Monday...

And eleven more to go in this school year. Basketball season is drawing to a close, and testing season draws nigh. After that comes culture week, and the short run down to the end of the school year. I talked to a company rep today about ordering caps and gowns for the seniors, and it will be prom before you know it.

All that notwithstanding, there is a huge load of things to get done before we leave. Lots of course work and recording. We are working many hours of the day and night to get it all done. And there are requests for even more. Only so many hours in the day, and it is nice to have a couple to oneself. But it is hard, when you see all the need, to say "no." Balance out here is a very tricky thing.

I had my last formal evaluation of the school year today, another rite of passage. The daylight is staying with us for a longer time each day. It won't be long before summer is here, a brief, but welcome respite in the North. All things turn...

Well, Hell...

I cannot for the life of me upload pictures on to Blogger from my computer. This is not something that I have attempted to do recently, but it is hanging me up. I took a few shots of the new teacher housing going up that I wanted to share, but I cannot seem to get it to load. I may try another strategy, one that will be silly and unnecessary, but it may be the only alternative. Either that or a switch to a different blogging platform. We shall see.

In other news, I got to get out of stir today. We went up to Bethel and had lunch with Betty Walters, my mentor, who was very gracious and picked up the tab. She will be visiting for observations this week, which has the makings of a busy one, even with Thursday and Friday off. Thursday will be especially frantic, with boys' basketball at 8:45 in the morning, a trip to the DMV for my driver's license, laundry which must be performed, church in the evening, and the girls' game at 9 p.m. Depending on wins or losses, the Friday-Saturday schedule is yet to be determined.

We also have to schedule a party this week! Our 7th and 8th grade won the most Hawks, awarded for setting an example for public behavior in the school. They get a pizza party as reward. I suspect that the last period on Wednesday might be good for that. They will be pretty excited about the upcoming tournament action.

Speaking of basketball, the junior high kids came in 2nd in their tournament this weekend, which is exciting news as well! Congratulations, Hawks!

My pneumonia seems to be subsiding. I was actually able to get some exercise in this weekend, both Saturday and Sunday. Nothing strenuous, but it did feel good.

Today was a wonderfully balanced day, and a perfect cap to a very restful weekend. I needed this. It has helped me to get a new perspective, and that was very necessary....

Gee, I Slept Hard...

It was my first night in a couple of weeks without taking a decongestant of some kind, and I fell into a deep and trance-like sleep. I am going back shortly for a little more, but I plan on being up and at it early today. Much to do, and I am looking forward to doing it. It seems odd to me, but this was probably the break that I have needed to rest and recharge. Hell of a way to do it, but I guess ya need what ya need...my mind feels clear and rested for the first time in weeks, and I can feel the energy beginning to flow back. I will need it, as there is much to be done in the remaining twelve weeks of the school year and beyond. Senior trips, AKT2 completion, licensing classes...the list is long, and I will need lots of energy. That doesn't even take into account my need to beat my wife in this contest that we are having. Nope, much to be done-time to make a list and start knocking it off!

Oh, and By The Way...

Even though I have stepped out of time this week, I still love my Friday nights. And many thanks to Sara and Eric for joining us for a little birthday celebration last night. It was nice.

When Last We Looked In...

...on our intrepid hero, he was attempting a return to work after seeking treatment for pneumonia. Didn't last...I started coughing heavily again after a quiet night, even bringing up a little blood. Kinda scary. It took a couple of hours to get a sub in place, so I finished out the morning. Got more rest in the afternoon, and was prevailed upon by a very nervous spouse to stay home again today.

I am well-rested and the cough seems to have subsided pretty well. Anything that I am coughing up is of a much more pleasing color than what I have been seeing over the past week or so. And, not surprisingly, I am stir crazy.

My hope is to get a good night's sleep and get more back into the swing of things. What a weird week. Next one brings our spring break, which consists of Thursday and Friday. It will be a nice break. I have some business to which I must attend, and there will be district basketball. Oh, glory...

Now for a little dinner and some quality time with my wife. By the way, I missed my little tykes for the past few days. It will be good to see them Monday.

Well, It's My Birthday...

Yep, another one. Sometimes I am a little surprised myself. It is windy again tonight-I can hear the house rattle and shake in the wind, and it is raining or sleeting against the window. A dark and stormy night, to be sure. The weather station in Bethel, which is only about three or four miles away across the river, reports wind gusts up to 38 m.p.h., and it sounds credible from the noise going on outside.

I am tired, but uncomfortable. My back aches from being in bed too much for the past couple of days. I am having trouble sleeping in spite of being so tired. The tiredness is really what I am noticing the most about this thing that they call pneumonia. My breathing has fortunately not been especially troubled, and the coughing has gotten better since I began taking medicine. But there is a weird, vague ache down in my chest that frankly creeps me out. I am thinking a lot about age and mortality recently, and it seems to awaken me in the night. Sleep was better with the NyQuil regimen. Maybe I will go back to it tomorrow night. I don't want to pile decongestant on top of decongestant at 1:45 in the morning. It doesn't seem wise.

Time to try to sleep. I have to be scrutinized again today. I wouldn't want to be less than sharp for that.

Ouch, My Chest Kinda Hurts...

So, they tell me that I have pneumonia. Lovely. I am not entirely surprised. My darling was adamant that I not go to work again today. She even got my parents on the phone to talk to me about it. My dad has had this before and warned me in somewhat dire tones that it can be extremely unpleasant if not attended to properly. That is what ultimately found me writing sub plans at 10 pm. I have been drowsing on and off, but the pain in my chest has got me up at 3:45 now. It is mostly creepy, as opposed to excruciating. Something tells me that I may have gotten to this thing just in time. I actually feel worse than I had for several days. My hope is that the antibiotics and some sleep kick in together to start getting rid of this crud for good. I don't want to be down sick for my birthday.

There are not a lot of school events to discuss at this point. Next week is a short one, although I guess that this week turned out to be a short one, too. Our boys' and girls' basketball teams have made their way into the conference tournament, so I know that we will be going to Bethel for some hoops. I need to get my new driver's license, too. It will be a busy couple of days during our "spring break." Then we will be back at it, with about twelve weeks left to go in the school year. It is going fast. Much to get done yet. I need to get healthy in order to do it.

Off Tomorrow, and Off To the Clinic, Too...

I surrendered to the inevitable today, as well as my wife's requests for much of the last week. I am taking a sick day tomorrow and going to the clinic. I plan on parking my butt at the front door at 9 am, as soon as they open, so I can finally get what I am going to need to fix me up. This crap has been going on for the past ten days, and doesn't appear to be going anywhere. So, I walked into work first thing this morning and told the boss that we would be needing a sub tomorrow. Of course, he knows that I have been fighting through this stuff all last week, when we were so short-handed that it would have made things totally crazy if one more staff person turned up missing.

As it turned out, today also would have been a bad day for me to take off, but tomorrow works ok. So, I plan on some sleep and some TLC from the clinic, and hope that this gets me on the road to recovery. The sub plans have been written, and it is about time to curl up in bed with a good book (or Kindle). Good night, Napaskiak...

Back Together Again...

My honey landed safely in PKA a couple of hours ago, and is taking a short nap after her hectic weekend with the speech kids down in Anchorage. It is good to be part of a unit again, and not just isolated. Loneliness can be a real cancer out here for teachers. My understanding is that couples tend to survive over the long haul. Of course, I have great sympathy for young folks in their twenties who are trying to make it work by themselves. I don't think that I would be able to pull it off. It just seems too hard.

My cough lingers, not awful, but not going away, either. The clinic is closed tomorrow, but I am going in Tuesday if I am still coughing. Quite frankly, I feel tired and I need a break. Maybe next week.

Tomorrow begins another week. We will see how this one shapes up. I hope that it is better, as far as health goes, at least...

The Wind Is Swirling

And the house is rockin'. There are blizzard warnings out, and talk of a big storm coming in from across the sea. It is a good night to be safe and snug and warm. Just hope that the power stays on.

My companion in life is still down in Anchorage with the kids at the speech tournament. I hope fervently that they are able to return tomorrow. The single life lost its allure long ago, and it is just too quiet here. On a positive note, I have gotten some much-needed rest today, and will try to sneak a little more in on Sunday. Most of my lesson plans have been completed-I just need some final touches.

After this full week of school, we have a short week, and our "spring break," which consists of a Thursday and Friday off. From the sounds of it, we will spend much of that time at the conference tournament-both the boys and girls basketball teams qualified this weekend.

Not much else is new-the dog is snoring as I write, and it is time to follow him off to sleep. I hope I can get rid of this crud soon...

Still Around...

Not me, although that is true, but this crud. It has apparently turned itself into bronchitis, which is actually not too painful, but is pretty tiring at the end of the day. I could use a day or so off to rest, but we have been very short-staffed to begin with between illness and duty-related absences, and our sub staffing was very limited, and itself reduced by sickness by week's end. The boss thanked all of us for plugging along through at the weekly meeting yesterday, and was gracious enough to include a personal thanks as well. It is nice to be appreciated. I always think that a simple "thank you" is one of the best employee benefits that an employer can give out. Of course, large cash bonuses are always nice, too.

Back to the subject of rest. I have lots to do this weekend, but most of what I need is sleep. We have a four-day weekend coming up in less than two weeks, but I think that I have to find some rest between now and then. The coughing woke me up a little while ago, but now it is time to roll over and shut off this infernal typing machine.

I always feel that I learn a little more about myself during tough weeks like the last one. I just need to remember that giving up is never something that I like to do, even when my head is telling me "quit." Now, if I can just get that stubborn about sleeping through the night...

Finally. A Little Better...

There are still colds and flu raging all around, but I am beginning to hear stories of slow recovery. I am certainly feeling much better tonight than I did last night at this time. There is hope after all.

I spent a couple of hours this afternoon proctoring some testing in the high school, replacing my bride, who was again called to her duty as a grand juror. I will do the same with my junior high kids tomorrow, in several different segments. Should be interesting. I did part of the same test the other day with some of the kids that I teach in fifth-grade math.

I will be a bachelor this weekend, as my better half is off to Anchorage to chaperon at the state speech tournament. There is an executive board meeting for the union, and, as a member, I will attend. Other than that, I hope to catch up on some AKT2 obligatories, and get some homework done for my multicultural course. I feel stronger as the hours go by, and I hope that it is just a matter of getting another couple of good nights worth of sleep.

The wind is blowing vigorously outside, and I can hear the joints of this house creaking. The future teacher housing is currently under construction on the opposite side of the school. If I think of it, I will get some photos this weekend and post them. It already looks nice, and they are just putting up the frame and walls.

It is getting to the time of year when contracts are offered, and decisions are made about next year's staffs. What gets called "the LKSD shuffle" in these parts is about to begin in the next few weeks. It will be interesting to see what shakes out. As I suggested a while back, I have a feeling that more than a few of the faces that I came in with will not be coming back. It gives me kind of a sad feeling to think about that...

Colds and Flu...

Seem to be breaking out all around, both in the staff and the students. I am walking, but I am not sure that my brain is functioning at all times. Days like these must simply be gotten through. I don't think that it has anything to do with anything else than doing the same thing over and over. There is no higher authority or thought. Just get through.

The cold, or whatever it is, has now taken firm hold on my sinuses and nose. I don't think that it is getting better. I hope that it does not take me to the hospital, as it has some others already. For one thing, that is a very expensive option, as our hospital does not participate with our medical insurance. Go figure. I learned that the hard way last year.

I will just keep getting sleep and plugging along and hope that things will eventually get better. I expect that they will. It just is a matter of seeing how long that takes.

Back At It...

Monday, again, with all of its rituals. And, of course, Valentine's Day. My honey was good to me and got some treats that we can share. We are on a one-week hiatus from our competition, but I don't think that we are going to go all that crazy. Well, maybe not. Sixteen pounds dropped in four weeks, and that is certainly a good thing. We will start back up again next Monday morning, when we can see how much our indulgence has cost us in the meantime.

The cold is still here, natch, although it is not nearly as nasty as the versions that I have heard about around the village. We are short a lot of kids in the fifth grade, and I have heard some stories of trips to the emergency room. Me, I just want to get some sleep.

There is some more testing this week, and some accompanying confusion about scheduling. I assume that it will get sorted out somehow. My bride is jetting about hither and yon this week, which is going to make for some serious bachelor time come the weekend. Hold me back. The laundry and dishes are done, which means that my evening has been a fulfilling one. Now, it is time for bed.

Yuk, Sick...

It started Friday, and has gotten stronger for the next two days. A cold. Crap. Not welcome at all. This one is very cough-oriented, which always makes me nervous about another disc herniation. It's not as if I sit and worry about it, but it is prominently in my mind in the middle of a good coughing jag. The cold-fighting supplies have arrived, and I did catch a little nap. I am thinking about another short one before I do my daily exercise. Lesson plans are only awaiting some final touches. I hope to get rested enough tonight to make it work tomorrow. We are really short on subs, so I am going to try to make it into work regardless. Besides, I haven't taken any sick time this year, and it is boring at home, even if it is a Monday. I will try and see what happens.

Time for another nap...

Basketball. Come and Gone...

Our home games for all of the basketball teams have now taken place. Junior high last weekend, high school boys and girls this weekend. It is now over for the year, and it was pretty good. We spent last night and this morning and early afternoon running the concessions with seniors, and seemed to make a pretty good haul, all things considered. We even had some outstanding assistance from one of our sixth graders, who volunteered his services and spent a good deal of time back in the heart of the madness.

It was so crazy that we never got back to our house for the entire evening, and the probably delicious soup that was simmering on the stove became some not-so-delicious Burned Dinner (not to be confused with Boiled Dinner). I have not yet seen Justin Wilson (the Cookin Cajun) champion a dish for blackened carrots. I am not sure that they have a future in the world of cuisine. There is something about the aroma of charcoal arising out of the dish holding one's dinner that is hard to describe.

Now we are catching a little leisure time, and are seriously thinking about a nap. I have some sort of congestion thing in my middle respiratory tract that came on kind of quickly yesterday, and I am hoping to get rid of it as quickly. It is showing some positive signs of breaking up, and I am getting rid of it with vigor.

There is, alas, no crab feast to enjoy tonight, but we will bask in the warmth of last week's success and get a little rest before the rounds of lesson planning and classes begin again.

Later The Same Day...

Training, a work-out, 6 pm afterschool with several kids who needed it, and then spaghetti...took the little dog out twice in the -30 wind chill, and now it is time to fold and put away laundry. We have another day of training in the morning, and basketball-related concession activities tomorrow night and Saturday. I can't wait for next weekend, when we will have the first real weekend in five weeks. I think that a Valentine's sushi dinner will be in order.

Some of my kiddies missed me during my absence, which always makes a fella feel special. I will see them for a little while in the morning before departing for the day's training.

Now it is time to get tidied up around here, so we can hit the sack early...

Uff Da...

It's -8 at 1pm, and we have been and will be talking about suicide and trying to prevent it for the next two days. Emotionally tough, but very necessary...

A Day...

Kind of nondescript, really. My bride went off for jury duty, so she was gone all day. She got back around 5 o'clock, and told me some grand jury stories (very non-specific). I suppose that once I get myself registered to vote around here, I will be subject to the same summons. I wonder how the system up here reacts to the instance of a lawyer on a jury. There was a time when we would automatically be excused. That is not so true as I understand it now. My former partner actually sat on a couple of petit juries back in Michigan.

Kids were kinda flaky all over the school today. Nothing sensational, but more like continued patterns of behavior. Many of the usual suspects, unfortunately. It gets old. I suspect that it does for them, too.

The money from concessions got counted and put safely away. Not a bad amount for a junior high weekend. Of course, they had to buy new supplies to replace the old, but we still made some headway. I will hope for a similar success this weekend. We have to get these kids a nice senior trip.

Basketball was an on again off again on again off again thing. It ultimately ended up off. Friday beckons, however, with the only home high school games of the season. We shall soldier on...I will be out Thursday and Friday for training. It will be a busy and broken up week again...

Super Sunday! (and Monday)...

We had a rollickin' good time over at Erin and Carey's place last night, and many thanks to them and all of the nice people who brought food and drink. The game was exciting, and tense, and fun to watch in a hotbed of Packer fans. I believe that one person there was cheering for Pittsburgh, and there is never any accounting for taste. In his defense, I believe that he had some money riding on the outcome. The really great thing about the whole thing out here is that you can watch the whole game and still have an entire evening left for other things. The game started at 2:30 and was over by about 6:30, even with the bloated monstrosity of a halftime show. We were back in quiet, peaceful Napaskiak before 8 pm. It made for a nice day after the frantic events of the weekend.

School was ok by and large today. We had the usual assortment of Monday sleepyheads, but I chose to focus on those who came to study and learn, and the others caught up eventually. Time actually went by very quickly, and I managed to get my chores done as well.

We have a surprise basketball game tomorrow night, and that will break up the flow of the week somewhat. I am attending suicide prevention training on Thursday and Friday, something that I think of as vitally important. We finish out the week with more basketball on Friday and Saturday. It will be busy for sure.

A headline announcing the upcoming dates for Camai, the annual dance festival in Bethel, reminded me that the school year is running away quickly. I better get ready to keep pace...

P.S....I really liked the Chrysler Detroit commercial during the ball game. I am not from Detroit, but I went to college and law school there, and came into adulthood. I have a soft spot for that place, and the commercial reminded me of that. Also, I would like to welcome my latest follower to the fold. I hope that I find something interesting to say from time to time...

Wooooo...

Over! The two-day ordeal is over! We got through it. Together. And, more importantly, we are still talking to one another. I am truly impressed. At both of us. And our sense of both maturity and cooperation. Maybe it doesn't sound all that impressive to you. But spending something like a total of nearly eighteen hours in a relatively small and crowded kitchen over the course of less than twenty-four hours and coming out civil is pretty damned impressive for a couple of control freaks like my wife and I.

We had a surprisingly good turnout for a junior high game weekend, and the concessions clicked along. There are another set of games next weekend, and my seniors will have more chances to do fund-raising for their senior trip. This is kind of a big deal to me, as I have not done this sort of thing before, and the kids have said that they would like to go to Michigan. A group of seniors stayed at the house in Cadillac in 2008, and doing that cut down on their hotel expense so much that they were able to spend much more money on having fun and doing things than might otherwise have been the case. I am hopeful that we can achieve our goal of bringing the kids back east. Cadillac and Napaskiak, sister cities??? It would be nice to foster a relationship between the kids in both places. Me and my pipe dreams...

I am pretty damn tired, but in a good way. We went to see Michelle's new house, and got a nice walk out of the deal. She is an especially close friend of my sweeetie, and they are going off to steam in a little bit. I have been thinking about that good hot steam at Joe's last weekend, and I am a little jealous. I need to get down there and help break up some pallets. They burn hot, and it is a real exercise in endurance. But it is a really good feeling as well. I haven't been steaming as much this year, and I miss it a lot. I am sitting here hatching a fundraising scheme that will get the seniors some cash and Joe some wood for his steam.

The crab feast was a smashing success, by the way. We had no idea of how to actually cook the damn things, and they were massive. Two different methods were attempted, and they both seemed to work sensationally. One hundred seventy-five pounds of enormous crab legs were cooked, served, and eaten by what seemed to be a very appreciative crowd. It would be hard for me to describe accurately how delicious they were. Fans of Alaskan King crab will be able to make a pretty good guess.

The feast was put on by a corporation called Coastal Villages Region Fund, or CVRF. They have done a lot of great things for the village and the school since I have been here, and this was another example. They sponsor lots of scholarships for village kids and generally try to help out in many ways. This blog officially salutes them for the wonderful feast that they put on here today. It was much appreciated.

Tomorrow will be a day of festivity. I have completed my lesson plans. We are going to Bethel to hang with some Wisconsin friends and watch the Super Bowl. I cannot wait. It will be a nice finish to a weekend that turned out much better than I might have expected.

OMG!

Long Friday...school and basketball back to back, without much of a break. My back hurts, and I am tired, and I have to get back up and do this again in a very few hours. The good news: I thought it was going to be a fifteen hour day, but we managed to keep it down to 14 1/2. Tomorrow? Who knows. I am so glad that I got a lot of lesson planning done the other day. That is all that I can say about that. I just hope that Sunday turns out to be relaxing. There is more of this next weekend, and we will be in the middle of it again. Fortunately, there will likely be more hands around to share the load.

As for now, it is time for hot chocolate and bed. Tomorrow will take care of itself.

On To The Weekend! (sort of)

The week is nearly at an end, and the washing of the laundry has been accomplished. The dishes still need attention, but we are both pretty tired as far as I can tell. It has been a long couple of days, and I found myself weary by lunch time. I was happy to get a second wind and some lesson planning done this afternoon, because I needed both. Nonetheless, I am ready for bed at 9:30, and I seriously think that I am headed in that direction. Tomorrow promises to be a festive, 15-hour work day, with 45 minutes of lunch thrown in somewhere. The concession stand needs to be staffed, and nearly all of our seniors are going to be out of town. That means teachers need to run the show. There is no alternative. Saturday will be busy, too. I need to get my rest this evening, and be ready to hit the ground running tomorrow morning.

February is Gonna Go By Fast...

At this rate, anyway...we had a long day today, with parent-teacher conferences til 6, and exercise until nearly 8, making it nearly a 12 hour day at school. Of course, there is the half-hour lunch, and we should be grateful for that. I can't complain, though-the conferences were fun for the most part, and it feels good to be getting back into a regular exercise habit. I really got away from that about the time that I started training for this whole silly gig, and hadn't been able to get the groove back consistently since then. I am feeling better already.

The weekend promises to be a mad one. We have several teams coming in for junior high basketball Friday night and Saturday, and then we are hosting a crab feast for the community Saturday night. It occurred to me that we actually have to get our lesson plans done tomorrow night if we have any hope of actually having any time to ourselves on Sunday. There will be no time on Friday, and none until late on Saturday. We will have to be working the games, and many of the staff are gone this weekend. It gets no better next weekend, when the high school will host its only home games of the season. That will make four work weekends in a row, not counting lesson planning time, which tends to take four to eight hours. It helps to have a lot of energy out here, and no personal life, if you want to make it in the long haul.

As for Sunday, there is the small matter of a football game that I would like to watch. I am still not sure if that is in the cards yet. I hope that something can be arranged...

The Testing Has Begun...

We have started the winter rounds of testing this week, with the Terra Nova test, which is administered to unfortunate 5th and 7th graders in order to properly torture them. In the next couple of weeks we will have the ELPT, which sounds like an especially nasty sexually transmitted disease, but is actually yet another fraudulent test concocted by evil gremlins hidden in caves in the Wasatch mountains. After that will come the NAEP, which is actually the only thing that resembles a nationally consistent test, but has its own issues. Finally, there is the SBA/HSGQE, a test so corrupt that the Alaska EED has designed a sneakily dishonest little push poll intended to con parents into believing that it is a good idea. I read that thing last year and was amazed at what an artfully designed con job it was. We were supposed to actually give this thing to parents, and have them answer it. Whatta crock.

Finally, to demonstrate that we can also design inefficent measures of nothing in particular in other languages, there is the YPT, designed to yardstick little kids in Yup'ik. All of it strikes me as an enormous racket. Test after test, especially effective at lining the pockets of the companies that design and sell them.

I came up in the dark ages, when we would get some silly bubble test that required us to whip out those old #2 pencils about every three years. How the hell did we ever learn to do one damn thing then? I do realize that our kids out here have some fundamental challenges that I did not. English is not necessarily their first language. I do not understand, however, the thought that giving them two to four tests in the course of a single semester somehow will make them academic all-stars. Nonetheless, test we must, and test we shall...