Into the Wild Wood and Home Again

So, it's a drizzly Friday. I hope it clears off (it's not predicted to do so, though), but at any rate, we have a half day at work. There's a fundraiser this afternoon: a big ol' golf tournament that raises money for our Education Foundation, the organization that funds things like field trips and so on. In this age of python-tight budgets, we depend heavily on things like today's tournament. It's part of the homecoming festivities, so it's pretty well attended. School's out early because many of the teachers either work it or play in it. Not me, I can't, but it's still a good cause. So, c'mon, Momma Nature. Be nice. The float building went okay yesterday, and from what I hear, the mini parade was fun and enjoyable. Again, I was home. I had Holly, and G had a tooth extracted, so my priorities were here. Maybe next year I'll go and take Holly, but she needs to be in bed by 7:30, and the event started at 6:30. Not gonna happen. And I didn...

Short post today, because I am running behind a bit. Not that I slept in or anything. I finished doing laundry before I even came downstairs. Ah, the life of a person who must work outside the home, do the house work, and take care of all the details. It's a crazy schedule, to be sure. I just want one day to catch up. It will not be this weekend, I'm pretty sure.  Saturday will be devoted to being at the high school homecoming games, supervising sophomores as they sell food from crockpots. I'll have Holly with me, so I hope she is patient. If the weather is good, it'll be fine. If it's cold/wet/windy, it'll be miserable. I've done this a lot of years, so I've had my share of all of those conditions. At least I only have to do a middle of the day shift; we have three class advisors (for a crew of about ten kids-- another story). I'm not setting up, and God willing, I won't be sticking around for the clean up. Both are usually fraught with minor ch...

Wednesday. It's supposed to be warm and sunny-- it'll have to clear a bit for that to happen. It's been a rainy week, to be sure.  We finished Macbeth , and finally --finally!-- the sophomores are warming up. Who knew it'd be reading Shakespeare aloud that would do it? I hope we can keep our momentum. The APLang kids are fine, and I'm glad. I just don't know what I'd do if I had to pull two classes along.  My colleague is a second year teacher, and she --and the other veteran teachers, new teachers, and apparently the world at large-- is having a difficult time with the freshmen. I suggested we talk about it today, and maybe I can dig up some ideas. But honestly, kids are not quite the same as they used to be. There is a real attitude among many of them (the ones whose parents "pay [our] salary" and who kvetch about everything they think is too "lib'rul") that they only have to do what they want, and if they don't like it, they ha...

Another rainy start to the day-- I hope that this rain, coupled with the not-very-cold temps and a little bonus sunshine might plump up the last of the squash. Or should I say almost first of it? The growing season is never quite long enough.  I made a big pan of applesauce yesterday. Ninety minutes of peeling and cutting apples-- it takes longer, since we don't spray our trees, and the bird and bug nips, bruises, etc. need to be pared off. That said, I have six pint containers cooled in the fridge. I still have four bags of apples to go, so I can reasonably assume another ten to twelve. Next up: figuring out how I'm going to get those all in the freezer. A good problem, to be sure, but it will take a little organizing. We have strawberries frozen. Blueberries frozen. And meat, of course-- but down in the bottom there are big things, like a turkey and a couple of hams. One of those will likely get taken out to thaw and cook up-- a festive meal, even without a holiday. I hate to...

I wasn't going to rant about the breaking news from Cornell U., with the nefarious and disgusting situation --the drugging and gang-raping of a young woman-- settling in my mind like a lead weight. The perps got an essay as punishment. Thank goodness for the doughty student paper and its reporters; someone has to have some backbone, some innate sense of righteous anger, about this horrifying mess.  What struck me most, though, and I'll probably rant on for a bit, is the term that has been "invented" to describe the situation, that young men --referred to as "boys"-- were given a light punishment, that the frat is still active and associated with the campus, that there are others --many others-- who knew about the situation and who did not one damned thing. The term? "White collar rape."   It's perfect in its connotations. For time immemorial, men --especially those of privilege and influence, or whose families have that kind of social and eco...

Oddly warmish (53 degrees), light rain, a bit of a breeze. We are lucky to live where we do; other areas just south of us are getting hit hard by this September storm. Other areas of the country are getting hit by other storms. Hawaii is getting particularly hard-hit. The oak trees are dropping a ton of acorns (mast year) which usually means a difficult winter. O yay. Though the Old Farmers Almanac says, for our area, mild and dry. Who knows? Certainly, we'd like to be able to depend on the information from NOAA and other official sources, but with their funding slashed so much and the official federal denial of all things weather and climate-related, we are left with our best guesses in a lot of ways. I will keep my eyes out for a woolly bear caterpillar.  We'll head out to church today, find breakfast somewhere (if the leaf peepers have left us any), and then come home. The plan for this morning is to do some of Holly's catechism homework. This having one class a month an...