Working Through It...

We are all getting along here a day at a time. My students were flat out wonderful yesterday, and it made the day much better for us all, I believe. I am making a conscious effort to emphasize the most positive approach that I can in dealing with classroom management. I have already apparently perfected the "don't let them see you smile until Christmas" (at least Thanksgiving) approach, so it has been suggested that I have established my meanie cred. Time to lighten up a little.

We got off to a pretty good start yesterday, focusing on review and some new stuff as well. I am cautiously optimistic that the week will go smoothly from here.

My wife and I need to go out and do some visiting of the family vigils for the departed tonight. A chicken has been cooking slowly in a pot since last night to produce stock for what will likely be a delicious soup. We will take that to the families tonight.

The funeral services have not yet been definitively scheduled. I suspect that further information will be forthcoming.

I am much happier to be back here than I would have thought was the case at the end of Monday. We have again been greeted with the phrase "welcome home." How can you resist that kind of warmth? I don't plan to...

Mixed...

We made it back to the village without major incident or delay. Everything went smoothly, even if I do find the rituals of return kind of stressful. However, immediately upon our return, we found out about the death of a local young man that occurred Sunday morning. The status of that funeral has yet to be determined.

We had an inservice yesterday that is best left forgotten. More mandates from on high, and the questions are already buzzing about the three hours of training to administer a new test, and the indication from at least one site that those training hours will be the responsibility of teachers on their own time, outside of contract hours. This issue has been bubbling for the past year or so, and I wonder what shape this potential controversy may take.

This morning, I learned that yet another village citizen has died. I knew this man, and he was one of the earliest to greet me here warmly. He has a special place in my heart, and the news was frankly stunning. I found myself stepping outside into the bitter cold to compose myself and blink away the tears. Two deaths in 48 hours. This will be a challenging week. Fortunately, there are lots of smiling kids here today to lift my spirits a little. I am going to make the most of that that I can. I intend to ease back into this semester as gently as possible under the circumstances. Love and patience will be the bywords of the week. We are all just trying to get by under sometimes difficult circumstances.

Anchorage!

The snow was there, but we waited until later in the day to leave Cadillac, and I think that this might have given the road crews along the way more time to clear the highways of snow. The worst of it was along the 40 miles from Cadillac to Big Rapids, and everything was pretty good after that. There were some places where snow was still flying enough to limit visibility, but we were able to make it to my sister's house in about five hours, which is about what I would expect under perfect conditions. We had a pleasant dinner, and made it to the airport the next day, and had a pretty uneventful flight to Anchorage, where we find ourselves this morning. The required trips to various stores have been made, and we have a significant load of totes and kennels to get to the airport and off to Bethel. A ride apparently awaits us there, which will be nice, as the temperatures there are still pretty darn cold. The end of the day should find us safely and warmly (I hope) ensconced at home with the humidifier running. The cold here is very dry, and my skin and sinuses are already complaining. Some hydration would appear to be in order.

We have inservice fun tomorrow, and then the kids on Tuesday. It will be a short week with them, but a longer week for us, because there is also a contract work day on Saturday. Back to the grind? In some ways, the answer is yes, but we are also on the downhill side of the school year. Halfway done, with most of the extra work that we have to do behind us. We will be busy with basketball and senior fundraising, but I suspect that the rest of the year will pass quickly.

More later- it is time to start in earnest the game of organizing the exodus to the airport...

That's That...

So we are on the way back to Alaska. We have made most of our farewells here in Cadillac, and we will try to make our way to Chicago as best as we can in the morning. The weather has turned foul as predicted, and it may actually make more sense to leave later rather than earlier. We do not have to be at the airport until Saturday morning, and we will try to take that into account as we travel. It is what it will be. Something like 12" of snow will have fallen along the route that we must follow. Not much that we can do about it, except to hope for the best and take our time. Friday the 13th???

All Things Must Pass...

The week dwindles away, as does our vacation break. It is time to start thinking about the return trip to Chicago and beyond, which will begin on Friday. The weather does not look promising, but there is not much to be done except to deal with it. I am at least hopeful that the storm that is supposed to hit Chicago will move through before Saturday morning, when we are supposed to fly to Anchorage. That town has not been having especially good weather lately, what with repeated storms and wind. And Bethel, the penultimate stop on our voyage back to the village, is in the renewed grip of extremely cold temperatures that have apparently resulted in burst pipes at the schools in town. It will be interesting to see the conditions at home when we return.

Enough of that. It is sunny and warm here today, and it is time to go to Traverse City again for some visiting. We are looking forward to tomorrow's get-together with friends that will mark the farewell to Cadillac for the next several months...

Grrr/Brrrr...

I am not that happy looking at the temperatures back in our winter home...the thermometer has not made it above -20 since we left. I am seeing accounts on Facebook suggesting that many houses and schools in the region are frozen or freezing quickly. Our snowmachine, which had to be left outside because we could not find the torch with which to thaw the lock on the storage building, is likely a lost cause for a while. I suspect that we will devise some thawing strategy, which will probably involve the repair shop in Bethel. It needed to be looked at anyway. There will be alternative strategies for mobility, if I have learned anything about life in the Delta over the past several years.

Temperatures and weather conditions here have been pretty benevolent during our entire visit. Winter has done some playacting, but has not made a real appearance. Of course, I am superstitious enough to fear that making this statement will lead to retribution from Mother Nature when we try to drive to Chicago this Friday.

It has been good to get home and see friends and family. I think that we both needed it to set us up for the next semester. We will do some more of it this week before we leave. Today is kind of a quiet day involving mostly football watching. Things will get busier tomorrow...

Snow Storm? Bah!

The cataclysm never arrived here...we got on the road Sunday afternoon as it started to snow, headed to downstate Michigan, and a visit with my family. The real challenge to driving ended up being some fairly heavy rain, which made visibility difficult. We managed to drive out of that after about an hour, and just had some wind to contend with on the rest of the ride.

I got to spend several days with the fam, and it reinforced the idea that this was a very necessary vacation. We have been catching up with friends and family on both sides in different cities, and we are reminded that we missed and were missed during the last several months. I am glad that we made the trip.

I must also admit that I am glad that we have missed out on the temperatures since our departure. It was -20 the day we left, and it has gotten no better since. In fact, it has gotten down into the -30 range in the past few days, and the windchill has gotten down to a dangerous -60. It has currently warmed to -29, with a windchill of -56. Lovely. I am sincerely rooting for a warm-up in the next ten days. Hope that I get my wish.

We will commence a couple days of appointments tomorrow, including the eye doctor and the dentist. We leave for Chicago a week from Friday. More friends and family to see and play with...