Lazing Around...

It is 3:57 am...but not where I am sitting. It is time for a leisurely cup of morning coffee with my wife and three dogs all asnoozing. Ah, the vacation life...

It has been a little on the less busy side during the last few days. I have been focusing on taking care of late year business, including ordering a new bike to replace the stolen one. I am excited, and I hope that the store can deliver on the promise to have it in my hot little hands by the end of next week. I just want to touch it-there is no place to ride it now. I know it is silly, but it gets me looking forward to summer and the riding season. I could use the motivation to get myself back on the spin bike when I get back to Napaskiak.

On this last day of the year, I am taking a minute to be thankful for all of the people who make my life good. I hope that they know who they are, because they are too numerous to mention. To all my friends and family, in PKA and Cadillac and points in between, thanks for your support in 2010, and I hope to make 2011 nearly as memorable. You make this silly effort at self-expression worthwhile, and you make the world a little easier to deal with. The top prize, of course, has to go to my loving and supportive wife, who puts up with all of my crap every day of the year, and somehow manages to wear a smile (at least most of the time). Honey-you are the best, and I am a very lucky man.

Happy New Year to everyone!

A Quick Update

We made it back through the air transit system and back to Cadillac with a minimum of fuss...it is nice to be back, and we have been running at a rapid pace since then. We have ensconced ourselves at the decidedly cushy J.W. Marriott hotel in Grand Rapids for a couple of days. Christmas with all of the kiddies was a blast, and we are currently visiting with more family in West Michigan. The necessary appointments all come up this week, and I anticipate a trip to Southeastern Michigan to visit with my family next weekend. It is all a whirl. I will try to post a few photos as soon as I can figure out how to go and find them. For now, it is off to visit some more this afternoon, and then dinner with our friends Ella and Don. There is a steam room here, and I intend to use it this evening and tomorrow morning.

Holidays!!

The Last Monday...

Gone in a flash-the day, the Christmas pageant, the clean-up afterwards. There is just tomorrow and the rush to the airport in Bethel tomorrow night. We are heading to the east coast and what I might have thought of as civilization, and I again have some mixed emotions. I know that we will both be glad for the break, and there are so many people that we want to see back in Michigan. There are all kind of necessities to take care of, such as dentist appointments and dog haircuts. Just the same, it is going to feel slightly alien after four and a half months out here. Maybe even more than slightly alien. I may even be a little intimidated by the thought...weird. I will never understand some things about life, and my reaction to it.

I am going to miss it here.

Wooosh...

Many tasks have been accomplished, some are still left to be done...we have the Christmas pageant tonight. We washed two totes full of laundry yesterday in preparation, and I think that the emergency lesson planning is complete. I even turned in three assignments for my multicultural course. Hell, I even got the responses back from the instructors already!

Today is the day to put away the snow machine-I will have the chance to do it before it gets dark. I don't believe that the lights in the storage building work. Of course, I can always use the nifty little headlamp that my sweetie got me after the "no flashlight" goof-up of a few weeks ago. I believe that we have the electronics just about squared away-some of them are going into secure storage-I do not feel like supplying thieves with them as we did a year ago. I am hopeful that the presence of neighbors here will discourage that sort of activity in our absence.

There is a full day of class today and a half tomorrow. That is all. Of course, sometimes those can seem to be very long. The kids are a little unfocused and antsy. All that any of us want to be is on holiday break. I am sure that we will get through it.

I am very happy with several of my kids, who have been helping with preparing the backdrops for the Christmas pageant. They are showing me some nice signs of maturity.

If I must sum up, and it seems to be a human failing, I would say that I am pleased overall with the way things have gone in the first semester. There is, of course, room for improvement and growth. But I am at a much different place than I was last year at this time.

Sunday Labors

It is time to get it together. We have about 72 hours before we leave for the Eastern Time Zone. We have our list of things that we must accomplish. We just need to get it done.

Changed Plans

We went up to Saturday Market as planned. The visibility was tricky for me, so I left the driving to my better half. I cannot ride with my glasses on, because they fog (or ice)up, and I cannot see the difference between the snow and fog very well without them. On our way back, the fog had increased, and my goggles iced up entirely. Getting back was a challenge.

We had intended to return this afternoon, and things had gotten briefly clearer. However, the fog came back, perhaps even thicker, in the past half hour. We decided that a party, however pleasant, was simply not worth the peril. It will be a quiet evening, with a little local visiting thrown in, for good effect. Fun is nice, but safety is important, and things can get tricky quickly out here. Our best wishes to all our friends in Bethel tonight.

A Busy Weekend...

We will be riding together this weekend for the first time in a while...the lady and me are off to Bethel, first for another Saturday Market (keep your fingers crossed, Steve!), and then back later for an evening get-together with actual adults. We are gathering, I suspect, as a Christmas celebration of sorts before the big migration starts later this week. Some sites have already released for the holiday, but the big movement will come this week, by the sounds of it.

In the meantime, the necessities of teacher life have not faded-there are still emergency lesson plans and sub plans and data boards to submit and grades to enter. The deadline for grades comes upon our return, so I would just as soon enter and have done with it. There is also preparation necessary for Christmas around the world on Monday morning, and the pageant on Tuesday night. Finally, we need to put some things away. The snowmachine needs to go back into storage, and our electronics need to get safely stored, in case anyone decides to stop by for an unannounced visit while we are gone.

Assuming that we can get this all together and are not stopped from exiting the village because our work is not done, we can get on a plane on Wednesday night and fly for a few hours and be magically transported to the madness that will be O'Hare airport two days before Christmas.

The only complicating factors then will be traffic and weather.

Assuming a favorable coordination of the stars, we will be home in Cadillac by that afternoon. Home is becoming a much more nebulous concept as I spend more time here. I think that my home now is simply where I am, whether it is Napaskiak or Cadillac. And that strikes me as a good thing. I am not sure that I would choose to lose the people here as a part of my life. The struggle to learn and get better is a hard one, often. It is discouraging a great deal of the time, because it seems as if the goal is constantly moving. But this place is now a large part of me, good and bad together.

I do not think that I could remove it now anymore than I could cut out my heart.

Friday!

Woo-hoo!!

Hmmm...

I am feeling worn down with resistance...so few of us seem to want to keep going through the motions, but we must. I sense no great joy in any of that. I seem to be angry too much of the time, and that is not healthy and does not help. The consolation, I suppose, is that it will be over for a while, and the sparring partners can go back to their corners for a while.

Oh, Never Mind...

One More Monday..

Aggravating morning, promising afternoon...some days it is like that. Besides, any Monday that has promise in it is very good indeed. And there is only one left to go. Not bad.

My tykes are probably struggling to focus on anything more substantial than getting out for the holidays, and I understand-I am having the same problem. Somehow we got through the day without any lasting damage, and some of them stayed to help with the Christmas pageant decorations. They really love me after the school day is over...funny, huh? It's like my wife says-at least they love you some of the time. Can't complain about that.

So we are down to, as a friend put it recently, "7 more alarm clock rings!" I certainly like the sound of that. My kids are ready for a break from me, most likely. Sort of. I mentioned the break today after school to one of them and she cheered, and said, "But you will be coming back." She tried to look disappointed, but she was smiling...on to tomorrow.

A Delightful Sunday...

It seemed that nearly all of my acquaintances were online at some point or another today. It made for a very pleasant day of catching up with all kinds of friends. Most of them were chatting about the heavy snowfall in Northern Michigan. Nineteen inches of snow had fallen on Cadillac as of the last posting from the local television station. More is likely on the way. My understanding is that power is out in many areas, and some main roads have been closed. Fun. I hope that this kind of nonsense is out of the way by the time that we head home in ten days.

I spent most of the day hanging out quietly with my bride and enjoying the company. Oh, yeah, and lesson plans got done, but I don't care about that. Christmas is coming, kiddies...

Errata:

Brenda was subbing at the post office on the day that the meat went missing. Her regular job is at the preschool. Sorry for the misunderstanding.

Why Yes, It Is Winter...

Up at the crack of 6 a.m., because the dog thought it necessary. Sara Jung and I had decided to zip up to the Saturday Market in Bethel and do a little scouting for some stuff for friends. We did not leave until the crack of 10:30, because that is when the damn sun comes up around here these days. My hands were really cold on the way up, mostly because I had been doing too many things without gloves on, not thinking about how cold it really was. I was afraid of frostbite for a while, but my hands were none the worse for wear when I took off my mittens at the Cultural Center in Bethel.

The day was pleasant, and we shopped and went for sushi lunch at VIP, and went to the AC to do some shopping.

The best part of the day came after we got back to Napaskiak. My sweetie sent me a text message saying that they were going to the plane over in Bethel and that it was time to go out to the airport and help pick everyone up. One of the planes was so loaded with luggage that I thought it might tip back on its tail.

So, my honey is home, and we have seven days with kiddies before we leave for the holiday break. All is well, even if it is cold here. It is the kind of a night that makes me grateful for a roof over my head and a functioning heating system. I understand that my friends back in the Midwest are getting hit with a hellacious snowstorm. I hope that they are all safe and warm. I will be seeing many of them in the very near future.

3:45 Sunset Pictures...

The Mystery of the Missing Meat and Other Adventures...

The week is done, and that is a happy thing. There have been many momentous occasions in the past seven days.

Thursday night, I arrived home after a long and busy day. I felt quietly exhilarated by the way that the day had gone. It was time to settle in and relax and enjoy the evening. My work week was nearly over. I settled into the easy chair in my pajamas. Ah...

The phone rang. It was my wife, calling from Fairbanks. Brenda had been trying to reach me. She was working at the preschool, and a meat delivery had been made there. Odd coincidence...we had a meat delivery that had not yet arrived...and as it turned out, the name on the packages suggested strongly that it was our meat delivery. It was now sitting on the porch at the preschool.

Damn. Eighty pounds of meat, in two boxes. I couldn't very well leave it there, although the temperatures were well below freezing. Heaven only knows what an enterprising dog, or fox, or human for that matter, would do with such a bounty. Suffice it to say that if the meat was ever to see the inside of our freezer, it would be up to me.

Off I went, to change out of my p.j.'s and into clothing suitable for single-degree temperatures. Off I went, to the school, to get a hand dolly, so that I could transport this mess. As I walked, muttering more curses about the way that things happen out here, I remembered that the last time we had such a delivery, the boxes themselves had fallen apart, leaving me scooping up packages of steak from the boardwalk...you don't suppose...

Of course you do. When I pulled the dolly up the ramp to the preschool, I noticed almost immediately that one of the boxes had only one band binding it, and was already partially open. The other was intact. If I could put that one on the bottom, and place the other on top of it and keep it intact...no such luck. Frozen packages of hamburger and sausage went skittering all over the porch. More curses. This approach was not going to work. On top of that, it was cold, and this was getting to be a pain in the ass. Perhaps the best thing to do was to return to the house and get the snowmachine, which still had the sled attached to it. That would work-I could scoop up the loose meat pucks into the sled and get them home that way.

Back to the home front. Grabbed the keys for the sno-go, headed out the door and down the steps. Tried to put the key into the padlock that secures the cable that we run through the tread to discourage theft. No go. Frozen. Again. I had spent almost a half hour getting the thing opened up on the previous Saturday when I took my beloved and her little ducklings to the plane for their excursion to Fairbanks. I had possessed two advantages that day. It was warmer, and it was lighter. Okay, it was light. Night falls here shortly after sunset, which comes at about 4:30 in the afternoon. I could not see a thing, and my glasses were quickly fogging up as I bent over in the cold.

At this point, one of my students happened to wander up. She politely inquired as to my activities. I mustered all of my patience (after all, none of this was her fault), and explained. She innocently asked about the whereabouts of my flashlight. There was a slight undertone of incredulity to the question. The slight tone of incredulity that suggested that I might not be possessed of intelligence sufficient to warrant me being licensed to teach. I was obliged to explain that all of the flashlights in our house were sitting in the school with dead batteries, because vocabulary flashlight tag is a more pressing need than finding our way around the house during one of our weekly blackouts. I am not sure of what she thought of this, but she was kind enough to offer me the rather faint light of her flip phone as a flashlight substitute. It didn't work, and the lock would not budge, but she was kind to me, and that helped restrain me from throwing the keys off into the snow where they would be lost until spring.

What now? Clearly, it was time for Plan C. The school sled. Yes. One of those plastic sleds with a rope on it. More curses. Up the stairs to the school door. Grabbed the sled. Kicked it down the stairs. Damn, that felt good.

Back to the preschool, were the last pretense of containment on the part of the broken box finally gave way, scattering hunks of meat halfway to Bethel. I sailed the cardboard over the porch railing on to the frozen boardwalk. I was in a mood that, at this point, defied description.

I learned one thing from this adventure. Scooping up various packages of frozen meat with mittens on would make a swell challenge on one of those silly TV reality shows. Even more cursing. I was beginning to get very inventive. I am very inventive when it comes to cursing already. I was getting even better. Finally, somehow, I got all of the meat into the sled. And the dolly, which had gotten left behind when I had the bright snowmachine idea. I now started hauling the mess toward home. As I walked, I was trying to figure out how to get all of the loose meat up the stairs to the house.

I finally settled on the obvious approach-haul the damn thing straight up the stairs. Not too much meat fell out. I abandoned the idea of throwing the meat through the window, first, because it was cold outside, and second, because it might have damaged our cool duct tape window screen. I got the meat back into the sled and hauled it into our entryway, where the big freezer was located. I began flinging meat into the freezer with gusto, picking the rebounds off from the floor and throwing them back again. Some required several repeat efforts.

I finally finished the thing off with a few more curses, hauled the sled and the dolly back to the school, and called it good. Only problem? It might be a bit of a bad idea to open the freezers around here quickly for the next little while.

The next morning, I got a call at school from a nice gentleman asking if I had gotten my meat delivery. I settled for the short version and just said "yes." I didn't think that he would want to hear the whole story.

Lucky 600

Those numbers have just built up quietly over time, almost without warning. Kind of like when you start creeping up on a milestone birthday and realize how long it has all been while still seeming like a short time.

I am in the middle of a long night's sleep. My body decided to send me to bed at 9 p.m., and now I am taking a break from doing that. I will be resuming that activity shortly. I am yawning heavily as I type.

Yesterday was kind of hectic and stressful, at least outwardly. I find those to be truly less stressful, and I think that has something to do with years of courtroom training, where it was important to be able to think clearly when things were difficult. I actually find days like yesterday to be kind of exhilarating.

We had the funeral of an elder yesterday. My understanding was that he had been the oldest person in the village. I went to the funeral for a while, out of respect for the family. Many of his grandchildren are or have been students of mine. His son is the president of our advisory school board. I had to leave for an AKT2 meeting. I would rather have stayed. The topic of the meeting was, oddly enough, connecting with the community. It was a productive meeting, however.

Today I will have some training in the afternoon, so I need to come up with some sub plans for a couple of hours worth of class. Nothing too challenging there. I also need to start making sure that I am ready to get out of here for the holidays-there are emergency lesson plans and sub plans to write, and grading to get done. And, of course, there are the submissions...always the submissions. I need to get them done before May. Kind of a pain, but unavoidable. My license has been renewed for another year, so I need to hold up my end of the deal, even if it is a ridiculous one.

This strange voyage continues. Some days are a whole lot better than others. Some days I would just as soon quit. But I haven't, and I suspect that I won't. Someone smart said something about a big part of life being about showing up. Guess that I will keep showing up for a while.

Two Mondays Left...

But you know that, if you pay any attention here...all quiet otherwise. Laundry is done and the dogs are snoozing comfortably, and I am going to read Harry Potter...

A Beautiful Day...

The sun is out today, which means that it is cold, but it is a very pleasant sight at this time of year. It looks like late afternoon or early evening at 1:45 in the afternoon, which should offer an idea of how little daylight there is to be had at this time of year. I am poking my way through the last couple of lesson plans for the week. Truth be known, I am a little dry for inspiration. I hope that it comes from somewhere soon. I want to watch the Sunday night game on my computer, and I don't want that stuff hanging over my head.

On to planning!

More Music and Moping...

I am living the bachelor life and not caring for it too much. I cleaned up around here and got the sno-go defrosted and running this morning so that six young women's luggage could be hauled to the airport. My companion is companioning elsewhere this week, so it is quiet and sort of gloomy around this house. Even the dogs are subdued. I got some lesson planning done, but I don't feel like doing it anymore, and I hate that stuff anyway. So now I am buying old music and listening to Led Zeppelin like it is 1978. Worse, even-"Exile on Main Street." I am basically rebuilding my old vinyl collection. And the absolute worst is that I have conflicting iTunes libraries. I don't even understand how the hell that works. If you bought it, you should be able to put it all together on one device. Maybe I just don't understand how the whole thing works, or maybe there is some sort of work-around, but it makes less than no sense.

There is no great reason to stay up while this downloads, but there is no likelihood that I am going to sleep any time soon, either. Blah.

I think I am going to have one night of self pity and then hit it in the morning and get the rest of my stuff done. No sense in blowing off two days when I have stuff to do and the prospect of blowing off more time in a couple of weeks. Besides, I'm just going to hate myself for it and feel crappier. Nope, I think that a good night's sleep is in order. And to all a good night...

On and Off...

The river was in pretty good shape for our trip to Bethel. Even the on and off, which usually involves water and high speed, was pretty simple. The dogs are in good shape, and are inoculated for another year. They even have their travel papers. I discussed Buddha's occasional seizure activity with the vet. I am not yet at the stage where I will begin giving him phenobarbital, as the seizures are not frequent or chronic. He has been doing this sporadically for the past year or so, but the seizures have all been short in duration. I don't like them, but they are not as frightening as they were at first, and he seems to be none the worse for wear afterwards.

I am getting ready for a quiet week, where I can catch up on some of the things that I have to catch up on. Not so much school work as outside stuff. Classes, AKT2, and stuff like that. I am, quite frankly, tired of both, but I have no choice at this point but to finish. Neither is adding anything of value to my life or my experience out here, but the rules must be followed, or consequences will follow. I am beginning to loathe the word "consequence." Just another empty educationese buzz word.

But it is Saturday, and the snow is lovely and can be traversed, and I am loved, and I can go and ride either my bike or the sno-go or both in a few hours. Mostly, I am debating about making that first cup of coffee for the day right now. It is early in the morning in Alaska, America, and we send you good day greetings...

That One's Done...

Another week in LKSD history...we are now on the verge of the PD part of the day's program, and the day was good. My smart board and my computer are now working more or less consistently together, which enabled me to get students up out of their seats and involved in their learning while being physically active. The board gives me a wonderful piece of equipment for that sort of thing, and the kids learn stuff without realizing it. Ha ha-stealth education!

We get to make the run to Bethel this afternoon with the dogs for a visit to the veterinarian for their shots and papers. The weather is kind of sketchy looking, but I believe that it can likely be done. I hope so, at least. After an evening's rest, I must prepare for a week of enforced bachelorhood at the hands of the Rose Urban-Rural Exchange program. My sweetie will be taking a group of our kids to Fairbanks to spend the week with our sister school there. I will be lonely, but I know that it gives the students a chance at experience that they would not otherwise have.

The semester grinds on toward its inevitable conclusion and the blessed Christmas break. I see little glimmers of hope and change among my students. It is nice.

Not Much To Say, But It's Almost Thursday...

And it's about time. We are all beginning to look at each other like some kind of exotic and unpleasant fungus, and for all that I know, we may all be one. The semester is quickly outliving its usefulness, and everyone just wants to be quit of it. Unfortunately, it won't go away and die a quick and quiet death. Not sure how to swear at it. Are semesters male or female?

So, we soldier on, like a boxer knocked out on his feet, some unknown synapses firing the legs and feet while the brain has gone on holiday. The question is how long the body stays upright before the final message gets delivered.

...and I've got Pandora on and I should be going to bed because it's late and good teachers get their rest, but they are playing "Gimme Shelter," and it still hooks something dark and frightened in my heart just like it did the first time that I heard it over forty years ago. What fascinates me about that kind of imagery? Like Allyson said earlier tonight, sometimes you have to just sit in the dark with the music...

Monday and Tuesday, In The Record Books Again...

Home waiting for dinner. Got my feet up. Can barely stay awake. I suspect that this is the night that I get some adequate sleep. It will be nice for a change. On the other hand, it might be fun to watch a movie or something. I have had my first of two evaluations for the year. I think that I am done with formal observations for the time being, and I am glad of it.

Tomorrow we will sit down and discuss one of our Christmas traditions and how to plan it for this year. Thursday is laundry day, and Friday we will head to Bethel with the dogs for their annual vet appointment. That is my exciting week! I like the way it is shaping up.

Holidays are approaching, and I am grinning at the idea of Christmas songs playing in my head. I am getting excited.

Minus 4...

If this keeps up, it is reasonable to hope that the river will be frozen in the near future. Maybe we will be liberated from our watery isolation soon. All that I know for certain is that it has gotten very cold in the past 24 hours or so. Of course, in another month, these temperatures may very well feel quite springlike...

OK. That's Over...

Today we paid the price for all of the time off lately: seven hours of working in my classroom. Kind of a drag, but the days off were worth the exchange. And good news: only three weeks from Wednesday, we are on a plane out of here. Now I can begin brooding about the weather complications. I know how to keep myself unhappy.

Over And Back Again...

The problem was solved, and we got to Bethel, but not without incident. The company with which we had chartered seemed to be having a hell of a time of it actually flying over and picking us up, so we ended up going over with another company. However, flying was the only viable way into Bethel today, which meant that there were an immense number of flights coming into the airport, and which meant that we took 15-20 minutes to complete a five minute flight. What seemed like endless circles over the tundra made me think mostly about how anyone finds their way around out here. I found even more respect for the locals making a living out of such a challenging environment.

Unfortunately, while we were circling, my two rather more motion-sensitive companions were becoming rather queasy. For my part, I thought the flight was pretty smooth, but I have spent a fair amount of happy time on boats without sea sickness. Finally, one of us had gone through one too many orbits, and was forced to use a backpack as an improvised airsickness bag.

We landed without further incident, and got on with the complex business of Saturday Market, a delicious sushi lunch at VIP restaurant, and a grocery shopping expedition designed to stock me up for my bride's departure for Fairbanks in a week, among other things.

On the whole, the day was a success despite a rocky start, and a quick nap finds us perched by our DVD player, ready to watch Lawrence of Arabia. The thermometer has fallen sharply as the day has gone on, and winter appears to have returned in earnest. Tomorrow, we will be off to school to work, as we are unable to put it off any longer. Three full weeks to go...

Waiting...

Word is that our charter is running about 45 minutes late. Three of us are going to hop over to Bethel for Saturday market and lunch and groceries. Saturday Market is a craft sale at the cultural center, which I wrote about and pictured last year. Then, of course, we were able to get over on snowmachines, which made for an exciting ride over a couple of big pipes. This year, the river is pretty much shot to hell, to the extent that there was a flood watch for the river yesterday, which may still be in effect. Apparently four days of rain and melting in the upper river basin have produced breakup conditions in the area. I just checked, and the watch remains in effect through this afternoon. We had snow and cooler temps yesterday, but the afternoon brought higher temperatures and rain. It is colder again this morning. Stay tuned for further information...

The holiday was warm and cheerful, and dinner was nice, if entirely too caloric. Yesterday was the day that we pledged to work and prepare mightily. We were going to do home visits. We were going to...we stayed at home in our jammies. Truth be known, burnout is probably rearing its head. Busy is a calm day out here, and I suspect that a four day weekend was too good to pass up. It won't be a four day weekend anyway. The seniors did put on a movie yesterday, and that called for a couple of hours at school.

My eval is this week, and after that, it is the rush to the holiday. I should care about the eval, but I don't. Shame on me. One too many observations, I suspect. I would like to do well, but I doubt that any one thing that I do know is going to make a difference all by itself. I either have a body of work that says that I am progressing, or I do not. One hour's observation (read: dog and pony show) will not save me if I suck.

Our flight seems to be on hold indefinitely now, unless it is not. The air service is waiting for a call from the agent concerning runway conditions. Confusion reigns. We were supposed to be gone at 9 am. We are not even sure if we are going anywhere at this point. This reminds me of the all purpose response for all questions in the Delta: "It varies." Or, if you prefer, "It depends."

Kind Of A Cliche,But A Good One...

Happy Thanksgiving, everyone!

Getting There...

I haven't gotten as much sleep as I had planned on thus far, but I think that it will work out just fine. There are several relaxing days ahead, more or less, and some things to do that should keep them interesting.

Tomorrow we have a big Thanksgiving feast to which parents and other members of the village are all invited. It should be a big kick-it was a lot of fun last year, and I see no reason to expect differently this year. After we clean up, we are off for Thanksgiving break. Time for nap number one tomorrow afternoon.

Of course, Thanksgiving day itself would be nothing without another nap.

Friday looks as if it is going to be our work day of the weekend. I need to do lesson planning, and a couple of other things as well. We are going to make some home visits in the afternoon.

On Saturday, there is some loose talk about chartering a plane and going across to Bethel for Saturday market, and some dinner as well.

On Sunday, we will rest and get ready for the new week. I may be getting ready for a new role around here as well. That remains to be seen.

Lots to do, and I think that I will start it off with a nice snooze in the near future...

Wet Fun...

No, not that kind...it has been raining here fairly steadily since Friday night. The intensity of the rain actually increased this afternoon. I put the picture up here because, flowers aside, that is what the area resembles. Everything is swimming in water. There is water everywhere. Needless to say, the condition of the river has been shot straight to hell. It is difficult to say when we are going to have enough cold weather to salvage travel conditions on the Kusko. Folks that were commuting to work from Bethel are stuck back there again. A number of people that went up on Friday or Saturday on snowmachine ended up leaving their equipment there and flying home.

Wet, wet, wet...and then we got the phone call. On Saturday, when it became clear that we were not going to Bethel for groceries, my beloved placed an order at the AC store. It was not going to get here until Monday, and today it seemed very unlikely that anyone was going to fly. We got some shipments in, but our orders did not arrive. Or so we thought.

At about 8:00, we got a call from Earl, who is the pilot for the troopers out here. He had landed recently out at the airport and saw a stack of boxes sitting in the rain. We were lucky that he decided to check out the shipping labels on them. Off we went to grab a couple of dollies from the school, and then we walked as rapidly to the airstrip as we knew how, both of us cursing Yute Air all the way. Sure enough, they had delivered our groceries, including several frozen items, and simply left them there without bothering to notify anyone. What the situation would have been by morning is anyone's guess, but the options that I can think of would not have been especially lovely. We also picked up another package that had been left for a friend of ours and brought it home to keep it out of the rain. Great service from an organization that is famous around the delta for it. There are nice people who work there, to be sure. But sometimes the lack of follow-up can be appalling.

The important thing is that we got it taken care of, and we did it together, and we had a laugh about it. The other important thing is that the groceries were not ruined. We now have our supplies for Thanksgiving, and we can celebrate the holiday properly. Who our guests may be shall eventually be revealed, and we can be thankful for home, and hearth, and puppy dogs.

And after all was said and done, we shared another strange little part of life out here on the big river. Now it is time for hot chocolate, and cookies, and eventually, good night.

What Once Seemed Short Now Seems Neverending...

Five More MONDAYS to go...I have to keep reminding myself that this is a short week. (I nearly typed in that it was going to be a shit week, which is too creepy.)

For reasons that are not at all clear, my brain is in panic mode, much like the bad times last year. I am not sure what to do with this mess. 3 A.M. wake-up mode has set back in, and I am pondering a return to melatonin to at least assure me some sleep. I quit the stuff a while back, because I wasn't sure that its long term use was a brilliant idea. But something has to give here, and I don't want that to be me. All that I can think to do is to hold on and wait for the break. There is no alternative that I can see.

Happy To Be The Support Team...

I think that my bride worries herself when I am restless here, which is often the case. Well, I know that she does. I am often very impatient with the bureaucracy and the endless cliches, and the incessant demands, and the lack of meaningful support, at least on the local level. Hell, I am worse than impatient. It drives me crazy. We are talked down to with an endless stream of buzzwords that could have come straight out of some corporate consultant's wet dream. In fact, I believe that they have precisely that origin. I spent a lot of years dealing with supposedly impenetrable language, and I think that this has that beat. The more that I think about it, the more that the phrase "load of crap" comes to mind.

But what she does out here is important to her and to her students. She needed a helper and a support team, and I am proud to try to be that. I am just sorry that she has to put up with my moods in exchange. I hope that the trade is worth it.

Well, That Was Energetic...

I never did make it out of my hoodie and pajama pants today. I liked it that way, if you must know the truth. We have a short week because of the holiday, and something tells me that I am going to focus on sleep for a good part of the next seven days. I feel as if I need it, perhaps due to the number of nights that I find myself in insomnia land.

The weather has warmed up and stayed there since Friday night. The search and rescue people along the river are warning people off of the ice. The trail to Bethel from here, which was opened last Saturday, has now been closed. We are isolated again, at least as far as ground travel is concerned, and there is certainly no way to travel by boat. I am tempted to put the snowmachine back into storage, but most of the snow has already melted today.

I am definitely saddened by these developments. We were going to go out to dinner on Saturday night, but that got put on hold with the weather. Maybe for Christmas. On the positive side, we did get some work done yesterday, and that allowed us to relax today. We were originally supposed to have spent all weekend in training exercises in Bethel. I am not too sad about having missed out on that. I am thinking that I am about trained out for the calendar year 2010. I sincerely hope that we are mostly done with that nonsense until January. Of course, I am aware of the fabulous AKT2 webinar which will be coming up sometime in December, but that is only one wasted hour out of my life.

A gloomy day nears its end, and the dog wants to go out. Regardless of whatever drama transpires in my life, there is always the constant, the pedestrian, the dog that wants to pee on the porch post. I like him a lot.

We Stayed Home And Worked...Eventually

The weather trend started warm last night and stayed that way through this morning. It was still raining when we took the dogs out. Not a situation that boded well for running up the river on skis. Still, we were thinking about what to do when our union president called to make sure that we had made it home safely the night before, and to tell us to stay home, which we were grateful to do.

It still took us a number of hours to summon the ambition to go over to school and do some work, but we did get in four solid hours of planning and copying and filing. I need to tweak lesson plans a little bit, and grade some writing papers, but tomorrow should be relaxing on the whole.

The weather does not sound promising for our staff members looking to get back into the village. There are a number who went off on various missions in the past several days. Rain, fog, and snow seem to be the dominant themes, and ceilings look to stay low. It will be interesting to see who is back in place on Monday morning.

My bride is down at Michelle's house playing with wedding cakes. One month from Monday, we will head back to the Midwest. I need to keep on top of my gradebook, and my records as the weeks fly by toward the end of the semester.

Flung Into The Air...

Well, she is at it again...that is right, my wife is yet again trying to kill me with a snowmachine...first, she tried to run us into a gigantic pipe, then she followed the directions of a mysterious character and jumped into a large ice ridge, depositing both of us on to the ice in abrupt fashion. This, of course, after a certain someone criticized my driving earlier in the evening, which only resulted in our safe, dry arrival in Bethel, despite my having to leap enormous watery fissures in the ice surface.

OK, now for the truth, which is pretty close to that. We did get dumped, and I did get us there in one piece. The river road was pretty good, for the most part. There were a couple of interesting parts, but nothing horrible. I did request that my wife drive the home route, because she knows the back ways around Bethel better, and I do not see as well in the dark.

As for the evening in question, I think that Joe had the wiser idea, when he went to the high school to watch his son wrestle. I wish that it were not so. We did a lot of the groupthink exercises that we inflict upon our students in the name of "best practices." It is an education union, but really...I question the utility/necessity of tying up a bunch of busy people for the entire weekend for this. I could be dealing with my more immediate reality and doing lesson plans.

It is late and we are both weary, but we did get up and back, and we might again tomorrow. But the weather is warming, and it was raining when we left Bethel. What conditions are like in the morning remain to be seen. A good night's sleep sounds like the thing that I would like most in the world right now.

Back Home Again...

Well, that was hectic...two days of the speech competition, followed by a teen dance, and a flight back across the river this morning, so that I could teach school. We managed to get the laundry done and even got the snowmachine out of storage and tooled along down by the river. There is some overflow, which is inevitable, but it looks pretty good overall. Joe B. told us tonight that he had taken the main river trail to Bethel and back again, and that it was fine. I had heard a rumor to that effect this morning while I was at the district office, and was glad to hear it confirmed. We need to run back and forth Friday, Saturday, and Sunday this weekend, and the main river trail is much easier to deal with than the back way from Oscarville, as I understand it. Life is good.

It seemed as if getting the "car" out of the garage had a salutary effect on our energy levels, and we were kind of euphoric tonight. There are murmurings about a "night out" in Bethel after our training on Saturday evening. It was during all of this that I realized how confining it gets here before freezeup. Maybe my wife is correct, and we really could use a boat, instead of the second sno-go.

The fellas seemed to have a lot of fun at the speech contest, and one of them won first prize in one of the categories. We seemed to enjoy one another's company. When I walked into the classroom today, I was met with applause and cheers. It took a minute for the kids to realize that they were not being cool and for some of them to start booing. It was still nice to get back. Now all that I have to do is clean up, and I think that that is what I will spend part of the day doing tomorrow. We have other things to do, but they shouldn't take all day.

I am thankful for my wife, and my friends, and my home. That is for starters...

Speech!

I am sitting here in the lobby at the Bethel Regional High School, waiting to see the results of today's first two rounds of speech competition. Silly, giggly, giddy kids are everywhere. Running, jumping, playing "ninja." Playing Rubik's cube, for God's sake. I haven't seen a Rubik's cube since Carter (Reagan? the first Bush?) was president. Some friendly teachers milling about.

We have been doing some version of this or another for most of the day, and we will do it all day tomorrow, before the big pizza party/awards ceremony/dance tomorrow night. As I write, kids are getting judging results from another series of speeches. Mostly they seem to just be having fun. I don't see a whole lot of trauma in the expressions in the room. There is some disappointment, but it doesn't seem to represent the end of the world.

At the risk of sounding dopey, this is the sort of little break that I could use about now. Different people, people enjoying themselves, positive attitudes. A nice change of pace. I am grateful for it. Thankful, even. It is that time of year.

9 Degrees...And It Feels Like It...

There is a real bite in the air tonight. Of course, I am sure that it has nothing to do with my proclivity to walking around without a coat if I am making short trips or taking the dog out quickly. And I am well aware that in a short time it will be much colder than this, much, much colder. But it is now, and I find it to be rather chilly for now.

We are off, I believe, in the morning, and on our way to Bethel. Me and two high school boys and the speech competition. Two days of peace, love, and forensics. My poor bride is probably blanching at my lack of sufficient reverence. It should be fun, and I will get to sleep on a classroom floor for two nights.

Monday is done-five left to go before Christmas. We just keep rolling along, and the school year along with it. I am looking forward to seeing people that we have not seen since August. I actually am just looking forward to seeing some different people. Variety is what I am talking about. I like the people here just fine. They have been great to me, and have taken us in with open arms. But I want to see my family for the holidays. It has been a rough year for many of them, and I would just like to see them with my own eyes. It is nearly time.

Minimal Reportage...

The laundry did get done, and so did some work. There was pie at the Jungs' house, and a little football, at least the kind that you can get on the computer. We tried to remember the last time that we had anything that could purely be called fun, without any aspect of work thrown in. August came most immediately to mind. Some fun will be nice to have...

OOOOOOOH, that was nice...

What a wonderfully lazy day. I did get some domestic chores attended to, and I am currently awaiting the outcome of some Saturday night laundry, but the day was wonderfully unfocused. We did not even get out of bed until 9:30 this morning. It feels just like what the doctor ordered. I will work tomorrow, but this one was well worth it...

A Nice Friday...

And the mellow evening is a nice cap to the day. I am happy to see that my kids are reading, especially the new graphic novels that the boss bought for the library. The students actually seem excited about getting their noses into a book, and that is far different from last year's situation. A couple of my girls are reading Out Of The Dust, which we read last year. I was just doing some selections of it as a read-aloud, and they asked me if it would be OK if they just read the whole thing. Needless to say, I was more than happy to oblige. I have another student who got his hands on a prose compilation of Greek stories, including versions of the Iliad and the Odyssey. I have a modern translation of the Iliad that I would like to share with him. I have been reading about some different things to do for reading, and I am thinking about doing a Friday poetry slam, where people could share favorite poems in front of the class.

We had a staff family night at the school, and we went for volleyball and pizza. My bride is still over watching what appears to be developing into a slumber party at the school with the kids from Fairbanks and some of ours. It was a week with lots of points of tension, but a lot of things that went well, too. On the balance, I would have to rate it positively overall. Maybe I will stick around a while, now that I think of it.

This place needs some love and vacuuming tomorrow, and I have lots of school things to get done as well. But I don't have to get up to an alarm clock tomorrow, and that is great as far as I am concerned...

Another Thursday...

A busy one, and pleasant. I have washed our new flannel sheets, and if I get this done quickly enough, I will slip them onto the bed tonight. If not, there is always tomorrow.

My bride is off steaming with her pals and the visiting teacher from Fairbanks. We already took her students to a birthday feast and to the church, where Father Vasily was kind enough to give a little tour and some explanations to our visitors.

Now I am just hanging around waiting for her to return. I am excited that tomorrow is Friday. I am going to have to get some work done this weekend, because next week is the real speech tournament, and I am really going. Later in the week, I will be going to Bethel for LKNEA rep training. And then, at last, we will have Thanksgiving. Ah, blessed rest-for a few days at least.

Sleep...

Sort of, and sometimes. I feel tired a lot, but I don't seem to sleep especially well out here. I find myself visiting with screen and keyboard in the quiet, private hours in the middle of the night. I also find myself so mentally exhausted upon arriving home that other things that ask for attention often are neglected. I should be doing more, but the energy is not there. I did get in my first spinning session in a while yesterday. This congestion that we have been passing around the building has made me able to get through the day, and little more. I hope that a little break will refresh my reserves.

Contradictions...

OK, contradiction, anyway. One of my darlings was kinda hateful yesterday, and signed off with a question about why I come to school anyway. Her dad apparently called later to say that the teachers must have been setting her off. I was kind of confused, because for a number of reasons I probably to treat her with some kind of gloves, if not kid gloves. I think that my reasoning on this line is defensible.

She had in-school suspension today, and I took some work down for her to do. She smiled sweetly (she is very capable), and handed me a letter apologizing for being disrespectful, for being disruptive, and for asking me why I come to school. Very nice. She settled down to a fairly productive day, and was even working in after school with me before she went over to do Yup'ik dancing with some kids in the gym, including our visitors from Fairbanks. We will see which version shows up tomorrow. She is a very nice kid who just happens to be in a rough patch in her life right now. It is nice to work with her when she is happy.

I suspect that more observations are in store for me as the season fast approaches for the Site Administrator review. I am tired of being goggled at and just want to go on Thanksgiving break. It is close, so close that I can nearly smell the turkey, and I hate turkey. So close....

The Hump Day Cometh...

Another one in the books. We did a webinar for AKT2 this afternoon, which was plagued by technical difficulties on my end of things that kept me frantically trying to get on line for nearly fifteen minutes. Gosh. For reasons that I have not heard explained, our internet service has been glacial lately, especially during the day. I am glad to have the access in the evenings and weekends to keep in touch with my family and friends, but I do think generally that the idea behind the whole thing is to provide educational access during the school day. I tried to access our online service associated with our science curriculum, and that was glacial as well. Both of these things happened while I was plugged in with an Ethernet cable, not surfing off an airport. It is kind of weird.

Our webinar convo was about assessment, a subject that I have heard discussed a lot this year. We had a presentation on formative assessment at my second-year inservice, followed shortly thereafter by the same presentation at a district-wide inservice. I recognize the value of the conversation, but this one has been done to death this year. It was nice to hear from some of my comrades, though. It is good to hear from the folks that I went through training with.

Tomorrow is the good old hump day of the week. I am hopeful that this one will not be memorable. I tend to prefer it that way. Of course, I guess that it could be memorable in a good way, which would be really cool. I am just not that comfortable with the downside risk, I guess. There is always something interesting to do or to try, so that does keep my old brain chugging along...

I Am More Delicate Than Some People Realize...

It must have been the stylish way that I survived the car crash thing, but some people around this house apparently think that I am invincible. All that I can say in response is "ouch." This reinforces the notion that I had after last year that I should not ordinarily engage in the stick pull contest with teenage boys, unless they happen to be in junior high. One more time-ouch. I hope to be on the road to recovery soon.

On the more positive side of the athletic coin, a group of four old, out-of shape staff members managed to beat a team of young, athletic junior high kids at volleyball today. It must have been because they outnumbered us. They were awfully good at mouthing off when they scored a point. The rest of the time, they were mostly awful. Not a lot of team play there. There was a lot of finger-pointing and blaming, however. Aw, shucks.

Monday was otherwise pretty much Monday. Real flaky. And that was me. Don't even ask about the kids...on the other hand, it is over, and there are only six more to go before we get a break.

The visitors from Fairbanks managed to get across the river, and the visit is in full swing. I am not going to the speech competition in Bethel, as it is apparently not happening until next week. I will be going then. That will make next week really interesting, as we have no students on Friday. We get another inservice instead.

Doesn't matter-we are getting close to Thanksgiving, and that is what counts. That may be all that counts at this point. I do have to say, however, that this year is going along much better and easier than last year, and I am hopeful that I may actually make it in this business eventually.

Monday!

Six more to go after this one is done-let's get busy!

Awake...

This is getting old. At least it's familiar...

Ice Fog...

The reason that they closed the airport in Bethel tonight, at least for awhile. The kids from Fairbanks, fortunately, were able to find some available hotel rooms over there. There aren't many, and it can be a real challenge if anything is going on over there. They will be in, perhaps, in the morning.

We were waiting over at the school, and gave up and cleaned up and went home. As we were walking the dogs shortly thereafter, we could see the lights of an airplane as it flew by in the darkness...

Cleaning House..

OK, it was about time for some serious effort along those lines. We have been trading off some sort of respiratory crud for the past couple of weeks now, and neither of us has had an abundance of energy. So things sort of piled up. A lot.

The good and bad thing about a small living space is that it cleans up and clutters up fast. The lasting problem is that there is no place to put stuff. We live in a duplex designed for one. There is a second bedroom, but it is full of dog kennels and totes. Thank heaven for the Alaska suitcase. Of course, as winter approaches, it is necessary to keep the winter clothing tote open and reasonably close at hand. You never know what you might need to grab on the spur of the moment.

Today will be a busier day-we spent yesterday cleaning and relaxing. Lesson plans must, of course, be completed, and my desk needs some tender attention. We have a group of exchange students coming in from Fairbanks this evening, so we need to prepare for that as well. I will go to Bethel on Tuesday, weather permitting, with two of our students that are competing in the district speech competition. I need to do sub plans as well...

Ironically Enough...

What do we do on a long Friday afternoon? Fill time, mostly. And that is mostly what we did. And we did. And we did. I know that it is important to review one's practice. But the endless, cyclical navel-gazing that we have engaged in this year has been, in my humble opinion, mostly a waste of time. It seems to me that the process never stops, but I am at a loss to identify its function outside of the creation of yet more busywork. All we ever do around here is talk about school, for god's sake. It is pretty much all we talk about even when we are not in school. Enough, already. But, of course, it will never be enough. We can never talk about it enough. We can never stop reflecting and making up yet another dumb document to fill out, email somewhere, and never see again.

There was a name for this kind of process, once upon a time. It was called the circle jerk. And so, it comes again and again and again. Sisyphus, anyone?

Sleepy...

A long day, fun in parts. The tapping count game in math class, for instance. Being able to work one-on-one with a student for an extended period of time. Reading with a couple of kids. Doing a pizza delivery fund raiser with my sweetie and the seniors. Those were the fun parts. Giving a hug to the little girls who ran up to me in the cold, yelling "Mr. Hicok, we love you!" It makes some of the less fun parts more tolerable.

There are plenty of those, but not enough to ultimately matter. I realized clearly tonight, sitting in the school taking pizza orders, that I love these kids, and not just the ones who make my life easy.

There is little enough of that in some of their lives, and it is not my place to decide who is to blame or who should be condemned. It doesn't matter. The important thing is to be there and to try, again and again if necessary. It is not always fulfilling. There is not necessarily a happy movie ending, as a wise teacher of my acquaintance puts it. If they can live happy and some kind of normal lives, and if I can have any thing to do with it, even in the smallest way, that is enough.

I am still periodically congested, and I get really cough-prone at night, but I suspect that I will survive. And seven weeks from tonight, I get to take a little break and see some dear family and friends for a while. I look forward to the chance.

Snotty..

My nose, and our attitudes. The day after Halloween was not a lot different than might have been expected. There were apparently a plethora of behavior issues in the school generally. It was a day to get through, so we did. My cold is back, which is not much of a surprise, given the fact that we all hang around each other and give this stuff back and forth. Lots of crankiness generally today. I hope that it proves to be a one-day event.

I have been in contact with my homeowner's insurance company, and hope to have some response on the question of what they will offer to settle the claim in the next day or two. The adjuster said that they have been getting a lot of theft claims recently. Kind of a commentary on the times in which we are living, I suppose. A lot of people seem to be getting pushed against the wall, and aren't responding as we might hope that they would.

Most of what I read these days suggests a prevailing mood of despair, or at least depression. Out here, things have been tough for years. I do not sense the same kind of reaction to failed expectations. I don't get the sense that the expectations were the same at all. Maybe there is a sense of entitlement elsewhere that does not exist in the same way out here. It is hard to tell for sure.

A Weekend Off...

From everything, including this. My bride just inquired wonderingly why I had not posted. Friday night, I was too lazy and had nothing more to say. By last night, I was in a really crappy mood. My frame of mind is better today but I really do not have a lot more to say.

Our friend Ann called yesterday with the crummy news that our house had been broken into and that my bikes had been stolen. Both of them. Yes, the spiffy new one that I had gotten in the aftermath of my accident last year. Yes, the one that I loved to ride all summer. Yeah, that one. Imagine my joy.

Suffice it to say that I was in a funk for the rest of the day. Into the night. And periodically this morning. I have no real hope that the bikes will turn up, although it is weird that whoever broke in took nothing else. The black bike that has been featured in these very pages is very distinctive, and would be easy to spot in a small town like Cadillac. I can't get my head around it, but I will have to deal with the insurance claim and all of that pleasantness in the morning. There are always new bikes, and there are surely people out there tonight with much bigger problems than mine, but riding that bike was a truly simple joy of summer that I will miss greatly. On to the next, I suppose.

We spent the weekend studiously avoiding the school, not for any reason other than it felt good to have a weekend away from it for a change. Things get hectic from here. The next break will come at Thanksgiving. A four-day weekend will be a welcome respite by then.

Life is good otherwise. It is getting colder here, and there appears to be a real prospect for serious advances on the river freeze-up project. It cannot come soon enough for a change of pace. I have been hearing and even seeing a few more snowmachines lately. It must be getting close to the time where ours comes out of storage. It will be time for the Tundra Vixens to ride again...

Out Early This Week

OK, this is not so literally true. We did do our obligatory Friday afternoon professional development (PD) to which I often refer in these pages. But it was neither too long nor was it too excruciating. We actually acted in a collective, cooperative method to address a necessity. Now that is the way that I like to see it done.

The best part is that, for the first time in several weeks, I have no obligations or commitments of any kind this weekend. No overnights in Bethel, no inservices to attend. Just the weekend, and a few chores around the house. It seems so unhurried and leisurely from this angle. I will eventually have lesson plans to deal with, but not right now. In fact, right now seems like the perfect time for a nap. My only disappointment stems from the fact that the store's shelves are bare of tortilla chips. Because Ms. Jessica Paris was kind enough to bring in a pair of lovely avocados with her when she arrived on Monday, and my bride makes the best guacamole on the planet. Maybe if I can find someone who is traveling this weekend...

Done For The Night

Well, we got through another Halloween carnival (my third, actually) without any major damage or loss of life. It looks to have been a pretty successful fundraising for the various student groups involved, and people seemed to be having a reasonably good time. I especially enjoyed the sponge toss, which allowed me to target students of mine with wet sponges. What could be better?

Now we get to get in a few hours of sleep and start over in the morning. Tomorrow is another full day, but at least there is the possibility for something resembling a normal weekend for a change. I am contemplating bringing work home, if for no other reason than to stay out of the big blue building behind my left shoulder for an entire weekend. That becomes especially true when I consider the fact that I get to do another two day inservice weekend next week. O joy.

Time keeps tripping off of the calendar, and I am enjoying watching it do so. I am ready for some holiday time off. Not too far away....

Astride The Middle Of The Week

Another Wednesday, another week rocketing toward its conclusion. It has been busy, which probably accounts for the flying time. Observation, parent-teacher conferences, and the Halloween carnival coming up tomorrow night, are all making for a hectic, but entertaining week. Eight weeks to go before we head home for the holidays.

Life here has been becoming very fulfilling, and it has been happening in a slow, subtle way. It feels as if my relationship with my students has been shifting and becoming closer. More of them seem to be making better choices, which is my ultimate goal for all of them. Many of them also seem to be thinking a little more carefully about things before they do them, and that is a good thing as well. I have not found any candidates for immediate sainthood yet, but I am very pleased that they seem to be showing signs of promise.

Parent-teacher conferences were very pleasant. I was happy to be able to deliver what was, for the most part, good news to parents. A lot of the kids actually showed up with their parents or guardians. It is a goal that we have been aiming towards, and I felt as if this time, we had some signs of success. I am hopeful that the parents of my students know that they are always welcome in my classroom. Last year, I wanted them there to see how badly their kids behaved. This year, I want them to see what I am becoming proud of, if slowly.

Tomorrow is our Halloween carnival, and I will be working with the seniors and juniors to try to get some fundraising done. I plan on doing some story telling on Friday, and we will wear our costumes to school, and I suspect that pictures will be available later that evening.

Winter showed some more serious teeth today. It was snowy and windy, and the snow went on for a good deal of the day. I actually got out the cold weather gear, because the lighter fall stuff that I was using just wasn't getting it any more. I saw my first snowmachine of the season, and I suspect that we will be waiting for the river to freeze, so that we can go and play. It will be nice to have a little more freedom of movement after all.

Tonight I Love It...

But I kinda miss my sweetie...unfortunately, she got hit by a nasty stomach bug that appears to be making the rounds. She didn't get in to work, and was still in her pajamas when I got home tonight at 8 pm. She went back to bed to sleep more shortly thereafter. A couple of kids were complaining about stomach pain today, and at least one went home. I hope that everyone is better soon...and that I don't catch whatever the thing is.

Ms. Jessica Paris is visting our fine village from AKT2 tonight...she will observe me working tomorrow, so I hope not to screw up too badly in the course of it. We have parent-teacher conferences tomorrow as well, so it promises to be hectic and active.

The winter has made its reappearance around here today, and there was a genuine bite in the air to go along with the snow and the wind. Before too long, we should be out on our snowmachines. Ah, freedom to travel, and even go out for dinner on a Saturday night...I get excited thinking about it.

Halloween is nigh-time to prepare for the carnival on Thursday night and the costume judging on Friday!

My Love-Hate Thing With All Of This...

On the way in from the airport on Friday night, I was musing on how much I love it out here sometimes. It is just so odd, although I doubt whether the local folks would see it that way, or would be especially pleased by me calling it that. I suspect that they would just call it life, and that they might call me a choice thing or two as well. But it is nothing much like anything that I have done with my life before. It is very unique as far as I am concerned.

I had just taken a five-minute flight over the river, hopped into a cab in one of the most taxi-ridden places on the North American continent, and was winding along the only paved stretch of road in the city of Bethel. As I have suggested before, Bethel is not an especially beautiful place by any conventional standard. It has been described in fairly unflattering terms by some people, in fact. But, as my wife put it, it just kind of grows on you.

It is a very busy place, in many ways. Things are always going on-planes flying in and out, taxis moving in a constant cycle throughout the streets, people coming in and out to take care of their business, their health, or their work. When I go there, I see a lot of people working a lot of the time. Maybe it is the nature of the purpose of my visits there in the first place. Maybe it is just a working, practical town. Maybe that is what I like about it.

On the other hand, life out here is insanely expensive, inconvenient, and annoying. My presence in Bethel meant that it would be mandatory for me to take a trip to the store. Not my kind of trip, which is quick and convenient. Oh, no-more like a long and belabored trip involving what the scale at Yute aviation informed me was 767 pounds of mostly sugared beverages, frozen pizzas, and frozen soft pretzels for the concession stand at the school. Jesus, what a mess. Try and consider what moving that kind of mountain of goods involves. Fortunately for a 56 year old with a history of back and hernia surgeries, there were many helping hands. Nonetheless, there was plenty of lifting and carrying for everyone. I got to do a lot of it while juggling a backpack, a messenger bag, and five dozen eggs. What a pain in the ass.

But of course it is not only necessary but mandatory, because we have exhausted our store of that kind of thing, and this is the only way to get the job done. One more time-what a pain in the ass. That is the part of life out here that I absolutely cannot stand. It just drives me nuts to always be weighed down with a lot of crap that constantly must be maneuvered and moved. I hate it. Of course, my lovely spouse points out to me every time that I bitch about it that there is no other way, and that this is how it must be. No matter how I twist and turn, I am trapped and only end up getting pissed off and angry and then apologizing because I, too, know that there is no escape from this slavery, ever, and that is what I have consigned myself to in this near outpost to the epicenter of hell.

Love-hate-get it??

It Is A Small World After All...

Another week come and gone. Except that I had to go to Bethel again, this time for a second-year teacher inservice on Saturday morning. As the cab was pulling in to my hotel, I noticed that the barber shop was open. That is not often the case when I am here, which tends to be on the weekend. I have been looking kind of in need of a trim lately, so I decided to see if I could slip in and get one.

I managed to get in under the gun, although there were five people ahead of me getting haircuts. I figured that I was not going anywhere in any big hurry anyway, and settled in to wait, listen, and read. I noted with interest a copy of a magazine called "Lake Superior." In fact, there were several copies there. As I waited, I flipped through an issue, smiling because it was reminding me of folks and times back in Michigan.

A man and his little daughter got his and her haircuts, with her making a donation to Locks of Love. Finally, my turn in the chair came, and I began chatting with the barber. As it turns out, he is from Munising, Mi, the jumping-off point for the Pictured Rocks, and one of my favorite vacation destinations. I had been talking with the boss lately about getting up there this summer for a little kayaking, as a matter of fact.

Well, we were poised for it, and we took off into a long conversation about things Michigan, including the Michigan State Spartans, who are having a pretty darn good football season this year. It actually outlasted the haircut by a fair piece. It was a pleasant opportunity to get out and spend some time with people instead of being cooped up in a hotel room, and I was glad for it.

Of course, I am currently cooped up in the hotel room, but I will be out of here in the morning. The cold that I was flirting with came, and appears to be in the process of going, and I am glad for that. I will hit the inservice, and hit the AC on the way back to the airport, and should be home at a reasonable hour. That will give me some time for final grade entries and lesson planning before Monday rolls around. It would probably be a good idea to get a little rest, too...

So Much For That...

Another Wednesday, come and gone. Not bad, altogether, and it is downhill from here, at least for a couple of days. I am off to Bethel on Friday night for another fun round of inservices. I hope to have enough energy left to cope with another round of lesson planning for the following week-it will probably depend upon when I am able to get back across the river Saturday afternoon. The last two weeks are turning out to be pretty hectic, and it will be good when the excitement is over for a while. I could use a nap...

Yuk, a Cold!

I seem to be closer to the cold than I was last night...waiting for ordered meds to get here, and it isn't happening fast...sometimes, it isn't so convenient living out here...I mostly would like a good night's sleep. Tomorrow is Wednesday (yay!)...

Not Bad For a Monday, and Nine To Go...

The tykes were pretty good for most of the day, and Mondays after three day weekends tend to be hard on them. By the afternoon, however, they had had about all that they could stand, and started reverting to more traditonal Monday behavior. Unfortunately, that did not stand them in good stead at the end of the day, and there were some unhappy kids sitting after class...with any luck, they will recover tomorrow, and may even pick up a little sense on the way.

We got invited to a feast this evening, and all of the food was yummy, especially the moose soup and blueberry pie. The fry bread was pretty darn good, too. My bride didn't have to cook, and my dish duties are sharply curtailed tonight.

I have to do a little reading tonight, because we are apparently going to have some kind of diet contest starting next week. This is some challenge thing, so it will give us something to do during the long winter months. I guess I am going to be up for it, although one more set of rules by which I must live is not my idea of fun.

I keep feeling as if I am trying to catch a cold, but I just can't seem to get there. I don't really care, as I would rather not catch it at all, but I just have that kind of marginal, sucky feeling without the crappier symptoms of a full-blown cold. Irritating.

Oh, well, there are worse things in the world, and it was a not-too-bad Monday in the world of Mondays. Tomorrow is another day, and the weeks between now and the holidays are slipping away. Our quarter is over, and we are on to the second half of the semester!

More pix from AASG...the kids were excited and we were battling fatigue...it was worth it to watch them in action.

Aggravated...

I can't seem to get my video posts loaded that show our kids dancing at the closing ceremonies of AASG. I will keep trying, but this is very frustrating, because they did a nice job, and I would like to share it. I suspect that Facebook is going to be the way to go with this one. I will try again later.

AASG!

Much fun was had by all, even during our abbreviated visit to the fall AASG convention, the first held in Bethel in 19 years. It was crazy and hectic, and a little bit intimidating for our kids, but they pulled themselves through with distinction. I was especially proud of their activity responding to a proposal that would have reduced or eliminated small school voice in elections to the executive board. They were very busy in rounding up support in opposition to the proposal from the other small schools at the convention. The proposal was defeated twice. Small schools have a voice in picking their leadership that is undiminished. In fact, the first association president from this area was elected on Saturday. As we drove to the airport on the way home, the same kids who were not so sure about going on Friday were regretful that the experience was not going to last longer.

One Of These Days, We Are Gonna Get Some Rest...

We got to sleep in our own little hovel last night, and it was good. As I suggested, we were both in bed well before 9:00 pm. Yes, we needed it. I appear to be fighting off a cold or something of that nature. I woke up yesterday morning feeling that way, and attributed it to sleeping on a dusty, nasty classroom floor all night. Maybe, maybe not. I then spent much of the day hanging around sneezing, coughing people in one venue or another. Talk about challenging the odds...I slept for about nine hours last night, and my bride went longer. Now, we have been fortified with pancakes, and can think about facing our usual Saturday task on Sunday. Not much of a weekend break this week or next...I will spend next Saturday in inservices in Bethel, which means more Sunday prep time. Grades are due next Monday, and I anticipate a flood of homework from kids between now and Tuesday. Pictures from AASG are on my computer, and I will load some as I have the chance today.

Back Home....

We just got back from AASG, and I made it to the executive board meeting as well. It was a busy, long weekend, and I am going to bed at 8:30 at night...stories and video to post in the morning....

Stuck Inside of PKA, With the Bethel Blues Again...

We were going to go over to Bethel for AASG today, but that never happened. I am not exactly sure, but I get the impression that some planes were flying. Whatever the case might have been, we weren't flying, and that was the case from 1'o'clock until the end of the day. It is drizzly and misty, when it isn't rainy, and the ceilings are certainly too low for the little planes. So I get to spend the night in my cozy little hovel and sleep with my wife and my puppy dog in the bed, snoring contentedly instead of shivering on a classroom floor somewhere in Bethel. On the other hand, if we cannot get out, I am going to be stuck in an all-day webinar here. An all-day webinar, for crissakes! The worst of Power Point, and no redeeming features whatsoever. Doing one of these things for an hour is one thing. I did a class that way last spring, and it took three hours a night, once a week. Let me tell you, those were very long classes. I can't imagine whatinhell we will be doing for 7 1/2 hours.

Unfortunately, the presentation cannot be avoided, so I will either see all of it here, some of it here and some of it there, or I will have to sit through some hybridized presentation that the boss dreams up. Yay. Another training session in Everyday Math.

In other interesting news, there is an executive board meeting for the LKNEA (evil teachers' union) to which I belong. I am, in fact, a new member of the executive board, and I guess that I will pencil that meeting into the weekend of fun. 9 1/2 weeks to go til Xmas. I think, for some reason, that the time is going to be moving very quickly between now and then.

Ten Weeks From Today...

...we will get on a plane and head back east to celebrate the holidays with our friends and family. For some reason, it seems as if it cannot come soon enough today. I really cannot explain it to myself, so I doubt that I can explain it here with any facility. Today is actually the last full day that I will be teaching this week, as we will leave for the AASG convention tomorrow afternoon. But that trip is involved, and I have to come up with some sub plans tonight, and then there is the all-day inservice on Friday. It just seems like more than I really feel like carrying in my head for some reason. But I cannot make any real sense out of it...

It's Odd To See Who Reads This...

I am occasionally reminded that my audience is larger than I imagine. This blog was started mostly for friends and family back in Michigan. However, I find that comments turn up from all over the place, not often, but often enough to be intriguing. It ought to keep me from shooting off my big mouth too much. Usually, I suppose that it does. I try to keep most of my harshest thoughts quiet for the most part.

It was a pretty good day. Tuesday is the day that I do not work in the after-school program, so I kind of make it a point to get home early. I might even get a nap in. I did today. Nice.

Tomorrow, we will dine with Mr. and Mrs. Jung. Pie has been promised. I love pie. I can't wait-it is funny how much you start to look forward to the littlest things out here...

Odd...

One of my kids did a journal post about how crappy his day was going. It was, too, for him. Later on, I noticed a kind of theme of that sort on a blog I was looking at. Maybe it was a crappy day, just kind of in a general way...mine was ok, but it was nothing sensational. Maybe some days are just that way in the scheme of things.

On The Way To Tuesday

This one is almost in the record books. Not as bad in some ways as more recent Mondays, but still recognizable in its Monday-ish-ness...too many sleepy ones, too many wound-up ones in the afternoon. I tried the new interactive science stuff on the smart board and it did not work. Time for improvisation. It wasn't a debacle. It wasn't good, either. I will give it another try tomorrow.

Laundry and dishes are done, so I am inclined to curl up with a good book (or Kindle). I am tired, and do not think that I will last all that long. Some sleep is likely a good idea.

By the end of this week, we will be halfway through the month of October...things are moving along quickly.

Weirder Than Hell...

Maybe not these days...one of my teacher friends just told me about her "instructional leader," a term that is apparently popular in ed circles these days. Makes me look for Kim Jong-Il...nothing like the infantile worship of those who occupy some sort of mamagement title. Anyway, this cretin is apparently demanding 3-5 hours a night outside of contract time plus eight hours on Saturday and Sunday. Sounds like someone should be paying overtime...on the uncompensated work time front, we spent nine hours in the school last night. Finally got home a little after 11pm. Midnight supper, after the dishes got done. We finally got our sort of day of rest today.

The weather was great today (for early October), so we went strolling along the airport with the dogs. Sunny and just a bit nippy, but warm enough that my cool new wool sweater was warm enough for the walk.

It's time for another week. We are coming into the season of the PFD, which means that there are going to be some people out here partying too hard, and some kids coming to school in no state to function. Not the most fun time of our year.

We will be going off to Bethel for the AASG meeting on Thursday. AASG is the association for student governments in Alaska, and they are coming here. I get to hang around and chaperone, and wander over to the District Office for an inservice on Friday. For me, it mostly represents a change of scenery, plus the chance to sleep on the floor for a couple of nights. Maybe I will go to AC for a real thrill. The funny thing is that I will be back in Bethel a week from Friday for yet another inservice. When it rains...

The morning awaits with laundry and new advenures...

Man, Are We Lazy Today...

And I am loving it...it may be partially because I realize that I have to reset all of my passwords after my recent re-imaging, and I don't feel like doing the work. I have to plan for four days and include one day of lesson plans. I am going to Bethel this weekend and next. This weekend, it will be for AASG, the student government organization for the state of Alaska, which will be meeting in Bethel. I will be a humble chaperone. Next weekend, I will be a humble second-year teacher going for (you guessed it) yet another inservice. The second in two weeks, to be quite specific. Lotsa travel for me coming up.

However, it is after 2pm, and I need to get some work done if ever I am going to get it done and still have some kind of weekend between me and Monday...

Fun In PKA

Thursday night was lively and eventful. We thought we were going to get a little nap after our after school program sessions. Were we ever wrong. A shipment of veggies and groceries for the concessions stands got here about 15 minutes earlier than we had expected, and pretty well shot the nap idea square in the head. Word was that we would need a 4-wheeler and a trailer to get it unloaded from the river bank. I ran over to the school and got the keys, while my bride organized the student loading crew.

The 4-wheeler seemed to be just fine, except for the fact that it had been a while and I couldn't for the life of me remember the procedure for starting it. The trailer, on the other hand, definitely left something to be desired. I recalled as I headed out to the shop where it was stored that the trailer had had a flat tire. By the time of my arrival, I learned the current situation. One side was resting on a block, wheeless. It was clearly not going to be of very much help in our project.

My next thought, although not a happy one, was that I would have to get the wagon that we use at the school for hauling trash. I didn't want to haul groceries in that wagon, but couldn't see any real alternative to that. After throwing a few bags out, I saw my buddy Joe, who had brought the stores down by boat, heading toward home on his own 4-wheeler. This was puzzling indeed. After a few puzzled thoughts, I hopped on the machine that I was using, and headed toward the river bank to see what was going on. No one around! No boat full of supplies! No group of expectant students looking for me to show up! What is going on here???? Where am I supposed to be??? I headed down the river bank into the old part of the village, looking for some signs of life. Nothing.

Confused beyond reason, I turned back toward the school. I looked away from the river, and saw a group of kids unloading a trailer at the storage facility. I had just been running around in what amounted to a circle looking for all of this. Jeez...

A quick trip to the storage building indeed confirmed that a group of happy students were tossing packs of pizza into freezers. So as not to feel entirely useless, I decided to deliver veggie boxes to teacher housing. One of the elementary kids had kind of attached himself to me, and I took him along for the ride. We had a great time tooling around, with him holding onto the boxes, and helping me to carry them to the houses.

Next, we entered the school, and hung around with Gabe, one of the crack computer guys, while he fiddled around with the aluminum brick that is my MacBook pro. We told funny stories about his dad, who is kind of a legendary guy in these parts, and watched him chase his little boy around my wife's classroom. The best part of that was when the little fella apparently felt the call of nature, and headed toward the gym with his pants around his ankles. There is no way in hell that I would have the energy to chase that little dynamo around all day at my age...

Next, we decided to head down to deliver a baby blanket to another of our staff. This turned into an hour-plus extravaganza of location, conversation and baby-dandlinification. I finally had to beg to get home so that we could get something for dinner before 9:30. Having said that, it was a lot of fun. See-we don't need restaurants or movies, or bars to keep ourselves entertained out here in PKA-we have 4-wheelers and veggie boxes....

Busy, Busy...

A couple of good days...will update later as time presents itelf, but it is 4 am, for god's sake...we are fine, and busy as hell...

5:30...

Up again with the same headache and churning in my guts as nearly every morning...a lot of staff people are turning up sick lately...are we all catching anxiety??

How Do I Love Thee?

My kidlets did six good hours out of seven today. I told them that at the end of the day, which they did not handle as well. But six good hours is...six good hours, and they need to know it. I don't know what to do with them and science. They are having a hard time with the unit, and it is an awful lot like starting them in the middle. The curriculum is set up differently, but the books didn't get ordered properly, and we started with cells. I may start them in a different direction, but they will have to come back here eventually. It's got me scratching my head.

I love my job, but some of the trappings leave something to be desired. I never have been a good one for hierarchies, and this time is no different. Self-employment has its unique pressures and deprivations, but it also provides independence, and that is nothing to sneeze at. Having said that, let me assure my blessed readers that I would change nothing about my life, regardless of the things that I may bitch about.

Tomorrow is Wednesday, and that is the hump over which I fly every week. It will be good to get over it this time.

Over Again, or...Only 11 Mondays Until Xmas Break...

Yet another casualty-free Monday. A couple of the darlings were especially darling, and they disappeared for the rest of the day. That was followed shortly thereafter by a missive from on high questioning what changes would be required by the number of referrals coming out of my classroom. I don't remember making a whole lot of referrals, because I don't find them to be all that useful myself. I guess that I could be enlightened, but I have made a point of trying to avoid them entirely as much as possible. My partner might have made them. I don't know. I will have to have this proven to me. I am also not in much a mood for the obligatory self flagellation session that says that crappy kid behavior is a priori evidence that I am to blame. Sometimes a jerk is a jerk. No rush to mea culpa for me.

On a lighter note, I was able to have some fun with our new smart board today. It worked for a while, until I tried to use it with the fifth grade EDM kids. I would have thought it a natural, but they seemed totally distracted. I found out later that the situation in their other classroom got a little out of hand today, and this apparently came walking down the hall in my direction. Such is fate. Perhaps tomorrow will be better. It had damn well better be, because I had had enough of kids and bureaucrats and vacuum cleaners in the middle of the after-school program by the end of the day. So my lovely bride put up with my shitty mood (sorry darling!) and cooked some yummy steak and eggs anyway, and we got the dishes done and the laundry folded and put away.

We got over here kind of late, but it is one of those evenings where ya don't want to go to bed because ya want a few peaceful hours not lost to sleep. When ya go to sleep, the next thing is the next day's work, and that will come soon enough. Weird, I know. But sometimes I just need time away from the blue building that sits a couple of hundred feet away from my chair. It takes enough of it as it is...