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.