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.