i always thought our elderly money person (younger than my self-but squarely in hippy era) was probably a hippy in his youth. he is a vegan, grows beautiful gardens, and wears sandals. so the following tale was a shocker.
he saw rats eating in his garden...they especially liked his beets and beans. he trapped several of them, but one wily huge old fellow...as big around as an overgrown zuccini...eluded him. the fellow lived under the little garden shed in the back yard. so our money man waited to people were off campus, got out his 22 and shot the thief in the heart. it didn't kill him right off; he was able to crawl back under the garden shed and die in an unreachable place. ....getting his revenge by smelling up the place.
turns out our money man grew up hunting and fishing, served in vidt nam, and owns a rifle. who knew!
15 December 2006
23 November 2006
the three mums and vase story
my cousin called me yesterday....at least it wasn't at three in the morning so i was coherent. he wanted to know about the vase and the mums. the beginning. the best i can remember is that my dad gave the vase and three football mums to nanny, his grandmother, one thanksgiving when he couldn't be there. i think it must have been in the late 30's or early 40's. in any case the part of the story i didn't know was that my grandmother gave the vase to richard--my dad's cousin. then she decided to get it back. made richard mad so he went out and bought a 600 dollar waterford crystal vase. i can understand. my grandmother was always attaching great importance to things that did not necesarily have inherent importance. in any case she got it back, and i wound up with it ... it skipped my dad....and i gave it to my daughter. i think my sister would have liked it. not sure how i wound up with it.
in any case, my sister, myself, my daughter, i hope my son, richard (when he was alive), my mother(when she was alive), richard's son and i don't know who else... always have three football or other large mums in a vase at thanksgiving.
in any case, my sister, myself, my daughter, i hope my son, richard (when he was alive), my mother(when she was alive), richard's son and i don't know who else... always have three football or other large mums in a vase at thanksgiving.
gobble gobble
it doesn't matter if you are a veggie eater or a meat eater, thanksgiving has lots of gobblers. but why, there is usually much more food than can be eaten. maybe the length of the meal depends on the stories told around the table. in that case you have slow stuffers. my relatives on my dad's side were all great story tellers. i was always mad because when the best stories were being recited, i was at the kids' table. sigh. now i am going to have to rely on my cousin's memory for the stories. he suggested i drive up to sioux falls with my laptop and write them down. i think that is a good idea. will have to find a non snowy weekend. meanwhile, i will find a good book and rest my digestive system.
20 November 2006
holidays
it seems like the holidays instead of being relaxing, turn into a frenzied rush to get everything done. i volunteered to help put up the xmas tree in the chapel. i hadn't done it before so was relying completely on ms. m since she has done it for ten years with another (former) teacher. we spent the first hour trying to stablize the tree in the stand. turned out we had the middle section on the bottom. went way faster when we put the bottom on the bottom and the middle in the middle. bummer.
16 November 2006
just around the corner
about the time you think things are smoothing out...wham.....life, God...the devil, does not let you rest. we loose a student, gain a student, etc... prospects good. catch a few students breaking the rules, arrange for some community service, and counseling, progress....maybe....more things blow in with the dusty air and wham, three students gone...for the best i believe, but it is still depressing. good thing, wanted enough to be asked to stay another year.:)
06 November 2006
running to and fro
i remember that just before the divorce there was a flurry of activity... new house, decorating new house, new car, seeing counselor, new babies, moving twice..... then the end
now- here there is a flurry of activity, cows gone, new roof on chapel, new roof girls' dorm, new entrance gym, new paint on houses and trim on ad building, new furnances, new staffing, old gym being torn down, ........ so then.....?????????
now- here there is a flurry of activity, cows gone, new roof on chapel, new roof girls' dorm, new entrance gym, new paint on houses and trim on ad building, new furnances, new staffing, old gym being torn down, ........ so then.....?????????
31 October 2006
cat attack 2
last Sabbath as I was relaxing on the couch reading i hear this yelp and remembered that the cats were outside. i dashed downstairs and opened the door. the two cats were at the door and came in while digger the dog was walking calmly and innocently with his owner.
what really happened?
the cats were waiting to come in when digger saw them and charged them. both arched and fluffed, but dennis charged back with claws and teeth, hence the yelp. by the time i got to the door, digger was acting as if nothing happened. he is only 3 or 4 times bigger then dennis.
what really happened?
the cats were waiting to come in when digger saw them and charged them. both arched and fluffed, but dennis charged back with claws and teeth, hence the yelp. by the time i got to the door, digger was acting as if nothing happened. he is only 3 or 4 times bigger then dennis.
10 October 2006
farm trucks
If you have driven in the countryside you have seen this....farm trucks mating. they stop right in the middle of dusty roads and on the edge of plowed fields. they always seem to sidle up to each other like two worms exchanging dna info. even though they mate in the open, there are only a few teenagers around which must mean that either the young are very well hidden or there is a high mortality rate.
04 October 2006
gifts two
more than one person understands what i like....we share a number of likes, art, music (but different types), our kids, travel, books, books, and horses. so the gift she gave me for my birthday was a .......horse book. it was one by ben green. i had read several of his books and had given several to my grandfather. but sadly they did not get passed on to me or my sister when he passed away.. so the book was for me and to share with my sister when i finished reading it. it will be in our bookcase upstairs where we are going to put all the books that make us look smart. the romances will be downstairs or farmed out to friends. it isn't that we don't read the books upstairs.....we do.... it isn't just for show. ......altogether....well when you are old you kinda want people to know that your brain isn't dead.....
01 October 2006
gifts
often gifts reflect what the giver perceives as something you want but based on what they themselves think they would like to get. My daughter is really good at really thinking about what people would like as a gift as shown by her gift of a horse book to me for my birthday. :) But others are not so perceptive. Take for example, the gifts given me by Dennis Rodman - my cat. Yesterday I was taking a much needed nap, the back door was open so the cats could go in and out. In the middle of my nap I heard a meow. When I woke, I looked over at the gift Dennis brought me. A 2 1/2 food garter snake, alive and unhurt. I know he thought it was a very special gift. It was one he would really like to get. Just think of the fun. Well Mr. Snake found himself flung with great vigor back outside to the middle of the unmown meadow that is my backyard. I can only appreciate the thought of that gift, whereas I will really enjoy reading about Secretariat!
23 September 2006
beware of cat
not only does dennis rodman the cat growl when unknowns knock at the door, he chases away intruders. the campus scary dog (he will take off your hand if you are not careful) decided to check dennis out. dennis and his pal sam were just lazing around watching the fininacial vp garden, also the owner of scary dog. as the dog comes towards dennis, dennis rises up and heads straight toward the dog at which point the dog turns and runs. good dennis.
25 August 2006
escape
for four days i wandered around the hotel at oprey land in nashville courtesy my employers. there were three coverec court yards filled with water features and tropical plants. it was cooler and drier than outside, but certainly not as dry as colorado. it was very relaxing. meet lots of old friends and teachers from years past. since this is my last convention it was nice that i could go. i am retiring at the end of this year....i think. so if the convention was scheduled for next year i would have missed it. i saw the ann, english teacher at campion who has been unretired for two years now and mr. williams who i think is never going to retire. also met people who had taught in boulder when i was there...paul and deann, del, and students, caleb c who is now going to be a teacher, and old classmates from union- barb s. a nice goodbye. ps. i actually did go to meetings and learned about hunters' registrar program.
30 July 2006
summer rodeo
FOURTH OF JULY - BELLE FOURCE
the rodeo arena is quite new but it is a little wide so since i didn't have a big expensive digital with big zoom the horse is a little far away. they had professional big time buckers and bulls which the local cowboys complained about. but i liked the show. the bulls were awesome. before the rodeo there is a parade with a little bit of everything. people grab seats early in the morning along the route. the cowboy band marches by the first time, with the older old members on the bed of a semi, but the band goes by two more times with all the members on the semi. they play for the rodeo too. and they are pretty good.
there are semis all polished in the parade, army trucks and stuff, lots of horses, some tractors, rodeo queens and princesses, little kids, more horses, some mules, politicans, clowns, high school class reunions, water guns, lots of candy being thrown, and fire trucks. and probably more. whew! great parade.
the rodeo arena is quite new but it is a little wide so since i didn't have a big expensive digital with big zoom the horse is a little far away. they had professional big time buckers and bulls which the local cowboys complained about. but i liked the show. the bulls were awesome. before the rodeo there is a parade with a little bit of everything. people grab seats early in the morning along the route. the cowboy band marches by the first time, with the older old members on the bed of a semi, but the band goes by two more times with all the members on the semi. they play for the rodeo too. and they are pretty good.
there are semis all polished in the parade, army trucks and stuff, lots of horses, some tractors, rodeo queens and princesses, little kids, more horses, some mules, politicans, clowns, high school class reunions, water guns, lots of candy being thrown, and fire trucks. and probably more. whew! great parade.
27 July 2006
toad house
i was reading about global warming when i ran across an article about toad houses. you just have to make a hole in a clay pot at the edge, turn it upside down in the garden and provide a saucer of water and presto--instant bug snappers. just have to convince my sister. i know she doesn't like snakes, but i don't know how she feels about toads.
it was sort of a coincidence that i rented the movie the day after just two days before about global cooling. sort of scary. so which is it? warming? or cooling? or first one and then the other?
26 July 2006
mystery solved
this week is take care of all the stuff you should have done...ie, oil change, teeth cleaning, health check-up. so the boys were stuffed into one cat carrier...dennis protesting with claws and taken to the vet about 20 minutes away. dennis was so stressed his paws turned bright pink and sweaty plus he shot lots of white hairs everywhere. sam though was very nonchalant....he never has had to stay several days at the vets after an operation with two shunts in his face. the vet seemed chatty, so i asked him about sam's diagnosis of kitty hiv. found out that when a kitten is little they may have antibodies for hiv if their mother had hiv, but after a while the antibodies will dissappear and then the kitten will test negative. it is clear that sam does not have kitty hiv. he is fat, shiny and mellow. he sleeps a lot but that is what older cats do... and older people too.
30 June 2006
good and bad
the good first, going to belle for the fourth and going to the rodeo, they have a nice small town rodeo and i haven't been to one in a while. they also have a really nice fourth of july parade....lots of horses and fire engines..
and i am really done with all my classes.
the bad...as part of my class looked up info about the rapid paper. they have a community of 20 % non-white but only 3% non-white working on the paper which gives them a parity of like 15%. Chicago has a parity of 67%. Even the Denver Post is in the 60s. Oh thank goodness for the internet. and books stores, and the mail. think i will subscribe to a national paper. at least on sundays.
and i am really done with all my classes.
the bad...as part of my class looked up info about the rapid paper. they have a community of 20 % non-white but only 3% non-white working on the paper which gives them a parity of like 15%. Chicago has a parity of 67%. Even the Denver Post is in the 60s. Oh thank goodness for the internet. and books stores, and the mail. think i will subscribe to a national paper. at least on sundays.
29 June 2006
i am DONE! almost
i finished the research paper and all the other writing things, so now just have the multiple choice and the final essays. sigh
the good thing is i will never have to do it again........
the good thing is i will never have to do it again........
25 June 2006
sunday afternoon
it was a rather nice day, not to hot, so i turned off the air and left the back door open for the cats. all afternoon i had to listen to the starlings harassing dennis. he was just laying on the little back porch. i don't know why the starlings thought that was there territory. they would scold and swear at him for a while, fly off, and then come back and do it all over again. poor dennis.
later in the evening, two of the farm cats who don't exactly live on the farm but wander all over campus begging for handouts showed up at the front door. i was trying to get him in for the night, but he was square in the driveway growling and whining at the two intruders. i just picked him, held his claws and brought him. had to shut the door fast, the two oranges were trying to get in.
later in the evening, two of the farm cats who don't exactly live on the farm but wander all over campus begging for handouts showed up at the front door. i was trying to get him in for the night, but he was square in the driveway growling and whining at the two intruders. i just picked him, held his claws and brought him. had to shut the door fast, the two oranges were trying to get in.
sunday morning
i have always loved sunday mornings...late breakfast--if your lucky somebody makes waffles from scratch--reading the funnies, hanging out in jammies, watching sunday morning. so this morning i am listening/watching sunday morning and doing my mental exercises on the computer, set game, jigzone....when my whinner cat starts in.. at first i don't really hear because i am really concentrating, but then because it is so insistant i turn around. much to my suprise sam has something in his paws. at first i think it is a mouse and this is what i get for giving them the priviledge of an outdoor outing on sunday morning. closer look reveals it is very much alive, seemingly whole and unhurt and it is a little ground squirrel. after sam almost releasing it, i managed to get it away from him and release it back outside out of view of both kitties. the kitties are getting old, when they were younger they would have hunted it back down and brought it back in.
15 June 2006
when not to do important things
i don't know what possessed me...well, yes i do...i waited till the last minute to get something done, per usual. anyway i signed up for two online classes because i need them to renew my certificate for one more year. they both have to be done by the end of june. both involved a lot of reading and writting....how else could you do it online....
so i am thinking of buying a used car with air to drive in the hot weather, also to get better gas milage. but, since i am stressed out with class work, i don't think i should be thinking about buying a car right now. i just hinted at it and my sis told her son who works at a car place and presto, i'm at the car place looking at cars. i just need to sit on the idea for a while, but now i feel bad because i am not immediately buying a car from my nephew's business place. PLUS, i have this attachment to my jeep. we have been through a lot togeather. 2 weddings, 2 crashes, one trip to the airport to see my son off to africa for 6 months, trips to the mountains, trips to see the kids.....we have a life togeather...doesn't that mean something?
so i am thinking of buying a used car with air to drive in the hot weather, also to get better gas milage. but, since i am stressed out with class work, i don't think i should be thinking about buying a car right now. i just hinted at it and my sis told her son who works at a car place and presto, i'm at the car place looking at cars. i just need to sit on the idea for a while, but now i feel bad because i am not immediately buying a car from my nephew's business place. PLUS, i have this attachment to my jeep. we have been through a lot togeather. 2 weddings, 2 crashes, one trip to the airport to see my son off to africa for 6 months, trips to the mountains, trips to see the kids.....we have a life togeather...doesn't that mean something?
08 June 2006
cord mania
Is there such a thing as a planned move involving things with cords? Sunday my boss came in the office and started moving everything. (don't ask why I was working on a Sunday at school in the summer). That meant moving the computers. There was no careful rolling up of cords. It was pull, lump, and move. By the time the componets were in the copy room, the cords were all twisted into each other. I had actually spent some time organizing the cords earlier that year. I needed that computer, not any other, to run transcripts for seniors getting ready for their freshman year at college. SO, yesterday I untangled everything and stole a network cable from another computer and set the stuff up in the conference room. I didn't even bother to try and organize them. Please, send me wireless. Yah! like that is going to happen.
ps. you don't really have to move anything for the cords to entwine, when I wasn't looking my own comuter and stereo/tv/dvd/ set up tangled up their own set of cords into a gordian knot.
ps. you don't really have to move anything for the cords to entwine, when I wasn't looking my own comuter and stereo/tv/dvd/ set up tangled up their own set of cords into a gordian knot.
05 June 2006
dog story
so i called the wife of the driver of the sheep. i had forgotten that two years ago some friends of the single young farm assistant had given him a baby male lamb...for what reason i do not want to speculate. anyway when he left the half grown sheep went to live with the family of the man with the truck. they had goats for their daughter's faa project. so the ram and the goats lived together. now the daughter is off to college, the ram just eats and eats, and they couldn't find anyone to sheer it this year so he and a few billy goats went off to market. however the dog always follows the truck down to the pens when it is feeding time. so dog follows. after truck loaded, dog is smart enough to know she can't get caught because then she will not be able to go with the truck. she is quick enough to dodge capture. so driver tries to go fast enough around campus to tire dog out. he gets almost to the nearest little town, a mile away, when he calls for family to come and get dog. there were several solutions to this scenereo. lock up dog before going to feeding pens. if dog is at feeding pens and ram and billies in truck, open truck door and dog will jump in; then drive to house and have daughter grab dog when door is opened. however, as it was, the fast dust raising drive around campus entertain not only myself, but several other campus staff memebers.
02 June 2006
quiz
your job should you choose to take the challenge is to figure out what is happening and why.
at lunch i looked out my window and saw a staff member fly by my house in his truck...my block is only one block long and he was really flying... inside the truck was a very fat sheep with all the wool still on. racing madly beside the truck was the staff member's yellow dog. while i was thinking about that... as far as i knew this staff member did not own a sheep.... he zoomed by again... with sheep in truck and dog chasing after.... and it happened all again one more time.
he speaks kinda slow and walks kinda slow...never seen him drive so fast.
at lunch i looked out my window and saw a staff member fly by my house in his truck...my block is only one block long and he was really flying... inside the truck was a very fat sheep with all the wool still on. racing madly beside the truck was the staff member's yellow dog. while i was thinking about that... as far as i knew this staff member did not own a sheep.... he zoomed by again... with sheep in truck and dog chasing after.... and it happened all again one more time.
he speaks kinda slow and walks kinda slow...never seen him drive so fast.
01 June 2006
renewal, sort of
crazy me signed up for two online courses to run congruently--june 5 - june 30. i checked to see if they showed up where they were supposed to. i was able to get to blackboard where they were supposed to show up, but they didn't. emailed both professors. one said she would activate the site on monday, the day the class started. + for professor
the other said there were server problems, and...... i would have better luck using explorer. - points for professor
how does he know what i am using to start with, and if i can get to blackboard then.... i think i am okay....i think he\she just hasn't activated the site.
but they both emailed a prompt return. +'s for both
the other said there were server problems, and...... i would have better luck using explorer. - points for professor
how does he know what i am using to start with, and if i can get to blackboard then.... i think i am okay....i think he\she just hasn't activated the site.
but they both emailed a prompt return. +'s for both
31 May 2006
ring, ring
after sitting in interstate traffice for an hour at a speed of 1 mile an hour, my temper and my bottom decided we needed a break. it was past lunch time and i needed gas so i pulled off into some unknown place and found a country kitchen for refueling me after refueling muffy. i'm sitting quietly reading my text for summer on line classes when the phone rings. just twice. before i can pick it up it quits. so i read. it rings twice at least two more times. really annoying. so i pull it out and press recall on the last incoming call and ask stravens what can i do for him. he says i didn't call. i figure he is embarrassed because he called the wrong number...... 5 times. so i look at the number on the phone which is his, but it was the wrong time. i put the phone away thinking it is going psycho. i read, the phone rings, i pull it out, look at it, put it to my ear..... the waitress says... it isn't your phone.
sigh
sigh
24 May 2006
stranger in a strange land
i know that is a title of a sci fi book, but today i really, really realized how i don't fit here. an implant from boulder to the middle of nebraska is just weird. so many contrasts.. oxymoric...
the tallest part of the lower 48 to the probably the flattest, from a very health aware place where people may drink wine, but are really into organic and good fresh food and exercise and people are quite fit to the place where they really ought to be the most fit and healthest and there is no whole foods, (except for your own garden), or farmer's market and cows are fed hormones and antibotics, etc. the ground force fed fertilizers, the water sucked out of the aquafier. from more saved by grace to yeah that is true but i had better work hard at being perfect. from a collage of language and cultures to a place that endorses english as the state language and putting fences up along the border and no citizenship for people here already.
you can not find really good bread in the nearby towns, but on campus there are people who make truly great bread, and there are people who exercise, and there are thinkers, and believers in grace. there is a small fresh spring.
i am here for some reason
ps ... boulder is not perfect ... i know....
the tallest part of the lower 48 to the probably the flattest, from a very health aware place where people may drink wine, but are really into organic and good fresh food and exercise and people are quite fit to the place where they really ought to be the most fit and healthest and there is no whole foods, (except for your own garden), or farmer's market and cows are fed hormones and antibotics, etc. the ground force fed fertilizers, the water sucked out of the aquafier. from more saved by grace to yeah that is true but i had better work hard at being perfect. from a collage of language and cultures to a place that endorses english as the state language and putting fences up along the border and no citizenship for people here already.
you can not find really good bread in the nearby towns, but on campus there are people who make truly great bread, and there are people who exercise, and there are thinkers, and believers in grace. there is a small fresh spring.
i am here for some reason
ps ... boulder is not perfect ... i know....
a whispered word
because of a word said in passing, a word taken as a hint, a word passed on with cues, all is changed. i thought the changes were long overdue, but why do i feel so guilty, sad. i am probably only one small pebble in the stream that changes the course of events. sometimes the course of events need to be split.
you can think an idea to death, i have to believe it was meant to be and i was just a way of passing the word along.
you can think an idea to death, i have to believe it was meant to be and i was just a way of passing the word along.
19 May 2006
four and twenty blackbirds
well, maybe not quite....it is lawn watering season. since i don't have automatic sprinklers, i move the thompson twin around about every 2 or 3 hours. ie when i get back to the house from where ever. each time i come back there are birds, mostly red-winged blackbirds and robins having a spa day under the sprinklers. oh to be a child again and play in the sprinklers. walking in a gentle rain is almost as good.
17 May 2006
double checking
it is a good thing that the official document for graduates is the transcript. i swear if i ever make a document without an error i will fall over dead from shock. i put down two students as having honors when they didn't. good thing a program is just a program. it was gone over with a fine tooth comb. of course the students wouldn't say anything about being promoted.
10 May 2006
the art of saying no
you would think that by my age i would know how to say no. i am not volunteering to do anything from now until the middle of summer. my house is a disaster area, my lawn needs mowing, and the ironing is really, really piling up. so what brought all this on? i volunteered to make photo collages of the campus and students for leaving personnel. i volunteered to teach a girl how to drive a stick shift, i volunteered to sponsor the kids who wanted to make mother's day cards, i volunteered --sort of--to buy the gifts for the going away people. what was i thinking. my regular job entails checking classes and transcripts for students at the end of the year, making my own tests, and grading them, making sure the seniors have everything in place, and i have all the reglia....which reminds me, i volunteered to do the seniors weekend handout program. urggghhhh!
08 May 2006
spring of farewells
the cliche is that spring is a time of new beginnings. it probably depends on the angle. for school it is the ending of many things--papers, books, exercises, grades, classes, and for some the end of being at this particular school. of course, the seniors will be going on as they should. but, we are also loosing an english teacher, a bible teacher, the cafeteria director--we lost the boys' dean in the middle of the year. it is a good thing or bad? probably some of each.
in public school teachers can stay on in places for years. my sister went back to a place where she had taught at least twenty-five years previously and there were still some of the same teachers. i know a few academy teachers who have stayed in one place for a very long time--one a science teacher which was a good thing, and the other an english teacher who comes with mixed reviews.
it is probably good that things do change else everyone and everything gets in a rut and the world goes forward while the rut diggers are not looking up from their work.
it is probably time to stop teaching people to follow the ruts.
in public school teachers can stay on in places for years. my sister went back to a place where she had taught at least twenty-five years previously and there were still some of the same teachers. i know a few academy teachers who have stayed in one place for a very long time--one a science teacher which was a good thing, and the other an english teacher who comes with mixed reviews.
it is probably good that things do change else everyone and everything gets in a rut and the world goes forward while the rut diggers are not looking up from their work.
it is probably time to stop teaching people to follow the ruts.
26 April 2006
the lavender room
my sis is into lavender and purple big time. so when she saw this cool quilt in spearfish she bought it and i bought the picture of lilacs to go over her hand made cherrywood chest. i do not know how it originally came into the family...maybe my cousin doug knows. but my grandmother had it for a while and then for some crazy reason sold it to some friends of hers. the only thing i remember about them is that the lady could make great bisquits using the wrong techniques. anyway it caused a great rift in the family and finally it came back to grandmother. and then to my sis. it is a great chest. i hope she has written a history on the bottom of one of the drawers. or maybe grandmother did. i have pieces of furniture with her writing on the bottom of drawers and shelves. i have added my own comments. the picture is her birthday and christmas present and all other occasions gift for the year 2006.
09 April 2006
being thrifty
my nephew just moved his business to a new place and requested a wreath for the wall. since i needed to have a display for the music conference of young students, i decided to combine the two projects. so first i used all of the flowers for the music program.... i got minus points from my distance employers for not doing anything last year. it was a matter of money. since i am using these for another project it didn't cost my close or distant employers anything.
just about when i was going to weld them into a wreath, i found out there was a big board meeting. so reconfigured everything, took out the flags and the gold stars.
no it is all at home and i have about 2 days to make a wreath before i travel northwest...... and do my taxes.
31 March 2006
going to work
my trip home was slowed frist by snow in the sierra's...the train was 5 hours late. but it plugged along pretty good afterwards. but when i reached hastings a blizzard had settled in. and it took my ride a little while to get to the station.
it was so snowy that the bus drive to the east to pick up students was delayed until the next day. but i postholed it to the office to do some work. and the next day also. it cleared enough by tuesday night that the principal drove the bus east and picked up students in the night and brought them back in time for classes on wednesday morning. walking in the snow can be quite a challange...no walks shoveled and only part of the roads cleared. couldn't drive the jeep! a 5 foot drift in front of the garage and this old lady does not do shoveling of big drifts anymore. the tractor was late doing driveways because the milk truck...a big semi...got stuck down on the farm. but a week and a half later almost all the snow is gone. yesterday was rain, hail and watch for tornado day. i just want it to be nice tomorrow so i can go crane watching.
25 March 2006
lolita in tehran & bad dirt
over spring break my daughter and i traded books. i love annie p and bad dirt. i think i read it in two days. i traded it to my daughter for reading lolita in tehran, much different in temperment, but very revealing. both reveal culture of a specific time and place but one with wry humor and the other with a wistfulness for better times.
this is the suggested reading list for reading lolita in tehran compliled by the author.
nuha al-radi, baghdad diaries
margaret atwood, the blind assassin
jane austen, emma, mansfield park, & pride and prejudice*
saul bellow, the dean's december & more die of heartbreak
emily bronte, wuthering heights* (read only once-too dark, now that i am older, want more cheerful items)
lewis carroll, alice's adventures in wonderland* (if only i could figure out the math stuff)
jaseph conrad, under western eyes
henry fielding, shamela & tome jones* (:))
gustave flaubert, madame bovary
anne frank, the diary of anne frank (hasn't everybody read this is grade school or high school)
henry james, the ambassadors, daisy miller*, & washington square
franz kafka, in the penal colony & the trial*
katherine kressman talor, address unkown
herman melville, the confidence man
vladimir nabokov, lotita (don't think i can read that one), invitation to a beheading, & pnin
sarah orne jewett, the country of the pointed firs
iraj pezeshkzad, my uncle napoleon
diane ravitch, the language poice
julie slamon, the net of dreams
marjane satrapi, persepolis
scheherazade, a thousand and one tales* (loved this book when i was in high school)
f scott fitzgerald, the great gatsby (never read because it just seemed to decadent)
*ones i have read
this is the suggested reading list for reading lolita in tehran compliled by the author.
nuha al-radi, baghdad diaries
margaret atwood, the blind assassin
jane austen, emma, mansfield park, & pride and prejudice*
saul bellow, the dean's december & more die of heartbreak
emily bronte, wuthering heights* (read only once-too dark, now that i am older, want more cheerful items)
lewis carroll, alice's adventures in wonderland* (if only i could figure out the math stuff)
jaseph conrad, under western eyes
henry fielding, shamela & tome jones* (:))
gustave flaubert, madame bovary
anne frank, the diary of anne frank (hasn't everybody read this is grade school or high school)
henry james, the ambassadors, daisy miller*, & washington square
franz kafka, in the penal colony & the trial*
katherine kressman talor, address unkown
herman melville, the confidence man
vladimir nabokov, lotita (don't think i can read that one), invitation to a beheading, & pnin
sarah orne jewett, the country of the pointed firs
iraj pezeshkzad, my uncle napoleon
diane ravitch, the language poice
julie slamon, the net of dreams
marjane satrapi, persepolis
scheherazade, a thousand and one tales* (loved this book when i was in high school)
f scott fitzgerald, the great gatsby (never read because it just seemed to decadent)
*ones i have read
11 February 2006
03 February 2006
free acrobatic show
as i was driving home this evening ...close to sunset...i saw a swarm of birds performing acrobatics. group acrobtics. the snow geese are flying overhead now in their typical raggedy v shapes, but i am pretty sure the swarm was not snow geese. they were tightly packed and performed as one, it seemed as if they had one mind or were connected like the borg. the maintain a tight group that folded over and over on itself making them appear like a black cloud one minute and nearly invisable the next. sometimes they were in an oval shape and sometimes they stretched out into a pencil shape. i had my camera but they were to far away. they would have been like pencil dots.
acrobats
There are some pictures online, but they do not do justice to the actual visual image of birds swarming. The snow geese have been overhead in their typical intertwined v shapes, but the birds i saw coming home this evening were more acrobatic than geese. they were quite far away and it was almost sunset, but they formed a black cloud that twisted to darkness and then to almost complete transparency. they stayed in an aemebic shape that changed from almost a perfect oval to a worm shape all the time folding over and over on themselves. it was as if their minds were connected in some fashion a la borg.
30 January 2006
monday morning
after mumbling about it being a melt down weekend last weekend, i found 8 beautiful red roses on my desk on monday. i got a personal thanks for the sabbath school lesson from an adult and one of the students said it was the best so far this year. unfortunately one of the students sort of gave it away during one of the exercises. ... the student was to walk across a mine field of raw eggs blindfolded with the help of two friends ( one pretending to be the good angel and one the bad angel only the blindfolded person wasn't supposed to know that). No eggs were broken even though i kept rearranging them ( the kids didn't think it quite fair, but i said the devil cheats all the time) because of the careless words of one student the blindfolded student knew who to listen to. but it was okay. the students still got the point. so the roses sat beautifully on my desk for one week and then i took them home to dry. this monday is the monday after board meeting so it will be interesting to hear what transpired. time to go to work.
20 January 2006
why i don't make lots of money
i absolutely know that i could not handle a leadership role in any circumstance. i was asked once if i wanted to be a principal and without even blinking, i said no. i cannot handle conflict or stress. this week has been rather stressful....behind on yearbook, missed one deadline...behind on getting restricted list published...forgot to send out reminder cards for a meeting...responsible for a faculty family dinner....have to teach a sabbath school lesson to teens and keep them interested...get the house sort of clean for the faculty family dinner...on top of the usual classes and supervison duties. so, i sort of lost my phone again...left it at home instead of bringing it with me.... caught the lid of the powder creamer on a shelf and had to clean up the counter and the floor....had a lid on a paper cup of coffee and heated it the microwave too long, it blew up and had to clean the microwave out completely....turned the oven on to heat the lasagna and the pie filling that i forgot i spilled caught on fire.... then i had a cover loosely on a container of rosemary butter i was melting for making non-garlic bread and it blew up in the microwave and i had to clean it all up. i think i'll go to bed.
13 January 2006
11 January 2006
ghost
i really did want to find my phone. i didn't want to spend the big bucks for replacement. i didn't want to have the contract renewed. so now in the middle of the night i sort of wake up like people do - not quite awake, not quite asleep- and i see a flashing red light. i think, my phone. the thing is, it appears in the same place. when i look in the morning, moving furniture and everything there is no phone. my phone has come back to haunt and harassess me. hahahaha you can't find me. actually i am beginning to think it is one of those big coal trains rumbling by that wakes me and that the red light is from the rail crossings or the light on the caboose. Or maybe it my phone calling me.
02 January 2006
phone trap
the phone is lost. i let the battery die before i realized it was missing. since i don't have a land line, i went to the local dispenser of cells and got a new one. the nifty prices are for first time users. then they pull you into a longer contract by "giving" you a discount on the phone. contrary to my sister's opinion, i bought the cheapest one i could get that was a flip phone. the only one they had in stock was PINK. can you imagine me and pink.
i am going to make a little purse with a snap handle --for jean belt loops -- the ones in the stores are all glittery or 50's prints. i didn't like the prints then and they have not aged well.
the big thing is recollecting all the phone numbers and entering them. since i have the same number, i am hoping people will call and then i can just save the number.
i cut down the number of hours but added some roaming hours because this particular provider does not cover western nebraska and the black hills. when i move i will have to change. then i can get a cheap phone with lots of stuff :)
what they need to invent is a little long powered gadget of some kind that starts beeping when the power is almost gone. beeping loudly for people like myself. or i could train my cats to be search cats, like they have search dogs for people and drugs, i will train dennis to find my phone. right.
i am going to make a little purse with a snap handle --for jean belt loops -- the ones in the stores are all glittery or 50's prints. i didn't like the prints then and they have not aged well.
the big thing is recollecting all the phone numbers and entering them. since i have the same number, i am hoping people will call and then i can just save the number.
i cut down the number of hours but added some roaming hours because this particular provider does not cover western nebraska and the black hills. when i move i will have to change. then i can get a cheap phone with lots of stuff :)
what they need to invent is a little long powered gadget of some kind that starts beeping when the power is almost gone. beeping loudly for people like myself. or i could train my cats to be search cats, like they have search dogs for people and drugs, i will train dennis to find my phone. right.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)