Christmas Vacation

Today is the last day before Christmas vacation and school is as usual unproductive. I'm not sure why we try to accomplish anything. We are all on a sugar high after this mornings breakfast sponsored by the varsity club. I feel so lousy, bloated and gross. I need to get off the sugar. It's a drug.

Today is Wednesday. Sunday we'll be heading south. That will be nice. I love wearing shorts in the winter. The temperature is expected to be in the 60's and 70's. I'll jog, go for walks, take the dog for walks, just have a great time.

Rigor. What does that look like?

Work, if that's what you call it.

Half way to school today I realized I'd forgotten something. A month ago, this would have been of little consequence. I would have turned around and driven the mile home and forgotten about it within a few minutes. Now, it's a big deal. Forty minutes back and forth, but it was accomplished and here I am.
Health Care debate. If we are a democracy and people oppose the government's intrusion into health care, and I believe the majority of people do, why then are we forging ahead with this plan? I just don't understand it. This is good for you whether you like it or not.
What happens when students quit caring?

Monday Morning

On the way to school, I was having these incredible thoughts about what I wanted to blog. I now can't remember a thing.

We had a pretty good snow storm this weekend. We didn't miss practice or church, but I did manage to wrench my back. So far today, I am ok, but this morning when I took the dog out, I knelt to pick him up and my back hurt then.

Twins

Most people seem to like the idea of having a twin. I know I thought it would be cool when I was young. Then again, I had imaginary friends, so it wasn't like I was living a really full life at the time.

We had a discussion about banned books, but I think some of the kids thought we were discussing band books and didn't get it.

Next week is my birthday. I will be fifty four. One of my classes is planning something and I don't think it's going to be that big of a surprise. Wifey turns 50 this year. We'll soon be old enough for one of those old people communities where they do a lot of shuffleboard and stuff like that.

We haven't taken pictures of the dog lately. He's growing. He eats a lot.

Extracurricular Activities

If we eliminated all extracurricular activities from school, I'm talking about sports and music and clubs, we would eliminate the reason so many kids are here. For example, I have a student this year who takes every opportunity to leave English class to do something in another class because he wants to. I'm no saying this kid is doing anything bad, but I am suggesting that given a choice, all of us would choose what we want to do over what we have to do. If we eliminated extracurricular activities, we would eliminate a lot of the distractions that come with them. For all the comparisons we make between the US school systems and the European, that's one that I rarely see discussed. They don't have school teams. They have club teams and they aren't part of the school day. I'm not talking about eliminating art or music or shop classes, I'm talking about extracurricular stuff.

The community could put on a musical or play. Kids would play for legion baseball teams and club soccer teams all the way up through to adulthood and perhaps beyond. We do have a Lebanon Community Theater. We do have the Jonestown Men's Chorus. Churches have choirs. It's there for you if you want to do it.

Bull

Hey kids. Guess what? I wasn't born yesterday and guess what else. I did some of the same stuff that you did and got away with it so don't be surprised that I don't trust you. I just accept the fact that you do stuff you aren't supposed to and leave it at that. I am not your conscience. I don't want to be. Eventually, you'll find that we know what you've been doing and just choose to ignore it rather than making a big deal about it but seriously, don't try to lie to me. Waiting for a computer to load for 3o minutes....I don't think so.

Passwords

I hate passwords. I have a few that I have in my head. The ones I hate the most are the ones that required you to include a number or a capital letter or some such nonsense, and those are the ones that I forget most often. I have three that I use. Two are school related and seeing as I have to change my password every few weeks or so, I just switch back and forth between two of them. The third is like my home one.

Changes of address. So we moved, ok, and this changing of address thing is crazy. For the time being, they are forwarding our mail. I've changed the address as much as I can, but I truly don't have much faith that the people on the other end do it right. I don't have much faith in humans to begin with so I guess that's no surprise.

Teaching college classes.

What is this big deal about teaching college classes? I am unsure of the worth of getting college credit at the high school level because aren't we growing up too fast anyway. A few years ago, some people who are currently seniors were being encouraged to earn an associates degree while still in high school. So now you are 18 and you have a liberal arts associates degree. I don't know too many uses for a liberal arts associates degree without experience or even work experience to make yourself stand out from the rest of the pack. That's a bit of a cliche.

Leader of the Pack. Great song. I'm in a fifties kind of mood.

Sometimes when I see those time life commercials for cd's, I want to order them.

My family got me the entire MASH series last year for Christmas. I love MASH, but I haven't watched a single episode from the boxed set and the reason is....just don't take the time to do it. I have the Godfather trilogy. Love those movies, especially number 2. Greatest one ever made. I love the way the filmed it, taking you back in the past to discover why the Corleone family was Mafia in the first place.

Just reading Alan's blog, and I guess in a way I was answering his question. Don't know why he was inspired to write that at this point in time. Perhaps, just perhaps, it's that time of year.

Yes, and I hate to admit this, there are bad kids. They now have the ability to choose to be bad. I also think all kids have the capacity to be both good or bad. I think it's choice by this time. They know they are getting away with stuff.

For years I taught kids who classified themselves as bad, but what they mean was bad student bad. I loved those kids. I still love those kids. They are real. They seldom cheat, grades aren't really that important for them, they just want to pass and get on with real life. They'll be great because they understand themselves in many ways better than the "good" student kids. The worst cheaters I have ever had were in the top classes. But don't try to schmooze me. That's something I hate.

Eddie Haskell. He was the character on Ozzie and Harriet and he was always sucking up to the adults. He was so transparent is was ridiculous. I see through that pretty easily.

So yes, Alan, there are bad kids and they come in all shapes and sizes.

I understand that my job as a teacher is to maintain some semblance of order in the classroom and I try my best to do that. However, there are times that I watch as students, well, they really aren't students, they are people whose sole purpose seems to be to come here and make the lives of those in authority miserable, truly effect the lives of people who have spent four years of their lives training to be teachers.

I watch kids just be nasty for the sake of being nasty. And we don't address it. We give chance after chance, and they continue to disrupt the educational process. They aren't here to learn; they are here to screw around and be disruptive. How are we helping these kids? Real life, we throw that term around an awful lot, in real life, they won't survive, or they'll learn real fast that they've either got to learn to tow the line, or go hungry, because I know of no jobs that require at least a high school education where you don't have to answer to someone.

Parents, if you love your kids, don't cover for them all the time. You're doing them a disservice. Let them fail and let them have to get out of the situations they find themselves in.

When a disruptive member of the student body is allowed to make the life of a professional miserable just for the sake of doing do, I get angry. That's today's vent.

Capital One Bowl

It looks like Penn State may be playing LSU in the Capital One Bowl. The Citrus Bowl, where that is played, is pretty close to our condo in Florida and it's being played at noon on January 1. I'm thinking that there may never be another chance to go and do this, so maybe we'll just head down over Christmas vacation and take in my first and perhaps only bowl game. I want to head down anyway. I haven't checked on the condo since July. Sometimes I worry about what's going on in there, but there isn't much I can do. Our friends, the Klahrs, check on it once in awhile for us. That's nice of them don't you think.

We put up our tree last night. We got a whole bunch of new balls, different colors, and my wife does such a delightful job of arranging them over the tree.

We have another tree that is outside in the sunroom that needs to be decorated. Tomorrow, my daughter picks up her wedding dress. This will be our first weekend in the new house.

I'm thinking a bit about decorating the lower area. Since I like the Phillies and the Eagles, I'm thinking that stuff would do well, but I also like golf, so perhaps I could also include some golf stuff too. I could put some coke stuff up. There's just so much I'd like to do but I have lots of time to do it.

Internet

That reminds me. I think the internet is probably more important to me than the cell phone is. My future son-in-law accesses the internet from his cell phone. That's combining both into one, but I'm pretty sure he pays a hefty price for both. I have Verizon. He has ATT.

Cell Phones

Do we really need cell phones? Are they the new necessity? I have to laugh. My cell phone contract is 13 years old. I text. I hardly get any calls. Currently, it's my only means of communication and I still don't get any calls. That's not exactly true, I get a few, but I think more than anything I'm using this stupid thing in my pocket to play games. Taking pictures and texting them to people. Silly. I haven't ever used it for business. Email? Is that necessary. We communicate more easily but do we communicate better?

I took yesterday off. The water company turned our water off. Then they charged me 3o to turn it back on. Do you ever feel helpless? Like if you really wanted to spend as little money as you can, you simply can't avoid these silly little fees. I'm becoming more and more convinced that you don't own a home, it owns you. I have to feed it, clothe it, pay taxes on it, pay to have water supplied to it, gas, cable....you name it. Is there anyone who can really live without money?

Perhaps a homeless person is homeless but in some ways a homeless person if free of all the encumbrances that those of us who own homes must endure. I don't want to be homeless, but some people rent. Renting puts a lot of the responsibility on the landlord. I often think about being a landlord but the idea of people living in and abusing something I own is unnerving.

I was at Lowes yesterday. I like Lowes. I think it would be a fun part time job. I wonder if employees get a discount? I'd probably never bring home a paycheck. I'd spend it before I ever got home.

We've moved. So that's that. We're moved. Our things are in boxes. I believe the next task that will tax us dramatically is emptying the boxes and organizing the things we moved. There still seems to be a good deal of stuff that we've collected which doesn't have a real purpose in our lives.

Over the past two months when this little sojourn began, I have experiences a wide array of emotions relating to moving, change, leaving behind, and moving forward. I feel emotionally exhausted, and I feel that makes me physically exhausted. I haven't had much chance to work out and I miss that. I feel bad that the dog will be alone all day, but we've made that choice. He's a delightful little creature.

Moving has shown what incredible friends some people can be.

It's December and I guess it's inappropriate to say that we have 16 days of school left. I can't imagine how I'm going to get out and do any Christmas shopping.

Is anyone reading this? Doesn't seem to me that anyone is. This has been a weird week and if you are part of the Northern Lebanon community, you know what I am talking about. It's just weird.

I haven't had a lot of time to digest things. I graded papers last night. I also spend nearly an hour on the phone changing addresses and things like that. I'm always a bit apprehensive about moving forward with those things. Since my wife and I are married, we bought a home in Womelsdorf in 1982, sold that and bought a home in Myerstown in 1984. We sold that home and bought another home in Myerstown somewhere around 1987 or 88. Don't remember exactly except that I was teaching here. In 1990, we sold that home and built a home here in Jonestown where we have lived ever since. That's four settlements, and though some were interesting, none ever fell through. Then why is that my fear? We are supposed to settle a week from today. I have no real reason to doubt that we will encounter any problems. So my fear it really an irrational one.

I want to dispel a rumor. I hate when kids don't succeed in my class. Some students feel as though teachers are out to get them. As for me, that couldn't be further from the truth. Balancing what I know is best for the kids and having them not be totally turned off by what goes on in English class is a constant stuggle. When a student fails, I somehow think I failed. An in many ways, that's true. I can make a lot of excuses, but realistically, I bear some of the responsibility. Not all, but some.

I had an offer to golf today. I should have taken it.

Palmyra. We will live very close to Lowes and I love Lowes. It's a man store. It's got tools and wood and wires and tools and more tools. Bribe me with Lowe's gift cards. Kidding of course.

Corpulence. That's a funny word. It's a fancy way of saying obese.

Pedantic. I like that one too. It means having an ostentatious view of one's own intelligence. Ostentatious means showy. So if you are pedantic, it means you are showing off how smart you are. Some people wonder why we don't just say that.

Cur. I like that one. It means worthless dog.

Misogyny. Hatred of women. Misanthrope. Hatred of humanity.

When we had kids, it was hard to name them because of associations with former students.

I think when we move we will be without cable for like 24 hours. No internet, no cable, for 24 hours. I'll have to go somewhere. Maybe I'll go to Lowes.

I need a hobby. I have hand tools but I don't have anything like a table saw or scroll saw. I will have room for that, a little workshop, which I've always wanted but never had before. I do worry about my finders though because of playing guitar and all.

This has been a rambling wreck of an entry. Please, someone read me.

Update

It's one of those weird weeks. We are here all week but the kids are only here for three days. Then on Thursday, we work from noonish to eightish to meet the needs of those parents who work days and can only come in to see us at night. Friday the hours are more normal, eight to three, but it does make for an odd week.

I have to change everything. That's a pain. Moving I mean. Change of address forms, all kinds of forms, knowing that I won't remember everything, but I think my biggest concern is the changing of the email account. Moving from Jonestown to Palmyra means I have to switch comcast providers. I don't want to have to change my email address because I have so much sent to that email address.

The things I worry about.

I did golf on Saturday. It was fun. I played well and then lousy and then well and then lousy. I have applied to be the golf coach here next year. I have mixed feelings about it. Coaching requires a big commitment and I want to do a good job. I also want the kids to be better golfers.

Mulling over things.

I don't know about you, but I have a one track mind. When something major is going on in my life, like moving, I focus on that and struggle focusing on anything else. So right now, focusing on other things like correcting essays and tests and discussing Hamlet is much more difficult for me. But there is always something.

The silly Phillies didn't repeat, sorry to say, but making it two years in a row is quite an accomplishment. Next year. They need pitching. Consistent pitching.

The move is on. I am going to be moving to Palmyra over Thanksgiving vacation. Not looking forward to it.

I am going golfing tomorrow. Looking forward to it.

Nate Graybeal has a Phillies shirt on. Go Nate.

There are so many things I'd like to say. I think the testing that we force kids to do which is supposed to measure their achievement in certain areas is for the most part unreliable. The more we test, the less we teach. I'm not stupid. Most of my kids aren't going to be English teachers or English majors. I want them to read because reading is good for them and makes them better people, but we make reading and writing punitive and that makes them hate it.

Schools. Parents. We do the best we can. I'm reading this book by Alan Sitomer. He's teacher of the year in California. He says that the best thing we can do is be honest with kids and tell them life kicks you in the gut sometimes and it's best if you know how to deal with that. To me that means that a deadline is a deadline, an assignment is an assignment, and responsibility is responsibility. Second, third, fourth chances send a wrong message. Sure, you get a bunch of times to take your driver's test, but if you get drunk, drive and kill someone, there's no do-over. No second chance. I will do my best as a teacher to try and relate information to a student at his or her level, but eventually he or she has to do something as well. I am often stunned when kids tell me they don't get something but have really put forth no effort to get it. Sometimes you just have to read with a dictionary open beside you. Sometimes you just have to figure stuff out. I've put together a few gas grills in my day, and I've had to take them apart and reassemble them because I didn't "get" the directions the first time.

Be accountable for your actions.

World Series tied at 1-1.
Kind of weird game last night. Didn't stay awake. Heard a story from a woman who had overdue books for 13 years. She eventually took them back having felt guilty. The libraries were so shocked, they didn't charge her or anything. Some figured she probably owed 700 in fines.
I ate a bunch of junk today that I shouldn't have. Not feeling too well. That's why.

Another week has come and gone. This year seems to be flying by. Often I type those types of statements and find that it's the same thing I typed before. Silly.

Someone is coming to see the house tomorrow. If I say that I hope it goes well, I don't know if I really mean it. If it goes well, if the people make an acceptable offer on the house, then we head down the path towards the dreaded move. I don't know that I hate anything worse than moving. I don't mind moving other people; when you're tired or done, you leave, but moving yourself, from start to finish takes weeks. That's the preparation for the move and the move and the aftermath of the move which consists in some ways of finding things you've moved but haven't used in decades. Someone is coming to see the house tomorrow. No sense in feeling strongly one way of the other.

The Phillies

So for the second year in a row, the Phillies have won the National League Pennant. This rarely happens. It's quite and accomplishment. So I pretty darn excited.

We are watching Oedipus the King. In the story, the main character inadvertently kills his father and marries his mother. This is one of the true Greek tragedies. He was marked out for suffering since the day he was born. Sad. A tragedy.

Catharsis.

It all came true. The prophesies. They all came true.

I've been so busy and blogging has become the victim. The house is for sale, we're trying to buy a new one, my kids are busy, one has moved out, the other is looking for a new job, I'm finding life a little overwhelming right now, but there's not a whole lot to do about it. Staying above water. An idiom? At least the weather has improved somewhat and the Phillies are a win away from the world series. It's funny how a year can change things. Last year at this time, with Hamels on the mound, we fans would have felt a victory was assured, but a year later, I'd honestly rather see Happ or Lee on the mound. Maybe he'll have a good one.

Post number 200. Lots going on. Kids getting married. House for sale. Trying to buy a new one. Dog. Stuff. Craziness.
Dress down day tomorrow.
Pay day tomorrow.
No middle school football.
No middle school field hockey.
Pictures are here.
Meet in room 62. Tomorrow is Friday.
No high school soccer.
Games will be played at the outer fields. Past meal is still on.
Band practice is 6:30 to 8. Arrange for an earlier ride.
Accelerated Reader tomorrow.

The Iliad is almost over. Bye Achilles. Bye Hector. Bye Agamemnon.

My cold is still cold. It's getting tiring. I'd like it to be over. I'm not as tired as I was, but I'm still congested.

My son has settlement on his house tomorrow. What a big step.

Not much else to write. My life is boring.

No jury for me. I wasn't picked. It's a pretty random process. Some people got picked for multiple juries and some weren't picked for any. I was one of the latter. I knew one of the lawyers. A former student. Another of the people on the witness list was a former student. They ask you if you can still be objective and I said yes, but it's still up to the lawyers to pick you.

The dog is doing better. We're being more attentive to his relieving of himself. We also have had some success with him being penned in an area of the kitchen. He seems to like that and it quite content with his area.

Ms. Darrup is here talking about college. I went to college. It was quite some time ago. How far away is far away? I find that an interesting question. Some people think Kutztown is far away. I went to college six hours away from home. That was far. But it wasn't too far. It was far though and I was a bit homesick at first, but after you come home a few times, and you go back to a high school football or basketball game, you suddenly realize that your time here is over. Life continues here at NL but it no longer includes you. That's nothing bad, it's just reality. Mrs. Frye retired. Ms. Hamilton replaced her. In the past five years, the English department has gone from Mr. Hunter, Mrs. Grimes, Mrs. Lloyd, Mrs. Frye, Mr. Weaver. All of those people are gone. Wow. And that's just in five years. Even for teachers, Northern Lebanon stays, but the people change. That's how it is.

College is the same too. I went to homecoming the year after I graduated. I thought people would miss me. When you're gone, you're gone. That sounds pretty sad, but it's true.

While the kids are doing a little exercise on the roles they played as kids, I'll update my blog. The dog goes a lot. Goes, you know what I mean. I suppose if my bladder were the size of an m&m, I'd go a lot too.

We are pretty much in full swing now. Most everyone is set up to blog on blackboard through V3 academy, and I'm anxious to see how that goes. I miss Florida and I could eat Chipotle. Though I am excited that it's nearby, it's just too far away to bring home, so it's best to be eaten there.

There is a lot I'd like to say, but sometimes I don't want to reveal too much personal stuff on here. I've been selected to appear for jury duty next week. I'm excited about that because it's my first time. Last year, shortly after my daughter was old enough to serve, she got a summons but she had already moved to Florida. I, on the other hand, have lived in Lebanon County all my adult life and this is the first time. Weird how that goes.

Wow, where did the time go. Here we are. The first week of school is over and I'm am tired. Changing from blogging here to blogging on blackboard this year. We have two new teachers. New teachers are cool. We like them.

Blogging.
School does start next week. I don't know if I'll get in there before next week which makes me feel irresponsible, but in reality, I would probably just go hang out. I haven't golfed since Saturday. I plan to tomorrow.
My daughter bought a new car last night with some help from dad. That's me. She needed a new car, but I was surprised at how popular Honda Fits are right now. It's actually a cute little car and seems pretty solid.
I'm watching the news, and they are replaying some of last week's town meeting in Lebanon. I fear posting my true political feelings, because for everyone who agrees with me, there are people who disagree, and it's weird because as a teacher, I am discouraged from sharing political positions. If I tell you I like a certain writer, and that writer is one who supports my political positions, isn't that necessarily stating, indirectly, what my position is.
For example, there was a woman on the news this morning who said, "Any time the government gets involved in something, they tend to muck it up." Now I won't say whether or not I agree with this woman, but the fact that I quoted her means I find her statement somehow worthy of being repeated. What would this infer?
The dog is sitting on my lap as I blog. I would appreciate any input from anyone on how to housebreak him. He's not doing his best, and I've been left alone with this task now, though if I had my way, I wouldn't have a dog right now. That's not to say I don't like him, but because I like him doesn't mean I don't have some idea of how this makes our lives much more complicated because every decision we make as long has we have a dog must be made considering that fact. How long has the dog been alone? Considering our Florida situation, this contributes a whole new set of circumstances to my life. I tend to be sensitive to animals. I don't want to be one of those pet owners who is negligent. I don't like the idea of penning a dog for more than a couple hours at a time. So in the back of my mind, a clock is always ticking. At night, I listen for any sign of his needing to go out.
So this is now my new life with a dog.

School starts in a bit. Actually, a week and two days.

I am watching We Are Marshall.

My daughter is officially engaged. Ring and everything. It's quite nice.

Trying to get my mind into school, but I am trying hard to get the most out of my summer. Yesterday my son and I played 36 holes of golf. It was pretty much fun, but I did grow weary in the afternoon.

The puppy is growing. I am a bit frustrated with his house brokenness or lack thereof. His messes are quite small though, so that's the positive side, if there is one.

Heat. It's wilting. I set off fireworks last night. We bought a firepit which is a fancy name for a thing you can burn stuff in outside and stay warm or keep the bugs away. We used it for the first time last night, and the kids made smores. I am not a fan of smores. I find them a bit too mushy and sweet. Many people love them

I'm not sure what I'm going to do with the classes I have this year. Unsure about the future of blogging. Unsure of the requirements for blogging.

Saturday evening. It's been a little while since I posted anything significant. The dog is adjusting to us as we are to him. He's the size of a small cat. I guess I consider it killing two birds with one stone. That's an idiom and we have been discussing idioms in the final of the three classes I just completed teaching yesterday. It's quite tiring, this teaching business because you have to be up all the time. From the moment the first student arrives until the last student leaves, you have to be the teacher. At NL, I get little breaks between classes where I can let down my guard a bit, but these classes are hard. Teaching teachers also adds an additional pressure because who is to say that I know any more than they do. But I'm grateful for the opportunity (now that it's over) to teach.

I've gotten the beginning of the year letters advising me when to be there and what we will be doing for the first couple days. Where did the summer go?

I guess the biggest news is that Chipotle Mexican Grill opened this weekend in Harrisburg. My son and daughter went. I didn't. I understand that on Friday they were giving away free burritos and that the line was all the way around the block. Free burritos. Life is good. I haven't been there yet but my daughter, either in an attempt to somehow gain my favor, or just because she's a nice girl, brought me a burrito bowl. That's a burrito without the shell in a bowl.

Looks like there have been some changes to my schedule this year. Looking forward to it, sort of. I may be teaching some old stuff again that I haven't taught for a while. That's all good because I love literature.

Not much else. Another Saturday night watching whatever is on the tube. Daughter's with the BF and son's at a wedding. Not his, or I'd be there.

Cooper

New addition to the family. Not my idea. The mrs.

I'm teaching a class for teachers in York. I am tired already. I'd rather be home or in Florida but then I feel guilty about not wanting to be here. There are a lot of out of work people and here I am with an opportunity to work a second job. Shut up and do it. That's me talking to myself.

I've taught this class a number of times, eight to be exact, or this is the eighth, and it's still funny how I forget things and then I remember them too late, and then I try to interject, and then it's over. I figured out how many sessions there are and I'm now one ninth of the way done.

Frank McCourt died. He was an English teacher in New York City for years. He retired after 30 years of teaching and then wrote three books based on his life. Angela's Ashes was the most famous one. It was made into a movie. It's weird. He taught writing all those years and he then became a writer. We was born in the US but then went back to Ireland and then came back to the US. He was quite the rebel. He inadvertently taught, he was hired to take the place of a woman, and she just quit. So he ends up being throws to the dogs, so to speak, and learned his way as he went.

I just returned to Pennsylvania from an extended trip to Florida. Sixteen hours in a car at my age was a bit much. Shaking off the aches and pains, I decided to update my blog. I don't have any comments so I'm not sure if I've fallen into a cyber black hole.

The weather was hot, really hot, and I don't recall one day that we didn't have some rain. Last Sunday, Jared and I were golfing and as we putted out the last hole, we turned and watched a wall of water coming towards us down the fairway. We could literally see where the water started.

I met some interesting characters on my golf adventures. One claimed to have played a few holes with Tiger Woods and that he'd be playing with Mike Schmidt later that week. I believed him. The highlight after playing four rounds with total strangers was playing with my daughter's boyfriend, Jared. He is quite and accomplished golfer.

We traveled to Vero Beach one day. That's the pictures I posted. Monday we made a trip to the other coast for a day in Clearwater Beach. Beautiful! I had never been to the gulf side before and it was just gorgeous. The water was warm and blue and quite nice for swimming. We parked at a public beach, fed the parking meter and spent three hours just soaking in the sun and water and views.

Of course we made a few trips over to Walt Disney World. The big news while we were down was the monorail accident that killed one of the pilots. That was sad. Locally, the news was constant. We did ride the monorail later that week putting any fear aside.

Jared hasn't been to Disney much, so we were able to show him the in's and out's of the park. I grew a little emotional as we left the Magic Kingdom. Our annual passes were expiring that night. I haven't renewed them since I don't know when we'll be down again.

I'm teaching three grad classes for three straight weeks. The a couple weeks off before school starts. I don't know what to expect this year, but I'm looking forward to new classes.

Lawnmowers are pains. I'll explain that more later.

Michael Jackson has died. So has Karl Malden and Billy Mays. The media is obsessed with the deaths of celebrities. The morning news has been one MJ story after another. I was alive for Elvis. This makes that pale. But the circumstances are different as well. For example, when Elvis died, people were listening to the radio for news, there were only three networks, and there was no full time news on TV. The only full time news radio station was KYW out of Philly. Though similarities can be drawn, the differences are evident.

I was teaching school at Reading High when MJ first did his famous moonwalk. I must admit when I saw it, I had to ask myself, how did he do that. And so, I tried to do it myself. I think I pulled a muscle or something.

I will be teaching for three weeks in a row after we get back. I have to get up for that. Shouldn't complain though.

View from the room this morning. Beautiful. The weather held out until about 1 oclock. Then the heavens opened again. Lots of rain here in Florida. I understand it's been raining a lot at home as well.

I began a book today and I'm not sure where it's going. First, it was left here in the room and I was bored so I thought I'd try it. A New York Times list book. I don't get it. I'll probably continue reading to see if it goes anywhere. I still haven't found Atlas Shrugged. I went to a Borders last week and it wasn't there.

Is anyone out there?

The kids here in the hotel have this game they play on the elevators. It's a game I'd like to put to an end really quickly. It has something to do with using the elevators to go from one floor to the next, circling the hotel and then racing another kid to the next floor. Where are the parents?

I understand Shaq is going to Cleveland. Interesting.

Tomorrow we head back to Orlando. Dishwasher shopping. Joy.

After that, hopefully I can get a few holes of golf in.

Bones. A new show I've discovered. Pretty well written but I'm unsure how accurate it is.

Don't you hate it when you want something from a vending machine, and it won't take your money. That happened tonight. I was seriously willing to pay, sit down for this, $1.75 for a Hershey bar, and the machine wouldn't accept the bills. I did the edge of the machine thing, I crumbled the bill into a ball, flattened it, and tried it again....nothing. Suddenly what I was doing became real to me. I was spending $1.75 to satisfy a craving that wasn't necessary. I put the money back in my wallet and walked away.

Blogging from the beach.

Blogging from the beach, Vero Beach, Florida. I'm sitting on the fourth floor in a lovely beach front hotel room looking out over a rather rainy and overcast beach. But it's all good. Rain is good. Not much has happened since I last posted. I've put quite a few miles on the car. I've golfed some. I've read some. I've been to WDW once. I've hung a few pictures.
Here are a couple new ones just taken today.

Sunday Night

Watching what would happen if the moon were hit by a large meteor. Not sure if it's accurate. Special effects are ok.

Leaving tomorrow for NC and FL. Be home in a while. I'll try to remember to blog while I'm away. We have a few things planned but lots of free time.

Cats are cute.

Chipotle Mexican Grill

I spent a good bit of time this year talking about Chipotle. It's coming. Colonial Commons. Don't know details, but it's coming.
Rain.
It's raining again and from what I understand, it's raining too much for the farmers. This morning in the paper one farmer was quoted as saying dry is much better than wet because you can irrigate dry but you can't get rid of wet.
Would you let your minor child fly alone?
Recently, I purchased a new effects pedal for my electric guitar. I've never messed around with one, but this really is cool. One of the effects is that of a jet engine behind the actual playing of the guitar. Perhaps I'll become a rock and roll start.

Nap time!

Sunday Evening

A nice weekend. Relaxing enough but not totally. I mulched. I guess that's a verb now. I just made it one.

We welcomed a new pastor at our church today. It was quite eventful. He comes from Fargo, ND and replaces the only pastor our church ever had, for the past 37 years. That is a long time, and yet I feel confident that the new pastor will do just fine.

I've been golfing quite a bit, and I've been golfing poorly. Each round I seem to shoot one shot higher. I went to two graduation parties. I haven't begun any summer reading yet. I was in the pool a couple times. I sold our bowflex to Mrs. Schafebook so she can be buff now. We cat sat my daughter's boyfriend's cat. That's a double possessive. Now I am watching the Lakers beat the Magic. I would like to see the Magic win, they are the underdogs and usually I root for the underdogs, and they aren't a Philly team, and I do sort of consider Orlando a second home.

My wife and I had dinner with my brother and his wife on Thursday evening. I am amazed at how much my brother has grown to resemble my father. He always has looked like dad, but in his later years, the resemblence is uncanny. Me, I don't know who I look like. I guess I must resemble my mom's side of the family because I really don't look at all like my bro.

This has been a random catchup entry. Sorry for the lack of intellectual stimulative content. Maybe next week I'll discuss the meaning of life.

Correction. School's Out For Summer is a song by Alice Cooper. Pink Floyd did the song, We Don't Need No Education. I had a friend years ago who taught science at Northeast Junior High in Reading. He had a poster on the wall with those lyrics. Administration told him to take it down. Hmmmm.

I'm waiting for a delivery of mulch. I hate mulching. But I hate more paying someone else to mulch. Today is the first day of official summer vacation. One day closer to next school year. I gotta be more position.

I golfed yesterday. I went out by myself, though the course was pretty crowded, and I walked 18 holes while carrying my bag. I was pretty beat. I played some holes well and then I buggered up others. Shot an 86. That's about mid summer average for me. New clubs don't make you better.

School's Out for Summer

An old rock song. I think Pink Floyd. Not sure.

Commencement was a ball, a beach ball. That got old, quick. But it's not really that original. Now the year they had the inflatable cow. That was original.

I am running on about 3 hours sleep. The party at the Y after commencement lasted until 2 am but then after I got home and settled, I still woke at about 5:30. I didn't need to be here until 8 but I didn't know that because I mustn't have been paying attention so I arrived at the usual 7:15. Silly me.

Today is my 27th anniversary. My wife and I are about to head out to dinner at the Stouch Tavern. It's one of our favorite restaurants. The owners are old friends of my dad.

I really felt a special closeness to a number of the seniors this year. I got so many lovely goodbyes, notes, cards and just thank you's and I was touched by so many of these gestures. There were very many special seniors and I wish them all well.

Wednesday

Graduation practice is over. The speeches are given. The gowns have been distributed. Nothing more than waiting now. Tomorrow is the big day. I often become reflective this time of year. I rarely fail to get a bit choked up over some of the students who are graduating. This year there are some particularly impressive young men and women who restore my faith in the future, for their intellect, yes, but more importantly, for their character. It's been said that your character is measured by what you do when no one is looking. The quality of character of many of these senior is tremendous. Shortly I'm going home to grab a bite to eat.

It's a bit later. I've grabbed a bit more than a bite to eat. I have one class left which needs to complete its final. Then I'll have to get all my grades done and entered.

I began watching the movie Braveheart. I've heard so much about it. It's quite long, and it's quite intense, much more intense than I am used to, but I really like it. I guess I'm about halfway through. I don't recall whether or not I mentioned this before, but my brother is reading another Ayn Rand book called Atlas Shrugged. Weird. I was reading The Fountainhead and my brother is reading another Ayn Rand book. He borrowed his from the library. It's 1100 pages. I'm not sure I'd get through that in the allotted three weeks. I'm hinting around about a copy of it here at home as a Father's Day gift. We'll see if they take the hint.

Friday night. What a day. We interviewed 11 people over the past two days. I thought for a while that the process would be interesting and it was, but after awhile, there are only so many ways you can ask the same questions. But I met some lovely people, all different, but all who would want to be your teacher.

Alan sent me this in relationship to our discussion and essays on happiness. I love it. It's as large as I can make it. Be happy with what you've got!

Wednesday

Last night was Deadliest Catch night. I think we should eat crab cakes and crab legs while watching but that would make for a late night. The one boat had a lot of dead crabs. I guess if one crab dies, it releases something that kills the other crabs, so there were too long in the hold of the ship. I watch too much television.

We are winding down.

I put this on the front.

Do you want to learn something, or do you just want me to give you the answers? If it’s the second, that’s easy. If it’s the first, it will take both of us!

I wonder if anyone will notice.

Back at school. It's already Tuesday. We were quite fortunate with the weather. Today is what meteorologists call yukky. Yesterday was quite delightful. I got a good bit accomplished around the house. We built our house nearly 20 years ago so there are some things that are a bit dated. I changed the accent lights out front, replacing the old ones with new ones that are designed to look old, rewiring them. The hardest part was finding which breaker to throw so as not to electrocute myself (my wife kept saying electrify, that was cute). I also discovered that though solar lights don't required electricity, the rechargeable batteries which are required by them are very expensive.
My seniors are done. Their finals are this week. We wrote an essay in lieu of a final exam, and those were collected on Thursday.
Not much else going on. I'm trying to get these essays read, but they are tedious, not that they aren't wonderful, it's just difficult staying focused on them for a time.
I have made a decision. I won't watch anything to do with the Gosselins. I think their story is being exploited by TLC and in turn the media and in turn the sponsors. The only way to end this vicious cycle is to stop watching the show, stop reading the stories and blogs, and stop paying attention to this created "reality show". It's not reality. Perhaps it was at one point, but now it's celebrity. TLC stand for The Learning Channel, but sadly, I wonder what any of us learn from watching the shows that are featured. Give me Dirty Jobs and Deadliest Catch. They are reality. The rest, well, it's just the rest.

Sunday Night

It's Sunday night and we have no school tomorrow. That's a great feeling. It was storming a little while ago, blowing, and I had to bring the garbage cans into the garage. I just noticed if you take the b out of garbage, you have the word garage. Interesting.

Memorial Day

My wife received some reminders about Memorial Day. Here's one I found timely.

Friday morning and I just ate some breakfast. Raisin bran. Crunchy and good for you too.
The pool is up and running. The water temperature is 62. Hopefully by the end of the day it will creep up a bit. I must order mulch and do the edging and get the lawn squared away. Q is an interesting letter. It cannot stand alone without a U and if you get it in scrabble, it can be your best friend or your worst enemy. I used superlative forms in that sentence. Juniors! Comparative and superlative. You should know those.
I am golfing today with my son and the boss. I'll let you decide who the boss is. It's not my wife if you were wondering that.
I was going to put a picture here, but I couldn't find any random pictures to post that would have been at all interesting to the viewer.

It's a bit later. My wife went tanning. The sun is out so she drives to Palmyra to tan. I don't get it. Go outside for heaven's sake. And it's free! Free I tell you!
There was a dead animal in the bottom of the pool. It was quite dead. Quite. Dead. If fact, what was left was virtually unrecognizable. It looked like a big bird doo.
I discovered today that our DVD player died and I was wondering if it had anything to do with the lightning strike across the street last weekend. It is weird though because it was plugged into an anti-surge strip.
Some people are surprised at the American Idol winner. I don't know. I don't watch. I guess thirty million Americans watch it. I am one who doesn't.
Have a great vacation everyone who reads this (Ben, Erin and maybe Mike, Nick and Nate).

Thursday

A day, a day, another day. Long weekend. Not in school....gasp. Postponed jury duty. Realized you can do that. I did that. Postponed until September.

Jury Duty

Just when I thought I had my summer plans pretty well established, along comes a summons for jury duty the very same week that I was planning to be in Florida. So, I may be trying the new flights in and out of Harrisburg via Air Tran. I looked on line last night and I think I could fly from Orlando to Harrisburg on July 5th for $54. That's less than I'd pay for gas to drive. All I need is a ride from the airport home.

I took the cover off the pool. I don't know how those worms get in the pool, but they do. The bottom of the pool is covered in dead worms. Covered may be a bit of a misnomer. Suffice it to say, there are a lot of dead worms.

The weather for the weekend looks a bit tentative. We don't have school on Friday and Monday. For all of the complaints about those few days where other schools didn't have school and we did, I bet you aren't sorry now. Long weekend!

I went to a church softball game last night. My son had a grandslam home-run. It's wasn't one of those cheap ones where someone bobbles the ball or it goes through the outfielder's legs, it was hit well over the left fielder's head and he really didn't have to run fast to make it home.

I voted yesterday. There weren't any lines like there were for the presidential election. There were more people working the polls than voting. I wonder if when I retire, I'll work the polls. One of the women was a former teacher, my kids' former teacher, so we chatted about the kids and school. People always ask the same questions. How many days are left? Are you counting the days? How was your year? Things like that. I never really know how to respond. I don't talk a lot about work when I'm not at work. I like my students though they could be more motivated at times. I'm sure they feel that way about me.

Tuesday

This morning, the frost was so heavy I have to start my car to clear the windshield. I had already removed the scraper. Silly me, thinking that because it's the middle of May, the winter weather was over.
We are giving tests to juniors again. I'm bending over backwards to get these done! I enjoy saying wong. I chuckle every time I say it. Wong. White and wong.
I'd like to break into a Home Depot at night and build a complete house. Everything I would need is there. I'd probably need help because, well, I'm just not that fast.
The Ag kids are in Baltimore today, and the Chorus kids are in NYC. Who's left.
Normally I don't count days of the year left, but I do know in the back of my head that we're in the teens. Perhaps it's even less than that. We are approaching a four day weekend which is delightful, but the weather doesn't appear that it will be very agreeable. How can weather be agreeable? Who talks like that?
I should mention that lightning struck the neighbor's house on Saturday night and blew up their chimney. One of the pieces of brick broke the other neighbor's car window. Yesterday while mowing, I discovered a number of pieces of brick in the yard, one all the way in the back of our property. Then we discovered that a piece had hit my daughter's bedroom window, went through the screen, tearing a hole in it, and then chipping the window. The piece of brick was still resting on the window sill. Weird, because that had to go through a pretty big oak tree to get there. I'm sure glad there was something in the way to slow down the speed of it or we'd be replacing a window.

Friday

The fog was thick this morning as I headed off to work. I felt as though pulling out of the community was a gamble which I won. I clicked on the high beams so other cars could more readily see me. When I arrived here at school, I was frustrated to find someone has parked in my parking space. That's just wrong. It's my space. My space. I want to have it towed.
I am glad it's Friday. It's also payday. I have direct deposit. You know, we really are in some ways a cashless society. Most of my bills are paid through electronic transfers or the occasional check or two.
I have come to the conclusion that people are much more annoyed by little things, like having someone park in my space.
The juniors are watching a movie today. They won something. I don't remember what they won but they did. Congratulations juniors.
I haven't begun a new book lately. I'm not sure what I want to read. I was juggling three books a couple weeks ago and now I have none. I can't decide if I want to read something for pleasure or intellectual stimulation or neither or both. I'm hearing a lot about James Patterson. I suppose I should read something by him. I think I did two summers ago but I don't really remember what it was I read.
Hope everyone has a great weekend.

Thursday

Wow! It's raining loud. I guess I can say that. It's raining loud.
Many of my classes are decimated by trips and chorus rehearsals an the like. But I am here, engaging my students in the studies of our marvelous language. I had considered golfing today, but it's a good thing I didn't plan on it.
My daughter got her benefit plan. She's got some pretty good benefits. That's a relief. A serious illness can be devastatingly expensive.
I'm having difficulty imparting any real words of wisdom today. Make your own.

Wednesday

We talked about utopia this morning and I think we all agreed that utopia will never exist in society because of people.
We did verbs in my other classes and talked about drug dogs a bit. Drug dogs are expensive.
The Bears won the series with Scranton Wilkes Barre.
My son discovered yesterday that a friend of his from college was promoted to AA Harrisburg Senators. I don't think he knows him that well but he knows the guy's wife pretty well from serving on some committees in college. The story is below.

Click Here

Blood doping. That's an interesting discussion.
Is using an on line translator cheating?
That's a discussion we're having. I say it is, but I don't think the students think it is.

While I was waiting in line to pick up our rental car for the weekend, a young man on crutches lined up next to me with a friend. They were chatting basketball, and we began idle conversation. He said he was there for his sister's graduation. Talk turned to his crutches, his ankle was in a pretty serious brace, and he said he had a couple more weeks and then he'd be free of them.

I asked him how he'd hurt his ankle. He replied that he'd been shot. His achilles tendon had to be replaced and that he'd been on these crutched for nine months. He was a medic in the military, was loading wounded Iraqi children into his helicopter when a sniper shot him and another soldier helping evac these kids. This had been his third tour. He said the irony of it, they were helping Iraqi's and he was shot. His friend was hit in the back but the bullet missed all vital organs so he would be fine.

I didn't know what to say. In my day to day life, I've never been in harm's way in that manner. I recently read in Flags of Our Fathers, that the medic is one of the most dangerous positions in the military because his sole responsibility is to care for the wounded at the risk of his own life. He is dependent on others to cover him from enemy fire and must focus on the wounded he is helping. You are completely at the mercy of others.

My number came up, I was called over to check in, but before I did, I turned and shook his hand and thanked him for his service to our country and what he sacrificed for our freedom. I'm not terribly political. I have my views, but they seem to change from day to day and week to week. But this was a brave young soldier risking his life for others, and people like that are heroes in my mind.

I'll give a bit of a recap of the weekend.
Friday at 4 am. Leave Jonestown. Drive to Baltimore Washington International Airport. Flight out at 7:40. Arrive in Orlando, 9:40. Rent van. Pick up cap, gown and tickets. Drive to condo. Stop on the way and get Chipotle. Go to condo. Eat. Change. Drive to Walt Disney World. Get in with the help of Danny, a friend who owes my daughter a favor. Get fast passes to Soarin' at Epcot, walk to Disney Hollywood Studios, ride Tower of Terror, Rockin' Roller Coaster, watch Block Party parade, line up for American Idol Experience, watch that, head back to Epcot, ride Spaceship Earth, Mission Space, grab a bite, ride Soarin', Mexico, and then find spots to view IllumiNations. View IllumiNations. Walk to car, drive home. Crash.
Saturday we leave to commencement at 6:55am (a bit later than I'd like). Get seated. Watch for my daughter. Commencement ends at 11:00. Drop off gown and head home, stopping for lunch on the way. Saturday afternoon, nap. Dinner at Ruth Chris' Steakhouse at 6. Eat like pigs. Back to condo, back to WDW and the Boardwalk. Kids go to Jellyrolls. I go home with Mrs. Miller. Sunday morning. Come home.
That's the abbreviated version. I'll fill in some blanks later.

I'm back

Wow! What a weekend. No prom or class trip but certainly a lot more than I'd expected. Everything went well. We're all back and in one piece. The weather was in the 90's. Here is a picture of the graduate and her family. Proud parents and brother. I guess he's proud anyway.

Personal Day Tomorrow

It's off tomorrow for central Florida. Looking forward to it, but I'm also a bit apprehensive. Hope things all fall into place.

I was at the visitation for Randy Moyer last evening. Our thoughts and prayers are with his family.

No one has shown up for period 8/9. I guess they are all in New Jersey riding roller coasters. Looks like the weather has held out for them. I just stuck my head outside and it's rather nice. I was able to get the lawn mowed yesterday. But after that, it poured. This type of weather makes the grass grow really fast. It's two a week!

I really too distracted to write anything profound. I will see everyone on Monday. Hopefully I'll have some pictures from our trip.

Wednesday

Faculty meeting after school. These can at times be a bit tedious but they are necessary. I hope to mow the lawn today. On a personal note, I wish my state income tax refund would come. They've had it long enough. It's mine, and I surely could use some of it for the trip to Florida this weekend. Tomorrow is the senior class trip and for the first time in probably a decade I'm not going. I often tried to tell students how stressful it is for chaperons because we are responsible for each and every student who goes along. I rarely slept well the night before. Tomorrow, I'll stand in the parking lot waving good bye. Good bye!

Yesterday I won a contest and a candy bar. Now people resent me. Deal with it.

I'm nearing the end of The Fountainhead. I'm actually dreading finishing it because I've figured out who the real villain is and I'm afraid he's going to win. I've become sympathetic with most of the characters and I've begun to hate this one. Am I being manipulated by the author?

Mrs. Powers will be in for me on Friday, but the way I figure it, most of my classes will be decimated by prom fever.

I was saddened yesterday to hear that Randy Moyer was killed in an accident. Our kids, particularly his son Lee and my son Ross grew up together and as a result, we spent a great deal of time together. Randy coached quite a few of the teams Ross played on and he was a tremendous teacher and motivator of the kids who played for him. The community will miss him greatly, as will his two sons and wife. He leaves a great legacy. He was a friend to many.

Tell the people you appreciate that you appreciate them. Don't wait until you can't any longer.

Have we ever had an original thought? How easily are we influenced by the things around us? What to we really need? If we see something and everyone has suggested it's good, are we courageous enough to say it's bad? Do we let certain people get away with certain behavior because they are "good"? Do we condemn others for behavior that is "good" because we perceive them as being "bad"?

I'm a bit sad right now.

I'd like the rain to stop. It's boring me. I'd love a bit of sun, not that little peek of sunlight that we saw on Saturday, which came and went, but a few days of sun and warmth.

Is school the beginning or the end of your education? I'd suggest it's the beginning. Often in school, you are told to learn things that someone else has determined to be important for your well being. After school, you learn things that are of value to you. You find that there are things you need to survive in society. For example, you can learn to read maps in classes like geography, but if you must find your way somewhere, you will learn to read maps that way. If you need a certain skill to perform your job, you will learn that skill.

I found this interesting blog from a basketball player who sits the bench for Ohio State. I thought it might make interesting reading for some of you who have nothing better to do than read blogs. Just joking.

Here

I just figured out how to do that. My life is fuller now.

I am getting a bit bogged down with The Fountainhead. We had a class meeting this morning and I just love how everything works out in the end. So next week begins that final stretch for seniors. Leaving school. Starting something new. This morning, one senior young man stopped in my room and suggested that he's frightened of the future. I think that's one of the dangers in life. Being afraid of the unknown.

A friend of mine from elementary and high school spoke of becoming a director in Hollywood. We all kind of laughed because, well, what's a kid from Robesonia thinking when he says he wants to be a director in Hollywood. Seriously. That's like me saying I want to be a rock star.

So after a few years, Fred (I haven't changed his name) disappeared from people's memories. No one seemed to know where he was or what he was doing. Speculation was that he had gone west, but little was known.

A couple summers ago, an elementary classmate put together a little reunion of our elementary school class. Fred was there, and told his story.

After a year at Penn State, he went west and went to college to be a film director and producer, and worked for a few years doing that. After awhile, he formed his own company, producing presentations for industry meetings and the like, so if Microsoft stockholders were meeting, he would put together the presentation. His business grew, he hired more and more people, and he understood well enough to surround himself with really creative and intelligent employees. Today, he is semi retired, has a ranch, three kids, and had bought a pretty neat RV for the trip in. Little kid makes good from Robesonia. He wasn't the smartest kid, he wasn't a nerd, he just wasn't afraid of taking steps that many of us didn't have the guts to take. He had leadership qualities. I think his parents were exceptionally supportive. I think he looked at life differently than most.

Fear of failure is one of the things that is most paralyzing for us. I often get the "what if's." What if this happens or what if that happens, and that's really unhealthy because if you look at everything that could possibly go wrong, you will be paralyzed. Life is a series of chances that we take, but we also need to persevere through the difficult times. We can't give up easily.

For all you blog followers of mine, have a great weekend.

Prom

next week is the prom and i decided not to use capital letters today. just today. when i was in high school i went to two proms. both were lousy. you spend a lot of money in order to be bored. i looked really stupid too. when i was a junior, i rented a red crushed velvet tux with black pants, a velvet cummerbund, there's a word you don't use much, and red bow tie and a pink frilly shirt. there were three styles of tuxes available to rent, blue, red and white. my senior year i went with the white. we were on our own for dinner, so that added to the expense. no one rented limos back then. i'm not sure when that became the rage. it was all quite anticlimactic, the build up, the hair styling, the expensive dresses and rentals of tuxes, and then it's over. i think our tux rentals cost $27.50 or that may have been what i paid for my class ring. anyway, things were much cheaper then. we also had a morp. morp is the prom spelled backwards. it was held at the high school and you dressed down, girls asked guys, like the anti prom. don't know if they still do that now.

so if people make more money now but things cost more, what's the point of making more money. for example, when i first started working, i was paid around 10k a year. the average car cost about 5k and you could get a pretty decent starter house for, say, 28k. now, people might make 30k a year, a pretty decent wage, a very basic new car is going to cost you half that, say 15k, and the average house costs well over 100k (i can't really say what a 'starter home' is any more because it's pretty subjective). so is there any real advancement or can we just agree that the dollar buys a lot less now than it did 30 years ago. it's fun to say when i first started teaching , we made 10k a year, it sound like so little, but really, my living expenses were minimal plus we didn't have a lot of accessories like cell phones, and internet, things that have added to the cost of living.

so my class ring cost $27.50 and my tux rental cost $27.50 and my class jacket cost $15. my first guitar cost $27, a harmony stella, but the first one i bought cost $120. my dad loaned me the money and i paid him back $10 a month for a year. it was a yamaha acoustic guitar. back then a martin d-28 would have cost $395 but would be worth two or three thousand now. my yahama would probably be worth $120 if it were in good condition. i sold it to a girl. stupid me. i did stupid things for girls. like rent red velvet tuxes. and sell guitars.

Swine Flew

And they said pigs couldn't fly. Seriously, I feel bad for the sick pigs. Get better pigs!

Golf

I didn't keep score yesterday. That's kind of fun because you can only remember your good shots and forget your bad shots. It's funny how people are like that. We can be very forgiving of ourselves, and yet we are often not very forgiving of others. So in that respect, golf can be a lot like life. I don't cheat in golf. I know some people who do. Improving your lie. That's a big one. For those of you who don't know what that means, if the ball isn't sitting just the way you'd like it to be, you move it a bit. You make it better. There are occasions in golf where this is legal. If an area is marked ground under repair, you get a free drop, but if you have an unplayable lie, a point where you absolutely can't hit the ball, you get to drop the ball somewhere else that's no closer to the pin but there is a stroke penalty. There are lots of fun rules in golf, but there are also fun rules in life. Some of my friends with whom I golf at times agree that we won't hit a shot from a location that could damage our clubs. That's just common sense, but constantly improving one's lie, well, to me, that's just cheating. If you don't play it where it lies, how will you ever get better?

I'm reading The Fountainhead, and I'm really being drawn into it.

I have had a number of comments about my shirt. I think it's salmon. That's what I call it anyway. Yes, it's springy.

I think I'm hitting the links after school. The exercise will do me well. I'll be walking. Carts are for old people. And I'll carry my bag. I'm not a horrible golfer, but I'm not great either. Horrible would be struggling to break 100 and great would be consistently shooting in the 70's, so you can imagine where I fall. My daughter's special friend (that's dad talk for boyfriend) is a five (which means he usually shoots 77 or so) and though I haven't golfed with him yet, I look forward to it. Golf is interesting because you usually don't compete with the people you are playing with, you play the course, and that's why sometimes it's fun just to golf. There is a book, A Good Walk Spoiled, that is on my reading list. I think Rick Reilly wrote it but I haven't read it yet.

Saturday Evening

The talent show was pretty sweet yesterday. I'm going to let my hair grow and do that thing they do. Someone asked me if Lunch Money played like the band. We were a lot louder and heavy metalish. I made up that word. We made people's ears bleed.

I spent the morning weeding, mowing, trimming, sweeping, spreading weed killer on weeds, and sweating. Then Ross and I went over to Monroe Valley and hit some golf balls at the range. What a beautiful days it's been.

I watched some of the NFL draft. It bores me but they certainly make a big deal out of it. Last night we went to the Bears game and watched them win the series with the Phantoms. I saw a couple kids from school. Right now the Phillies are winning.

With the response I'm getting, I think I'm going to try to set up an informal book club next year. I don't know if we'll be using AR, so that would be nice, just read books and talk about them. I'm liking the idea.

I was watching the weather channel and they are predicting 90 on Monday. Ninty! Thursday, I had frost on the windshield. Don't you just love Pennsylvania!

Woodpecker in the yard!!!

This morning as I took out the garbage and got the paper, I noticed a bird on the suet that I hadn't seen before. I called my wife to come and we identified it as a downy woodpecker. I tried to get a picture of it, but it flew away and lighted on my neighbors tree, so the picture wasn't clear. I found one on the internet. This is exactly what the bird looked like. That started my day off well.

I wish I taught more books. I love books. I love reading. I wish we could have a book club here. Read selected books, then have discussions about them. Just talk about the books. Nothing formal. Just, hey, I loved this book. The part where this character did this or did anyone notice that. Lots of people like Nicholas Sparks, so we could all read one of his books and then just talk about it. Maybe watch a movie based on his books. In my mind, especially in this field, learning is much more exploratory and independent. In some ways, that's why I got into this in the first place. I remember as a college senior, we had a seminar course. Each class, and we met three times a week for 50 minutes, we had one work to read, and one student would take the lead in the discussion for that day. He or she would create a hand out and we would talk about it, discuss it, disagree over it. I did a big project on the book Night, by Elie Weisel who was a boy in a Jewish concentration camp. He witnessed the death of his family but lived to tell his story. I have a copy of the book. It's rather short. But think about that. Everyone reads the book and then we discuss it. How could people allow that to happen. How could society stand by and watch the oppression and execution of people for no other reason than the fact that they were of a particular race.
Well, somehow I went from downy woodpeckers to the Holocaust.

Spring. It comes and goes. Yesterday I was at the baseball game in shorts. A half hour later it was blowing like crazy and the temperature must have dropped 20 degrees.

We are nearing the midway point of the marking period. May 1 I guess is it. The students are working on the career unit and should wrap that up by Friday. I think I have most of the grading caught up with the exception of a few stragglers

We have an extended homeroom schedule today. That throws me off. I'm notsure with my next class comes in. Looks like in five minutes. Time to take a quick walk. Later.

Oh my word. How incredibly difficult can you make the most simple instructions.

I have never watched Southpark and would actually love seeing it dropped from the lineup of television shows.

Anniversary

Today is the tenth anniversary of the Columbine tragedy. I am surprised at how quickly the time has passed. Schools have not been the same since. In fact, society hasn't been the same since. Flippant remarks which used to go unnoticed now call for notification of parents, administrators and perhaps police agencies. Cryptic poems in which students at one time vented are now looked upon as threatening. No threat is overlooked. All are taken seriously. Innocence has died a little bit more.

The weekend was beautiful. The grass is mowed, the weeds pulled. I did happen to break my lawn mower but I believe that is fixable. Hope so. One more thing I don't need to replace right now. I've seen a few students who appear to have been a bit too long in the sun. And one teacher. But today, it's rainy and rather gloomy outside, so spring hasn't fully made her appearance.

This year is just flying by. It's truly amazing how quickly September becomes April. My seniors are so anxious to move on. The juniors likewise, but I think they're a bit more realistic having another year.

Is the college use of American Indian Mascots Racist? That's a question for discussion today.

Good News

The new coffee maker works great! It's Friday and best, my daughter got a job, starting the Monday after she graduates from University of Central Florida and it's in her field. She'll be working at the front desk of Hotel Hershey, a four star hotel located in the lush central Pennsylvania countryside overlooking the quaint town of Hershey and Hershey Park. Sound a bit like an advertisement there, didn't I?

Not much else. I'm correcting reports on careers......

Food Humor

I don't get food humor. I don't understand why people use food in that way. This morning, someone on the news was doing an interview and got a pie in the face. I'm not sure why that's supposed to be funny. I dislike the whole wedding cake in the face thing too. I think it's kind of demeaning. I'm not being overly sensitive to those people who go to bed hungry, I do think there is something to that, but I just don't get it. That's my rant for the day.

The old Accord, I now have to differentiate between the old Accord and the new Accord, got inspected yesterday. Holy cow! Muffler, ball joint, emissions, brakes, gasket, I'm not saying how much it cost but I won't be buying any new stuff for a bit. My guy says, it's good for another year. I certainly hope so.

Yesterday there were a number of political protests across the country regarding the increase in taxes and government bailouts of corporations. It was modeled after the Boston Tea Party and TEA was to stand for taxed enough already. I guess there was something in Harrisburg. I did not participate in any of these demonstrations. I do have opinions, but I'm not revealing them.

We did get a new coffee maker yesterday. I'm glad about that. It's pretty and shiny and makes a nice cup of joe! Who came up with that joe thing as a coffee name? The best coffee I ever had was in Costa Rica. Rich, full, not at all bitter. We brought a couple pounds home, but it's gone now. Yesterday I also filled the gas tank. Prices are creeping up again, but we're no where near where we were last year. I know I paid over $4 a gallon on a few occasions, so I can't complain.

Welcome Back

Welcome back from a delightful break. Please be using the computers appropriately. I wouldn't want anyone to get in trouble for you not using the computers correctly. Harry Kalas passed away yesterday. He was in the booth preparing for the game with Washington. I think he was 73. He must have really loved his job because most people at that age have long since retired. I did watch Chariots of Fire but I didn't get to watch Brave Heart yet. That one appears to be about three hours long.
Tonight is the season premiere of Deadliest Catch. Friday was the finale of Friday Night Lights. I wasn't sure how they were going to end the season but I must admit, they set it up for next season. I don't want to spoil it for those who haven't seen it but basically the coach is was offered another job, he was ousted as the coach at the school he was coaching, but he will be taking a job at a new school which is being reopened and which will compete with his old school. All very interesting and all very political, but of course, there will be an intense rivalry between the old school team and the new school team. I wonder where his wife will work and where his daughter will go. It's not really important and the writers have a whole season to figure it out.
Ham. Ham makes older people retain water. I'm retaining water. I ate ham. I'm old. We have lots of leftovers but I don't want to eat them because I don't want to retain more water.
My car is getting inspected tomorrow. I fear the worst. I know there's a new muffler in the works, and I know we've got a bit of oil leaking. Don't know from where other than the car. So that's tomorrow. I got one of my tax refunds yesterday. That was a nice surprise. Though and expected surprise.
Go Phillies.

Good Friday

Today is Good Friday. The school is closed for today. I am sitting here watching a very old movie. We will be heading out in a bit. I attended church last night as part of holy week. I hope everyone has a relaxing time with friends and family.

It's later in the day. I got some stuff accomplished. I mowed the lawn. Then I put down some weed and feed. I also pulled some weeks. I don't know about putting down weed killer and the chemicals involved in them. I don't know if putting chemicals with all kinds of warning labels on the packages are good.

Another random dress down day!

Today is a bonus dress down day. Typically, the first Friday of the month benefits the American Cancer Society. The third benefits the teachers' scholarship fund and each year we give two scholarships to deserving seniors. I believe the amount is $1500 each but I'm not sure if that's still the amount. This one benefits the Ronald McDonald House near Hershey Medical Center and the teachers' association will match all contributions. I think it's a good cause.

We don't have school tomorrow. I think a lot of people have already begun their vacation, even if just mentally. I am reading three different books right now. They are totally different, so it's not confusing, but I think this weekend when I have a bit of extra time, I'm going to try to get one done and not start anything new until they are all completed. I plan to watch two movies, Braveheart, and Chariots of Fire. Those these are both famous movies, I have never watched them. I'd like to thank Mr. Wentling for loaning them to me.

We have no school tomorrow. Today is my son's birthday and we were originally going to go out to dinner tonight but realized that we would be attending church tonight. So last night, we went to Texas Roadhouse in Harrisburg. Our waitress, Shelle, took excellent care of us and we gave her a nice tip. We started with cheddar cheese and bacon fries, I had steak, my wife had steak, my son had steak and my daughter had steak. It was steakin' good. Steak, steak, steak, steak, steak, steak, steak, steak, steak, steak, steak, steak, steak, steak, steak, steak, steak, steak, steak, steak, steak, steak, steak, steak, steak, steak, steak, steak, steak, steak, steak, steak, steak, steak, steak, steak, steak, steak, steak, steak, steak, steak, steak, steak, steak, steak, steak, steak, steak, steak, steak, steak, steak, steak, steak, steak, steak, steak, steak, steak, steak, steak, steak, steak, steak, steak, steak, steak, steak, steak, steak, steak, steak, steak, steak, steak, steak, steak, steak, steak, steak, steak, steak, steak, steak, steak, steak, steak, steak, steak, steak, steak, steak, steak, steak, steak, steak, steak, steak, steak, steak, steak, steak, steak, steak, steak, steak, steak, steak, steak, steak, steak, steak, steak, steak, steak, steak, steak, steak, steak, steak, steak, steak, steak, steak, steak, steak, steak, steak, steak, steak, steak, steak, steak, steak, steak, steak, steak, steak, steak, steak, steak, steak, steak, steak, steak, steak, steak, steak, steak.

Mid week

It's Wednesday, it's like a Thursday because we have Friday off.
Traditions....
As a kid growing up, this was always a week of traditions. We always colored Easter eggs on Saturday night with mom helping. Then after church on Sunday, we would have an Easter egg hunt. Sometimes we were inside if the weather was decent and sometime, more often, they were outside. It was nice growing up in a semi-large family, though at times, I didn't like being the runt. I was the third of four children, my brother is four years older than I am, my sister, whose birthday is today in fact, was two years older than I am and my younger sister came along six years after me. They were the Easter egg hunt competitors. We also got Easter egg baskets with lots of candy. That's where I discovered hollow bunnies. As I recall, I think we also got candy at church. It was also a time for new dress shoes. It's funny how your mind works. I'm sitting here blogging and this stuff is coming back to me. Trips to the shoe store for new spring shoes. We used to get shoes at a shoe store and not a department store. My mom would take my brother and me to Dingers in Myerstown for our little suits. We always dressed in suits for church and that's where we shopped. Sometimes I'm pretty sure we got shoes there. I would get two pairs of shoes a year. One pair of dress shoes and one pair of sneakers. I don't remember when I began to buy shoes because I liked them, but at some point in time, I did. Easter memories.

I don't know how much I've talked about my family. I just gave the ages of my siblings. My mom and dad knew each other in high school, they both went to Lebanon High School, and they both graduated in 1943. Dad joined the Navy and also went to Penn State, graduating in 1948 with a degree in Mechanical Engineering, while mom went to Lebanon Valley College, graduating in 1948 with a chemistry degree. They actually married between their junior and senior years, being apart for the first year of their marriage. She worked for Hershey in the lab until my brother was born. After that, she was a stay at home mom. In 1954 we lived in Avon in a home my parents built. In 1961 we moved to Robesonia in a really old house. Big and old and great fun in the summers, because we had the creek and a barn and all kinds of stuff to to keep a kid occupied. More later...

Following Blogs

I'm not following any blogs. Should I? I guess some of you are following this. It's Sunday night and Brett Myers is pitching batting practice to the Braves. That's sarcasm for you non baseball fans.
I am happy that NC won but I am in the minority in my house. I did think UConn would win, but I can say that I went to see Michigan State play back in November. I never would have expected them to be in the finals.
This week is birthday week. My sister turns 56, my son turns 25, and there are two other birthdays of close friends who shall remain nameless to protect their identities. That's a lot of cake!
The Masters starts this week. I am a golf fan. I enjoy playing golf during the summer. In fact, I try to play a lot over the summer, two or three times a week. If I lived in a warmer climate, I'd probably golf much more than I do now. I also enjoy watching golf on TV and the Masters is one of the favorite tournament to watch.
My daughter and I are sitting here discussing her research paper that she is doing for her on-line class. She has to have 12 works cited. And you guys resisted five or six.
Driving home tonight from choir practice, we hit a swarm of little bugs. The splatted their little winged bodies on the front of the new car and the windshield. What do you supposed goes through their little minds as the see a speeding car heading for them.
I got some sham wows this weekend too.
I used a sham wow to clean their little splattered bodies off the windshield. Nasty business, that bug body stuff.
Later....

Dress down day!

It's Friday and it's dress down day and it's pay day. Sweet!
I'm wearing a Hawaiian shirt. It's not really a Hawaiian shirt. I have a real Hawaiian shirt that I got in Hawaii, but I didn't wear that one.
Hawaii!
Not bad. Hawaii?
That's a joke.
Last night I watched the final episode of ER. I would have listed that as one of my favorite shows about ten years ago, but after the Mark Green character died, I lost interest in it. I didn't know many of the regulars last night, but still it was a good show. For a show to last 15 years is quite an accomplishment, and as I look at how old I was when the show started (38) and now, a lot of time has passed, and a lot of things have happened personally in that time, and so in some ways, it's been a bit of a constant on Thursday nights.
My wife is taking a half day off today. My daughter is working late. She'll be working 11 to 8 because of interviews. I'm really hoping she gets something permanent through this internship, but she certainly has had some great experiences.
She has heard from some of her friends at WDW that there have been layoff's there. I'm pretty excited about heading down there after school is out for the year. I hope to get to WDW a bunch. Our annual passes expired July 11, so we want to get the most out of those. I also have some golf specials that I can use through the end of July to play on the WDW courses.
Next week is a short week with Good Friday, and then the following week will be a short week as well.
For all of you following my blog, I hope you have a great day. For those of you who don't follow it, you will never see this and it will be your loss.
High fives....

April Fools

It's April Fool's Day. Happy April Fool's day. I don't know the significance of this day. Does anyone? I could google it but that would take effort and I'd rather just type. I understand we're having Easter dinner for lunch today.

I read a book over that past couple days called Prodigal God, written by Tim Keller. I emailed him to tell him how much I liked it. I got a response, not from him but from his administrative assistant and she said she'd pass the word along. One thing that's neat about email is you can contact authors and writers much more easily than sitting down with a pen and paper and writing out longhand letters, putting stamps on and then never knowing if they got it.

There is a virus making the rounds on the computers today. I don't mean just here. Everywhere. So apparently we shouldn't use the little thumb drives for the time being because it can be carried through that.

Not much else to say. I think next year at this time we will be in Costa Rica but I'm not really sure. Easter moves around a lot. This year it's late. Last year it was early. I don't know the formula, so it will be when it is.

March 30th. Where is spring? I want to wear shorts. Not to school of course, but as a matter of course, I love to wear shorts. I think I had mentioned that in an earlier blog. Kendra Kreitzer used to be in three of my classes but now she is in one. She hasn't kept up with her blog like she said she would.

The wireless connections aren't working again. That is not only frustrating for you, the students, but it is frustrating for me, the teacher, as well. You see, I plan for things to work, and when they don't and they're out of my control, it's frustrating. I had in my mind what I wanted to accomplish this week. Now, I don't know if I can. This is two days in a row that I can't get students on the sites where I want them to work. Be patient.

Easter is just around the corner. When we flip the calendar on Wednesday, I think we'll all be pleasantly surprised. I know I am looking forward to those couple extra days.

Ham for Easter. Why is Ham the Easter meal? Did someone sometime make that the official meat of Easter? Spiral cut ham from Costco.

Went to Capital City Mall on Saturday. Nice, small mall. That was internal rhyme.

New car. Good. Not much else to say for now. Bye.

It's later in the day, in fact it is period 11, one of my favorite classes, and I'm blogging. Someone suggested that they pulled a Mr. Miller. I'm curious what that means. Perhaps it means being cool.
I must admit, I am quite distracted right now because of something that has nothing to do with school. It is often difficult to focus when something personal is bothering you, and that's a bit what's happening with me right now.

Twelve Angry Men
Good flick.
There is a scheduled outage at 4 pm pacific time. Then is that?

Twelve Angry Men. Good flick. Should put it on my list. It's March, but it's still cold. Last night the baseball team played. Lots of stuff going on. End of the marking period.

We have a pretty good Easter break coming up. Four whole days. Four days. That's nice. Last year, we lost all but Good Friday. This year we at least have Easter Monday off. That's good. Sunday nights when there is no school on Mondays feels good.

Interesting weekend. I worked in the yard with some of the family. We got a ton of stuff bagged. Trimming the rose bushes was tiresome and dangerous. The new car got some mileage this weekend, but I haven't brought it to school yet. We did use my wife's ipod in it which was pretty cool. We don't have to drag a ton of CD's along on trips becuase we can put everything imaginable on the ipod, I mean 1000 songs.

It's cold again this week. I hope that it warms up a bit later this week. I wouldn't mind golfing. If it hits 50, I good but golfing in the 40's is too cold.

The big news. We got a new car. I stopped and thought about it and the last new car we bought, new from new, was a 1998 Plymouth Voyager, our very first mini van. So now we no longer have a van, we are officially vanless and driving an old people's car. I am quite frugal so this is a pretty good stretch for me. It's funny because as a kid growing up, my dad would get a new car pretty much every year. That's a bit how it was done, most people got new cars a lot more often than they do now. Since he was a business owner, I guess, and I'm not exactly sure, but I guess it was probably owned through the company. That's how a lot of them do it.

Haven't blogged for a couple days. PSSA testing is over. My kids were good.
Hope everyone passed.
Proficient. I'm proficient.
New tooth. It fits better today than it did yesterday. Glued in. I wonder who invented the glue that glues your teeth in.
Or my teeth. That is. My teeth. Or my tooth.
Baseball. Apple Pie. Food Oreos with double stuffing. Love them. It's weird, if you eat double stuff oreos and then go back to regular, it seems like something is missing. I wonder which cost more to make. You have to figure, there's fewer dark parts in the double stuffed oreos and more filling so if the filling is cheaper than the stuffing, then the double stuff are more profitable. I think about weird things.

This weekend the garage door opener broke. I fixed it but I must have pulled something in my back. It's a little better than this morning, but it's interesting, the idea of breathing being painful.
Musical was great Friday. I am sorry I didn't get to see the other cast.
The Chinese takeout includes free doughnuts. They say they're doughnuts but really they are pieces of the worst thing for you, dough made of white flour deep fried in oil and then while still dripping with oil rolled in refined sugar. As you eat them, you can feel your arteries clogging. I wait for the oil to drip down my fingers and off my elbow.
I could take a nap. PSSA's start tomorrow. Those will be great. Love to give them.
On Saturday I stopped at Wertz Candies. There was a little girl there. Her mom was buying candy and I looked down at her, she was just so happy and looked up at me and smiled and said hi, and I said, she's like a kid in a candy store. I just thought that was hilarious but I seemed to be the only one. Didn't even get a smirk from the proprietor. Oh well. As long as I'm amusing myself, that's really all that matters.

TGIF. Does that restaurant still exist? Haven't seen one in awhile. I think the last one I remember was at Park City and I haven't been there for awhile.
Musical tonight. Break legs and all that. Do they really break legs?
AR today, but it seemed that most people were using the computers to blog.
Random thought.
Random acts of kindness.
Our new pastor is visiting this weekend. He won't be coming in his official capacity for a few months while his old church is able to find a minister to replace him. So this is sort of a get a feel for the area trip. He's originally from Texas, but he is moving from North Dakota. That's big. When he came last time to complete his candidating, he mentioned how cold it was in ND. So who would think, move to PA to be warm....