A Hiatus-Ending Post

I'm back from a long blogging hiatus.  School has started and I've been riding hard in a teacher's saddle--through unfamiliar and rugged terrain (new, big classes), on a newly-broke mount (new employment parameters), and I'm hanging on for dear life to keep from being bucked off.

The transition from an individualized curriculum to a conventional one in the high school is underway this year.  I suppose it should be no surprise that solving one problem often introduces new ones.  Sigh.  

One of the best things about the new school year is that my home base is in a room with huge windows and lots of light.  I have a view of GREEN in the trees across the road.  No other classroom has the good fortune of such a view.  I have plants on the wide window sills and ferns on stands by my desk and in front of one window.  I bring fresh flowers from home for my desk.  I've even put a big bowl of Juliet ( big grape) tomatoes from the garden on my desk with a "Help Yourself" sign on it.  They disappeared fast.

My Composition class is made up almost entirely of students I've taught before.  I was amazed at how much difference it made to be teaching a group with whom I share a history.  That's not the case for the 18 students in my Language Arts class.

I get to go on an Expotition every week this school year.  That means I'm leading a group of about a dozen grade school students of varying ages on a nature walk or in a nature activity.  Pure pleasure in the doing.  A lot of work in the preparing, since I'm doing it for all the teacher leaders at the same time.  This is what the curriculum committee determined last year was in the best interest of the students, but the project had floundered somewhat because of difficulties with the logistics--none of which would be an issue if we had more natural areas on-site or within easy walking distance.  It's part of the science curriculum.  My twelve years of employment at Pilgrim have never before included involvement with the grade school students.

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Rainfall has been abundant through August.  Mosquitoes are abundant as well.  Overall, however, this is a situation far preferable to some of the intense heat and prolonged drought we have experienced in recent years.  Green is easy on the eyes and brown not so much.  Brown is the color of suffering.

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Our dog Barney is a preternatural wanderer. He's been gone now for a week, and we're wondering if someone decided to keep him for good.  If he's in a good place, that would actually be something of a relief at this point.  He's wearing a purple tag with our phone number on it, and we've gone after him numerous times when someone called to let us know his whereabouts, but sometimes we couldn't find him when we responded--or we weren't home when someone called.  We kept him tied part of the time, especially during the day when we were gone.  We didn't think he'd run off during the night, but he was gone last Sunday morning when we first got outside.  There went that theory.  Also the one about being neutered having a stay-at-home effect on him.

Two weeks ago he showed up at Elaine Y.'s garden party in Partridge.  She had invited "anyone,"  but not Barney specifically.  He likes her and her place and has showed up there numerous times.  We went over and hauled him home when we heard that he was there that evening.  It was a short visit to the garden party.  Later the same week he was at Mark Nisly's place, having jumped over a fence to join their dog in the back yard.  

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Our traditional church picnic on Labor Day is taking on a slightly different format this year--a good prospect, in opinion.  Instead of meeting at 11:00 for a program, followed by a picnic and afternoon games, we're meeting at 4:00 for games, a picnic with roast pork at 6:30 and storytelling by Leroy at 8:00.  I welcome having more time at home on Labor Day.

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Everyone in our church recently got an invitation to Kraig Beachy's wedding in Romania in April.  Kraig worshiped with us while he worked as a volunteer for Choice Books.  The invitation came in the form of a lively letter, with Kraig's colorful personality shining through.

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Hiromi and I stayed with Shane and Dorcas' boys on Friday evening.  It was really good to spend time with them again.  Cedric has had his first birthday recently, and Carson had his third.  Tristan turns five in October.  Cedric is taking steps, looks more grownup all the time, and is developing some pleasing people skills.  Carson and Tristan are good conversationalists.

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My brother Marcus gave me a smartphone.  Now to find time to get to town to get it activated, and then to start the long process of learning how to use it.  Here's where being around high school students regularly will really pay off.  They'll definitely be the teachers and I the student in this learning project.

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My dad caused Lowell some consternation today when he walked out of church and failed to reappear.  He finally went looking for him, first in the church restrooms.  Then he discovered that his car was gone, and the tracks leading away from his parking space went east.  On a hunch, he went to Cedar Crest and saw his car in the parking lot, so he turned around and went back to Center to hear what remained of the sermon.

Linda, Marcus, and I all knew about Dad's plans ahead of time, but Lowell didn't, and he didn't want to make a big scene by calling any of us out of the service.  It was too little communication, obviously, but I'm not sure that anyone needs to feel guilty.

Dad saw his doctor again last week.  The swollen lymph nodes that had been noted at the last visit had not enlarged further, and the doctor commented on how very healthy Dad is overall.  He'll be 89 next month.

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Next Sunday there is to be a bishop ordination at Cornerstone in Labette County, Kansas where my brother Ronald is a pastor, along with Stan Nisly.  This is Center's daughter congregation.

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My niece Kristi Mast has gone to Faith Builders for this school year.  Another niece, Hannah Miller, returned for her second year there.

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Yesterday morning we had the biggest earthquake ever here--at least in recent memory.  It occurred soon after 7:00 and the shaking went on for quite a while, but probably only a matter of a minute or two, despite how it felt.  It was centered near Pawnee, OK where it registered a 5.6 magnitude.  The increase in earthquake activity has been definitively linked to horizontal drilling  for the purpose of extracting oil and gas from underground.  Fracking is the common term for this process.  Injecting waste water underground under pressure great enough to fracture rock layers is the specific activity thought to trigger earthquakes.  Regulations curtailing this have gone into effect, with some benefit apparently, but it's becoming clear that placing further limits might be needed.

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This year for the first time I have learned to recognize Tall Joe-Pye Weed in bloom.  From the road it looks like white Goldenrod, since the plants are about the same size as Canadian Goldenrod, and the texture of the flowers is similar--many small flowers growing in terminal clusters.

I've also sorted out the major differences between Canadian Goldenrod and Missouri Goldenrod.  The Missouri kind is shorter, earlier-blooming, and has a smooth stem.  The Canadian is taller, later-blooming, with a fuzzy or rough stem.

I've seen and identified Velvety Guara for the first time.  It's growing north of Ken Schrocks in the ditch on the west side of the road.  I think I finally know which of the grasses is Switchgrass.  For a long time I confused it with Purpletop.

I also identified Purple Lovegrass for the first time.  It's breathtakingly beautiful, with the sparkling, fine-textured inflorescence of Sand Lovegrass on shorter stems, and it's PURPLE instead of gold.  I've seen Goose Grass on taller stems than I knew existed.  The tall and majestic Big Bluestem and Indian Grass are putting on quite a show in areas that have escaped the ditch mowers.  Lots of rain has helped create a beautiful display of grasses this year.

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In an earlier blog post, I identified a link between the rise of Fox News and the radicalization of the Republican party.  Michael Gerson did exactly the same thing in a column that appeared in yesterday's newspaper.  As I've come to expect from him, the piece is sensible and convincing.  Here's a link to the column.  He actually calls for the Fox media venue to be shut down, based on how damaging its market-driven approach has proven to be to conservative values.  Anger and discord are its hallmarks ("incitement builds an audience"), and much of what has been touted by the likes of Rush Limbaugh has, by Limbaugh's own admission, been talking points he knew from the outset to lack credibility.  In short, truth didn't matter; ratings did.

Keeping one's personal identity entirely separate from a political identity has never looked better than it has in this presidential election cycle.

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My brother-in-law, Marvin M. traveled last week again to Florida to visit an eye surgeon.  It was a referral.  An earlier surgery here to correct strabismus ??? was not successful.  A surgery in Florida is scheduled for later.

A return last night around midnight let them miss most of the hurricane there and the earthquake here.

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Hiromi's plans to attend a school reunion in Japan on October 2 are continuing to expand.  Some of his old school friends are planning reunions of smaller groups to include grade school friends and friends from junior high.  This is a different group from his high school graduating class, and represents friends over a longer period of time.

They're still waiting for word from one friend who retired from the Air Force about 20 years ago.  The only address anyone had was from that time, and so far he hasn't responded to any efforts to contact him.  Hiromi looked up the address on Google and saw a street view of the place.  When he zoomed in, he saw the name of his childhood friend on the door of the house.

Since he could see the address and name on the neighbor's door also, Hiromi wrote a letter to that address to inquire about his boyhood friend.  It's possible that he has died or is ill--something a neighbor would be likely to know.

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I give my comp class the opportunity to earn extra credit by bringing to class words they've encountered in reading or listening and didn't know the meaning of until they looked it up.  in order to earn credit, they fill out a form in which they have to define it, identify its part of speech, and use it in a sentence.

I like that it also gives me a license to use words "over their head" in class lectures.  I know I've scored (which is really letting them score) when someone says "I want that word"  and hurries to write it down.

If they find such words on this blog, that's OK too.

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It's great to be going to bed without having to set an alarm for tomorrow.