March Skies

Monday morning the sky

was white as though the

fog had been lifted up and

covered any trace of blue

I was surprised at how light

was the view for I could

see to drive at 6:15 in

the morning. 

Sometimes it is still

too dark at 7:00 and

so I was surprised.

I did get a brief glimpse of

the sun as it tried to peak

through the whiteness –

shining orange beams in

the east but only temporarily.

It remained white and light for

about 12 hours.

At 6:15 p.m. the sky had

started to darken.

On Tuesday the skies were

blue and only one hill had

clouded fog surrounding.

By noon the sun was shining.

Yesterday the skies were

white again.

Right now it is just after

6:00 am.  The sky appears to
be blue.  The earth is 
surrounded by fog.

It is too dark

for me to see.

What gives?

Missionaries, trees and games

There are a few posts in which I have mentioned George and Peggy Bird.  They lived across the street from my mom and dad.  We played with their children and we have remain connected and have spent holidays together and all the grandchildren are friends.  But the connection dates back even further – for George Bird’s dad and my great uncle were really good friends – making our families friendship lasting at least five generations now.  I think that’s cool.

          The youngest of the Bird children was the only girl.  She married and had three children – a girl and twin boys.  One of the boys received his mission call to Oregon and was recently transferred to Myrtle Creek.  Thus we had invited him and his companion to have dinner with us.  I hadn’t realized that Roland had suggested they wear their P-day clothes.  That was different.  We fed them and learned more about each of them. 

          One Elder loves the rural areas.  He appreciates seeing trees that are not a part of the Las Vegas scene where he’s from.  He doesn’t care for the cities.  Like me, he enjoys the light traffic and fresh air.  They hate the one way streets which seem to be a part of the larger cities (Eugene, for instance).

https://metro.co.uk/2015/12/25/quiz-can-we-guess-whether-
youre-a-countryside-or-city-person-5582972/

          We played Baulderdash with them.  Turns out Birds’ grandson is really good at Baulderdash.  For the most part he was at least five to seven spaces ahead of everybody else.  Roland did finally manage to catch up with him.  They were on the last square and everybody had guessed the correct answer thus Roland and Elder (who comes from Birds) were theoretically tied, but Roland said to shake the die to determine the winner.  Elder won.

          It was good to visit with a Utah family member. I accidently kept calling him by his first name instead of Elder.  Old habits die hard.  I believe we all had fun. Before they left our house, they left us with a message and a prayer.  It was a good night.

Different Rewards

          People pick careers for different reasons.  Some people seem to focus more on their paychecks than the occupation.  Others pick their jobs in hopes to create a better world.  Take education, for example.  I don’t know any one teacher that picked his/her career in hopes of seeking financial wealth.  I don’t think teachers get paid near enough.  Many of them make huge sacrifices.  They sacrifice time as well as money out of their own pockets.  I don’t think the majority of students appreciate that – or may even be aware.

          I know of two music instructors in the school district  that I work for.  One of the instructors spends three months at three different schools working with elementary children.  In addition she teaches before or after school band at Canyonville. 

          The other instructor teaches three classes at the high school before he has the option of taking lunch and drives to the middle school for three afternoon classes.  Today he is at the local grocery store with some students from his choir class.  He will be there again tomorrow giving up his free time to be with them and their cause. They are having a bake sale.  

         Jenna and one of her friends baked goods all morning.  They are raising money to go to San Francisco.  The music instructor does not get paid to be with him.  At least I don’t believe he does.  He believes in his students and is giving up his free time to be with them.  That’s what many instructors do.  They sacrifice themselves and their paychecks to contribute to the souls of this generation in hopes that they may instill values as well as knowledge.

          Roland wants me to be an accountant.  The rewards for an accountant are not the same as they are for a teacher or teacher’s aide.  The rewards are with the youth who let me know that I have made a difference.  It is with the youth who go out of their way to give me a one-armed hug.  It is with the youth who say “Hi” to me at the pool.  It’s a feel good award.  That is more valuable to me than the paycheck is.    

          Thank you to all the educators who make the many sacrifices that you do.  Thank you for caring about our youth.  Thank you for making a difference.

The Stupid Emotion Called Love

          When Jenna and I were both in middle school, we would roll our eyes over the dramatics of “couples” displaying affection and expressing emotion only to break up and express drama.  Gag.  Both of us were determined not to experience the stupid emotions ourselves – at least not in school.  Not middle school.  Not high school.  She had plans of “not ever”.  I succeeded with keeping my emotions in tact all through high school.  No love interests.  No broken hearts.  She, on the other hand, has had two "shedding tears" experiences.

          She and Nathan were friends, but he was starting to like her as more than a friend and told her so.  Things would have been perfectly fine if he hadn’t said anything.  They would have remained just friends and no stupid emotions would have entered the picture.  It was nerve racking in a way.  Why would he do that?  Why would he mess up a good friendship for something gross?  She was mortified in one way but yet flattered in the other.  She had barely turned 15 and did not want to commit to a relationship, but she did like Nathan.  Perhaps they could just hold hands and work up to something more after she had turned 16.  But that was quite a wait.

          Neither one of them wanted to call their first date a “date”.  It was just two people hanging out.  Yet it felt awkward for each of them as they knew there was the "more than just friends” label hanging over them.  Nathan broke it off just after the school let out for summer vacation.  It would have been fine if he had never said anything in the first place.  Jenna had not even wanted a relationship in the first place – and yet she became attached.  He had put thought into their “breaking up”.  He wanted to respect her religion.  He is a senior this year and she is a sophomore.  It isn’t like the relationship was going to last anyway.  But still it hurt.  It had been his idea and then he said he didn’t want to see her that way.  He should have just kept it all to himself to begin with and then she wouldn’t have felt the pain.  Stupid Love.

          I never understood this song until the “break-up” happened.  I felt bad.  I didn’t know what to do.  They go to the same school though she did not have any classes with him.  She and her friend still continue with a class that they had with Nathan last year – but he was not in the class anymore.  Not many guys were.  There is one they teased and were playing with his hair and another boy, Chris, asked why they weren’t playing with his hair.  So Jenna started playing with his hair.  They became fast friends.  They held hands in the hall – which according to high school terms qualifies as “dating”.  I don’t know that there was any “love” there.  Jenna and Chris had very little in common.

          They went to a school dance.  He came over for Thanksgiving.  They exchanged gifts at Christmas and Valentine’s Day.  Jenna got tired of participating in high school activities that he was obviously not interested in.  After Valentine’s she broke off things with Chris.  Ironically there had been more tears over Chris than there were for Nathan – whom she may not have shared much in common with either.  For one thing Jenna LOVES water.  Always has.  And Nathan is deathly afraid. 

          Chris did not react well to the “break-up”. Jenna is afraid that she has lost him as a friend and wishes she wouldn’t have said anything.  At the same time she didn’t wish to string him along.  It was quite obvious to me that they weren’t going anywhere.  I like both Chris and Nathan.  I hate the “heartbreak” thing.  I wish I was better at dealing with it.  When Jenna hurts, I hurt.  I hate the stupid emotions connected with Love.

Bottles, Cans and Plastic Bags

When we had purchased juice, sodas, bottled water and so forth in Salt Lake, we were not required to put a deposit on the containers.  Here in Oregon we are.  Some people don’t seem to care that they are paying ten cents extra and will carelessly toss containers away as recycling seems to be such a bother – which it is.  I was not opposed to tossing cans into the recycle bin when we lived in Salt Lake, but all of those cans and bottles add up – especially for party animals or those who drink by the pack.   

There are some areas that offer services by providing machines outside of their stores, others who have tried their hand at providing the service but doing away with the service when it becomes more work for the store who has to send employees out to empty bins, clear jams and what have you. The local store Rays has a couple of machines out front. But for those who have bags and bags of bottles, Roseburg BottleDrop Redemption Center is a really great place to go.  On November 22^nd 2017 Gabby Urenda reported this story

We went there one Saturday and waited in a line that proceeded to get longer before we were able to find a machine to put our cans and bottles in.  I like watching the machine sort the bottles from the cans.  Unlike the machines in front of Rays that deposit cans into the bottom, the machines at the Redemption Center have conveyor belts and I’m guessing people behind those belts who change the tubs as they get full instead of opening a door at the request of a customer who has brought to the attention of store employees that the machine had stopped. 

I had mentioned the recycling program in this post, though I hadn’t explored the Redemption Center at that point.  In addition to the mandatory ten cent deposit on each can and bottle, legislature has voted Oregon to ban plastic bags thus encouraging patrons to recycle or used recycled bags or pay for each bag they need to hold whatever they purchase wherever they purchase.

  Thus we have a hardy supply of bags in our car.  We rarely remember to bring them into the store.  Fortunately the parking lot is generally not that far away.  Jenna usually has a sweatshirt on and will often take it off and turn it into a temporary bag.  I am impressed out how much it will hold. 

My Lazy Way

          There was a sub in the eighth grade math class yesterday.  The instructor had left the instructions for the students to write out their 9 times tables from 1 – 25.  They were required to do in their heads and not use a calculator.  It’s not so bad doing in order.  1X9 of course is 9.  Just add 9 to it for your next answer 18 + 9 for your next answer: 27 and down the line.  Or you could use my lazy method which I have been doing since third or 4^th grade (whenever it was that we were taught)

          I never did memorize my 9 times tables, but tens were easy.  All you had to do was tack a zero to the end of the number being multiplied and then take that number away.  Thus 70 -7 is the same as 9X7.  I find subtracting a number is easier than trying to multiply:

          When I was taking courses on line, we required to look up references to back up our theories or understanding or whatever you want to call it.  I am sure that there are several others that may have come up with this same type of math solution for multiplying 9.  But we didn’t have the technology then when I figured out subtracting rather than memorizes the nines table.  Thus I am not going to provide any references other than the pictures I scanned of problems printed by my hand.  I’ve been doing it that way for decades.  It is what works for me.  There’s your reference.

100 plus days

                I believe it was Thursday when the kindergarten celebrated the 100^th day of school.  They had used 100 beans to fill in the number 100 on a paper and glued their beans in place.  I wasn’t there for that part.  I saw their papers set aside to dry.

            It had rained on Sunday.  I’m assuming that the rain chased the fog away as there was none impairing my vision during yesterday’s drive.  It was cold and the sun remained hidden and so was not blinded as I approached any off the exits. 

            First class: 7^th grade math.  17 students who for the most part are respectful to the instructor and pay attention to what she is doing on the board – except for two who constantly visit.  I can’t stand between them as there are two students behind the talkers.  If I stand between them, I will block the view of the other two youth.  I stand to the side.

            Next class: 8^th grade math.  12 students.  Pre Algebra.  XY slope.  Yuck. I mostly just sit in the back of the class.

            Prep Class: teaching respect and humane concepts in addition to academics.  Last month they learned math. This month is writing. 

            After that is homeroom for 15 -20 minutes.  I just don’t get the Canyonville schedule.  What is the purpose of homeroom?  To get caught up on missing assignments.  Most of the students seem to be under the impression that it’s a time to socialize.

            Student lunch.  I have usually preferred monitoring the middle schoolers as opposed to the younger children.  Middle schoolers don’t say, “That kid pushed me/called me a name”.  But I noticed behavioral attitudes with several after the 100 days.  Coincidence?

            “No balls in the playground area.  It isn’t safe.”  “Don’t play tag near the playground equipment.  It you’re going to play tag, take it out into the grassy area.”  Do they listen?  No, they are middle schoolers and the rules don’t apply to them.

            Their lunch and recess are finally over and I get to take my lunch.

            Kindergarten:   Usually I have helped with assignments involving the letter of the day.  Yesterday was math.  New numbers introduced: 16 and 17.  Though they have been counting to the current days-in-school each day.  They have counted from 1 -100 by ones, by fives and by tens.

            2^nd grade reading: the room is so loud I can’t even hear my own group.  I wasn’t having issues with them but the teacher was.  She had reprimanded several of the students several times.  I thought my group was doing okay – except maybe one who wasn’t following directions.  She couldn’t seem to hear me.  It was loud.  I couldn’t even hear myself.

            15 minutes of recess and I’m done.  I will follow that same routine today.  But Thursday and Friday will have me at a different schedule.  I won’t be working with the middle schoolers.  I might only have to do lunch recess.  I’m not sure. 

Morning Drive

                I left the house later on Friday than I had on Thursday.  The fog lingered longer. 

         On Saturday morning Roland and I went up to Roseburg.  We left the house before 9:00 and rode in fog all the way there.  I expect it will be the same each morning I leave the house this week.

Junior High

          Canyonville School caters to grades K-8 and so it doesn’t seem far-fetched that the middle school age kids will use the playground just outside of the cafeteria.  Coffenberry also has a playground to use.  We never had that option when I went to junior high.  I honestly don’t remember where I went after lunch – although I am quite certain that I did not intentionally hang around the cafeteria.

          It seemed like there were some kids who went out to the field to play ball – or tag or something.  I was not a part of any athletic crowd – or any group for that matter.  I was mostly antisocial. I really didn’t like the loudness of school or being there in any way, shape or form.

          I used to dress up for spirit week – not because I had spirit but just to get away with dressing up in something out of the ordinary – though the themes didn’t seem as wild and crazy as school spirits have been in recent years.  I’ve taken pictures of Jenna in years past (see here) and  I took these pics of Jenna earlier last week:

Weather Change at Every Exit

          Driving to Canyonville should only take 11 minutes according to Google.  Though I have arrived at the school in less than 20 minutes, I generally allow myself at least 30 minutes on the road and arrive to the school just a few minutes early which allows me time to store my belongings in the staff room.

          When I start to approach exit 101 and see I have plenty of time, I will take the ramp that leads to Stanley park and avoid the 99 exit.  Sometimes I have missed the exit and will take the off ramp at 98 – which is where the school is located just on the left hand side.  But it also requires turning left onto Main Street (which can get busy during certain hours) and make another left into the parking lot.  Google maps, the GPS and other sources will always have car exit 99 and drive through town. 

I left the house earlier than normal yesterday morning as Roland mentioned that it was cold and foggy.  I entered I5 at the 106 ramp, and it was foggy.  Three miles of thick fog.  I was focused on the broken white line until I got to 103.  I could see the fog was lifting.  It would have been nice if it had to have that for the rest of the drive.  Just as I neared exit 102 – the sun taunted me with its blinding rays.  Oh, please.  Slow the car down.  I can’t see. 

I had to get off exit 101 as I know I was going too slow for the freeway.  I like the drive when I feel like I am the only car.  However, it felt like the longest stretch of yesterday’s drive.  I finally arrived at Main Street and was able to turn without any problems.  Many of the drivers that use exit 99 – particularly the trucks, don’t seem to go beyond the truck stop or the casino.  The road I travel after exiting 101 brings me behind the casino on the left-hand side.  Then I make my way into town.

Whoa!  I had left the house much earlier than I thought.  Surely that’s what it was.  I can’t imagine I had been speeding during the fog and I know that I slowed down to barely moving once the sun glared in my eyes.  I played on my kindle for 20 minutes before walking up the hill to help monitor the first ten minutes of “before school starts” recess.  And then I went to class.

I had worn a jacket as some of the classrooms get really cold.  I think Canyonville School has the oldest building of the five that are in the district.  The ventilation says it is anyway.  In the morning I had my long green coat scarf and hat in addition to the jacket.  By lunchtime I had just my jacket – sometimes my hat – depending on whether I was standing in shadows or not.  Just before school let out, I had removed my light jacket.  The air had gone from 39 degrees to 63 within four hours.  That isn’t very nice.  I think the weather change needs to happen more gradually.

Work and Wednesdays

        I don’t generally work on Wednesdays as it has been set aside for meeting with the RS presidency.  They used to meet on Mondays but I had asked if we could change the day as Mondays are generally the most requested days off and I can pick up sub assignments more easily than any other day.

          Wednesdays are short days.  I don’t particularly care for short days.  Normally I leave the school a half an hour to an hour before the students let out, but on Wednesdays the kids get out of school at the same time as the aides – which makes for craziness in the parking lot and then driving home.  At least for two of the schools.  I have never worked the others on a Wednesday and guess I never will – at least for the time being.

          Our meetings are usually at 10:00 – sometimes 1:00.  Two weeks ago it was announced that we’d be bumping the meeting up to 3:00 yesterday.  Thus I removed myself from having a personal day as I believe I would be able to work.  Canyonville had a position from 8:30 to 2:00 – which means I would arrive home before the children were let out.  Unfortunately (or maybe fortunately) the RS pres told me the time I had changed back to 10:00 and I hadn’t yet even seen the listing for Canyonville.  Thus I did not accept.

          On Tuesday night I noticed an available position at Coffenberry and inquired about accepting the position.  They’ve had me come in at 8:00 to 10:00 before and then I just drive up to the church from there as it is close enough to be within walking distance (in fact Jenna would walk to the church after school let out every second Wednesday of the month).  I met with the presidency and returned to Coffenberry after the meeting.  How many other schools would allow me to take time off for a meeting. 

          I missed the student lunch – which – in my opinion is the most necessary reason for the aide’s purpose.  But I suppose that some covered hours are better than no covered hours.  It somehow feels the permanent aide positions have been harder to fill this year than the subs. I often feel like I am the only aide to sub for the middle schoolers.  I had seen others in 2019 but have not seen many 2020 and know that there have been many days when the schools have gone without.

          Back to Canyonville today.  At least I don’t feel like I’m in a trance this morning.  At least not yet.  I definitely need to change my eating habits so that I can feel more alert and not like a zombie – though I did feel more productive yesterday than on Tuesday.  My trance had not started until Roland and I went up to Roseburg.  On the return, it was all I could do to stay awake.  It was only 6:00.  Time for some wake-up juice and more vegetables. 

Holidays and Brain Out

          Valentines Day is a non-Federal holiday full of traditions and legends which may or may not be true.  There were at least two, perhaps three, patron saints who bore the name St. Valentine.  Their lives ended in tragic massacres; perhaps it was the way they lived that got the Valentine’s celebration started.  There are many websites to choose from when “Valentines” is the subject entered into a search engine such as Google.  I have never been much into the Valentine spirit.  The concept behind Valentine’s Day seems noble enough, but the commercialism is what keeps the holiday alive and I could do without that.  No one gets off of work or school in honor of Valentines.

https://www.history.com/topics/valentines-day

           President’s Day was created in honor of George Washington, first president of the United States.  President’s Day was initially established on February 22, 1885 in honor of his birthday.  President's Day is a Federal holiday - which means most governement businesses, banks, and schools are closed on Presidents day.  In 1971 the date was changed to the third Monday in February.  This was done as part of the Uniform Monday Holiday Act (see here) 

https://www.thebaynet.com/articles/0219/calvert-county-presidents-day-schedule-.html 

I had accepted an assignment that put me with kindergartners and first graders on Valentine’s Day.  The first graders surprised the aides when we were invited to play a trivia game to test our knowledge of George Washington.  Each time we answered correctly, we would get a point.  If we answered wrong, the children would get the points.  I thought it fairly easy as all of the questions had multiple choice – though I either hadn’t been aware or agreed with the answers as being correct – like the cherry tree incident I learned to be a myth.  Or that his teeth were not made out of wood but ivory – however ivory was not one of the listed choices.

I don’t remember how many questions there were.  Two of us answered all of our questions correctly.  One answered a couple incorrectly and one I think got only one right.  The aides won.  Later on that day I helped set up for the Valentine party.  I passed out the punch.

We had a three day weekend and did not return to school until today.  I had picked up an assignment to work today as well as Thursday and Friday.  I had accepted the assignment yesterday.  Oh my word, I was soooooooo sleepy.  The fact that I was sitting in a middle school math class was not helping in the least.

A snail travels 0.029 miles in an hour.  How much will he travel in 10 minutes?

saved from Emma Portel Pinterest file

Way too early for my brain to convert anything.  So glad NOT to be a student today.  The second class was more of the X Y chart but now introducing Z.  My brain hurt.  The instructor played this YouTube video.

Next was a prep class.  The instructor wrote a paragraph about a blizzard in the “maintain” and some other misspelled word – no punctuation.  I didn’t know if it was intentional so that the class would correct whatever they happened to write.  But they had to have three paragraphs.  It was definitely interesting. 

Only one recess was required with the schedule I had done on Friday, but the schedule I am doing this week has me outside three different parts of the day.  Though recess is not my favorite, I do enjoy this schedule overall.  But today was fricken cold and I never did get warm or felt awake.  I think I’ll be going to bed early.