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Friday, August 31, 2007
FIRST VISIT TO LIBRARY
I went to the new library today for the first time; I was only at the "building" about a month ago for a meeting. This time I went into the actual section that has books. Guess what they also have? Easy chairs that look out to the lake and a fireplace with chairs and a loveseat close to it. So, I think I will just wind up going there in the fall, winter and spring and selecting a slim 7-Day book with big print off the Bestseller cart and reading it in front of the fire. No, not sitting there 7 days; just, you know, reading through the day. Unless it is really super big print and then it will take a morning. I wonder if I can bring hotdogs?
But wait, I have been up since about 4:30 am when, after having lain awake for about 30 minutes, I decided to get up and shower and get a start on a day of taking Robert's leg to the doctor in Fort Wayne and running errands. ACK!
One of those errands will be to get a new gas cap since I forgot to put the old - now lost - one back on the last time I filled-up. Rats.
Oh did I mention I received a self-illuminating gnome from my brother-in-law for my birthday. Yes, I will get a pictures of it, both au natural and glowing in the dark. I know you are waiting with quickened pulses. Well, be patient.
In addition to his leg, Robert also has a cold - a heavy one - and it casts its own shadow on the day. HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA. "Cast," get it? I kill me.
Actually, I just realized I truly dislike the idea that the kids will come in 30 minutes later on Wednesday. Were this Monday, Tuesday, Thursday or Friday, I your Jody Correspondent would have finished the school drop of run and just have to aim Colin out to the bus.
Now, here I sit on this Wednesday realizing I am going to have to go start the car up again and make a trip to the high school just about the time Colin should be getting on the bus.
It is Wednesday but my mind is thinking it's a week-end day, so I must remind myself that I have to get three kids off to school. Oh, right, it is Wednesday and that means an extra school delivery trip because the teachers meet for a half-hour in the morning and the entire schedule is pushed back 30 minutes.
We're coming up on the first anniversary of Steve Irwin's death by stingray. Still seems impossible to accept.
Yes, even the middle school had an announcement about Mars getting closest to the Earth, maybe getting the information from HERE. A quote from that site:
Mars will look as large as the full moon to the naked eye.
Mars will be easy to spot. At the beginning of August it will rise in the east at 10p.m. and reach its azimuth at about 3 a.m.
By the end of August when the two planets are closest, Mars will rise at nightfall and reach its highest point in the sky at 12:30a.m. That's pretty convenient to see something that no human being has seen in recorded history. So, mark your calendar at the beginning of August to see Mars grow progressively brighter and brighter throughout the month.
Share this with your children and grandchildren.
NO ONE ALIVE TODAY WILL EVER SEE THIS AGAIN
However, the real scoop is this:
Is it true?
Not only is this not true for this year, at least part of it is not true ever.
"Mars will look as large as the full moon to the naked eye."
If Mars ever looked as large as the moon, everyone on Earth would probably die very soon.
Want to read that yourself, just click RIGHT HERE.
I haven't been here since Friday, and even then it was a puny little post. Yesterday was my birthday; I am now 25. HA!
Summer is sitting beside me aghast that her grandmother is only 25. Well, truth is stranger than fiction they say. She came home from school with the idea that Mars was going to be the closest to the earth ever and as big as the moon on Sunday night at 12:38 am. Well, it was a hoax . . . an urban legend.
It is hot and humid and maybe is going to storm; I have an interview with a lady for an article; Sydney needs to be fed and I need to remember to take my camera and microphone for the ipod. So much on my shoulders . . .
Hello, I am liveblogging a Mother morning call, although I have to do it on a Word document and then transfer it because . . . ack . . . there is no internet reception on the porch. I am holding the phone between my ear and shoulder . . . thank heavens for shoulders.
She is talking about continuous storms last night, wind and pouring rain. I sort of woke up once to thunder, so I suppose I slept through most of it. She says, “It says storms today.”
When Lucy was alive, Mother kept the cellar door open for her because she was afraid of thunder. Now Lucy sleeps beneath her little shrine to the southeast of the porch.
Mother may mow today if it dries off enough, but that is iffy because she lives between two rivers on what they used to call the island in the old days. I think they were more aware of waterway paths in then because it was the easiest form of travel. Mother says she thinks they used to call it that as an island.
The store and mill were big things there then she is telling me.
The sun is out in LaGrange as well as here and she is talking about being surrounding by humidity.
Summer’s chia pet is getting his hair now, although it looked like maggots when it first started spouting.
Now I am telling her about the “muffin top” look that some girls have from wearing pants that are too small for their waists.
I think Mother is in one of her crabby moods, which is almost all the time. She says on her tombstone it should say, “She did it her way.” I think it should say, “Crabby to the End.”
Now, she is wondering if the big mowing tractor will start; it is only a year old and wouldn’t start on two different times and she was not pleased. I don’t want to be there if it doesn’t start again. She will probably have them haul it off and get a John Deere instead.
Oh, rats. It turns out that kids don't have to be at the high school on Wednesday's until 8:15 am, and that throws a cog in the schedule of getting kids to both the high school and the middle school. Rats, rats and double rats.
On my arm, my right forearm to be specific. It burns and it itches and is all bumpy. On another health angle, I am going to have some moles removed the morning of my birthday - at least the first batch of them.
Two off to school this morning, one more to go and then do the happy dance . . .
Well, it seems as if this isn't new and goes back to 2005/2006 when Ann Linson, principal at East Noble, implemented a teacher's collaboration meeting during the first 30 minutes of school. It cuts out scheduled study halls that day and makes the 30 minutes at the beginning of the day a study hall period for all kids.
Buses run the same schedule.
In 2005, Linson cited Homestead High School*, which has a collaboration period and an 85% ISTEP passage statistic. I am not certain that the ISTEP is really helping Indiana students or not; it seems a lot of effort goes into getting the very marginal student to eke out a passing mark at the expense of talented students. I think we should question the No Child Left Behind policy as actually shortchanging students who are capable of leaping forward. So, in effect, they are being left behind.
*Homestead is in the affluent Aboite Township in Southwest Fort Wayne, not far from Lutheran Hospital.
In a quest for better eating habits and less calories consumed, I have undertaken to chew every bite 35 times. This little project has an unexpected effect - it gives the dog a lot more time to beg. It takes some time to chew one bite 35 times and he is not patient, so I wind up giving him three or four nibbles to my one bite, which, I guess, is also a way to not eat as many calories.
That's the temperature here and I'm not complaining. Last week the temperature was close to 100˚ and I was complaining. Oh, Gods of Coolness, I sing your praises. On top of the lack of heat, it rained. Yea, oh, yea - the drought is over we think, although it will make the grass grow.
Taking Robert to the cast doctor; he got it off and is wearing his boot, which is made of plastic, metal, velcro straps and padded material. Still no walking for two weeks. Then I lost my phone, but someone found and called one of the numbers on it so I was able to get it back . . . after going back to Fort Wayne. But that was a cheap price to have it in my little paw again.
I have some weeds in my grass and my mother has some really non-grass funky green things in the area that she mows up in LaGrange County. So, I guess we don't have lawns; we have yards. I believe yards are lower class than lawns, but that's okay. I'm comfortable with it.
Mother and I mowed last Friday on a Wheel Horse and a riding Toro mower; the grass wasn't too high, but the buckhorns were sticking right up there. It was satisfying to see the scraggly patch become more eye-pleasing. Another thing I like about mowing is that no one bothers you - you are left with your thoughts.
Sydney was there with us and we thought he'd lie in the shade with his water dish and watch us, sort of like his breed watches sheep. He, however, thought he would jump up frequently and run out to my little tractor and then follow behind me in the heat and humidity. I had on a hat; he did not. So Mother and I actually took a break earlier than intended to give the dog a rest. He drank water and we thought about spiking it with Gatorade when mowing in the future. I had some Lipton Diet Iced Tea (peach flavored) and mother went with some Lipton Lemon.
The cats kept their distance, even though they know Sydney is a pussycat. Once when I was in California and he was staying with Mother, a little kitten adopted him and slept on his paws. Sydney's Kitten we called it. Actually, one of the furballs, Tippy or Tiffany, showed up for a while before we left, but we saw nothing of the cat called The Little One.
We didn't visit Lucy Lib's little cat shrine at her burial site, but Sydney is thinking of leaving a memorial there - 101 Things to do with a Dead Cat. Okay, bad joke, bad joke.
Period 1 7:45 – 8:55 Period 2 9:01 – 10:11 Period 3 10:17 – 11:27 Period 4 11:33 – 1:12 Lunch A 11:33 – 11:58 Lunch B 12:02 – 12:27 Lunch C 12:47 – 1:12 Academic Lab 1:18 – 1:43 Period 5 1:48 – 2:58
Wednesday
Period 1 8:15 - 9:25 Period 2 9:31 – 10:41 Period 3 10:47 - 11:57 Period 4 12:03 – 1:42 Lunch A 12:03 – 12:28 Lunch B 12:32 – 12:57 Lunch C 1:17 – 1:42 Period 5 1:48 – 2:58
Now, excuse me, but what is the point of Wednesday being different? The website indicates no reason that I can find. It appears that Academic Lab is eliminated on Wednesday and the start of the day delayed.
Of course I think it is too early for kids to head back to school; it is mid-August after all. However, the three kids in this house will be heading back to the schoolhouse tomorrow . . . and that has some benefits for the level of decorum and the psychological welfare of the dog.
First of all, that abbreviation or acronym - NOLA - drives me crazy in the way a gnat or mosquito can send you into a swatting mood. When the hurricane occurred, it seemed as if everyone was writing and/or saying NOLA. Two syllables; New Orleans is three. One more syllable. All right, I can see that it would be less typing and of use for weather professionals, but I think regular joes suddenly saying NOLA is too much.
Shoot, now I have forgotten what I was going to say about New Orleans. Thinking . . . thinking . . . ah, so what does it look like now? Does it smell down there? Is the Ninth Ward just one big rotten junk pile? Is New Orleans shrinking down to a tourist place and Tulane . . . and frankly why is Tulane making the students work in the city? Why doesn't the university just move and use student labor to help do so?
Can you guess that I think the idea of having a city on a shrinking Gulf landscape is not a great idea?
Some extra stuff: Here's a link from the Washington Post about rebuilding in New Orleans which includes this telling sentence - "But experts involved in the rebuilding believe that the helter-skelter return of residents to this low-lying metropolis may represent another potential disaster."
Then there is this paragraph:
"There are areas where it doesn't make any sense to rebuild -- they got 20 feet of water in Katrina," said Tom Murphy, a former Pittsburgh mayor who served on an Urban Land Institute panel for post-Katrina planning. "In those places, nature is talking to us, and we ought to be listening. I don't think we are."
We were talking today about the recycling codes on plastic bottles and I couldn't remember exactly what I had been told when I did an article on recycling, using the Northeast Indiana Solid Waste District as a source. I researched it on their site and here is the link to the correct page.
ALUMINUM beverage containers, aluminum foil, pie or dinner trays.
Rinse. No food debris, please.
CARDBOARD (Corrugated) Corrugated box-board in which cases of grocery items, appliances & other products may be packaged.
Break down boxes and flatten. Keep separate from newsprint.
CHIPBOARD Food cartons, shoe boxes, tissue boxes, tablet back, etc.
Remove wax/paper insert from food carton. Flatten.
NEWSPRINT Newspapers.
Bundle in paper bags or tie with sturdy string. Keep dry
PLASTICS Milk, water and juice jugs, soft drink bottles, colored detergent bottles. Look for symbols with 1 or 2 on bottom of containers.
Rinse and flatten. Remove lids and pumps. Motor oil containers; plastic wraps/bags; food debris and containers marked 3-7 should NOT be left in bins.
TIN (STEEL) CANS Fruit, vegetable and other food cans. Tin (steel) cans will be attracted by a magnet.
Please rinse.
MAGAZINES Glossy magazine and catalogs.
Bundle in paper bags. Separate from newsprint. Keep dry.
HOUSEHOLD BATTERIES Standard, rechargeable and button. No Car or PowerWheel Batteries, PLEASE.
Drop loose into designated bin mounted at end of drop off unit.
This story is interesting. We are wondering why she doesn't just put her boat in one of those adjustable current pools. Actually, it just seems not worth it, but then since she rowed the Atlantic, I guess she knows what thrill it gives her. She will have satellite positioning, internet and satellite phone.
Let's see, after The Deadliest Catch made a star out of Sig and the Northwestern, there has come Ice Road Truckers and now a show tonight about lobstermen. Okay, we will see if they have an Olaf or Ralph or Amos or someone who is interesting.
I missed the show. Well, maybe I can catch a rerun. Somehow, I am just not all excited about lobsters. Hmmmm, what was the Andrea Gail in The Perfect Storm searching for? Must look that up.
For the first part of the summer it was soooo hot . . . and sooooo dry and now we are sitting in a steamy Amazonian jungle atmosphere. At least the grass didn't grow while it was dry, although it did appear to be turning into a sort of mold such as you might find on cheese. I have air-conditioning and think if I did not, I would be cursing the heat and praying for it to break. Hmmmm, I am doing that anyway, so I guess without air-conditioning I would be homicidal. Potential victims should beware of power outages.
After doing a little research, I have discovered that Wal-Mart Corporate fellows are telling the workforce they should conduct themselves on a schedule to a system used by Honda. Honda, by the way, is a Japanese product and Sam Walton made Wal-Mart famous for the Made in America slogan.
They tell me when Sam was alive, the workers could interact with their home community, school schedules and easily accommodate unplanned events such as illness and the need for a personal day. Well, now, the employees have to call Bentonville in ARKANSAS if they are sick. Need a personal day, well, you can schedule three weeks in advance. You are required to clock-in within a ten minute window and clock-out within a ten minute window. Of course, you should be on time, but should you be penalized if a customer's needs keep you a few minutes beyond clock-out time.
Very rigid, very oriented toward the Japanese manner of treating workers as nameless, faceless cogs. Not exactly small town America. So when you hear the name Wal-Mart, don't think of Walton's Mountain.
Oh, did I mention bathroom breaks are strictly regulated?
AUGUST 8 - Cameron is going to freshman orientation from 8:30 am until 1 pm. That's great. Starting high school. The school year starts August 16th.
August 16th??? Whatever happened to the last two weeks of August being family vacation time? It is, after all, pretty much the hottest time of the summer. Labor Day marked the end of summer, the start of fall and the back-to-school movement . . . not to mention the cutoff date for wearing white shoes. Okay, the last thing I can see changing, but school so early in August? Heck no.
Summer and I spent the afternoon shopping for and making homemade pizzas; we used deli pepperoni, hamburger, green peppers, orange peppers, yellow peppers, red peppers, onions, bacon bits, chopped hot dogs, ground up hot dogs, ground up sausage, seasonings and two types of cheese. We were awesome.
Cast day for Robert, this time at the Clinton office. We will head down about 9:30 am, dropping Colin off at the middle school for his two-hour session. Wait here a moment, I am going to go check the weather. Oh great:
Mostly Sunny
High 94° F
Precip:
0%
Sunny to partly cloudy. Hot. High 94F. Winds SW at 5 to 10 mph.
Explorers used to go into unknown territory to see what was there; I am going into the realm of blogs to see what I can add, and, in writing posts about my life here in Northeast Indiana, to see what I can discover about myself and the place I live. Maybe this is not so much a new-fangled blog as it is an old-fashioned pot-bellied stove around which stories and news are exchanged and shared.
Yo, there. Okay, I don't exactly look like my picture here. I have written for some papers in different places and at present I am writing for the Kendallville Mall. You may have read some of my articles; you may not have.
A lot of the time I write for myself, and sometimes I don't do it on paper. Sometimes I write in my mind where the words can soothe or encourage or firmly establish a feeling in my memory place. Would that be my heart? Maybe.
Sometimes I write funny stuff; I think I am at times melancholy. I don't think of myself as a writer or storyteller. I believe I just have a need to attach words to things.
Perhaps it is a way of praying , a need such as that expressed by C.S. Lewis in the movie Shadowlands:"That's not why I pray, Harry. I pray because I can't help myself. I pray because I'm helpless. I pray because the need flows out of me all the time, waking and sleeping. It doesn't change God. It changes me."
