The last senior prank...

I know it's coming.

Frankly, I thought they'd do it last week.

It's the only one still to go.

On Tuesday, they decorated our Executive Director's office in princess-y pinks and frillies. (Nini would say his office never looked so nice!)

On Thursday, they took all the books out of our little library.

There is one to go, and I'm nervous because it hasn't happened yet.

Here's what I know: They intend to take all the classrooms and switch them around. They'll move all the furniture, decorations and materials from my space, and move it to someone else's room.

I have been expecting every day for the last week to come in and find that my room is no longer mine. My desk will have been relocated. All the books, shelves, chairs, plants--even Mbungo, will all be somewhere else.

They've done all the other stuff. They'll do this one, too.

I want to get it out there that, generally, I have no patience whatsoever for pranks. This tradition is one that irritates me to no end because I have no time for the disruptions that such things inevitably force upon my very tight end-of-year routine. I've let it be known that, if they're going to f*ck around with my classroom, the senior class had better:

a) Put stuff exactly where I can find it. Hiding stuff will result in my doing the same to their diplomas (or maybe their cars, via tow trucks).

b) Put stuff BACK exactly where it was. I have to proctor MCAS in my room tomorrow, and I will call them at 2am to move stuff back, so the kids who have to take that test can do so under the proper and appropriate conditions (and so I can get my own work done at the same time).

Hear me now, class of 2008! Do not do something that will make me want to seek vengeance for your sophomoric attempts to create a lasting institutional memory for yourselves. I will be ruthless in my retribution. I am not above returning a nuisance for a nuisance. Or worse for worse.

I love you all!

PS: No, Karla, Ruth and Wheeler, Wifeness did not tattle. She remained, as ever she would, tight lipped to the end.

PPS: No, Karla, Ruth and Wheeler, I will not tell you from whence I learned of your treacherous plans. It was magic. That's all you need to know.

Thank you, Laurie B...

Laurie, who evidently checks my blog more regularly than I do of late, checked in some time ago to see how things are. Thank you for that, Laurie. It was the impetus I needed to take the time to put it into type.

Here are the latest happenings in my world:

Wifeness did a lot of studying of history to prep for the MTEL (Massachusetts teacher licensure tests), and also to bone up on all manner of arcane and obscure knowledge so she could do well in her Jeopardy™ tryouts. She says she totally kicked the MTEL in the arse. As to being on America’s most popular trivia game show? Well, we’ll see if the phone rings (they say that, once you’ve made it to the contestant pool, your odds are 50/50).

Things around Wayfarer House are coming into bloom. There is green everywhere—except the lawn. Observe, by way of analogy:

What one might expect in a lawn…

An example of what we have…



We’ve managed to pull the weeds out of the soil, and the grass is slowly poking it’s way up, but I fear it will need some serious love to get that manicured fairway quality lawn that will bring the property values in our neighborhood up, instead of down.

I just finished a proposal to present at the Coalition for Essential Schools Fall Forum event this November in Charlotte, NC. It’s the result of some recent research I’ve been doing into Carol Dweck’s work on intrinsic motivation and with Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi’s research on the state of high performance he calls “flow” (which all started after reading Josh Waitzkin’s book, The Art of Learning). Tell me what you think of the idea:

Revealing the Mystical: The Zone of Creativity and Excellence in the Classroom

Elite athletes call it “the Zone”: That enigmatic state of performance and focus where we feel relaxed, alert, and fully engaged. When we are in this place, we can internalize interconnected knowledge in profound, meaningful ways. In this seminar, we will explore a practical, incremental approach to teaching and learning that develops the Zone, so that focused, creative and lasting learning can take place. Activities help participants examine ways to draw on the individual personalities and passions of teachers and students, respond to the ebb and flow of classroom energy and design lessons that emphasize depth and encourage expression.

This past weekend, we were all about tearing down and rebuilding our side porch. We put out a call to local Wayfarer Community members for help in doing it Amish-style (like a barn raising). Uncountable thanks go out to Matt, Wheeler, Karla, Heather, Mark and SiSi for their work on the porch itself, and to a great many people who worked behind the scenes to do food, cleanup and kid care. I was aware of Wifeness, Bessy, Maeve, Caleb, Alex and her family, and Lisa, but there are undoubtedly others I did not see because of all the sawdust flying about. It’s not 100% complete, but it looks really good and I am quite proud of it, and of the fact that doing it the way we did, with our little community coming together, worked so well. I look forward to returning the favor for each and every one!

There's more to tell, but it's bedtime and I have a busy day tomorrow. I said I'd try to do two posts a week. Let this be the first. I'll work to have the other up this weekend.

Seven for Sunday... Because of God.

I missed posting last weekend because I was in Boston doing volunteer training, and it’s been busy this week. Since it’s Sunday, I’ll do a random Seven for Sunday post.

1. My trip to Boston was totally worth the hit to my weekend. I also had to go on Tuesday for a second session, during which I got to talk to someone who participates in reviews, and I got to sit in on a mock event. I feel a lot more confident now about how I can be a productive part of the process. I expect I’ll have a lot more to say about this later, but I have to wait until I can get to some actual review meetings to talk about what it is really like (that won’t happen until April).

2. Spring has arrived officially, and we can actually see bare ground in the front yard. Of course, there are still large tracts of land that are covered in the telltale sullied white that comes from all manner of debris drifting over and onto it. It will be a while yet before I can extricate my disc golf basket from under the small glacier that secures it, but I feel like I can begin to collect the tools and equipment that come out during the dark season, so they can go into the basement when a path to the bulkhead door becomes navigable.

3. I don’t often remember dreams that I have. I have them, sure, but my ability (interest?) in recalling dreams has, for as long as I can remember, never been a strength. That said, there are times when dreams really stick with me. I can still vividly remember parts of the dream in which my oldest daughter’s name was revealed to me, for example. I bring this up because I had something new about dreams happen to me the other day.

It happens from time to time that I have dreams, or scenes from dreams, repeat themselves. I’ve often discovered that this happens because the universe is trying to tell me something, and the same thing will continue to replay until I’ve received the message. Never, until this week, however, have I had a dream that came in sequence to one that came before. Sometime back in the summer, I had this weird dream involving primitive tribe of people (think medicine man with the bone in his nose and the ornate, feathered hat) and small kid-size containers of yogurt. The “chief” of this tribe offered them as a ceremonial gift of welcome to me and the other people in the hut where we were meeting. That was the essence of the dream and, while I can tell you about it now, it didn’t really resonate with me at the time. Fast forward to last week. I’m back in the hut, the same characters are in the dream, and the yogurt is being presented. Then, the dream moves forward! We’re tentatively eating the yogurt, presenting our own ceremonial gifts, and trying to bridge the gap in language and culture. It was like the second chapter of a mini-series! Has that ever happened to you?

4. I find the simultaneous variety and similarity of human behavior fascinating. I especially love exploring human personality and playing with tools that quantify and organize it. For me, it’s a great way to improve my sense of self, but I also find it valuable as a tool for understanding and predicting how others behave. As a teacher, this information really helps me to relate to my students as both people and learners, and I am far more effective as a guide to them for being able to see patterns in the ways they think and act.

There are lots of paradigms out there that define personality type. Meyers-Briggs, which is based on Carl Jung’s work, is popular. Gardner’s work on Multiple Intelligences has been very helpful to me, too (this link [HERE] allows you to actually contribute to ongoing MI research. I was introduced to one just today that I played with, and intend to explore some more. It’s based on the book, “The Personality Compass: A New Way to Understand People (Turner & Greco, 1998). It’s not terribly complex, but the fact that it draws on socio-cultural patterns is interesting. You can take a basic quiz to find your own place on the Personality Compass [HERE]. For the record, mine points mostly North and West. Where does yours point?

5. Wifeness and I have a joint blog in the works that will help to chronicle our efforts to establish a community and start a school. It’s not quite ready yet (I have some basic stuff to put into it before I share the link), but we both would love to have people check it out. Hopefully, having a forum for this work will keep it full present in our thoughts and routines, and will also help others to know just what’s going. I’ll share the link when I’ve got the first real post prepped.

6. We all went to Target today for the every-so-often-get-stuff-you-can’t-find-cheap-at-the-local-stores shopping excursion, complete with fast food lunch. The girls brought with them money which, as you may imagine, was burning some rather large holes in their tiny little purses. They saw a great deal of merchandise on display today, but what did they decide to spend their hard-earned cash on? That’s right! Electric toothbrushes! NiNi was particularly excited at the discovery of such technology. Her exact words were, “Yay! Now I won’t have to do any work!” No, really. No one can make this stuff up.

7. My classes are watching movies this coming week to avoid the need for homework during MCAS testing. This is not idle work, however. It’s part of a unit on how to use subtitling as a tool for expanding and enriching foreign language vocabulary. My first-year classes are watching Finding Nemo; my second-year students are watching The Incredibles (which relates to their recent work on the essential question “What makes a hero?”) I love these units because they show my students something valuable and useful, and they really seem to appreciate it. I suppose the popcorn helps, too.

I have a scene from The Incredibles running rampant in my head because we reviewed the scene in which it is found, like, a thousand times on Thursday. I can’t find a clip of the particular scene online (“…officers, ma’am. Squeaker.”), so I’ll leave you my favorite from the movie for you [HERE].

Happy Easter!

Training to Volunteer...

This weekend I’ll be in Boston for training to become a DSS Volunteer Case Reviewer. This is part of one of my goals for this year: To be active in the foster care community. I’m looking forward to the chance to see things from inside the system, but I’m not sure how I’ll handle what I’ll see. Many of the people whose (foster care) blogs I read confirm that it can be heartwrenching at times to see and hear about the experiences faced by these children. That, compounded with the frustrations a system woefully inadequate to the task of helping them, often lead to burnout. I’m mentally preparing myself for that, but I hope I’m strong enough to stay with it.

Every foster child who is put into care in Massachusetts receives a status review about every six months, at which time a case reviewer from the DSS Foster Care Review Unit, a member of the administrative staff from the local DSS area office and a Volunteer Case Reviewer from the local community meet to review the child’s service plan (what DSS must and can do) and discuss progress towards the established goals for the child. My role as a Volunteer Case Reviewer is to bring an outsiders understanding to this process, to help the DSS people understand those issues and concerns that they, as people entrenched in the system, might not consider.

Very often, the state likes to bring in people for these reviews who share the same cultural or ethnic background as the child and family, but this is surprisingly difficult. I’m a little bit of an asset because I speak Spanish and Portuguese, and because I have a fair awareness of the cultural sensitivities of a variety of cultures. The woman who interviewed me for this position fairly drooled when she found out these things, so I guess they’re skills they can use. It will be truly rewarding if that’s the case. I became interested in languages because I really liked connecting with people through them; if I’m able to use them to make someone’s life a little better, that gives them a much higher, more sacred sense of importance to me.

There is more information on foster care in the state of Massachusetts [HERE], if you’re interested in learning more.

In other news (this is for you, Kizz), I managed to fall down the entire flight of stairs from my office in the attic to the second floor of our house last night. My legs were jello after finishing an hour-long training ride on my bike and, when I missed the first step, there was no chance for recovery. I did not stick the landing, and cannot compete in the all-around. Fortunately, I didn’t bruise anything except my pride, but as I was going down, all I could think of was, “Jesus, there sure are a lot of stairs!” It seemed like I tumbled for a good 3 minutes!

My apologies go out to Caleb and Maeve for making such a racket. Their daughters’ bedroom is right underneath the stairs, and Elena woke up at the sound of the gawdawful clattering of my ass going over my tea kettle. I hope she didn’t fuss too much!

One mind at a time...

Diana Watson, who works with the outreach arm of the Center for School Success, visited our school yesterday to talk research related to Mel Levine’s book A Mind at a Time. She’ll be back next week to talk with us more, but the essence of her visit this past week was to share with us some of what they’ve been teaching at CSS. I’d like to share it with you because, whether you’re a teacher or not, it has implications for how we think about our potential as people. Be prepared, though. This is a loooooong post. Do you have coffee? Several minutes to kill? Then read on!

If we, as teachers, think about what goes on in the classroom, we might describe it as an interchange between what the tasks we’re asking students to perform and the skills they bring to those tasks. We say, “Here’s what I want you to do,” and the students draw upon what they can to do it. Simple, yes? Well, why is it that it doesn’t work that way? Diana suggests (and I agree) that there is a disconnect in the interchange.

Let us play a game to illustrate the point (this is a fun game to do as an ice breaker, by the way--a full version is available [HERE]). Imagine that you are with a group of students (age is not important) sitting in a circle. You each have a baton. The game is this: You must pass the baton to the right or left on cue, according to the reading of a story. When you hear the word LEFT or RIGHT/WRIGHT, you hand the stick you have in that direction. You keep passing the stick you receive to the side that's mentioned next in the story - back and forth. Here’s a part of the story…

Mr. WRIGHT prepared to take Mrs. WRIGHT RIGHT to the hospital just as she went into labor. As he LEFT in the car, he turned RIGHT out of the driveway. He had to go RIGHT back home because he LEFT Mrs. WRIGHT at home. As soon as he turned into the driveway, he went RIGHT inside and RIGHT up the stairs, where he found Mrs. WRIGHT sitting RIGHT beside her overnight bag. They both got in the car on the LEFT side as the RIGHT side door wouldn't open. Mr. and Mrs. WRIGHT again LEFT for the hospital, turning RIGHT out of the driveway.

Make sense?

What are the skills, then, that you need to have in order to play this game? There’s a long list of physical requirements to this game, including good hand-eye-ear coordination and quick reflexes. Then there’s the very basic ability to hear and understand English. Having played this game myself, I can attest to the fact that an ability to focus on the story while simultaneously focusing on the sticks being passed back and forth is important, as well. Play it in your mind. Imagine yourself passing the stick left and right, and doing a pretty decent job of it. When the story is done and you’ve got the stick you’re supposed to have, imagine how good that’ll feel. You’d feel proud, right? It is not an easy game to play, even for adults!

Now, imagine the teacher telling you that you did a great job, and if you’ll just recite the details of the story in your own words, you’ll get an “A”.

How do you think you would feel? Could you even do it right now without having to go back up and look at the paragraph?

This is what it is often like for students in our classes. They come into our worlds with a set of skills, many of which are still in development (this is true even of older students in college). Often, however, we give them tasks to do that presuppose that these skills are fully developed or, worse, we demand of them tasks that are not at all in line with the skills they’ve used to prepare for what we’ve asked of them.

Let’s put the next example in the classroom. Say you’ve just given your middle or high school students a paper to write. The topic: Take a news article of your choice and do an analysis of it. Talk about it using all five question words (who, what, etc.) Tell what about it makes it newsworthy, then give your opinion of the article. Since this is a piece of writing, let’s make it clear that you intend there to be proper grammar and punctuation, a standard format (12-point Times Roman, 2x space, title at top) and, for consistency in evaluating, let’s require the five paragraph structure. Is this assignment pretty clear?

Let’s be clear that you’ve done your job as a teacher. You’ve taught them how to find an article in a newspaper. You’ve stood in front of them and explained about the five question words. You’ve put information on the board for them to copy down and given them a link to refresh their memories of what makes up a five paragraph essay (see [HERE], for example). You’ve even given them a rubric spelling out exactly what you were going to grade, and by how much. How much more do you need to do here? Most of us would say that sets them up pretty well, I think.

The due date arrives. Where are the papers? Some of them might have come in, but they were miserable. The writing was full of errors, they didn’t follow the format and, what the hell?! This one doesn’t even have five paragraphs! Does this sound familiar? Everyone who’s gone through this as a teacher, raise your hand.

Now let’s consider just what we’re asking the students to do in this assignment. That is, what skills do they need to have already in place to complete it to the standard we, as teachers, would expect? Here are just some of the things I could think of off the top of my head:

-- Read and understand a news article and an Internet site
-- Summarize the article in one’s own words with all five question words
-- Type on a keyboard
-- Understand and be proficient in formatting in a word processing program
-- Learn or review the concept of a five paragraph essay from a piece of writing
-- Think beyond the article to other connecting events
• Be aware of other connecting, prior events related to the article
• Interpret and communicate concept of “newsworthiness”
• Interpret broader public interest
-- Understand what the instructor meant by “analysis”
-- Develop and express an opinion

What did I miss?

Now, for the point: How many of your students (how many of US, for that matter) do you expect could easily perform all of these tasks simultaneously? Like in the left-right game, above, most people could do SOME of what was required, but few of us could do ALL that was required to do complete the overall task well. It’s no wonder, then, that our students produce substandard work. It’s not unlike expecting someone to pat their head and rub their tummy while also trying to memorize Hamlet’s soliloquy, and it sets people up to fail and be frustrated in the process.

Many of us who teach at higher grades lament the fact that students simply don’t know what they need to by the time they get to us. It’s not our fault, we say. They’re supposed to have these skills in place by the time they get to us! Well, maybe they are and maybe they’re not.

We often label these students (and there are millions of them in the U.S. public schools through grade 12) as having learning disabilities or, at minimum, serious learning issues. Neuroscience is beginning to challenge this assumption, however. One of the things the work of Dr. Levine and others are making clear is that, in fact, we may be expecting students to have skills that they may simply not universally have fully developed by the time we call upon them to use them.

We know a lot of students (and adults) like this, don’t we? Bob is a brilliant artist and good with math, but can’t write well to save his life. He’s gone through Language Arts twice in the same grade, but still isn’t reading up to grade level. Jenny needs to have instructions repeated, like, 12 times before she’s able to them. You’d think she just wasn’t paying attention, but she’s looking right at you! These are examples of people (and they could be adults or children) with a solid ability to understand what they need to do, but who must contend with the unique, subtly different variations in the wiring of their brains that get in the way of their learning. Sometimes these variations are easily seen because they affect basic skills such as reading, writing or arithmetic, but very often they’re far less obvious. They may have trouble with time management, expressing things orally, remembering isolated bits of trivia or ways of solving problems, or even learning how to navigate social situations. In adults, we often accept these as eccentricities. In children, we consider them handicaps. I would philosophically argue that they are neither, but I’ll leave that be in favor of looking at how to actually solve the problem and get the students learning. That is, after all, what all this is about, right?

If we acknowledge that there is a diversity of ways in which people’s brains are wired, we can begin to think about the necessity of a pluralistic approach to teaching--or, more appropriately, to learning. We can recognize that, if each of our students learns in a different way, a couple of things about our practice as teachers become important. First on this list is the ability to accurately assess just what our students are individually, and collectively, capable of. Then we can create learning opportunities that are built upon what our students know (for learning cannot take place apart from what we know) and that take our students out of what Lev Vygotsky termed the Proximal Zone of Development (in real person’s English, that means that we take students just a little out of their “comfort zone”, but not so far out that they get scared and can’t pay attention).

Second on the list is the ability to approach our teaching from several different points of view, recycling or spiraling around the concepts repeatedly in ways that draw upon different paths in the brain (what Howard Gardner terms intelligences). At some point I’ll be motivated to talk more about this, since it’s central to my own practice, but I’ve already droned on for nearly 2,000 words in this post and you’re probably bored to tears by now.

In closing, I’d like some feedback from y’all out there--teachers or not. Does any of this make sense to you? Does it fit with your own experience as learners or as teachers? Even if you don’t agree, does the logic of what I’m saying seem sound? What, if anything, does not hold? I’d love to hear from you!

By the way, an interview with Dr. Levine by Margot Adler on NPR is available [HERE].

Learning all about cycles…and cycling!

I had on my list of goals last year to compete in a triathlon. I didn’t end up doing this, but instead chose to do a 400-mile ride to Lock Haven, PA to pick up my M.Ed. in person. That event was supremely satisfying, not only because I got to actually see the campus and faculty of the institution that awarded me the degree, but because I was able to prove to myself that I could, in fact, become physically and mentally fit enough to ride the distance.

I didn’t end up finishing the blog entries about the trip (I’m not sure that anyone else would have been interested in what happened over those 5 days, anyway, and I didn’t need to put it all down into words to remember it), but the experience left me with an incredible sense of accomplishment. Sure, there were a couple of moments when I questioned whether I would actually be able to do it (that first day was the worst!). I grumbled when I had to change my second flat in as many days and when I got soaked to the bone, but this nothing compared to standing with my bike at the top of the Rhinecliff Bridge in Kingston, overlooking the Hudson River after climbing for 20 miles straight up from it or pulling into Lock Haven just as the Carroll announced the noontime hour. I will forever keep the very personal memories of that journey close to my heart, and I am grateful for what the trek has done for my self-confidence (and my leg muscles), but I do not want this event to be a singular, isolated one. I want it to be the first step toward a more active, more fulfilling lifestyle.

The next step takes me back to my original goal: A triathlon. I decided to dedicate myself this year to being ready to compete in an Olympic-distance race (there’s a local event that qualifies, which is convenient) and at least one smaller sprint-distance race in the early part of the summer, as preparation. For those who don’t know, an Olympic-distance triathlon is 1.5k of swimming, 40k of biking and 10k of running. The sprint distance version is half the Olympic version. I have my work cut out for me. I put on a good 15 pounds after my ride last summer, which I’ll have to take off again. I’ll have to go back to a base training schedule, but work quickly to get beyond it while at the same time not injuring myself. I’ll need to make a serious, concerted effort to get into the water (I run and ride right now, but I don’t have a regular swim component in my training regimen). I’ll need to “taste bitter”, as Shaolin monks say, so that I can get to a peak level of health and fitness that will carry me through a summer of heavy, physical training.

There’s a lot about doing this that I’m going to enjoy, but it will not be easy to get from my current state of fitness to something that will survive an endurance event. Fortunately, spring is nearly here! The temps have risen steadily during the last week. The snow is melting. The birds are back (we saw geese yesterday)! I’m feeling a lot more motivated to take care of business knowing that the end of the dark time is at hand.

Gearing up for this triathlon has reminded me that fitness, like so much in life, is cyclical. Longtime endurance athletes already know this, but I’d forgotten it until recently. It puts a lot of things into perspective, though. Consider the following provision of Murphy’s Law: That it takes months and months to get to peak fitness (or any fitness, for that matter), but only days to lose it. If fitness is cyclical, then the body simply cannot maintain a high level of peak fitness indefinitely. Whew! Doesn’t that make you feel better knowing that you were never supposed to keep the chisled, bikini-ready physique you worked so hard for last year? Me either. But at least now I know how to approach my weight, fitness and workout routines. If our bodies maintain fitness highs and lows, I can prepare for that. I can even figure out how to maintain a high base level of fitness for a long period of time that will fluctuate with things like the seasons, stress, illness and injury.

Realizing this cyclical nature of fitness has really opened my eyes again to how I need to train for this event, and how I need to approach exercise differently in general. I used to work hard to get into peak shape and push, push, push to hold onto it for as long as I could. If I got derailed for some reason, I’d end up going all the way back to the starting block. I don’t have to do that anymore. Now I know that, if I plan to work toward a particular event (in this case, a triathlon), I’ll get fit much faster than if I don’t. Once the event is over, I need to be prepared for a decline in fitness, but I don’t need simply to go all the way back to base fitness. I can come down slowly by training lightly after the event so that I actually end up at a higher level of base fitness than I would otherwise.

The thing I really have to do is make the commitment to be active every day. It’s something that, like blogging, I’ve been struggling with, especially during the most stressful time of year--the dark season. Last year I did better with it than I have for a long time, but I still got into that depressing funk that often leaves me completely unmotivated to do anything but vegetate. I’m committed to doing better this year.

This brings me back to cycles—well, to cycling at least. Of the three disciplines involved in a triathlon, cycling is my strongest by far. It’s the one I can do most easily during the winter because I have a trainer in my office onto which I can attach my racing bike. I’ve gotten back into the saddle over the last several weeks, and it’s been a great help in helping me get started. It’s the activity I like to turn to first, for solo fitness. I’ve already hit 100 miles, and I’m excited to see 1,000 by the end of the summer.

What do you do for fitness? Do you enjoy being physically active? Do you play sports (competitive or individual, casual or more than that)? I get that not many people would be interested in endurance sports, but I’m curious to know how different people feel about exercise and such in general.

Getting off in the workplace...

I was talking with one of my colleagues this week. She said, “God, wouldn’t it be great if every room here at a TV with a DVD player that worked, and a projector for the computer with one of those Smartboards®, and a computer that worked, like, all the time…(deeply contented sigh).

Right there in front of me, I witnessed a professional orgasm.

This got me thinking about the things in my professional life that get me excited like that, so I made a list. It’s in no particular order, and keep in mind that I teach primarily foreign languages.

Workbooks with good practice exercises. There’s a lot of stuff out there, but very little of it approaches practice in a way that connects well to what I teach. I do a lot of trolling for this stuff and, every once in a while, something comes in that really works. When I open it up and see that I can totally use what’s there, I get all tingly.

Technology. I’m a guy. I like my toys. I lobbied for two years to get a projector to run from my laptop for the presentations, exercises and games I use in class, and it is the shizzle! Gimme more! I had access to a Smartboard® years ago, and I shake at the thought of having one again.

Useful, fun websites for my students. I spend a fair amount of time in my classes showing my students how to make full use of the incredible resource that is the Internet to help them study language on their own. To that end, I show them everything from how to use an online dictionary (and the forums that go with it) to how to use online translation algorithms to translate a website from, say, French to English. Armed with this information, they can go and explore the rest of the world! When they come back with some nugget of interest to them, it always gets me excited.

Office supplies. Damn, but I get drooly just before I open the Staples box at the beginning of the school year! What’s that about? I mean, it’s just paper clips and markers! It’s embarrassing.

Audio and video my first-year students can use--that is not dorky! Why is this so goddamn hard for people to produce?! If I ever leave the classroom (hell, I may not even wait that long), I’m so totally going to make a pile of this stuff and make a mint!

Quality, creative writing from my kids. I’m not openly effusive about it when I get it, but I absolutely go foolish over some of the stories and journal entries my gang hands in, especially if it’s from students whose work shows that they really worked on it and who made real progress. Nothing makes a teacher love the job more than good demonstrations of learning!

Exhibitions that leave lasting impressions. My students each complete a semester-long project that is composed of a research paper and a classroom presentation. The classroom presentation requires an activity that actively and directly involves the class in learning what the student has researched. In any given year, I’ll have a bunch of these that are really good but, every once in a while, I see one that everyone really connects with, that they talk about long afterwards. I had one last year on traditional cultural art from Mexico, where the student produced a video that introduced the concept (she’s given me permission to put it on YouTube, but I haven’t done it yet), then she gave each of the students a small hand loom to show them how to make their own tapestries. The looms were made of cardboard, but there was clearly a lot of time and creative energy given to this idea, and it totally paid off. There were kids walking around the school weaving little tapestries for days after! It attracted all kinds of attention, and it was wonderful to see.

Faculty workshops where we get to collaborate and share. This happens pretty regularly at my school, and I look forward to it every time. I work with an amazing bunch of professionals, and I really get energized when I have the chance to plan, create and connect with them.

Having the right classroom experience for the day. Teaching is a lot about good preparation, but there’s a necessary need to adapt to circumstance. I pride myself on being flexible, and I’m not afraid to depart from the plan when it will make for a better experience for everyone concerned. Of course, this means I’ll make adjustments when my students are exhausted and just not into doing what I’ve got on tap, but the best thing is when they’re really ready and willing to go, and I have to keep up with them. When they go well, those classes always leave me emotionally and physically spent, but with a smile on my face.

So, what does it for you professionally?

Chili's Manly Meme

Chili posted the answers to Tense Teacher’s girly meme on her blog recently. Then, in the interest of equality of the sexes (and because we asked) she created a meme for the men, as well. Here are my answers to the questions she posed.

1. Boxers? Briefs? Boxer briefs? Thongs? Commando?
Number 3 on the list: All the support, and none of the wedgies!

2. What’s your fussiest personal care routine?
I am not gay, but I can sometimes take longer than any guy should to figure out what the hell I’m going to wear on a given day. To be fair, some of it has to do with being colorblind and not being sure what properly matches but, more often, it comes down to how I feel. Do I really feel like I want to wear this shirt? Which jeans would feel right today? Do I feel like this faded blue ball cap or that one? Clothing is just a matter of comfort before style for me.

3. Do you have a favorite tool? Power or manual?
In the manual tools category, my Swiss Army knife wins, hands down. Among power tools, I would bestow the award to my drills (I have two, one corded, one not). They’re versatile enough to do a whole lot of the kinds of things I need a tool to do, and they’ve been around for a long time.

4. Can you change your own oil? Do you?
I can change my own oil but, because of time constraints and the cost and inconvenience of disposal, I take my car to the most dependable mechanic in the world, who charges me what it’s worth and treats the car like it’s his own (which it was, in a sense, because I bought it from him).

5. What’s the “manliest” thing you do on a regular basis?
When I’m at home, I belch and blame it on the cat. How lame is that?

6. What’s something “manly” that you never learned how to do?
I have never learned to whistle through my fingers. I’d love to learn because, although my voice carries well, whistling is way better to do at a soccer game. Can anyone show me how?

7. Do you ever cry? If so, what’s your trigger?
You know, I really don’t. I can’t remember the last time I got teary-eyed about anything. It’s not that I don’t feel emotional about things: I can remember being full of emotion over the births of my daughters, I remember feeling truly affected after finishing my 400-mile ride to Lock Haven last summer. I distinctly recall a profound sense of poignancy after watching the movie Cast Away. There are things that really touch me, just nothing that makes me actually cry.

8. Do you have a chivalrous streak? How does it manifest itself?
I very much value many of the qualities idealized by knighthood: Bravery, courtesy, honor, and gallantry toward women. I do a lot to model these in my life. I will zealously advocate for those who can’t or don’t know how to do so for themselves. I work hard to be respectful in my dealings with others, even if they are people I would rather not spend time with. I hope that most women who know me would say I am attentive to their way of being and doing (even if I must readily admit I do not understand it at times). It is important to me that I model the idea of chivalry, but I would defer to others to say whether I truly demonstrate it. I hope so.

9. Do you have a chauvinistic streak? How does it manifest itself?
No, but I can certainly pretend I do! Truly, I don’t think there is a “better” sex, but I am not ashamed of the fact that I am a man and I am proud of the things I can do that distinguish me as such. I love that I can open jars by focusing my chi and that I can fix just damn near anything with a Swiss Army knife! I can protect my family aggressively (with that same knife, if need be). I certainly don’t feel like I’m better equipped to do many things than my wife is (modern life has done a good job of leveling the playing field), but I don’t also mind saying that I like that grilling, mowing and snowblowing are my gigs. They reinforce in me those deeply rooted feelings of masculinity that make me feel like I’m special for being a guy.

There are some things that I do that may appear chauvinist, but which are truly not. For instance, whenever we travel as a family, I really like to drive. I don’t do it because it’s manly, but because it keeps me from getting carsick.

10. What’s your favorite movie?
I have more than one, but the one that comes into my brain first is Running Scared, with Billy Crystal and Gregory Hines. Comedy, drama and a whole book of good movie quotes!

11. What’s the dumbest, testosterone-inspired thing you’ve ever done?
I used to own a sign company, and Bubba and I used to go out to install signage on building exteriors using a 24’ extension ladder on top of a U-Haul moving van (to get that extra 10’ of height). We had no safety equipment, but we would still hang waaaaay out over the edge of the ladder to drill pilot holes well out of arm’s reach. We did this on a regular basis because, well, it made sense. We’re guys, after all! We could do that!

12. What quality do you think makes a good man good? Do you have that quality?
There’s not a single answer to that question. I think it depends greatly upon the context in which a man finds himself. In my world, I think the most important of the essential qualities is a sense of responsibility. A good man here should be able to see what needs to get done and take care of it. Not just the guy stuff. Anything. It has taken me a while as an adult to understand what that means, but I’m getting better at demonstrating it every day.

13. Toilet seat up or down?
I have long held the opinion that what is good for the goose is good for the gander, so to speak. If women get to leave the seat however it is when they’re done (which means men have to look), we should get to leave the seat up (which means EVERYONE has to look). Having said that, I have come to learn that, for good energy flow in the house, the seat and the lid should be down all the time, whenever the toilet is not in use. I do this pretty regularly; the women in my world do not.

14. If your wife/partner/significant other is away, do you cook for yourself or eat out of cans and boxes (or rely on local drive-throughs and delivery)?
All of the above, depending on why I’m alone. If, as was the case in grad school, I’m alone to work, I’ll focus on working and not worry about cooking. If I’m free to relax, I’ll often cook because I very much enjoy it. For me, time in the kitchen is relaxing time.

15. What societal expectation of being a man do you most resent?
I hate the fact that, as a man, I am automatically distrusted for working to have quality, supportive and nurturing relationships with (particularly female) students. Society believes that men are not capable of entering into relationships like that and, when they do so from positions of power or authority, are looked upon with derision and suspicion. Bullshit! I’m here to tell you *I* am capable, and I resent the implication that it is not appropriate to do so *for me*. People need to understand that, while I recognize there are men out there who would abuse their position (and their students), *I* am not one of them. I take the safety and emotional comfort of my students very seriously and, if they are feeling unsafe or uncomfortable around me, I will do whatever is necessary to make things better. I have a great deal to offer as a male role model to my students. They deserve to know that it is at least possible for a man to be trustworthy and upstanding in his relationships (particularly with teenage girls).

16. What’s the best part - societal-wise - about being a man?
As a man, I get to enjoy women and femininity without having to live all the complexity that is the female existence. Also, the ability to piss pretty much wherever is a real advantage. There are no lines when guys need to piss!

17. Will you stop to ask for directions?
If I need to, sure. I do a pretty good job about being prepared before I step out the door, though.

18. What’s the one thing you wish your wife/partner/significant other understood about how you think or behave?
I can do ONE thing at a time. I can think about ONE thing at a time. I can be ONE thing at a time. I have a very difficult time doing more than that and, once that one thing has begun, I need to see it through. If it makes me late or requires that things change to work around the ONE thing, I’m ok with that. Time is a consideration in the planning of what things get done in what order, but not in the actual doing part. Doing the thing and paying attention to the clock are TWO things.

19. What’s one thing about your wife/partner/significant other that you just cannot understand, no matter how hard you try?
My wife flits and floats between distractions and interests like a butterfly in a field of violets. When we travel anywhere, she has to load up the passenger seat with enough stuff to keep her entertained which, for even a short trip, can fill up the seat and spill over onto the driver’s side. At minimum, she brings books, knitting and a crossword (the last of which, at least, I can participate in). She also brings notebooks into which she writes her myriad lists of thoughts, calendar events, favorite songs, things to do for next Christmas and childrens’ costume ideas for Halloweens until they’re 14. To have that much going on at any one time just makes my head hurt.

20. What do you need to have in the shower?
Soap and/or Johnson’s Baby Shampoo, water. The rest is icing.

21. Do you burp/fart/scratch in public? Do you do anything stereotypically male?
Yes, but discreetly/Yes, but discreetly (who doesn’t?)/Not consciously. Other stereotypical male behavior, which is not observable all the time (or maybe it is, I don’t know), includes thoughts about sex every 7 seconds (the stereotypical male average). Although it’s not along the same vein, I also watch sports on television a lot.

22. How big a part does porn play in your life? Your thoughts?
Out of respect to a number of people who read this blog, I will discuss the topic of porn only generally. I think that pornography has a place in the world. I think that, properly approached, it need not be a threat to the formation and cultivation of quality adult relationships, though it often gets vilified that way. Quite to the contrary, there is some value in it in marriages, where it can go a long way toward allowing asynchronous sexual appetites to harmonize in the middle of hectic or inconvenient individual schedules (this is a common source of marital tension). If it’s used as a substitute for building those relationships, it’s destructive (but there are a great many otherwise benign things that would fit into that same category, as well). Also, and I may get crucified here, it’s a good teaching tool for learning about sexual techniques. You may not use the freaky positions you see in videos, but you’ll at least discover that more is possible than what you knew before. Sex is, after all, about exploration and discovery--both individual and mutual.

23. What scares you?
People who are cunning, but who use the skill to hurt others, frighten and unnerve me because I am not able to anticipate or understand their behavior. On a less psychological and more mundane theme, I hate being surprised by animals in the dark (stepping on roaches or spiders, seeing raccoons or cats bolting out from under the car, etc.)

24. What’s your best feature (physical or otherwise)?
Physically, Wifeness likes my shoulders, but I think for the impartial crowd, it might be my legs. As for the otherwise, I like to think I have a good way with storytelling, and that I entertain well the women in my life. I don’t know why that last thing is important to me, but it is.

25. What would you do for love?
This last one is a hard question for me to answer in the conditional. I can say that I have certainly done some strangely contradictory things in the past: I’ve given up the life of a traveler, but moved to the other side of the country; given, and refused, casual sex; shaved parts of my body, and let hair grow out; gained and lost weight; let my closest friends give me advice, and reject their opinions. Love is nothing, if not complicated!

Thanks, Chili! This was fun!

Skip steps 1 - 11, and start with the comfort food...

EDITOR'S NOTE: We got 8" snow at Wayfarer House on Saturday. Normally I take care of snow removal, but I had taken the girls to Nana’s for several days and wasn't expected to be back in time to clear the snow away in a timely manner. Wifeness, who remained at home to enjoy some alone time, was therefore responsible for clearing it all away.

When I do it with the snowblower, I can do the driveway and parking lot in under two hours (which beats the entire day it will take otherwise), so Wifeness asked for instructions on how to start our archaic, well-used, fitty, cranky, too-small-for-most-of-the-storms-we-get snowblower. She has played with it before, but never had to actually use it to clear out the entire space. Below are the instructions I prepared for her.


STARTING THE SNOWBLOWER

Step zero: Drink some caffeine and consume a prophylactic amount of pain reliever. You’re going to need them both.

Step one: Make sure you have good gloves, and wool socks. Your hands will get cold and wet grabbing the cold handle. Your feet will also get cold and wet if the snow is deep at all.

Step two: Bring the gas from the back hall outside and shake it up to mix the oil which, by now, will have settled to the bottom.

Step three: Take out the snowblower and drag it out where you have a fair amount of room to fill the tank and pull the cord.

Step four: Fill the tank, trying not to spill gasoline all over the place (good luck with that).

Step five: Turn the key in the ignition so that it is horizontal. I think it says “start”.

Step six: Prime the motor by putting your thumb over the hole in the big rubber button next to the ignition and slowly pumping it about 5 times.

Step seven: Pull the cord. Actually, it’s not as easy as that. DO NOT GRAB THE CORD AND HAUL ON IT THE FIRST TIME. YOU WILL DISLOCATE YOUR SHOULDER. You need to pull it out as far as it will go, then tug harder on it from that point to see if you can get the cylinder to turn. It will only do it a little bit the first time. Then, let the cord retract and repeat this process the several times that will be necessary to get the cylinder lubricated enough to turn from the instant you pull on the cord (when it is fully retracted). When you think you can really yank on the cord from a fully retracted position, grab it with both hands, put your foot under the nearest wheel to keep the machine from coming with you, and yank. It will take three or four times of full on yanking (and I mean FULL ON), but by then it should start. If it doesn’t, you can keep trying a few more times before the engine floods, but that’s about it. Then, you’ll just have to let it sit. If you actually get it started, proceed to step eight. Otherwise, move straight to step eleven.

Step eight: Blow the snow in the parking area, as best you can, toward the maple tree. I usually start by clearing a line from the house between my car and Buffy’s, then moving the snow on the south side of the drive first. That way, I can move the stuff from the north side that way in two steps if I can’t put it under the hedge.

Step nine: Blow the snow along the driveway in two parts: The part along the house goes under the hedge, as much as possible, and the part that runs from the porch to the road goes across the walkway to the front lawn. You may have to do that in a couple of steps.

Step ten: Deal with the rest, if the snowblower lasts that long and if your arms aren’t too tired. NOTE: If the snowblower should stall because it has choked on snow, you must attempt to start it IMMEDIATELY. Failure to do this will mean that the machine thinks you don’t need it any longer and will simply refuse to start, resulting in an immediate jump to step eleven. Otherwise, proceed to step twelve.

Step eleven: Grab a shovel.

Step twelve: Reward yourself with some comfort food and a warm shower! Good job!

FURTHER EDITOR'S NOTE: Despite several attempts to do so, Wifeness was unable to successfully start the snowblower and was, therefore, required to spend all day shovelling. It was not until we were talking about it afterward that I realized I'd left off a (fairly essential) step:

Step 5b: Pull the choke.

Ummm... Hi.

So, anyone who still checks in with this blog is, I warrant, to be rewarded well for such admirable persistence. You’ve demonstrated dedication to a cause that I, myself, have vacillated upon for a long while. It is not that I have rejected it, for truly, that is not the case. I very much enjoy sharing my (mundane) experiences with people. I find it rewarding not just because the stories are usually entertaining (if sadly lacking in drama), but because to put them into words is a form of creativity that I find relaxing and enriching.

The problem is not desire.

After considering it, I think the reason I find blogging so challenging revolves, at least in part, around the way I tend to do things. I like to spend dedicated time with what I’m doing. I like to be in a particular mood, in a particular place (not necessarily a single place, just the “right” place for the moment) and, most importantly, I like to have time to focus only on what I’m doing. When any of the above are not as they need to be, then I often choose to avoid tasks out of a desire to properly enjoy them.

Those who know me can say that my individual wiring explains the problem. You see, I don’t multitask very well. I do one thing at a time well. I can do more than one thing on occasion, but it often leads to problems because my attention doesn’t truly split, it shifts back and forth. Eventually, it will zig when it should have zagged, I’ll short circuit and, like the juggler who misses the first flaming sword, I’m unable to prevent everything from clattering to the ground.

Since school started this past September, I’ve been chasing my tail and it has been rare that everything has been right for to do creative things of any kind. There are several reasons for this and, in a detached frame of mind, I can say that it is unusual that all these things have happened one-after-the-other as they have this year, but that doesn’t make it any better. It’s still annoying that I haven’t been in a place where I can sit down with time, place and spirit to be creative.

Actually, it recently passed beyond the point of being annoying, and so I decided to examine how I might adjust life to solve the problem, so I can be a blogger again. Here’s what I came to:

There’s a lot in my professional life right now. Granted, much of it is there by choice and, when the universe is properly aligned, it is all wonderfully energizing. Lately, however, quite the opposite is true. I may write about this later. Right now there’s still a great deal of emotion tied up in what’s going on and I don’t want to write something that would get me “dooced”.

When I write, I like to sit over it for rather a long time. I can, when the need arises, spit out quick, unedited email to people, but rarely do I just throw something down and kick it off. I futz with my writing. As you can read, of course, this doesn’t necessarily make it any better or easier to read, but at least I feel comfortable that it says what I intend. I hate it when I’m misunderstood in my writing, but it’s a constant hazard, especially when I try to convert to print all the things that make my oral communication effective. The facial expressions and hyperbolic gestures that so often grace my speech do not often translate well to print.

I suffer from seasonal blahs. I hesitate to call it depression even though that’s probably what it probably is. The term “depression” is on its own, well, depressing. Every year, I get all the symptoms of Seasonal Affective Disorder: I begin to eat everything in sight (I’ve gained 15lbs. since October 1), I want to sleep all the time (which is different from needing naps—I’ve always needed naps, no matter what the time of year), I get irritable much faster than normal and I more often than not just want to be alone. I’ve explored ways to deal with it (or, rather, to moderate the effects of it), but it never seems to go away entirely. That leaves me with a more or less constant feeling of preferring to curl up and do something mindless, which is not often conducive to blogging.

All this has brought me to the conclusion that to try to blog every day is simply untenable. It takes an awful lot of time and psychological effort to keep up with a blog in the middle of my very full day, and it ends up leading me to an ever more frustrated place when I can’t keep up.

So, what to do?

Some of the blogs I read (when I take the time to read them) have routine days that they post. For example, this blog I read by Kristin Espinasse posts three times a week. I think I like the idea of regular deadlines, so I’m going to work to build a routine of two committed posts a week: On the weekend (most likely Saturday) and on Wednesday. I think that this gives me adequate time to write and futz over what (and how) to say what’s going on, but still get it out there often enough that I will feel like I’m keeping you, dedicated readers, in the loop. I really like doing 10 Things Tuesdays, but I think it’s best to focus on a routine that I can handle for now. Maybe I’ll be able to join in again sometime later.

That takes care of when to post.

The next thing is the what. I wrestle with this because, quite frankly, I cannot believe that my view of the world is worth spending your valuable time on. There are lots of things that *I* might find worthy of recording for posterity, but it just seems so insipid when put in the context of what I read. Add to that the feeling that this blog just seems to lack a certain focus. It seems like the content of my blog over the last year has been all over the map. I’d like to narrow its focus some.

The tagline of this space reads, “Take a path and follow it”. I value this quote because it reinforces the belief that, if I make the choice to do something, I have succeeded in something wonderful and, whether I eventually succeed or fail at what I have chosen, I have learned something in the process. The choice is the important thing, together with the appreciation and reflection of the experience afterward, because it leads to self-understanding. I think this is the essence of what I have always wanted to write about: A journey to self-understanding that comes from living life by choice.

Of course, that’s not all I’ll put here. JesusGod, but that would be sickening to read! No, I like a good meme, the random news item or political rant, and I think it’s important to be able to say, “Sorry, kids, but I’ve got nothing for you today. Here’s a video.” If I have a central idea for my space, however, I’ll feel more directed in filling it up properly.

Finally, I’d like to ask your help. If you read this, I could use some encouragement to keep it going. I’m not expecting it to be a blog that wins the popularity contest, but I think all of us that spend time blogging can say that, when we know people are out there, we’re more inclined to keep posting. I think part of the deal is supposed to be that I comment on your blog and you comment on mine? OK. I think can do that, but I may not be able to do it every day. When I do, though, I’ll do my best to make the comments thoughtful and worth the read.

So, there it is. I’m going to try blogging again. Thank you for your patience as I wrestle yet again to create this incredibly challenging, yet thoroughly gratifying habit.

This Ain't Yo' Mama's High School!

Orientation came this past week, and it was truly energizing to see the school filled with students again. All the wide eyes, expectations, excitement--I love being able to be part of a truly memorable high school experience for these guys! I don’t know any other school that makes new people feel at home like mine does, but I very highly recommend that other schools take the time to do it. It gets the year off to a great start, and really sets these students up to succeed. Think for a minute about what it was like when you went to high school: The first day you arrived, you might have known people, but certainly you were incredibly nervous about all the totally new faces, the unfamiliar environment, unusual routines and higher expectations. Your schedule might have been what you thought it was, but it probably wasn’t, and who did you ask for help if you couldn’t find your science class, anyway? Making new friends, being back at the bottom of the totem pole after being at the top in 8th grade, bigger books (and more of them)--all of the stress that is part of that first day, on top of all of the other stresses of just being 14.

Now, imagine this: You arrive at school for orientation, but this is not your first time here. You were here just a few months ago for “auditions”, where you met a number of other incoming students, did some cooperative activities and a sample of your performing art (not because it was used to determine your placement at the school, but to demonstrate to you that you’ll be asked to actually demonstrate your mastery of things you’ll learn). You see several of these other students here, as you’re heading to the theater for the formal opening of orientation. You say your hellos and sit together to share in this new experience. Already you have a friend, and you haven’t even started yet!

The staff are already here, and make you feel welcome straight away. They are not lined up along the wall, ushering you to seats, like you expect. They’re all over the place, introducing themselves, asking about you, encouraging you to meet other teachers who share your interests or who live near you. They’re giving hugs and chatting happily with the returning students who are acting as helpers during orientation, and there is a feeling of warmth that leaves an instant impression.

Eventually, this guy comes up onto the stage and gives you a hearty welcome, telling you all that you are special because you are the first students here at school this year and, for the next three days, the place is yours. In due course, you learn that he is the Executive Director of the school, but he comes across like someone more interested in getting to know you than in being a principal. He doesn’t list out any rules or make any threats. He simply tells you that he is excited that you’re here, and he thinks you’ll really enjoy orientation. Then he hands the mic over to a lady whom you met during auditions. She is the Director of Teaching and Learning. She speaks for just a moment to say that she’s honored to be here with you because she’s had the pleasure of watching you all during auditions, and that you are really impressive. This makes you feel good because she said that same thing to you personally when you were at auditions (not that it was your best reading of a monologue, but you were proud to have done it for the first time in front of people you didn’t know). She tells you where her office is, and that you should not hesitate to come by and visit, to tell her how things are going and to offer any comments (good or bad) that will make your time at the school enjoyable.

Then come the staff--all of them. Each one, in turn, takes the stage for just a moment and gives an introduction. It’s funny because most of them do something funny or original when it’s their turn. They make jokes, sing little ditties, juggle and even teach you a quick dance move in the 30 seconds they have the stage. You get the sense that the teachers are really engaging. Class with any of them will definitely be interesting! Even the office staff say hello, and tell you what they do and where they can be found. You don’t think you ever spoke to the office secretary at your last school. By the time you’re ready to go off into your morning groups, you’ve laughed enough to make your cheeks ache a little. It’s only 9:00!

A teacher calls your name along with a bunch of others and you go with him upstairs to what must be his classroom. There are no desks in the room, though. Instead, chairs have been placed in a circle in the center of the space. You take a seat, and the teacher sits right in the circle with you all. He once again introduces himself, welcomes you and tells you that he is very much looking forward to getting to know you over the next couple of days. He talks about all the things he’s planned to do, but says that plans are often meant to be changed and, if we all decide we want to do something for longer or shorter than planned, that’s perfectly fine.

You go right into an activity designed to help you learn everyone’s names. Everyone participates and, while you’re a little nervous because you don’t know anyone in this group, it doesn’t take long before you find yourself sharing stuff you have in common with other people in the circle. You talk about hobbies and expectations, and you document your “journey to the school” on a large map that shows an impressive web of interconnected string lines. Before you take a break to go outside to eat lunch, you learn that, tomorrow, you will bring in your “personal archeology” to share. This is a small collection of artifacts that you think tell about you. You know just what you’ll bring, and it’ll be a little nerve-wracking to share it but you don’t get the sense that you’ll be ridiculed for anything. On the contrary, everyone is so accepting of who you are already, you’re confident that they’ll applaud you just as strongly as everyone else at the end of your little presentation.

You go to a workshop in the afternoon where you learn about learning styles and how they’re used at this school. You learn that teachers here actually take time to discover how you like to learn things, so they can make classes more interesting and fun. They’ll also so they can challenge you to work outside your comfort zone from time to time, so you can become a better learner. You discover what your own, individual learning style is, and you can actually see how it makes sense. You always knew you liked listen to music while you work, and it fits that you have a strong tonal learning style.

At the end of the day, you and the rest of the students go to an outdoor activity with the head of the dance department. She teaches you about how dance is just another form of expression and conversation, and she leads you in an activity that gets everyone doing some sort of movement. You can’t dance to save your life, but it was fun to just flail around and have it be appreciated for what it was. As you wait for the bus to take you home, you cannot believe that you’ll have two more days of this. You wonder what it will be like once the rest of the students arrive and classes start.

La Rentrée, C’est Complètement Effréné (part 1)!

This school year has certainly gotten off to a wild start! I’ll share with you more, I hope, over the next several posts, but for now let me just give you the basics:

I began the year a week ahead of my actual return date. This, in and of itself, is not unusual. I’m the school’s equivalent of an Athletic Director and I coach our co-ed varsity soccer team, so the beginning of the year is always busy with getting stuff ready for the fall season of sports. This year, there’s been more of that than usual because we’re adding cross country to our list of offerings. Lots of end-of-summer phone tag with other schools, trying to coordinate a last-minute set of meets; extra forms, letters and purchase orders to shuffle around; more than a few emails to send, so that no one can complain they didn’t know what was going on. I’m constantly amazed at how much paperwork is necessary simply to allow kids to play at school.

As it got closer to D-Day for the staff, I needed to devote time to a workshop that I run for new students during their 3 days of orientation. It’s on Multiple Learning Styles, and it is required of all incoming students at my school. This is the second year I’ve done this workshop, and there was a sizeable amount of 11th hour retooling to adapt it to a longer timeframe and a larger and more diverse audience. I also needed to train 5 other staff members in how to run their own workshops on this topic, using the materials I developed as a guide. New scripts, new visuals, a more comprehensive guide with supplies and handouts for students all needed to be finished in about 3 days. It’s a good thing I can type pretty fast!

The first day back for staff included time in the morning for sharing and fellowship—there were lots of hugs and genuinely interested inquiries about summer activities. We always take time to introduce new members of staff, work ourselves up into a lather with rah-rah speeches and inspirational activities, then get down to the business of welcoming back the students. For me, this includes 46,000 meetings with everyone from my department colleagues to the academic support staff. If I’m lucky, I’ll get a chance to put my classroom together, but usually this has to wait until orientation (I have mornings free during those 3 days).

This year, I had all 46,000 meetings, but they took twice as long as they normally would. One big reason for this is that I have a new group of advisees this year (these are students I work with closely during the year, helping them with scheduling and, in general, negotiating the academic red tape that is part of high school). It is a smaller group than I normally have, but they are all students who have organizational or motivational issues that have impeded their success at my school. I got this advisory group because of my relative success last year with a small collection of students (only one of which was my actual advisee) in completing coursework and earning credit for classes they would likely have not passed otherwise. I’m looking forward to working with this new lot, but there is a whole lot of prep work that goes into this. In order to properly help them succeed this year, it is important to know exactly what contributed to their problems the year before. Do they have IEPs or 504 paperwork? Were the difficulties behavioral, organizational, motivational? What can they do well (write, sing, dance, draw, etc)? What do their teachers have to say (objectively--I don’t need personal opinions)? What is their home life like? Are their folks helping or hurting the cause (the best successes I had last year involved my telling parents exactly what they needed to do to support their students)? Do they have any goals or aspirations? Where are they, truly, in adolescent development? A lot of questions to ask, and for even a small number of students requires a lot of time to get answers.

I'll tell you about New Student Orientation tomorrow.

10 Things Tuesday--Where Have I Been?

A random posting, if you please, accounting for all the things going on at Wayfarer House.

1. School starts this week. Actually, it started two weeks ago in practice, but this is the first week all the staff are back in earnest. It's been a great summer for some, a tough summer for many (a lot of births and deaths), but we're here and we're getting stuff done.

2-4. The list of stuff to be done vis-à-vis number 1, above. Like I said, I've been back for all intents and purposes for two weeks. I've been to school several times and I've been working at home in the evenings to get things ready for school and soccer. My list before yesterday was extensive, but I was moving through it. I sat down yesterday to add to it after our initial welcome meeting (after everyone had tapped me on the shoulder and said, "Nice to see you! Can we meet?"), and I nearly shot myself in the face. Sweet Mary, mother of Jesus, I have a lot of crap to do! So much for giving up the evening coffee.

5. The porch. Our major house project of the summer was to repair and paint the porch. I don't have before pics (Wifeness might, and if you ask she might post them later), but suffice it to say things were rotting off as we watched. It was time. My part of the project involved repair and replacement of all the railings and the bottom 3' of one post that had rotted out. Wifeness gets to strip and paint. It took some 12 hours over 2+ weeks to do my part of it (with kid help), but it's nearly done. I have only a single decorative element to complete. Wifeness will be working on the stripping in the evenings, I expect, over the next little while. If we're lucky, it'll be all done and pretty by the end of September.

6. The tree. Wifeness posted about the excitement from last week. Check her blog out for pics of the mammoth branch that fell, missing everything it could on the way down. I still can't believe we rolled a 99 on that (pardon the D&D reference)! Saturday was taken up almost entirely by de-limbing and clearing debris (and a world of thanks to Mark, whose small chainsaw made that happen before the end of this year). There is a nice mountain of brush waiting to be moved, and someone is coming by in the next couple of days to talk about the possibility of milling the branch for lumber. It'd be nice not to have to just cut it up for firewood.

7. The baby. We took care of Caleb and Maeve's youngest (13 month old) girl so they could celebrate their anniversary away from home. This is really more on Wifeness' list because she spent the night with her, but I tried to stay up, just in case. They came back looking much more at peace.

8. Grocery shopping. 90 minutes and over $200 later. Before that there was...

9. Cleaning out the fridge. This is, without a doubt, the most distasteful kitchen chore there is! Damn, that shit was nasty! But, look at all the room! Oh, wait. It's filled with $200 of groceries. What the crap?!? Now I can't find anything again!

10. The laundry. Somehow, our entire stash of towels needed to be done. That makes the weekly count somewhere around 7 loads. How is this possible, especially since the kids are still running around like refugees from Kosovo? And will you guys stop wiping your blueberry faces on your shirts? There's just not enough stain remover for that.


Somewhere in here, I've managed to enjoy my children, have some small amount of time with my wife and bask in the love and fellowship of chosen family (Beth, Katie, Mark, Lisa, Ben). I have read only 3 pages of my book in the last two weeks, and I haven't even so much as taken a walk in that time (though Saturday certainly counts for exercise--that wood is heavy!)

Here's to hoping the routine of school provides more time for pleasurable pursuits. Yeah, I know. I'm not holding my breath either.

Arse Domestica

We’re leaving for NH today, and I have a list of things to do around the house before we leave. It’s Thursday Thirteen, so here’s the (uninspired and mundane) list:

1-3. Loads of laundry. Two darks and a light. There’s also a basket of stsuff in the living room that has been patiently waiting to be folded. I’ll do that while…

4. Finishing Pan’s Labyrinth. I’ve been trying to watch it for, like, two weeks. It’s a fabulous movie, even if you don’t speak Spanish. The imagery is stunning and the story thoroughly engaging. I recommend it already, even though I haven’t seen all of it. You should know, though, if you don’t already, that it is NOT a film for children. It has an R rating for a reason. There is graphic violence that disturbed even me.

5. Finish World Language ordering for the fall. Being the computer literate one in my department, I get to put the supply order into the computer. A simple task, you might imagine. Well, it might be if people got all the information right. Very often, there are part numbers missing, incorrect page numbers and descriptions that hardly match what it is they’re ordering. It took me a good 3 hours to find all the pieces in just half of the list. I’m hoping the second half goes faster, because I still have to…

6. Cycle through the dishwasher and clean up the kitchen. While I’d love to rip the whole house apart, I’ll settle for what keeps things moving. I still need to make time to…

7. Pack. This takes all of 15 minutes for me, but I also need to pack up the toiletries. Then I can move on to…

8. The next part of the porch. I have two sections of railings done, and the stair rails replaced, but I can’t do any more until I repair the south corner post. It’s all rotted out on the bottom. I picked up lumber yesterday to prop up that part of the porch so I can repair the post, and I’m committed to getting it done before we leave. Once the repairs to the post are complete, I can finish the railings on that side. Then it’s up to Wifeness to paint everything. Before I can get started on this, though, I’ll need to…

9.Make a run to Home Depot. I broke two drill bits and a Phillips head driver yesterday, and I need to replace them to do what I need to. Since I’m destined for an outing, I’ll…

10. Clean out the car. We’re taking my car to NH, so I need to make room in the wayback for luggage. It’s not like that! I’ve been very good about keeping my car clean enough to entertain. Once soccer seasons starts, my car will undoubtedly turn into a gym locker on wheels but, for right now, it’s as it should be, smelling of vanilla and with room for passengers. Finally, there’s some computer work to do…

11. Replies to email. I can tell school is about to start because my Inbox has new messages every time I check it. I’m impressed at the amount of time I spend replying to email. It’s not a bad thing; it’s the most productive and convenient way to get all that stuff done. I wonder how long it would take me to do it all if I didn’t have the technology to help?

12. Get a soccer announcement on the schools’ website. Tryouts for the Main Squad are supposed to take place in two weeks. There’s a mailing going out this week sometime, but I need to make sure that the notice is out there for everyone to find. I have the game schedule to post there also, but I haven’t finalized it yet. That’ll have to wait a week.

13. Get this blog post out. At least I can check one item off the list!

Scenes from a Job Site...

Scene One

“Hey, Papa! Can I help you measure?”

“Sure, kiddo. C’mere.”

Hands child the end of the tape measure.

“Hold it right there, k? “

“You mean like this?”

“Yes, just like that.”

“Can I hold it this way if I want.”

“Uh, sure. Hold it any way you like, so that this part touches right here.”

Runs out tape measure, looking to make sure kiddo is holding the other end in the proper place.

“Um, honey? Where are you supposed to be holding your end?”

Kiddo, absorbed with some other childhood activity, looks down.

“Oh. Right here. Sorry, Papa. What’s the number, Papa?”

“The number??”

“Yeah. The number on the tool.”

“Oh! You mean the measurement on the tape. It’s 79 inches. Can you remember that for me?”

“Sure! 79. Seventy-nine. Seeeeeeeeeventy-niiiiiiiiine. Nineninenineninenine…”

Kiddo wanders off. Papa writes number down because he knows what’s about to happen. Kiddo comes back.

“Papa, what did you say that number was?”

Scene Two

Smaller kiddo appears, holding ear protectors.

“Papa, can I wear your headphones?”

“Sure. Just don’t run off with them, k?”

“OK.”

Kiddo puts ear protectors on, resumes fantasy play involving a stick and a toy cell phone. Papa goes back to work. Two minutes later…

“NiNi, I need my headphones. NiNi... NiNi... NINI!!!”

Scene Three

“Papa, can we hammer something?”

Papa looks around. Spies part of the porch that needs to have nails set.

“Sure. Here, you can try and hammer these nails in. Do you each have your hammers?”

Kiddos proudly display hammers.

“OK. Go to town.”

Kiddos throw themselves into the act.

BANGBANGBANGETYBANGBANGETYbangBANGbangetyBANGbangtapbangtaptappabangtaptaptappa…taptap…taptap…tappa…tap.

“Papa, we’re done.”

Papa inspects, and determines that no progress whatsoever has been made. In fact, it is entirely possible that the nails have actually been driven OUT of the boards.

“Good job, you guys.”

“Papa, we’re tired and hungry. Can we get a snack?”

The bugs are back in town, the bugs are back in town…

We discovered lice on the kids again this morning.

Grrrr!!!

It figures that we would find this out just as we were getting ready to leave for a family reunion. We ended up over an hour late because we needed to drop everything and go through both girls’ hair with the fine tooth comb.

How is it possible that those bugs managed to survive, anyway??! It’s not like we weren’t thorough. We cleaned their bedding and clothes. We treated their hair with Nix (which we think was the source of SiSi’s illness a couple of weeks ago), and checked their hair every day for a week. We took care of them! Dammit!

Well, we will not allow them to come back a third time, that’s for sure. The thing about it is that we can’t really use the Nix anymore, at least not on SiSi. It's just not worth the chance of having a pukesick child in the house for another week like that. We decided to try a more gentle method this time.

The girls went to bed tonight in shower caps, with heads covered in mayonnaise. We’ll shower them in the morning and comb the crap out of their hair. We’ll investigate another application of something in a week or so. We’ll do a lot of laundry--in HAWT hot water. We will root out the buggers and we will destroy them. Not very buddhist sounding, is this? Yeah, well, Buddha didn’t have head lice. He didn’t have any hair (at least, not in the Chinese version). If he did, he’d undoubtedly have amended the rule a little bit. Fucking bugs.

Home Improvement Day

Today, Wifeness and I are going to paint and repair the porch. This, on its own, is not terribly challenging, but the children are around and this adds a special twist to everything like this we try to do. To illustrate this, I offer the following example:

My girls (6 and 4) helped me build a picnic table last week. We started at 10am. I measured; they held the tape and remembered the number. I cut lumber to size; they held it, then stacked it when it was cut. I disassembled the old picnic table; they carried the pieces away. I pulled nails from old lumber; they hammered the lumber to death after the nails were pulled. I laid out the legs for the new table; they held the lumber steady while I drilled. I inserted the carriage bolts into the legs; they put on the bolts and washers. They did a great job! By 2pm, we'd managed to actually build half of one of the legs, and they went down for "rest time". By the time they were done with rest, I'd built the rest of the table. It was a great experience for them, and they had a wonderful time. We just didn't set any speed records that day (except, perhaps, the one for the longest time it takes to screw in the nut on a 3½" carriage bolt while not actually stopping in the process).

I'll let you know how this goes...

Happy birthday, NiNi!

My daughter NiNi officially turned four yesterday, so I’m a day late posting this. It’s fortuitous, though, that it falls on a Thursday. I can use a 13 for Thursday entry to talk about all (well, hardly all) of her wonderful qualities. Here goes…

1. She is incredibly charming, and knows how to use it well. I know a lot of charming kids, but few of these know how to work it to their advantage the way my youngest does. All she has to do is smile, and people do all kinds of things for her. It’s an impressive superpower, really.

2. She has a wonderfully unique laugh. It has developed from a near guffaw to something more giggly, but it still makes you smile even if you weren’t in the greatest mood before you heard it. It’s one of the reasons why she gets tickled so damn much. People just love to hear her laugh. She’s a “Tickle Me NiNi”!

3. She is teenie-weenie. The kid is 4 years old, and fights in the same division as Elena, the 12 month old baby of Caleb and Maeve, who live upstairs. She’s also really skinny. Like, I can nearly circle her leg with my middle finger and thumb. But all together, the package of this little girl is cute beyond words. I’ll look to see if I can find a picture to show you. If you haven’t yet, you need to see for yourself.

4. She can eat more pancakes than you. I’m serious! The kid doesn’t just break her fast, she smothers it! I’ve seen her eat half again the amount of food I do on Saturday morning. When she’s done, she’s got this belly that sticks out, and she looks for all the world like a refugee from some third world nation. Slap some dirt on her face and stick her next to Sally Struthers, and you’ve got an instant ad for CARE.

5. She cannot walk in a straight line to save her life, except in heels. I shit you not. It’s unreal. I’ve never seen anything like that before, and in a 4 year-old, no less. Who was she in a past life, that she can do this?

6. She eats beets. Have you ever known a kid her age to eat beets? In a ham sandwich? With wheat bread? C’mon!

7. She can sleep at the drop of a hat, and go for 12 hours easy. I think she gets this from my mother, who is a master at the art of sleeping. In a given day, she can sleep until 8:00am, get up and do her thing until lunch, take a nap at 2:00pm for two hours and still be perfectly ready for bed at 8:00pm. She fights rest time more now than she used to, but since she clearly has all the staying power of ice cream in Miami, I keep enforcing it. It’s good for her.

8. She leads a delightfully rich internal life. She is able to totally withdraw into an imaginary world when she wants, and is perfectly comfortable there for an hour or two. This is certainly convenient for the Papa, since he’s often able to get more done when she’s in that space than when she’s trying to insert herself into my to-do list.

9. She is a great snuggler/cuddler/lap kid. It may be her size, but you totally want to pick this kid up and bury your face in her neck. Unless it’s hot. Then she’s just sticky. Ewwww!

10. She is a true girlie-girl. Unlike her sister, who is much more physical in her preferences for entertainment, NiNi is perfectly content to go shopping. Especially if there are stores that sell shoes and handbags. The child is FOUR. YEARS. OLD. What the hell does she know from shoes and handbags??! I’m telling you, though, she knows her footwear, and she knows how to accessorize.

11. She can wash her own hair, beat an egg brutally into submission and put away her own clothes. I’m very proud of both my children’s independence, but particularly NiNi’s. Her size is such a limiting factor to so many things in her world: She can’t quite turn the water off in the bathroom because the faucet sticks; she can’t quite open the car door by herself; she is still in a 5-point harness carseat. Yet, she is still fiercely driven to do things herself whenever she can. Good on you, kiddo!

12. She has good instincts when it comes to trusting people. I’ve watched her latch on to people she’s never met, and be quite comfortable with them (Kizz is a good example). I’ve also watched her refuse to allow someone to take her, when she didn’t feel safe with them. Watching her in this behavior over time, I can see that she has well-developed radar for good people. Of course, that won’t keep me from teaching her how to protect herself from predators when we’re not around, but I don’t want her to ever lose touch with this ability. It will serve her well when the time comes to pick friends, go on dates and engage in business dealings. She won’t get screwed or heartbroken nearly as often, if she remembers to trust her instincts about human nature.

13. She is a true Leo, just like her papa. It leads to some conflict every now and again between us, but as she grows and I learn more about her, I think we’ll make an amazing team. With two powerful lions, Wayfarer House is, indeed, a force to be reckoned with! Rowwrr!

A pretty impressive kid, don’t you think? I'm glad she chose me to be her papa.

The Value of Chosen Family

It's late, but I wanted to take a minute to say just how wonderful and thoroughly enriching it is to have someone you love, and whom you gladly count among your chosen family, bless you with their presence.

Auntie Fran is in the area on vacation for only a few days, but she made a point of setting aside this entire evening for Wayfarer House. She arrived just before evening meal and stayed until well past 11pm; every moment was like being wrapped in a warm, soft, goodsmelly* blanket. She is such a heartwarming person, and I cannot help be feel a little unworthy of such love and friendship as she offers without reservation. It serves to remind me of just how important it is to offer the same to her, and also to everyone else.

Do you have someone like Fran in your world, a member of your chosen (or blood) family who brings peace and love every time they visit^? Someone who can be gone from your world for a long time but, when they come back, it is like they've never really been far away? Please take this opportunity to share these people here, or on your own blogs. Just give them some love!

* "Goodsmelly" is a word in the Wayfarer House dictionary. It comes from one of my students several years ago, and is a great word to use when you don't want to communicate a particular kind of pleasing smell, and you want the gestalt of the adjective to focus on the person, not the object. Curious, isn't it, that there is no word in English that does this already?

^ The use of the 3rd person plural as a genderless singular pronoun is something that undoubtedly will offend purists of English grammar. I will defend its usage because there is simply no other convenient option in English that accomplishes the same thing. It is no longer politically correct to use the masculine to indicate both genders, and the use of both pronouns reads awkwardly, no matter what form it takes. The use of "they" to indicate "he and/or she" has crept into colloquial use because it makes sense. It is the only third person pronoun that includes both genders simultaneously. I accept it on that basis as an appropriate adaptation of the language to the needs of the particular society that uses it.

Tour de la Campagne--Stage 3

Friday, July 6

7h30: It’s a gorgeous morning, filled with sun and promise! I can’t believe I’m in as good a mood as this, given what’s ahead. Maybe it's that special New York air. Maybe it's that special blend of "continental breakfast" coffee. Maybe I’m just excited because I’ve worked myself up into a nice lather over the mountains I'm climbing today. In any event, I’m in good spirits and rarin' to go. I patched the flat from yesterday before I grabbed some of the aforementioned "continental" breakfast. I’ll pack up in just a second.

Today is the day Wifeness and the girls catch up to me. They’re supposed to leave Wayfarer House around noon with Auntie Alex (who is coming on vacation with us, the fricking weirdo). My guess is that they’ll find me somewhere around 3pm. I wonder where that will be?

A review of the map confirms that the directions for the first part of this stage are as simple as they can be. Route 28 West to Pine Hill. I think the sign in the background says “34 miles”. That’s 34 miles straight up into the mountains at 4%. Pfft! I got that. You like this show of confidence? It’s masking a lot of inadequacies right now.

8h30: I’m on the road and the hill starts out pretty much as soon as I hit the highway. Fortunately, the road is wide and well paved, with a broad shoulder and plenty of visibility. It’s also a consistent uphill grade, so I can settle back into the seat and just focus on the climbing. It’s helpful when you can just withdraw into yourself and block out everything but the act of pushing and pulling the pedals. It makes the time pass by as smoothly (and as mindlessly) as it can.

I have a scenic detour built into this stage: A short (8-mile) trip around Ashokan Reservoir, one of the many reservoirs in this part of the state that supply water to New York City. It’s only 4 miles up the road. I may pay for it later, but I’m feeling really good, so I think I'll take it.

The road up to the reservoir is perfectly tranquil. There are occasional houses here, but I can see more seasonal camps tucked back just off the road down little used rutted vehicle paths. I can appreciate why someone would want to come up here. It’s beautiful! I come upon the spillway for the reservoir in just a couple of miles (see photo, right). That mountain in the distance (below) is Pine Hill, I think. Looks tall enough, doesn’t it?

I little further on, I come to a bridge that crosses the reservoir. It’s a picturesque spot to stop, so I enjoy a snack and take in the view (pic at end of post).

It’s only a mile or two back to Route 28, where the climbing resumes.

10h15 (25 miles/40km//168 miles/270km total): I’m feeling tired. I’ve been climbing for almost two hours, so that could certainly be part of the equation, but it feels more like I’m in need of some electrolytes. I wonder when I’ll come across someplace that sells Gatorade? Ah! Here’s something.

Well, it’s not the Four Seasons or anything, but there’s a vending machine just behind that car on the left. That works!

11h35 (36 miles/58km//179 miles/288km total): Buoyed by my overpriced energy drink, I’ve managed to make it to Pine Hill. I’ve been told that I’m not done climbing yet, though. There’s a little bit more before I’ve reached the high point of the road.

12h00: There it is.

This picture doesn’t really show you just how steep it is. Hold on…

There! That’s about right. The lady I spoke to a couple of miles ago says this is the last section. Conquer this, and it’s (fairly) smooth sailing from here to Margaretville. Fine. Bring it, then.

12h20: Well, now, I don’t mind saying that this part of the climb certainly lived up to the hype. It was steeeeeeeep and about .9mi/1.6km. I also don’t mind saying that I totally kicked its ass! Boo-yah! That was empowering! It also drained me of about half my body’s fluid reserves. I’ll just stop here and drink six gallons of water. It has not escaped my notice that "The Final Countdown" by Asia is playing on mp3.

12h35 (49 miles/79km//192 miles/309km total): I’ve just passed Margaretville. I have a while to go before I turn onto the road that takes me to Roscoe, where we’ll be staying for the night. I could choose to ride all the way to Hancock (my scheduled end point), but that would put my mileage total up over 100 for the day. I’m just not sure I want to abuse myself to that degree with 200 miles still to go. Going straight to Roscoe is half the distance, and it would save the van an extra trip up to Hancock to drop me off to start. I can just leave from Roscoe in the morning.

One of those “scattered” afternoon thunderstorms hit just a moment ago. The picture I took after it passed doesn’t show it, but the rain evaporating off the hot asphalt created fog like conditions that were simply incongruous with a bright, sunny day. It was also strange because it was only from about 20 feet down to the road. The fog was thick, though, and I was forced to take a break for a good 30 minutes to allow the visibility to improve. I've taken off my shoes and I'm walking around to keep my legs loose. I really don't want them to turn to cement at this point!

15h35 (63 miles/101km//206 miles/332km total): Wifeness’ red van just passed me! It took a little longer than I thought it would for us to meet, but I’m excited that they’ve found me. I've missed them! Here are my kids expressing their excitement.

So much strangeness!

It’s starting to rain again. Wifeness backtracked to ask me if I just want to put the bike on the back and ride to the hotel in the van. It’s a tempting offer, but I really don’t. I don’t relish getting soaked again, but I really want to ride the whole way. I’ll feel somehow like I cheated myself of the honor if I don’t and it’s important for me to be able to say at the end that I did it all. No, I’ll bike it, thanks. We decide to meet up at the intersection to the road to Roscoe. It’s probably a dozen miles out. I’d better get moving. This rain isn’t going to make it pass any faster.

15h35 (70 miles/113km//213 miles/343km total): What the crap! I’m at the meeting point where we would turn to go to Roscoe, but the road is closed! There’s no indication as to why, and I’m immediately tempted just to ride it. The thing is, though, that the van can’t follow me. They have to drive all the way out to Hancock and cut back--35 miles or more. What’s more, if I get down the road and discover that it is, in fact, impassible, I’d have to backtrack and then do those 35+ miles. That’d put my mileage at over 115 for the day if I made a bad choice, and it’s already nearly 5pm. I’m not sure I’d finish the long mileage before dark if I had to do ride it, and I’m not well equipped for riding in the dark. I’m just not willing to take the risk. Bitterly, I put my bike on the back of the van, peel out of my wet, smelly riding clothes, change into something dry and climb in. I’ll end up leaving from Roscoe in the morning, and take it as equivalent mileage.

All told, this was a great day! I made it through the mountains in good form and, except for the road closure, had no issues to contend with that weren’t related to climbing. I didn’t even have to deal with a flat! I’m feeling good about my chances to make it the rest of the way. I won’t have to carry a lot of heavy gear, starting tomorrow, and I should be descending out of the mountains. Yay! Downhills are nice!