Category Archives: Weather

Day 6: Chicken’s Roost

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chickensroost

It is the sixth day of summer and it is off to a great start. I just have to keep it moving. I have 15 hours and 10 minutes of daylight today, but it’s light for a bit more. The past few days have been busy with stuff I said I would do when school was over. Now, the chickens have come home to roost.

Summer has its own schedule and as the kids have gotten older the more structured it has gotten. W is off scuba diving with the Boy Scouts at Sea Base in the Keys. I know he is having a good time, how could he not? O started basketball camp at the high school – eight days of basketball drills and instruction with the girls’ varsity team and the head coach. Next week there’s softball camp for four days and interspersed there are softball games – Wednesday, Thursday, and next Monday. Tonight I have a Boy Scout meeting and Word Press training. I’m not going to camp this year with the scouts. I will miss it. It’s a lot of fun Continue reading Day 6: Chicken’s Roost →

A walk in the park

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gratitude with my 'Superhero' pen
gratitude with my ‘Superhero’ pen

It rained Thursday morning, at least part of the day, when the rain ended, it left a beautiful afternoon. W and I made it to school and got all of my teacher stuff moved to my new rooms. It took only a couple of hours, having W move the boxes made it easier for me to work on the pitch, the pitch where I looked through stuff and tossed into the recycle bin. It felt good, but there is more to toss, but that will have to wait for another day.

Friday was beautiful, the kind of early summer morning when it is not quite summer and yet, still not quite spring, either – cool crisp air, bright sun, a sky so blue that it makes the green deeper and brighter. A perfect day for a walk in the park. Continue reading A walk in the park →

Getting started

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Memorial Day 2013 – A doughboy plays taps – Aisnes-Marne American Cemetery, Belleau, France photo courtesy of Aisnes-Marne American Cemetery Facebook page

This is a bittersweet time for me. The beginning of summer always is. It is a feeling of relief and joy and uncertainty mixed into one. This should be day 2 of summer vacation. It is day 2 of summer, meteorological summer, that is. Celestial summer will arrive just after midnight June 21st and we’ll have our peak daylight. But, for now I have three days remaining before summer really begins for me.

We had a snow day in March and two flood days in April that threw a wrench in the school calendar and thus mine. It has been a rainy spring, which is nice because last year we had little rain and the fall fruit and harvest was dismal at best around our parts. Friday was warm and muggy, you could feel the energy in the air and Saturday was overcast with afternoon rain. We’ve been spared violent weather thankfully, but we had a spectacular lightning show last Tuesday evening and rain almost every day for the past week. Continue reading Getting started →

Objects are closer than they appear

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learningI don’t sit in the passenger seat often. When I do, I always see the phrase on the side-view mirror, “OBJECTS IN MIRROR ARE CLOSER THAN THEY APPEAR.” This weekend is a perfect example of that. Since my last post, which was over three weeks ago, I have been busy – of all kinds – family, house, school, work, sports, a full schedule.

It has been a busy spring and since we returned from Florida, I have written two posts. I am without words, literally. Continue reading Objects are closer than they appear →

Communities

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son
Jonas’s eyes from the cover of Son

I got up early this morning. Ivy was eager to get out and survey the yard and I ventured onto the deck after her and heard the unmistakable crunch of winter precipitation underfoot. I stepped gingerly to avoid being an early morning casualty and coaxed her back inside. By that time, the coffee had finished brewing and I could enjoy a cup while sitting on the couch with Ivy in my lap.

Vacation was great, really great, in fact amazing. It was good to get back, but being away and kicking back was what we all needed. Our last day was amazing and interesting, all at the same time and our trip home full of surprises, at least for two of us, but that is not what I awoke for this morning to write. All week long and most of last week, I have wanted to write this post, but I haven’t made time. Each day, there has been another project, task, or appointment in the way of writing and then last Saturday night another piece of the puzzle developed and I struggled with it. Continue reading Communities →

Postcards from…

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imagesIt’s Friday morning and I have already started to wonder where the time went, but I already know. Time on vacation goes much faster than real time. Even when you try to make sure time is counting or days are counting.

I remember when my dad would travel, before my parents divorced, he would send us postcards. It was great fun to get a postcard and short message in the mail from him and even after my parents divorced, he would send a postcard now and then, from where he travelled. Of course, this was before e-mail, text messages, smart phones, and Facebook or other social media sites. Postcards were the social media! I have tried to bring back the art of the postcard and send one or two, or even more from wherever I am.

A few summers back my mom sent me all the postcards we had sent her and the ones she had collected. Continue reading Postcards from… →

We’re here…

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ridiculoushatnew
my ridiculous hat…

Spring Break 2013. Every year I look forward to this week on the calendar. It’s a break from the normal and an escape to a slower pace. For the kids, and my students, it’s a break from school and signal that the end of the year is near, very near. I am certain they had a day count going to the time when the bell rang and they could rush home and begin their break. I worked to make sure that the day was full of learning and had enough structure to keep them focused and tuned in. For the most part, I was successful, when we come back next week the sprint to the end begins and I’ll have to deal with another day count. Continue reading We’re here… →

A NO SNOW snow day

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stormwarningNormally, I would be driving to school right now, but instead I am home in the basement nestled in my cave. It’s a snow day. The weather guys predicted the storm several days ago and the media is in full hype. Right now, there is less than half an inch covering the sidewalks and roads, but it is predicted to get worse, probably much worse with the bulk of the snow arriving midday just in time to release kids to walk home from elementary schools with unplowed roads and snowy sidewalks.  It is just a bad idea.

The call came in at 5:23 from my kid’s school district announcing that “due to the expected heavy snow, all school and afternoon activities for Tuesday, March 5th are cancelled…” My district called a couple of minutes later with the same news. I’d already been waging a war with the alarm clock, and losing, I might add, when the phone rang. I turned the alarm off and W came in to make sure he could sleep until he wakes up, he was excited, but probably not enough to keep him from falling back to sleep. I tried going back to sleep, but I couldn’t so I got up and went downstairs. Continue reading A NO SNOW snow day →

President’s Day Challenge

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Seal_Of_The_President_Of_The_United_States_Of_America.svgToday is President’s Day. It’s the holiday to celebrate all of our presidents, but in particular George Washington’s birthday. I remember in elementary school coloring pictures of George Washington and Abraham Lincoln and learning stories of their exploits of how George chopped a cherry tree down and couldn’t tell a lie and Abe was an honest self-educated man who chopped wood. I don’t know if these tales are true, but I do know that these two presidents led our nation in a time when its citizens were uncertain of how events would turn out.

And so being the wise nation that we are, we celebrate our heritage and history by letting the schoolchildren out of school for the day. Now, in the interest of transparency, I do personally benefit from this holiday and all of the other holidays, as well. I am a teacher. However, being a teacher does not imply an endorsement of our holiday practice. Now that that is out in the open, I can continue. Continue reading President’s Day Challenge →

Another Saturday evening post, on Sunday evening

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bells_coverI started writing this Saturday morning and I never finished, such is life.

It’s Saturday mid-morning and my plan to post in the middle of the week was foiled, yet again. Honestly, I do have ideas during the week, but I never have time to actually sit down and write them. Looking back on my week, it was a blur. I had to think back long and hard to remember all of the big rocks, small rocks, pebbles, sand, and water, which filled my week to recall all that I did and or more importantly, did not do. Continue reading Another Saturday evening post, on Sunday evening →