Listening to the small things

It has been a while since I have been able to get out by myself. Jenny has been working in the morning, and I have been staying up late for some reason or another. It's funny, if I don't get up before everyone else, I don't generally go out with Chaucer. I guess its something about commitments. Even if Jenny is home, if the kids are up and aware, I feel obligated to be there for them. I have this inner feeling that if I leave the house, things may go awry. I guess that's a lot of psych stuff to be carrying.

I loved the silence this morning. It was 57 degrees out. The horseflies don't fly when its that cold. The mosquitoes are kind of past. I walked and thought. I miss this time. I need to retrain myself to get up early again, especially in the light of school starting in a couple of weeks. I feel that too.

The peeper (frog) had climbed up to head level on this milkweed. Just part of the chorus of sounds that hold me in the morning. The caterpillar didn't really contribute, but it was so.... raggey? It looks like someone knit it out of wool or something. The caterpillars are out now. I love em, bright and crazy looking, eating everything in sight.

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My kingdom for a microbe!

We bought Henry this Microscope for Christmass this year from a medical overstock website, and we have yet to actually see anything living under it. Jen even pricked herself and put her own blood on a slide, but by the time we prepared it, everything was completely brown and stagnant. We went to Comet Pond today and swam in between thunder strikes. We saw some old friends there (Hi Dave if you are reading this entry) and I made sure to get a sample so he could check it out. Well half an hour and three preparations and..... nothing. Some algae, I guess that counts as living, but nothing moving. Henry boldly proclaimed discoveries, "Its a Water Bear!" No Henry that was a piece of sand. "Dad... I think that's a Hydra!" Nope, that's a plant fiber. "Dad... is that a Donut?!" That's a bubble.
Tomorrow I am going to go down and scrape some of that snotty green stuff that grows in the river behind our house and smear it all over several slides and find something that moves. Well, that's the plan any way.

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Two things I have never seen

Well, I have been sick again. The Norovirus hit us again. Twice this year. It put all of us down for three days now. I could go into detail, but I promise it wasn't pretty here. Henry got it somewhere a week or so ago and then gave it to the rest of us, who came down with symptoms three days ago. It hit like a brick wall. Within one hour, I went from perfectly fine to amazingly sick. Three days later and I am still dizzy and I haven't really eaten anything but brothy chicken soup. So... that's whats up here.  This post is actually from a few days ago.

The morning of the day that I got sick, I went on a three hour hike through the park. It is a route that I have taken before, and one that I particularly like. It winds through open pasture, deep pine woods, huge oak trees, narrow bogs and its circular (something that I really love). I love it when I can out-hike Chaucer. By the end (well not the very end where he jumps into the river before getting back into the truck) he was completely dragging his feet. One new indispensable item that I have loved taking with me recently is this electrifying racket thing that zaps flies out of the air. My parents gave it to me. I shunned it as overly gadgety for a while, but man, the sharp zap and burnt popcorn smell of frying the crap out of any horsefly that dares fly around my head is worth the embarrassment of not "roughing it."

I saw a couple oddities today, one of which completely stumped my knowledge of nature. (We'll get to that one later) First, I thought that these ducks were a bunch of female mallards all congenially chumming around with each other all lined up on this log. But, upon a bit more research, I think these might be Mexican Ducks. (No lie). I guess they are a derivation of mallard that has lost the male's coloration. New to me....

By the way, a couple of things before we get going, first, please remember that you can click on any of these pictures to get the big version, and second, if you click the title of my blog, it will take you to the whole blog and you can scroll through old entries. I actually enjoy doing that quite a bit. Right, now for the stumper. I was way in the woods aspect of my hike (about two hours in) when Chauc tromped off on a little side path like he always does. I followed him in a bit and I found this tree. It's hard to see in the picture, as it was in real life. Take a close look though, its growing in an arch. Both sides of this maple are rooted into the ground. There is nothing bending and holding down the top. It's rooted there. A natural, growing archway in the middle of the woods. I wouldn't be honest if I told you I didn't walk through it half-expecting something crazy to happen. Well.... I guess the norovirus did hit us that night... maybe its cursed. Who knows............

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80's rock and paint fumes

Jenny took the kids to Templeton Center today, and I stayed home and painted the new shelves and actually the whole bathroom. I am actually pretty happy with the way the shelves and the bathroom came out. I also touched up a few things upstairs: the window sills, the doors, etc. It took about five hours to finish up today. I still have a couple other places to paint, but that will have to wait for another day.

It was nice to work at things by myself. Just me and Van Halen... and a tiny bit of Van Hagar. Painting is like weeding a garden, if you let it, it can be somewhat soothing. It was good day, I am proud of how the bathroom came out.

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Swim Lessons

Pieces of conversation I heard the lifeguard (my ex-student) Sean say to Henry as Henry tried to convince him not to take him into the pool.

1. "Ha, you're right Henry, you don't have any blubber, but you still have to go in."
2. "No the water isn't attacking you Henry."
3. "No, I don't know how water striders stay on the surface of the water."

Needless to say, Henry doesn't like his swim lessons. He had a pretty rough day yesterday. Jenny and I took the kids canoeing on Long Pond in Barre. Henry did NOT want to go in the Canoe. He pleaded, and actually cried, and I learned something about helping Henry get over his fears. Don't be convincing, just be calm. I had in mind that archetypal coach figure that calmly faces difficulties and is unshaken, unexcitable. I certainly never had a coach like that. I must have seen an account of one on tv or something. Unemotional, reliable, calm. Its not that he needs me to explain why things aren't scary, he just needs me to be unafraid, and unexcitable. He finally allowed me to get him in the canoe and to progressively go further down the river with him. He said he found it to be calm and nice. Thank god it was different experience than the bikes.

Then, to top off his two terrifying experiences, Henry got that throwup thing that's going around last night. He slept it off and was fine the today... although, he did say he was too tired to go to swim lessons  :)

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prattling on and on...

I am an English Teacher. I didn't know I was going to become one. I went to college to pursue psychology. I didn't even really know I was going to go to college. I spent seven years after high school working pretty awful jobs. It was Jenny who finally suggested that I go to college. It is something that I will never be able to thank her enough for. I remember quite clearly how my life felt like it was closing in around me. I had hit, kind of an end. College, for me, was life. I found myself there in a way that many never do.

I hated school (for several reasons, a couple of them my own fault) and barely lived through it. I never saw college as an option at all. My first class, this one at Worcester State (I ended up at Umass Amherst), was an eye opener. I managed to score a motherly professor... I use motherly loosely as she was kind of fond of sexual jokes.... hmm... how... psychological.  At any rate, I loved the class, walked away with a my first "A" in a class.... possibly ever. That started a chain of classes, part time, then full, that were complete successes. It was something that I can only equate to Harry Potter going from muggledom to Hogwarts. Looking backward, I can see I had always wanted to read the big books.... literature. I tried "War and Peace"... drowned.... I read Melville... loved it, well most of it. then in college I was introduced to  Flannery O'Conner, Shakespeare obviously, Goethe, on and on. Still Steinbeck was my favorite, "In Dubious Battle," So good. I graduated Summa Cum Laude. I earned so much money in scholarships that I didn't have any bills at the end of my undergraduate degree. I was accepted into all sorts of honor societies. (one of which had a secret handshake!!! YES!! Phi Beta Kappa...) This was a life of honor and I was kind of the center of it. I attended one consortium class that served us lunch every day as we pondered the possibilities of college level education and its place in society. If any of you that are reading this were friends with me in High School you will understand how crazy this seems. This is me?!?!

After a high pressure talk with my mentor professor, I decided to teach school. (All the pressure was him trying to talk me out of it.) I got my Masters in one year. Henry was born that year, and I wanted to be working by the time he came around. All of that ego came to a huge crash in school system. I teach well. I have a good reputation and solid rapport with my students. But all of the special treatment kinda goes away in the trenches. I have "ideas" about school based on all of my "experience" and I am not afraid to put them into play. All of this to say that I have opinions, ideas and a slight ego = scary.

Well, that was kind of a tangent. I was going to write about why I have so many books around here.Jenny and I organized the kids' libraries today. I do love when a house is overrun with them... oozing out of every pore.  Henry loves reading. He's into it. He actually reads nonfiction most of the time... but I will convert him in time. Oh yes. Nora isn't as interested, and I feel kind of guilty about that. I read to Henry constantly, not as constant with Nora. I still read to her, but not as much. I am trying to have a half-an-hour reading time at the end of every day. We all read during the day, especially when we take a trip to the library, but this time is devoted, to reading. I am determined to make Henry and Nora's experience in school far better than mine. So far, Henry's has been great. He has had good caring teachers that treat him with patience and respect. I am going to be very involved with his learning for a good long time.

I am a proponent of education. Good education. Education, that changes people. It should be alive, and giving. I want this for Henry and Nora and for all of my students.

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Raining...

Its been raining for a couple of days here. The kids are going a bit stir crazy... actually, to be honest, they're fine. I am going a bit stir crazy. I wanted to get away today, but nothing was fitting the plan. So, we stayed in and watched the olympics: Fencing, Women's volleyball, and a bit of swimming. Henry and Nora actually jumped and cheered when we took the fencing match! After that, popcorn and an Olympic Ceremony inspired, Mr. Bean movie. Henry loved it, Nora didn't really get it all.... can't wait to go outside...