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.