadly) series on Britbox called Ludwig . It's awesome. =) I see that season two is coming in October-- hooray! Ciao for now, friends.  C

Yesterday was a long day. I had one brief meeting, and then I worked on things on the computer, then arranged the classroom furniture (including unloading a bookcase, moving it out of the way, and transferring all the books to a different bookcase), and then I tackled my bulletin board project. Up and down the step ladder. I can honestly say, the day was filled with hot, dusty, and exhausting work. And I will not do it again like this. Sore? O yeah. I'm all hopped up on painkillers and Tiger Balm this morning. And I'm super grateful we had the option of going in late today. We could either be there for 8, leave at 2:30, and come back for Open House at 5, or go in for 10am and stay until 6pm. I'm going option B. One, I'm sore and tired, and two, gasoline conservation.  I don't have much left to do in my classroom, and my plan book is done (in pencil) for the first month. My computer(s) are messed up, though-- we've migrated to a new network, and one will not spea...

Quick post this morning--cool, damp, but promising sunshine later.  I'm off to work in a few minutes. Today is a teacher work day-- meetings, classroom stuff, etc. And so is tomorrow, but I hope to knock out a bunch of stuff today. I have a syllabus to edit, a bulletin board to create (I hope), and maybe some books to put away. And stuff I stuffed into my meager closet to put back out.  I didn't get a new desk chair yet, either, so that's on my to-do list. Maybe next weekend? I want to go to the thrift store to see what they have.  And so it goes, eh?  On to year 40. EXCELSIOR! C

Today is the last day I can call sort of my own for a bit. I'm sad, I guess, because there are so many things I didn't do, didn't have time to do --or energy-- but still, summer was good. I wanted to read a lot more, write a lot more, and didn't really-- but I did get my manuscript into a shape that makes me think there's a book in there. I didn't kill off the weeds in the flagstones and the front walk, but I will before fall, so maybe they won't be so virulent next spring.  I spent a lot of time with Holly; most of it was pretty good. Some, not so much, but she's four, and nervous about her new school, and she's a busy kiddo who wants interaction all the time. She's my polar opposite in that way, so we both had to embrace the discomfort at times: I need quiet time, and she needs to figure out how to entertain herself. Did we conquer reading? Not yet. But she is primed and ready. Did we manage to learn how to tie shoes? Not yet, but she's abo...