So Unmotivated Right Now

For the last four mods
I have had only one
assigned class
which in a way
has been nice.

I noticed with this last
week, I was never asked
to do a survey in order
to continue with my class

On Monday I start
another accounting class
This one will focus on
Taxes.  Good thing
I'm only getting one.

Taxes.  I hope that
I will understand and
stay focused.  Perhaps
one day I will
actually be able to
do my own.

Apparently Spelling Doesn't Count in that Incredibly Long Run-on Sentence

I have recently come across a pile of papers waiting to be sorted.  There were a lot of homework assignments or notes from both Jenna and me.   I copied a few of her stories to read through at a more convenient time and threw the hard copies away.  She doesn't have the best handwriting, and her spelling is atrocious. 

Turns out I copied three partial stories.  One was about Emily Rogers, a teacher who wished she had well behaved students and seemed to get her wish - but her "wish come true" turned out to be somewhat eerie.  I love Jenna's imaginative description:

it was silent like a cheetah eyeing its prey waiting for the right moment to pounce.  It was sort of creepy. 

She had also  written a story about a character named Latisha Cannon who didn't enjoy math and also made a wish not to have it anymore and how the world seemed to change when math was no longer a part of it.  Both Emily and Latisha woke up at the end of the story.

Some of her errors made me laugh, but after a while I was appalled that she hasn't been learning how to spell or use punctuation correctly.  I know that cursive was removed from the schools.  Was spelling as well?  I get that grammar can sometimes be difficult, but surely she knows  that a sentence has to come to an end eventually. 

It is certainly convenient having spell check or even Grammarly which will catch the errors that a person may have spelled correctly, but the word needed has a different spelling.  For instance she had written "loan star state" instead of "Lone Star State" in her story about Wanda - no last name, but only story title.  It was called: Wanda and the Rain Stick

She didn't wake up at the end.  Not much of a plot.

I'm happy for the opportunities I've had to further my education and understanding.

What price do we pay for the choices we make?

           Each of us has the opportunity to make choices.  We choose to leave the house, transportation, destination, what we eat and so forth.  Often we are presented with obstacles as a result of our choices.  For example, we may have a variety of ways to get from point A to point B - do we want to take the scenic route or something faster.  If we had stayed in one lane could we have avoided the car crash that happens in the next?  What about those that we encounter.  How do our choices effect them?  And what about those things we can't control like the weather or health?  Often the result of our choices makes no difference.  Other times even the smallest decision may change our entire lives.

          I think "The Mountain Between Us" gives us some great illustrations of what our choices may cost.  

By Source (WP:NFCC#4), Fair use, https://en.

wikipedia.org/w/index.php?curid=54196569

The movie opens with Alex, a journalist, at an airport in Idaho anxious to get to her fiancé in Colorado as her wedding day is near.  Ben, a neurosurgeon, is anxious to return to Baltimore as there is a ten-year-old boy in need of his service.

          All flights have been cancelled due to the weather.  Alex believes that she can overcome this obstacle by hiring a private charter flight.  She gambles on a pilot she's never met.  And while the weather is not a challenge for him personally, there is another factor that neither had even thought to consider.

          Alex, not knowing anything about Ben in addition to not knowing the pilot, asks Ben if he would like to join her on the charter plane to Colorado.  I would think if Ben is unable to get a flight to Baltimore from Idaho due to the weather, it would be likely that Colorado's weather would be similar - but whatever.  No one thinks about that.

          During the course of the movie, Ben and Alex are faced with more obstacles as they climb the snow covered hills of the Unitah Mountains in search of salvation, I thought about what the choice made had cost them - or changed them - because without the experience that only they shared - they would not have evolved from who they were prior to the movie starting to who they became afterward.

          I think the story itself was fictionalized, but I really enjoyed watching the movie and discovering another demonstration of just how much impact our choices may have not just on our lives but those around us.  I'm grateful that the unwise choice Jenna and I had made recently about crossing a fenced path didn't have such a dramatic result.  Funny thing is if we had started the other direction, I wouldn't have crossed it.

 So often when I go to Millsite, it's like I'm seeing it for the first time. 

Fall Activities and Ghost Pancakes

          Four years ago yesterday, our friends Cheryl and Miguel decided to take their niece Payton to the Cornbelly's activity at Thanksgiving Point.  They asked if they could take Jenna with them.

          Jenna and Payton got along well together.  Payton was two years older than Jenna, but shorter.  Many people who saw them together believed they were sisters.  I did not go with them, but had remembered the event as Cheryl had tagged me in several photos on facebook.  I had the opportunity of seeing them again when facebook memory page showed me the photos.  

Cheryl had taken quite a few pictures;  I

don't have permission to post the ones

she took - there were several of Jenna

and Payton.

          I thought it fitting to see the photos while thinking about Jenna and commenting about the weather I hoped wouldn't spoil yesterday's plans.  She did get to go to the corn maze after all, and rode the hayride and brought home a huge pumpkin that she had retrieved from the pumpkin patch.  It was a great day.

          Roland started breakfast/dinner early as his clock is on mountain though we live in Pacific.  After the oven was warmed up (guess we did use it after all) and had cinnamon rolls ready to go in, he looked at the clock in the kitchen and realized that the missionaries wouldn't be arriving for almost two hours.  Whoops.

          I love to watch Roland cook.  He is so thoughtful and so precise.  He made everything on the small skillet, though I had found a much larger pan to use.  He ended up using it to put all back into the oven just to keep it warm.

          Dinner was wonderful.

transferring the potatoes from Stove to oven

keeping potatoes and meats warm

ghost style pancakes with blueberry faces

scrambled eggs made last

you can't tell, but the gravy boat contains

fresh blueberry syrup 

dinner table ready to serve yourself

yum

No Self-Cleaning Oven

                Before we considered moving to Oregon - or had even drummed up the possibilities, we had purchased a new refrigerator and matching oven/range.  The oven was gas.  We had used the oven a few times.  I think Roland must have done more cooking than I.  We had it for 6 or 7 months before we made the trip to Oregon and started looking for houses.

            The oven was a gas hook-up and actually so was our dryer.  But we couldn't even  find a unit in Oregon that offered gas hook-up.  Our last house (the rental) offered a gas fireplace, but everything else was electric.  We don't even have gas in the house we live currently.  Too bad.  It makes for a nice back up when the power fails - which thus far it hasn't.

            I think the gas oven. which is currently in Randy and Carrie's possession, is self cleaning.  The one at our current house is not.  So Roland purchased a can of oven cleaner and a pair of long gloves marked "One Size Fits All".  That's a lie.  I have very small hands and so they are fine on me.  Jenna could probably wear them, but there is no way Roland would be able to get them on without tearing them.  Thus I was elected to clean the oven.

            Of course I wore a dust mask as I sprayed and coughed anyway.  Roland and I proceeded to open more windows and I retrieved to our room until it was time to wipe off the cleaner.  The oven door is in my way.  I don't think I did a thorough job wiping up the back.  Now there will be chemicals in our food next time we bake - though it won't be tonight.  The missionaries will be coming over and we will be feeding them breakfast for dinner. 

            Don't know yet if Jenna made her field trip or not.  The sun is out again, however. Even if the trip gets/was cancelled or gets/was postponed, the disappointment that may bring her down will eventually be replaced with enjoying "breakfast" and the company of the missionaries.

Bring Back The Sun!

            I have mentioned the thick fog and now a constant rain.  It looks awesome and will green up the valley again. 

            This morning I noticed golden flecks donning the hills.  It was so spectacular! 

 

Of course none of my pictures capture what I see.  The fog covered appearance of the towers as I was coming home.  After I got inside, it started pouring again.

            At 11:00 I could see the sun.  I felt excited as Jenna has a field trip planned for today.  She's been looking forward to it for over a week now.  I don't want her to be disappointed.

            Hopefully they were on the bus already and are at the corn maze now and enjoying themselves.  Perhaps it isn't raining in Winston.  She wouldn't care if it was, but perhaps the faculty does.  I hope her awesome day continues.

Technology at the Doctors

                This wasn't even one of the posts I had considered writing yesterday - and so I still have those thoughts to put together.

            When we first moved to Myrtle Creek, we had looked into a health clinic.  Certainly we wouldn't have to go all the way to Roseburg if a check-up was needed.  In order to establish credibility, the staff expected a full physical in several visits.  Okay, my co-pay is not that outrageous, but when I am going to the doctor four to six times in one month to create a doctor/patient relationship, that is ridiculous.  I can't afford that!  I've been blessed with pretty good health.  I go to the doctors perhaps once a year.  I don't need to go every blessed week.   Needless to say, I did not ever complete what had been expected.
           Because I had gone an entire year without visitation, I couldn't even get in last year.  What the heck?  Why had I bothered going through such turmoil to begin with if it wasn't going to fulfill my needs.  I only needed a Z-pack.  I can't believe I was able to get in this year, but once again, I just did not wish to go all the way to Roseburg.
            I was interested in the electronic gadget which has replaced the clipboard and paperwork.  It's kind of cool.

Payments can also be made from this same devise

            It was only this morning that I noticed the large microphone - a communication device to talk to another party on the other side of the screen - I'm guessing someone near Mercy Medical Center in Roseburg. 

So that's the reason for all the visits - I feel like I have single-handedly paid for at least one of the devices that are used.