September ends

Saturday,  sleep in day.  Well, a little.  It was a rainy day for the first part.   I took my time getting ready for work and got a few chores done.   I decided to cover one extra job in addition to my own today.   That resulted in around 4 hours driving for 2 hours work.   I need the money so the old job stays indefinitely and I guess picking up more work when I can will continue to happen. 

It is late.   We are on the way home from a friend's place.   They had a bunch of folks over for a bardic circle.   It was a nice mixture of songs & stories I have heard and those I haven't.  Towards the end,  everyone has gone into the house except for my daughter and I, so we sang with each other.  It was nice.  I think I was even able to harmonize a little.   Making my voice project without sounding like I am mad at the world is usually hard for me to do and I was able to do that tonight too.  I am looking forward to bed now.

Bardic is today's happy.  It is one of the things that I enjoy being near the most when at camping events with the SCA.  Learning more songs or having some available in a file on my phone would be nice for camping anywhere. 

Anyone else see a robot from a Miyazaki movie? 

September 29th

Last week I wrote about Gideon & I going for a walk and that we ended up on a different trail then I had hoped for.  Today, after dropping Gideon off at school, my daughter and I walked a little way on that trail.  It is a beautiful paved trail.  I have a memory from my early childhood about a trail being made that would run alongside the length of highway 89 in NH.  I have seen pieces of it occasionally when I would drive on 89 and I have found parts of it and walked about 20 feet on it once just to say I had.  Today my daughter and I went a little over a mile in and then returned.  We went as far as the bridge that crosses the connection between the Turkey Ponds.  The trail doesn't run alongside the entire highway.  According to the map, it actually stops shortly passed the bridge.  There are more sections, but I don't know them yet. 

We enjoyed the walk.  Today the weather was just a little brisk and rather nice for walking.  After the walk I puttered a bit and got ready for work.  Gideon came home and then left with his other grandparents to go to the Fair.  After work I went to the Fair and took over the watching of Gideon.  We mostly just wandered around.  He got in all the rides he could during the ride for one price time before I got there.  I bumped into a few people I know.  I kind of expected I would see some students, but didn't.  One friend of a cousin that is super nice,  a different cousin and her cousin, a friend of my son and a friend from the SCA who works there every year.  There was food and music and shops with fair merchandise.  Displays of things and long lines for the restrooms. 

The fair was busy and we had sore feet but it is also big and I lost track of time.  We ended up missing the Michaelmas get together that a friend holds every year.  Gideon's parents went though and brought us back some goose to eat.  Here is a link about Michaelmas. 

Finally getting onto that trail today is my happy.  It is something I have always wanted to do and so I have also just added it to my Bucket List. 

A berry that is blue.

Trail

Blurry picture, because we were moving. 

Bridge

Gideon & I at the fair.  He wanted nachos for dinner-so he is my Nacho Man. ♫

Thursday, the 28th of September

My oldest brother turned 60 today.  Wow.  I feel so far from there and yet... not.  A student asked me today whether I colored my hair grey or if it is natural.  There are questions that I have heard students ask that are not really appropriate and the teacher lets them know.  This wasn't, in my opinion, inappropriate and I answered. Some adults most likely wouldn't appreciate that question.  My mother was turning grey in high school and mostly grey by the time she was 25.  At my age my mom had been white for quite some time.  My hair was brown with blond and red mixed in.  The red turned white first and now I think the blond is mostly gone.  I guess it is kind of tawny now.  Some day it will be white and long and I will still wear it in braids or ponytails.  😵  Any how, when I have been asked questions sometimes I have answered and sometimes I put them off because this is school time and most likely all they are really looking for is to delay getting school work done.  One student wanted to tell me a joke as the teacher started talking and I told him to wait until after class and he forgot.  So, like Sheldon in the Big Bang Theory, I am missing closure with that joke.  

No school for me tomorrow.  I will most likely work some of my other job and then go to the fair.  As I sit here typing I am trying to decide if I want to set my alarm for the morning or not.  

Gideon got chosen to be the star student today and all the kids drew a picture of him that he brought home.  How cool is that?

My happy for today are this morning's clouds.

Sunrise...

Sunset...

from Fiddler on the Roof

September 27th

The weather today was very hot and humid here.  People seem to be asking whether or not it is really Autumn.  In the middle of the night last night I got up and pulled up the blinds to let some more air in through the windows.  What a surprise I had when I realized I had mostly closed them a few weeks ago when the temperatures had fallen a bit.  More air is coming in now and it should become more comfortable tonight than it did last night.

There was work for both of my jobs today and will be tomorrow as well.  I need to get the 2 jobs coordinated so I am not feeling quite so tired all the time.  I have started watching more Ted Talks again lately on education and teaching.  I kind of liked this one tonight on Reimagining Classrooms and will be watching it again.

Well, sleep is calling me more than I want right now.  My happy for today is Italian Ice--Lindy's cherry is what I had for dessert tonight.

And... fell asleep without publishing...

The 26th of September

Last night I fell asleep without posting.  Tonight is already better because I have started.

Yesterday I wanted to discuss the DARE class I go to.  Well, not really the class, but something that was discussed in the class that is in the DARE workbook.  What the program is trying to do is to get kids to assertively say no to drugs and cigarettes.  This is certainly something that I can stand behind.  What I found interesting is that the program was having students make "I" statements and be assertive when saying no.  I don't want to smoke because my parents will kill or I don't want to do drugs because it could get me kicked out.  My opinion for this is for the kids to feel a little empowered with these "I" statements and this is good.  What it got me thinking about is how, when writing, I try really hard to not start a sentence with the word I.  It is something that I feel was drilled into me as a student.  Now I wonder if this practice has made it difficult for me to be assertive in other areas of my life.  Just something that I am rolling around in my head...

Today is the first time that I have had to help out kids during a summative (test).  Some kids test better than others when pulled from the room or just need more time.  It got me more one on one with some of the kids.  I survived.  Enough kids didn't finish that we are finishing tomorrow.  Any how, this sparked me into watching some Ted Talks that were supposed to be about teaching while I had my dinner.  One of them was The Game That Can Give You 10 Extra Years of Life.  This isn't what I really meant when I requested teaching as a topic.  It was useful, just not what I was looking for.  A way to get kids to follow some of these without showing them the video would be nice.

Again, I am falling asleep.  I really need more sleep.  Because of this, it is time for my happy.  After working tonight I was sent on a quest for batteries.  It seems the electric smoke detectors still go off when the back up battery starts to go.  So I set off on what was supposed to be a quick walk to the local grocers and ended up being a walk to 3 different places, the last one almost a mile from the first to find a place that carried 9V batteries and was still open.  It was fun and is my happy for today because exercise is good.

Fog happened this morning near.

As I drove there was less and less fog. 

September 25th--Oops... just my happy

Well I got home late enough last night that I fell asleep before writing.  Now I have to get ready to go to work.  Hopefully I will have some time tonight to get my writing in on here.

I went to the movies with my daughter to see Nausicaa and was pleasantly surprised by the arrival of my cousin and her son joining us.  We thought they may come but I wasn't sure until they came through the door.  These are my Happy this day.

Have a lovely day!!

There is a moon there, really.

Sunday, September 24th--short on words, lots of pictures.

In an attempt to get in better shape I got up early and went for a walk.  Since the sun hadn't risen I spent time looking for the best place to watch it rise.  I went to 2 parking garages before deciding which one I liked best for the viewing.  My reasoning was that I liked the buildings around the one I chose better than the other one because of where the sun may be reflecting onto.   Anyhow, I took bunches of pictures and the following are a few of them.

Pigeons sleeping, and yes, Bert's Pigeon Song has been going through my head.

 Mostly dark.  There is a star (probably the planet Venus) a bit over the high tension line.

 More pigeons.

 The distant sun reflecting off some clouds.

Really hoping that the church steeple is not as leaning as it seems,

Close up  of cloud.

Starting to peak.

Sun reflecting off a building.

Sun doing weird things to the camera of my phone.

Reflections off the Capitol. 

 A fountain.

The pigeons are awake and away! 

 Sun from the other garage.

Bell tower. 

 Later in the day my daughter and I went to my aunt's 95th birthday party.  Getting to visit with family is today's happy.

One of the cakes.

Me with my Aunt Gert that turned 104 last month.

With my 2 brothers. 

Family.

My daughter and I with Aunt Winnie, the birthday girl. 

Poem I wrote for today.  I would have liked to have more time on this one.  I'm not crazy about how it came out.

Up early to see the sunrise  

It took longer than expected  

8 minutes late to my surprise  

A little past when predicted  

More bright creeping ever higher  

Up it crawled- peeked over a knoll

Glowing bright orange ball of fire

And then I could finish my stroll  

More prepared for another day

Or to that eastern hill away

Lazy Saturday the 23rd of September

Well, the title says it all.  I spent most of the morning and now part of the evening trying to back up files on my computer and find space on my cell phone.  My computer is having serious problems and keeps threatening to die and my phone had barely enough room to function.  I purchased a memory card for it a while back but very little had been moved to it.

Gideon and I did go for a walk today.  I had intended to take him to a bike trail that I have been wanting to try walking on.  When we got to the parking lot there was a different trail where we parked and we took that one instead.  I am guessing that he didn't get real tired until around 1.5 miles and we did 2.  He also had a snack right around the time he got tired.  I had no idea that there were these trails weaving around there.  It was near a school (St. Paul's School) that we had tried to see from the top of a hill we hiked a few weeks ago.  Another time, I am hoping to explore a bit more.  After the walk, I took a nap.  Right before bed I went for a short walk with some minor jogging, had to get my steps in.

Gnarly Tree

 

 ↓↓ My happy for today. ↓↓

Paper beats rock 

Totem Pole 

Looks like a good place for a Gnome... 

Happy First Day of Autumn!!

It has been a long day.  First was my school job, then I did one of my retail jobs (about an hour), but the battery on the work Droid started to die towards the end.  So rather than go to the second retail job I left the Droid in my car to charge and went to Bass Pro Shops while it charged.  I have been having a hard time finding pants that I like and I found some that seem to be mostly what I want there.  The pants came in 4 different colors but were sold out of my size in all but khaki colored.  They are mine now.  I also tried on some hiking shoes there but they were a little uncomfortable.  Then I went and did my last retail job and headed home.  It was probably around 8:30 by the time I got home.  Tired and hungry I decided to proceed with my original plan for the evening and I changed and went for a walk in which I did some jogging too.  Other than some pretty sore feet, I feel great.  Using the Map My Hike app I did a total of 2.13 miles in almost 34 minutes.  If I can successfully work this into my routine I hope to drop the amount of minutes it takes me to do a mile.

In other news- Gideon got a library card today, he took his dad to the movies for his dad's birthday and came home tired and grumpy.  He fell asleep on the couch but is now snuggled in my bed for the night.  I would have loved for him to have done a Vlog with me tonight but it just wasn't meant to be.

It is after 11 and I am tired.  Getting out there tonight to exercise a little is my happy for today.  I even remembered to stretch a bit after.  This morning I did 20 crunches too.  Yay!!

🍁🍁🍁🍁🍁🍁🍂🍂🍂🍂🍂🍂🍂🍂🍂🍁🍁🍁🍁🍁🍁

Happy Autumn!!

🍁🍁🍁🍁🍁🍁🍂🍂🍂🍂🍂🍂🍂🍂🍂🍁🍁🍁🍁🍁🍁

Clouds

Sleeping boy.

September 21st

My new job seems to be working out alright.  I am wanting more training, but it seems to mostly be going alright.  The old job I am liking less and less.  Interestingly enough, mostly because I am liking the regular hours and weekends off.  There is something to be said for knowing when you are going to be not working.  I miss being able to sleep in, which my other job allowed.  The flexibility was great when it existed.  Mostly I had so much work I ended up having to do, often last minute, I had very little time for anything else.  Enough griping.  My brain is more engaged and I am pretty exhausted every evening.  These are good things.

After my 2 jobs today the family and I went to Gideon's school to enroll him in Cub Scouts.  He is very excited about it.  Kindergarten boys are Lion Cub Scouts.  He and I walked home after.  He was pretty tired too and wanted me to carry him.  He hasn't asked that in a LONG time.  He was so sweet though.  First he asked me how my hand was doing.  After I told him that it seems to be much better now, just a little achy, then he asked if he could ride on my shoulders.  We walked about half way home before I let him have a piggy back ride for a very short distance.  Not on my shoulders though, that would have been too much.

The sun setting tonight during our walk home lit the clouds in shades or orange, pink and blues.  Gideon and our sites on the walk home are my happy for today.

Running, before the feet got too tired to walk.

For the sky.

Flower.