Tempest in a Teacup

. . . or Storm in a glass. Remember this cat? In an earlier post we saw him drinking from a birdbath. Now here he is trying to drink out of my glass. The irony is that I used this glass because my preferred glass, a squat, wide-mouthed glass is also his favorite. So I chose this glass with its narrow stem to discourage him from drinking from my glass. I missed the picture of him with his face stuck all the way in the glass and got this one where his is trying to fish some water out.

Sourdough Cure All

Friday, 20 October 2006
The day started out perfectly. I was in Billings for the teacher conference in Billings. I drove into Billings Wednesday night after supper so I wouldn't have to get up before dawn on Thursday to drive in. So I was rested and was able to enjoy the sessions I attended. I got a lot of great ideas for books to purchase for our students. Friday, I didn't have a session I wanted to attend until 10:00, so dad made some sourdough pancakes. Pete must have known, or smelled them cooking so he got up early and we enjoyed a terrific breakfast, sourdough pancakes, orange juice and good company. I left for Skyview High School at 9:00, because I hate being late or feeling rushed. I got to Skyview around 9:20 and spent 20-25 minutes looking for parking. I almost decided to "ditch" classes and go back when I spotted a reasonable space on the street and I got to the classroom 10 minutes early, not rushed at all. It was worth it too, because I won a free book and got a great new publisher. By then the sky was looking very threatening and rain was in the forecast. The wind had picked up and the bite of cold air had memories of snow in it. When I ran into some colleagues from Colstrip, they said they were heading out because the weather was looking bad. Well, I decided that since I didn't have another session until 1:00, I might as well head out too. I went back to the house and told dad and Pete that I'd decided to head out after lunch instead of waiting until 4:00 or so. We saw the weather report on the noon news and it said snow was coming, then we went to ARBYS for some lunch, came back to the house, not forgeting to load up on lettuce and green tomatoes. So far, so good????

I had one more errand to run before heading out of town. Get the oil in my car changed. I headed out on 24th to the MasterLube on King Ave. On the way down 24th I spotted a store I'd never noticed before, Coldwater Creek. I've purchased some things from their catalog and they had 70% off signs on the windows, so I stopped. I swear it was only for 20 min. Then I drove to Master Lube and got in line. After waiting for 10 min. One of the service men came out and asked me to move to the other line. I obliged. I waited for another 10 minutes and another serviceman came out and asked me to backup and let the car in the other line move ahead of me since she had been waiting longer than I was. The reasoning was the the car in the bay at that line was getting a service that took 30 min. instead of the 10 it takes to get an oil change. I backed up and left altogether. I go to Master Lube for the convience; this was not so convient. I spotted WalMart across the street and decided to go over there for the oil change. At least I could pick up a few things on my list while I waited. It took 30 min to find the things on my list and 2 hours to get the oil changed. I was not a happy person at all.

So what lesson did I learn?
1. Don't ditch your classes?
2. Be patient and stay in line if you've already invested 20 minutes in waiting?
3. Don't be distracted by 70% off?
4. None of it matters because at the end of the day is the memory of having sourdough pancakes with my dad and little bro?

Beta Blues

Hi everyone. I switched to the BETA version of blogger and so far I wish I hadn't. I haven't been able to make too many customized changes and when I tried to leave a comment on someone else's blog, I got an error message that said the beta version logon couldn't leave comments on non-beta accounts. So, don't go getting any wild ideas about switching to the BETA version of Blogger. Just be happy with what you got.


PS. I'll keep trying to leave comments, The error message said it was "in the works."

Productive Week

I had a very productive week at work. We got all the shelves, old and new into postion, shelved all the ficiton , magazines , reference and half the Dewey section. All that's left is to finish the Dewey section and take a few weeks off to rest before the next project "Genrefication!" Did I mention that we've been doing an inventory as we moved the books? Anyway, I better start thinking about what to do when all the reorganizing is done; I need some way of getting the students into the library to use all that's availible. Since I've declared that the comptuters can't be used for music and games, I haven't had too many students coming to the library. I'm afraid that if I can't make the staff and students see how a library can be used, all our work will have been to turn a perfectly good library into a "set" complete with books for props.

New Shelves - Day 2

Miracles really do happen. The new shelves are assembled and ready for books. They were shipped without assembly instructions, but since they are exactly like the shelves we already have it wasn't too hard to figure out how to assemble them. It would have been nice to know the order in which they went together easiest and which hardware went where. I started calling the company to ask them for instructions, but no one answered the phone until 9:30 by which time we had already put together the first section. Our head maintenence man stayed with it until it was all finished and he even hung the pictures that had come down in the reorganization. We just have one more major move before we're finished and we'll have a brand new library, for all intents and purposes. I hope to be finished before the end of the week, a few weeks before my goal of Nov. 2, the night of our parent/teacher conference.

New Shelves - Day 1

Shelfless . . . in Lame Deer

So a week ago the salesman from Montana School Equipment called and told me that my new library shelves were going to be shipped from Missoula on Thursday. He reckoned that they would arrive in Lame Deer late on Friday afternoon, how long does it take after all? So we start moving things around to be ready for their arrival. We've already been putting things in order, cataloging the backlog of new books and weeding like a Martha Stewart gardener in preparation for our new shelves. The assistant librarians have been reading the shelves and we've been able to use the books even though they aren't in apple pie order. Well the shelves didn't arrive on Friday or Monday. Tuesday I get a message from the Voc/Ag teacher that the trucker had called to tell her that he was in Miles City and would be arriving the next day. He thought that with a load as heavy as a 1/2 ton of library shelves must be heavy equipment for the shop. The salesman called on Tuesday to see if the shelves arrived OK and not damaged at all. He called and said, "Hi this is D.... from Montana School Equipment." I said, " Hi, this is shelfless in Lame Deer." He chuckled and said he would try to track them down. Finally, just before leaving work today,Thursday, a week later, the custodian told me that my shelves were on the loading dock, so we are shelfless no more. The answer to the question, "How long does it take to get from Missoula to Lame Deer?" is 1 week.

Now the question is how long will it take to assemble the shelves and get the books moved to their new homes? Then how long to get the pictures hung and the "assesories" in place? Let's hope it doesn't take too long, we have Open House on the 24th.

Autumn Commute

Two times of the year I don't mind commuting the 26 miles to my school in Lame Deer, the early spring when the new leaves are a soft green and make green haloes on the trees and autum when they turn new colors before dropping off the trees altogether. I suppose it's because there are so few "non-evergreen" trees that it's quite a novelty for me to see the leafy
trees foretelling the change of seasons. BTW, FYI, I hate commuting in the winter. 2 iffy.

I've just gotten back from a visit to Billings to see my dad and youngest brother. Dad got home from the hospital on Wednesday after a visit that ended up with the placement of two stents. I guess it's not as major a deal as I thought. All I could remember was the by-pass surgeries and the long recovery. He was ready to go home the day after the procedure, but they made him wait another day . . . just because. It was good to visit with him and ascertain for myself that he really seems no worse for the ordeal.

I'm looking forward to getting to work tomorrow to see if my new library shelves were delivered as promised. It will be a miracle if they ended up at the high school as Friday was an early out due to a town parade. If they are anywhere in the district it will be good news. If they are actually at the high school, it will be a miracle.

I'm also looking forward to having some of my brother's tomatoes and my dad's bread for dinner. So I'll write more later. Hopefully, I'll be busy this week rearranging the books on the new shelves.

Native American Week

It's been a very eventful week, partly because of Native American Week and partly because things are still unsettled at school. I took this picture this morning after it had been raining. They set the tipi up yesterday and explained a few things about how it used to be done by the women. The opening is facing east as is customary for the most part.

The corn on the hillside is was planted by the FFA club and is quite good eating.

Indian Summer

It seems that the warm afternoons of Indian Summer are over and the cool days of autumn are here. It has been cold and drizzling all day. I think a few snowflakes sneaked in among the raindrops. It got so cold that I had to bake some cookies to warm up the kitchen;)

Things at work have settled down to a routine. Not very many patrons dropping into the library, but then the computers have been down with a virus, and most of the patrons are digitally oriented, makes me wonder why I'm spending so much time trying to get the books in order. My new bookshelves are supposed to be shipped this week. Since it's also Native American Week, if they do come on schedule, they probably won't get set up for another week or two. There's talk in the lounge that we're going to switch from a 7 period day to an 8 period day. Seems to me that decision should have been made before school even started, not 5 weeks into the 1st quarter. The longer I work here, the more amazed I am at our students. They have learned everything we've shown them about school. Teachers dropping out, no long term plans, talking back to supervisors, they've seen it all, and copied it.

As I said, Native American Week is coming up and I intend to enjoy it. It used to make me stress a lot to think of the interuptions and kids all wound up. But now that I know it will all settled down again, I enjoy learning what I can about the heritage of my students. Some of them get a little hostile towards school and "white" teachers when they spend a week hearing about the way their ancestors were treated. I can't say as I blame them.

Bird Soup

A few moments before this picture was taken, there was a small flock of birds waiting to take their turns at the birdbath. Guess who took cuts? He seems to want to drink out of anything but his water dish. I'm guessing it had the delicate flavor of feathers and bird droppings.

Project Organize

Here's what the top of my dresser looks like. I know it looks messy, but if I hide (store) my jewelry in a box I never wear it. I've got to have it out so I can see it every morning when I get dressed. Also, a lot of it was given to me by either mom or Bill, or by Dad after mom died. So when I see it, I have to smile. Sometimes I pretend it's my armor, like in a video game I play. I have a bracelet of good health +25 or a ring of invicibility +47, somedays, I wish it really worked that way.

Anyway, I saw this cool earring holder that Natalie had and I finally found one like hers, just where she said, Claire's. It makes it a lot easier to pick out a pair of earrings for the day. The rings fit nicely on the red, glass hand that Andrew gave me a long time ago, but I've got nothing for all the bangly bracelets. Any one got any ideas? The just sort of sit in a heap on the dresser.

This & That

This
In spite of the fact that our school's computer network broke down this week due to a massive virus infection, I had a pretty good week at work. We got all of the books on the shelves sorted and weeded, the noxious weeds at least. Weeding is what librarians call pulling outdated, tattered or unneeded books from the collection. I've had the books placed on tables so that people can take them if they want. After all, one man's weed is another's flower, right? After two weeks, I still have quite a few books on the tables. A staff member asked me what I was going to do with the books that no one wanted. I said that I would start taking them to the dumpster on Tuesday, after the long weekend. She got a pained look on her face. I mean, in my eyes it proves I made a good choice to pull the books. No one even wanted to take them for free. Chances are really good that no one would check them out of the library, right? I keep explaining that we can't get new books if there is no place to put them. I do believe that our students deserve to have at least a few books in their library that were written in this century, and now we'll have some place to put them.

That
After a few weeks of brutal heat, the weather has turned mild, downright chilly at times. What a relief. It's starting to feel like fall weather, cool mornings and warm afternoons. I've even seen a few trees that are starting to turn yellow and birds that are starting to gather in large groups. Fall is probably my favorite time of the year.

...and 38 to Go!

Well as I figure it, that's one week down and 38 to go. We just finished our first week of school and it wasn't all that bad. I had a few classes come in for the first time and a few of the students even checked out a book or two. I'm reorganizing the library: consolidating the old jr. high collection with the high school collection and moving the whole thing to another wall while at the same time weeding out library books that are old enough to have been on the shelves of my school library when I was in grade school. It doesn't make any sense that a library that's less than 10 years old should have so many old books, but someone (probably a penny penching principal) collected old books from other libraries that threw them out. Don't know why anyone would want to start a brand new library of the 21st Century with a lot of old books, but it happened.

Anyway, all that moving of books has really inflamed my bursitic shoulder. It's a good thing I have some student assitant librarians. Now that I've got a pattern going I can get them to help me move the books and spare my shoulder and wrist. Did I mention that my wrist is starting to fall apart? Did I mention that my library assistants are amazing? I watched one of them check out books while entering new patron names at the same time. She was as smooth as I am and I've had 5 years of practice and she's had 5 minutes. Just proves to me that kids are as comfortable if not more comfortable with computer stored iformation than old-fasioned print materials. Gives me a lot to think about when planning the future of our library.

Busy Week

I just finished my first week back to work and I'm really tired, but righteously tired. I worked hard! I was attempting to learn where things are and get what the teacher's needed to start teaching next week when the students arrive. Also we had numerous meetings with staff and administrators, but I barely remember those, thinking too much about other things. Jimmy was never far from my mind and as long as I kept my hands busy I could keep my memories of him from becoming overwhelmingly sad. I can't say that the library is ready for the students yet, far from it, but I'm hoping to enlist their help to get it ready.

I suspect our cat has fleas. He's never had them before that I know of, but we're getting some mysterious looking bug bites. So today, I go to town to get some flea stuff for the cat and then spend the rest of the day vacuuming and washing bedding. Better get busy.

Playmate, come out and play

I've lost my childhood playmate. He never forgot how to play like a child. I need to remember.

God Bless

We just got some sad news about our brother. He has returned to the hospital to fight another round with the cancer. He has been fighting the cancer with valor and with love for his family. We are all in his corner for this fight and are here when he needs us. Just let us know what to do.

Library MEss

This is the state of my libary as of today. I just found out that the new shelves won't be coming until the end of Septmeber. So probably, this will be the state of the library until Halloween. I'll post some new pix then.

Family Ties

I've had a very good week. Andrew came to Ashland for an over night visit and brought his girlfriend. She must have good luck because the sky was clear and she got her first taste of the night sky through a telescope. She said she would never look at the sky in quite the same way again.

It was good to see Andrew as we'd lost touch for a few weeks, which tends to make me worry, especially when I've not got much else to think about, summer being a slow time for me. Then on MOnday, I went into Billings to visit family. Brother Ken was down from Helena and brother Pete is off on Monday nights so Monday dad took us out for a nice family dinner. Then Pete and I sat up too late watching a movie that Andrew had recommended to me when he was here. There's a six degree separation going on here somewhere if I could figure it out.

Tuesday I just hung out, ran a few errands and made a salad for dad and me for dinner and then came home. Very relaxing and enjoyable company.

Today, Wednesday, I got a letter from my school district with the agenda for our first days of school which start on 16 August!
There are 3 laws I would lobby to get passed. 1. No Daylight Savings Time 2. Elect the President by popular vote instead of the Electoral College 3. No School starting before Labor Day. (and maybe a 4th - No politician may mention their opponent by name or inference in any campaigning)

Look! No Cavities

I went to Colstrip to see the dentist today and had lunch with one my friends from Lame Deer Jr. High. Those were some of the best years of my teaching career, good friends and the feeling that we were personally making a difference in the education of the students. It's not that I don't like the people I work with now, but its just not the same. Anyway, NO Cavities! and I won't say I liked it, but it was air conditioned and even the canned Muzak wasn't too bad.

PS...the hygenist had to spend 30 minutes just cleaning my teeth and she wouldn't lecture me, but I need to FLOSS!