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.