Day 15: two weeks in, nine more to go

day15School let out two weeks ago and I have never been tireder. Is that even a word? Actually, it is not – I checked. The correct word, or words, should be more tired. It is the comparative form of the adjective, tired. In case you are wondering the superlative form is most tired and not tiredest like you’d think. Its comparative and superlative forms are irregular so the normal rules do not apply: example small – smaller – smallest and big – bigger – biggest. I would have thought tired – tireder – tiredest, but that does not work. Oh well, I have never been MORE TIRED, seriously.

The basement isn’t going as smoothly as I thought it would. The paneling is glued to the studs with super adhesive stuff and some of the paneling has come off easily, and others have not. The job is taking much longer than I anticipated. I did find a couple of the cracks in the foundation, they were the cracks we discovered in April and they were hidden behind the paneling near the window wells. Fortunately they are small cracks and easily sealable or seemingly so. I still have a lot of work to do.

W arrived home Sunday night and he couldn’t stop talking about his experience. He had a blast. I would’ve, too. His postcards arrived yesterday, if you were on the list your’s should have arrived as well. It was a pretty small list (my thinking), but to him it was a pretty long list and there wasn’t a great deal of down time to write postcards, especially if you have other activities that are funner – that is a word, I checked, seriously. He came home to sports camps – beginning bright and early at 7 AM Monday morning. He was exhausted Monday, but Tuesday he had enough energy to go to another wrestling camp in the evening. This morning, both of us had a difficult time getting up and getting moving, hence the tireder reference. I will be getting his help this afternoon and tomorrow getting stuff moved out of the basement.

Speaking of stuff moving, the new grill arrived Tuesday. The old grill was dismantled and placed at the curb about 3PM. By 6PM it was gone, presumably picked up by someone who has time to do metal recycling. When I checked this morning it was still gone. Finders, keepers. We also put an old chest of drawers and a pair of speakers at the curb, with similar results. Yippee!

This is the last week for O’s sports camps. She has softball playoffs and they begin tomorrow night. She’s been playing well and really enjoys the game. If they win tomorrow night, she’ll play Tuesday. We’ll keep our fingers crossed.

Friday morning I am off to Mississippi and a brief visit with my step-mom, Julie. I haven’t seen her in too long and it will be good to see her. Living away from my family is not easy. I don’t get to see my mom, brothers, or my step-mom as often as I would prefer. I did get to Houston visit mom for her birthday this spring and visited with both of my brothers. It was a good visit. Julie’s birthday is next month and last Christmas she traveled to England to visit with her side of the family. When she returned she talked about getting an iPad and internet. I am going to try to help her get started.

Does anyone have any advice about teaching a soon to be 79 year-old how to use an iPad? Or even the internet?

I thought about getting her a book iPad Dummies, but I am concerned she might be insulted.

Night and Day 2002 - courtesy of sunthingspecial.com
Night and Day 2002 – courtesy of sunthingspecial.com

Today is the fourteenth day of summer. Every Wednesday during the school year, we began geography class, my first class of the day, with the Sunshine Report. We began tracking our town and then added the following places as we studied them – Iqaluit, Kingston (Jamaica), Armenia (Colombia), Buenos Aires, Lima, Rome, Deutenhausen (Germany), Tromsø (Norway), and finally Kecskemét (Hungary). Each week we checked the sunrise and sunset, then calculated the amount of sunlight each area received. What was amazing was we transition from Latin America to Europe when the Vernal Equinox happened and they were able to see and understand the concept of equi (equal) nox (night). Every place we checked had the same daylight – within fifteen minutes, regardless of latitude. That might not come as a surprise to you, but to a seventh grader, that is amazing. The summer solstice is Friday and it will be the longest day. I haven’t checked the Sunshine Report since our last report. So, here goes, in order of latitude, north to south.

 

Today’s readings (6/19)

Summer Solstice (6/21)

 

Sunrise

Sunset

daylight

Sunrise

Sunset

daylight

Tromsø None None 24H      
Iqaluit 2.11 11.00 20H49M      
Deutenhausen 5.14 9.19 16H05M      
Kecskemét 4.46 8.39 15H53M      
Rome 5.35 8.48 15H13M      
Wheaton 5.17 8.30 15H13M      
Kingston 5.33 6.45 13H12M      
Armenia 5.53 6.16 12H23M      
Equator: the places above are located in the northern hemisphere and the places below are located in the southern hemisphere. What do you notice?
Lima 6.27 5.52 11H25M      
Buenos Aires 8.00 5.50 9H50M      

 

It was fun to watch when the student realized that the further a place is from the equator the longer or shorter the days are. Just in case you forgot – short and longer are comparative forms of the adjective short and long.

As a teacher, I am the king of things kids never think of, whether it is clothing tags, sunrises and sunsets, or comparative and superlative forms of adjectives.

So, I have 15 hours and 13 minutes of daylight. I have already used some of it. I got the oil changed in the Volvo, I dropped of W at camp, and I need to get home and get some work done before the sun sets. Even though I have electricity, I do like to spend the night sleeping, because I have never been tireder! Today is gonna be a great day, I know it and can feel it. Making the Days Count, one day at a time, no matter what how much daylight I have.

How much daylight does your burg get? What in the world are you gonna do with it?

4 thoughts on “Day 15: two weeks in, nine more to go

    1. We have the internet and an iPad! Install of internet went smoothly and we were able to get the iPad on Saturday. So far we’ve done a few tutorials on e-mail and sent an e-mail and gotten two responses. You should have seen her face light up. The typing is the issue as she’s not used a computer and it has been at least a decade or more since she typed on a typewriter so it’s hunt and peck time. Fortunately, we got the model that has speech to text so I am working that angle. A smart phone would NEVER work! As for the basement, it’s still in the demo stage.

  1. Funner….really? I’ll be double checking that one. Remodels can be soooo much fun. We know from experience. We did some flips in Downers Grove and dealt with roots growing through a foundation. Hope you find some energy… perhaps a break up to the cabin is in order 🙂

    1. I get asked about funner by my kids and have consulted my Merriam and Webster on more than one occasion! The cottage is next week, Mississippi is tomorrow, we gardened last night it was fun digging earth and planting things. My problem about the basement and all the stuff is that I get started and I find more stuff… roots growing through a foundation sounds sooooo much worse.

Thanks for visiting MtDC. How are YOU Making YOUR Days Count?