I mentioned the speed of time in my last post. Nothing about that has changed. We finish the first semester two weeks from today. We will spend tomorrow afternoon making sure that our grades are reasonably current. There are only two more sets of lesson plans to prepare, and then it will be time to spend an extended break with family.
Our holiday breaks encompass both Christmases, Western and Russian Orthodox, and for that reason, it runs 3 1/2 weeks this year. Although we do not have the autumnal breaks or the spring break that many schools have, the extended Christmas break truly feels like a luxury.
We will be taking Alice to spend the time with her grandparents in Alabama. She also has cousins there now, and we anticipate a joyous reunion. I am hopeful that some of my family members will be able to make it down as well. We faced a difficult decision when it came to the geographical split in family groups. Because of the unpredictable weather at that time of the year, as well as the 1500-mile round trip involved, we concluded that Alabama in the winter and Michigan in the summer will have to be the practical solution for the forseeable future.
For my part, I am looking forward to sleeping in. It is possible that I will spend the first vacation day doing just that. Wait, I am the father of a nine-month old child. It isn't going to happen....oh, well, I can dream, can't I?
Thursday, December 5, 2013
Sunday, November 10, 2013
Sunday...
The sun came out this afternoon. We haven't had much of that lately. Yesterday, it rained horizontally and the wind blew all day long. This morning, it snowed. Now, the sun is streaming in the windows and shining off of the new snowpack.
Fall has been weird. By now, the river would ordinarily be frozen, maybe even enough to operate a snow machine on it. There would have been snow that had been on the ground long enough to get good and dirty. But the river is still open. I have seen some recent video that showed it in a slushee-like state, but I am sure that yesterday's hours of rainfall ended that. I saw a boat moving down the slough yesterday at a decent rate of speed. No suggestion that the captain was picking his way around ice floes.
The baby has discovered the delights of guacamole and even could be sighted sucking on a lime this afternoon. My wife is determined that we will not have a "kid's menu" kid. It looks as if I will have to compete for the guacamole with an 8-month-old from now on. There are worse fates, I suppose...
Week number thirteen begins tomorrow. Nothing real fancy this week. Maybe kickball in PE, but that's about it. Thanksgiving is a little over two weeks away, and then it is a fast downhill run to Christmas. I am amazed at how fast it seems to go each year. Each year seems to be faster. Before we know it, the years will fly by and Alice will be in pre-school. Okay, maybe I am getting a little carried away.
I think that we will skype with the kids back in Traverse City, and then I need to get up and do some vacuuming around here. Three dogs worth of hair to contend with. On to the holidays!
Fall has been weird. By now, the river would ordinarily be frozen, maybe even enough to operate a snow machine on it. There would have been snow that had been on the ground long enough to get good and dirty. But the river is still open. I have seen some recent video that showed it in a slushee-like state, but I am sure that yesterday's hours of rainfall ended that. I saw a boat moving down the slough yesterday at a decent rate of speed. No suggestion that the captain was picking his way around ice floes.
The baby has discovered the delights of guacamole and even could be sighted sucking on a lime this afternoon. My wife is determined that we will not have a "kid's menu" kid. It looks as if I will have to compete for the guacamole with an 8-month-old from now on. There are worse fates, I suppose...
Week number thirteen begins tomorrow. Nothing real fancy this week. Maybe kickball in PE, but that's about it. Thanksgiving is a little over two weeks away, and then it is a fast downhill run to Christmas. I am amazed at how fast it seems to go each year. Each year seems to be faster. Before we know it, the years will fly by and Alice will be in pre-school. Okay, maybe I am getting a little carried away.
I think that we will skype with the kids back in Traverse City, and then I need to get up and do some vacuuming around here. Three dogs worth of hair to contend with. On to the holidays!
Tuesday, November 5, 2013
11 Weeks Down...
The mad rush is beginning to ease a little. Since the last post, we have had our Halloween carnival, and things will be relatively quiet now until I take high school kids over to Bethel for the district high school speech contest. That is always intense, but fun at the same time. I do not care all that much for the part that requires me to sleep on a classroom floor for two consecutive nights, but the event is generally entertaining, and I enjoy watching the kids rise to the occasion.
After that, we have Thanksgiving week, which features a big lunch for the community at which we serve. Of course, we also have a nice, long weekend. From there, it is a short rush to Christmas vacation and a long break in Alabama.
The kiddies are coming along reasonably well, although it seems that one of my seventh graders has broken his arm this afternoon. With any luck, it will be resolved simply. We shall see.
I have some kids in here enjoying some free time on their computers. Time to kick them out and go home and snuggle the baby. Night, all....
After that, we have Thanksgiving week, which features a big lunch for the community at which we serve. Of course, we also have a nice, long weekend. From there, it is a short rush to Christmas vacation and a long break in Alabama.
The kiddies are coming along reasonably well, although it seems that one of my seventh graders has broken his arm this afternoon. With any luck, it will be resolved simply. We shall see.
I have some kids in here enjoying some free time on their computers. Time to kick them out and go home and snuggle the baby. Night, all....
Monday, October 28, 2013
False Start...
In our last exciting adventure...there was snow in the air. That is all that turned out to be. In the air. Nothing accumulated. There was some snow this morning that did stick for a while, but it is gone now. We are mostly going through a long phase of rain, followed by more rain, with intervals of rain. It is soggy here, in a serious way.
This is the week of Halloween, which means Carnival and costumes. My wife and the baby and I are going to come as the Three Bears. Cute, huh? We have parent conferences as well, today and tomorrow. I think that this should keep all of us busy. It is also making the days fly by. We are in the eleventh week of the semester now, and the weeks just keep piling up one atop the other.
The baby gets bigger and more interesting. She sits up on her own, and it is just a matter of time until she begins creeping around the house. Our happy, quiet life will be a thing of the past in short order at that point. No escaping it.
I am sitting in a teacher development class, and my wife is at home taking a class of her own. Mondays are long, and I am waiting for this one to be over.
This is the week of Halloween, which means Carnival and costumes. My wife and the baby and I are going to come as the Three Bears. Cute, huh? We have parent conferences as well, today and tomorrow. I think that this should keep all of us busy. It is also making the days fly by. We are in the eleventh week of the semester now, and the weeks just keep piling up one atop the other.
The baby gets bigger and more interesting. She sits up on her own, and it is just a matter of time until she begins creeping around the house. Our happy, quiet life will be a thing of the past in short order at that point. No escaping it.
I am sitting in a teacher development class, and my wife is at home taking a class of her own. Mondays are long, and I am waiting for this one to be over.
Thursday, October 24, 2013
Wednesday...
The staff here is sitting in a mandated meeting district-wide, at 5:41 in the afternoon. Grim material, but necessary.
Another week, and we are still doing a strange flirtation with winter. I have been seeing pictures from back in Michigan showing snow. That word has been in the forecast, and is for tomorrow, but it hasn't materialized here yet. The river is still flowing by the village, and there hasn't been much more than frost on the boardwalk. Interesting-my phone just lit up with a Facebook message saying there is snow in Cadillac, our old home town. There is simply no convincing evidence that winter is anywhere in the vicinity. Of course, the weather is changeable here, and the calendar is advancing. The inevitable must happen eventually.
We await drivable ice on the river. Maybe the fact that we actually bought a used car this year has jinxed the whole process.
Morning update 10/24: the wind is blowing hard and snow is in the air.
Another week, and we are still doing a strange flirtation with winter. I have been seeing pictures from back in Michigan showing snow. That word has been in the forecast, and is for tomorrow, but it hasn't materialized here yet. The river is still flowing by the village, and there hasn't been much more than frost on the boardwalk. Interesting-my phone just lit up with a Facebook message saying there is snow in Cadillac, our old home town. There is simply no convincing evidence that winter is anywhere in the vicinity. Of course, the weather is changeable here, and the calendar is advancing. The inevitable must happen eventually.
We await drivable ice on the river. Maybe the fact that we actually bought a used car this year has jinxed the whole process.
Morning update 10/24: the wind is blowing hard and snow is in the air.
Monday, October 21, 2013
The Grind Continues...
We are in that part of the school year that I refer to as "the grind." Lots of obligation. Lots of demands on our time. Lots of places to be in, some at the same time.
By the end of the wrestling tournament on Saturday, my brain felt as if it had been boiled in oil. Sleep deprivation had finally won out over caffeine. Sunday morning, I actually slept in until 9:30. You must understand that I was raised by a guy for whom 9:30 represents the depths of depravity. Sleeping in for me on a weekend means 7 am, unless I am ill. Sunday felt a lot better, needless to say.
Our Little Bit decided to make last night an exciting sleep night again, keeping us up between the hours of 3 and 4 am. Our wonderful babysitter is leaving for Anchorage in the morning. We are having some challenges with substitutes. The problem is being solved one day at a time. We shall see how it all works out.
We are now in the process of taking after-school classes that run from 4:45 to 6:15 in the evening. If we get a total of ten, we get to take two scheduled in-service days off. One is scheduled for December 20, a day on which we plan to be flying from Bethel to Atlanta. Five will make sure that I can use our tickets. I am taking the fifth class right now. Merry Xmas!
I hosted a meeting of would-be high school speech givers in my classroom this afternoon. We discussed the categories of speech that they may choose, and the time frame within which we need to get ready. That two day challenge comes the week prior to Thanksgiving.
As I see it, we have about four more weeks of serious grind time. On the positive side, we do not have any weekend obligations until the Saturday before we finish the semester. That gives us a little more recharge time. The short weekends drain our energy, and we have had two of them in a row. The grind is hard. The good news is that it is very front-loaded. Once we get through to January, the road begins to run downhill. All we need do is to keep grinding for the moment.
By the end of the wrestling tournament on Saturday, my brain felt as if it had been boiled in oil. Sleep deprivation had finally won out over caffeine. Sunday morning, I actually slept in until 9:30. You must understand that I was raised by a guy for whom 9:30 represents the depths of depravity. Sleeping in for me on a weekend means 7 am, unless I am ill. Sunday felt a lot better, needless to say.
Our Little Bit decided to make last night an exciting sleep night again, keeping us up between the hours of 3 and 4 am. Our wonderful babysitter is leaving for Anchorage in the morning. We are having some challenges with substitutes. The problem is being solved one day at a time. We shall see how it all works out.
We are now in the process of taking after-school classes that run from 4:45 to 6:15 in the evening. If we get a total of ten, we get to take two scheduled in-service days off. One is scheduled for December 20, a day on which we plan to be flying from Bethel to Atlanta. Five will make sure that I can use our tickets. I am taking the fifth class right now. Merry Xmas!
I hosted a meeting of would-be high school speech givers in my classroom this afternoon. We discussed the categories of speech that they may choose, and the time frame within which we need to get ready. That two day challenge comes the week prior to Thanksgiving.
As I see it, we have about four more weeks of serious grind time. On the positive side, we do not have any weekend obligations until the Saturday before we finish the semester. That gives us a little more recharge time. The short weekends drain our energy, and we have had two of them in a row. The grind is hard. The good news is that it is very front-loaded. Once we get through to January, the road begins to run downhill. All we need do is to keep grinding for the moment.
Wednesday, October 16, 2013
I'm Still Here!
I wander over here from time to time, and it is usually guilt that actually draws me back to the keyboard. A loyal reader or follower says something, and I feel the need to catch up again.
So here goes: the year is going pretty well. We are nearly at the end of the first nine weeks already (Friday), the baby is great, and we are already looking forward to the Christmas holiday break. It will be especially different this year, because we are going to visit my in-laws in Alabama, and I hope that means a warmer Christmas than last year.
The power problems have apparently been resolved for now, and my impression is that this statement is more than just chit-chat. We have gotten a new motor for one of our generators, and things have been remarkably consistent since then. Yay for power!
In order that I not be without some frustrations, the internet service at the house has been remarkably INconsistent in the recent past. We had outages that lasted for hours, and some would follow right on the heels of one another with only a few minutes of actual available service. We finally lost service entirely during a windstorm a week or so ago, and things seem to be working better since repairs were made. Not perfect, but a whole lot more consistent.
We made a crucial decision back in the summer. Now that we have the baby in the village, we figured that the snowmachine could no longer be our principal means of winter transportation. I broke down after 4+ happy car-less years and bought a used Subaru wagon to drive on the river this winter. We have a 4-day-long inservice after Labor Day, and it was actually pleasant to get around Bethel without being dependent on taxis or the district shuttle. The car now sits at my friend Sandy's house while we aren't using it. Once the river freezes, and the highway is open, we will take it down to the village for winter use.
If this silliness wasn't enough, we also took a look at our transportation situation back in the lower 48. We decided that rental costs were getting ridiculous and that it was time to break down and get a baby/dog hauler there, too. The problem is accommodating three dog kennels and one big baby seat. We aren't going Suburban here, but we aren't going Honda Fit, either. We were actually able to find a certified used car with only 8600 miles on it that is a 2013 model. All I have to do now is move money from my IRAs to Alaska and back to Alabama. No small challenge there. I was actually in place to deposit checks for the last couple of days, because I have been in Bethel. Unfortunately, two of the three checks got to Napaskiak after I left. Oh well, on to plan B...
And finally, the reason that I am in Bethel. I am the coach for junior high speech. Every year, it seems that I have been able to persuade a few more kids to try it. This year we had seven kids. Four of them made it into the finals in the Expository speech category. First, third, fourth and fifth place. I am very proud of these guys. It makes the work and late hours worth it. Tonight is the dance that we have at the end of the two day contest each year. It is probably time to stop typing this and go dance with my kids. Friday night? I am running the books for a wrestling tournament. Time to address my deficiencies in this regard, I suppose....
So here goes: the year is going pretty well. We are nearly at the end of the first nine weeks already (Friday), the baby is great, and we are already looking forward to the Christmas holiday break. It will be especially different this year, because we are going to visit my in-laws in Alabama, and I hope that means a warmer Christmas than last year.
The power problems have apparently been resolved for now, and my impression is that this statement is more than just chit-chat. We have gotten a new motor for one of our generators, and things have been remarkably consistent since then. Yay for power!
In order that I not be without some frustrations, the internet service at the house has been remarkably INconsistent in the recent past. We had outages that lasted for hours, and some would follow right on the heels of one another with only a few minutes of actual available service. We finally lost service entirely during a windstorm a week or so ago, and things seem to be working better since repairs were made. Not perfect, but a whole lot more consistent.
We made a crucial decision back in the summer. Now that we have the baby in the village, we figured that the snowmachine could no longer be our principal means of winter transportation. I broke down after 4+ happy car-less years and bought a used Subaru wagon to drive on the river this winter. We have a 4-day-long inservice after Labor Day, and it was actually pleasant to get around Bethel without being dependent on taxis or the district shuttle. The car now sits at my friend Sandy's house while we aren't using it. Once the river freezes, and the highway is open, we will take it down to the village for winter use.
If this silliness wasn't enough, we also took a look at our transportation situation back in the lower 48. We decided that rental costs were getting ridiculous and that it was time to break down and get a baby/dog hauler there, too. The problem is accommodating three dog kennels and one big baby seat. We aren't going Suburban here, but we aren't going Honda Fit, either. We were actually able to find a certified used car with only 8600 miles on it that is a 2013 model. All I have to do now is move money from my IRAs to Alaska and back to Alabama. No small challenge there. I was actually in place to deposit checks for the last couple of days, because I have been in Bethel. Unfortunately, two of the three checks got to Napaskiak after I left. Oh well, on to plan B...
And finally, the reason that I am in Bethel. I am the coach for junior high speech. Every year, it seems that I have been able to persuade a few more kids to try it. This year we had seven kids. Four of them made it into the finals in the Expository speech category. First, third, fourth and fifth place. I am very proud of these guys. It makes the work and late hours worth it. Tonight is the dance that we have at the end of the two day contest each year. It is probably time to stop typing this and go dance with my kids. Friday night? I am running the books for a wrestling tournament. Time to address my deficiencies in this regard, I suppose....
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