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.

Initials for What?

Sorry for not explaining certain item used in my last post.  I still have ideas in my head but have not had much opportunity for sitting down and turning them into posts.  Today feels like a Saturday and I don’t know how I will be able to get into the swing of things as I have accepted a work assignment at Canyonville for the remainder of the week – and so may not get things typed up still. 

APA can stand for American Planning Association or American Poolplayers Association.  I created one post in which I refered to APA as American Preparatory Academy.  For the most part my APA references and what seems to be most popular for Google Reference is American Psycholgical Association -  which is a style of writing.  The “proper” style.  It often seemed like APA format was more important than the contents.  What’s up with that?  Also, many professors seemed to prefer third person as opposed to first.  I am grateful to those that allowed or even preferred first.   

https://www.mendeley.com/guides/apa-citation-guide

Owl Purdue is a website that adds complication and confusion to APA use – at least in my opinion.  Now that I understand what it is, I might be able to understand it better than I did in 2016.  But Owl Purdue is NOT the only website to refer to APA nor is it the most easily understood.

NOT a Short Essay

          February 14 was the deadline for the short essay contest through the University.  The topic to write about one of the following:

Most memorable class or instructor, most valuable lesson or how the university changed my life.  I guess I could have gone for the third one and stayed with the 150 word maximum limit.  But I was certain that I would have well more than 150 words for the others.

Recently I have gone back to revisit some of the discussions that were posted.  I notice that I got a late start on the discussions in my first two classes.  I had wondered why as I have always been among the first to post to a discussion but then remembered that unlike most of my classmates who had actually started on Monday, I was not given the opportunity to do so until Wednesday.  (That definitely feels like a run-on sentence)

There had been a miscommunication on the parts of administration and I wasn’t able to get into the system until Wednesday – back in June 2016 when I started taking courses for an accounting major.  The first two classes were generic – everybody-takes-these-classes-regardless-of-major.  There were no live lectures. The two classes offered prerecorded classes with a link to YouTube.  Each instructor took a turn of being available to answer any questions or assist.  Of course, being that they were my first two classes, I had nothing to compare them to and so did not realize that the conduct wasn’t the norm of each class I would have since. 

The university was big on APA format and I think pushed Owl Purdue.  Or perhaps it was just that first instructor really did have a thing for it and really did trust it and really thought it would be helpful to everyone and would constantly refer me to the site.  Owl Purdue did nothing for me but frustrate me – not that my instructor was a great improvement since we were obviously not seeing eye-to-eye about how to fulfill my understanding (or lack thereof)

There were a few instructors that had great respect for, good standing with, or admired in some other way.  One of them, Whitney, was my English instructor, who as it turns out is/was the Dean of English Department . . . I suppose I could look it up to see if she teaches there currently, but I’m choosing not to do so at this time.  As you can see from my spectacular grammar skills (meant in the most sarcastic way) I was a star pupil in her class. 

I really did receive high marks in the class, but this post may say otherwise.  But I am more interested in posting something right now and checking the grammar at a later time (if ever).  She didn’t seem to care for Owl Purdue much either – but I think was required by the University to mention it.  She had other resources and links and homework trackers and was very helpful – unlike my first instructor.  She explained things on my level.  I really enjoyed having her as an instructor.

There are several other instructors I had – one of whom I had already written about in another essay.  My first encounter with Sarah was while I was taking the Whitney’s English class.  One week the students were required to visit the writing center and have an instructor proofread our assignment.  I expressed my grief in this post but did not mention the final result.

I don’t know if Sarah could hear the tears or frustration in my voice.  She said she would correct my assignment and return it to the canvas inbox so that I could have it.  I was quite grateful to her to take the time to do that.  I didn’t realize at the time I would have three more contacts with her.

The second contact I made was at my first online assembly which I posted here. The following month I was in her history class.  That was when I made the connection – that she had taken the time to give me feedback when I had been in Whitney’s class.  In my final year, Sarah was the instructor for my sociology class.   

          I do have more to say about Whitney, about Sarah, about Jody, my guidance counselor.  I don’t know when I will be posting more detail.  It’s in the plan.  Right now I am tired.  I’m going to bed now.

Long Day

            The RS Pres. asked if I would pick up a food order in Winston.  I Googled the address but I did not like the option it showed on how to get there.  I DON’T wish to stay on the freeway so I can exit at 119 just so I can return back down.  There had to be another way.  I blew up the map and paid attention to the landmarks that were near the dentist office that I go to.  The addresses are on the same street!  I’m not going to get off 119 when I can get off 112 and work my way up.  That’s what I’ll do.

            Yesterday morning – before I was even out of bed – I thought about two streets in Myrtle Creek that don’t go through.  One cannot get from the post office on Broadway to a resident who lives towards Chestnut or Neal.  It ends at Spruce on one side and dead ends on the other.

            Same thing with Spruce.  You can’t get from the 7^th Day Adventist Church to the Catholic Church for example.  Once you hit Division you are at the school, and Spruce doesn’t continue until Rice curves into it above the hill at the corner of Coffenberry. Though a person could walk the distance of Spuce, I suppose.  Cross into the school parking lot and climb the hill and go from there.

            I am certain that I have mentioned before that the kids have a running joke about Coffins and being buried  (Coffen/berry) in the cemetery so close to their school.  The other day I received a text that asked if I would be working at “Cough and Bury” last week.  I laughed thinking she had typed it in that way on purpose, but really it was Google recording her dictation. 

Catholic cemetery, vineyard and Church taken from Coffenberry

            Yesterday I traveled close to 80 miles – which might not seem like a big deal to some people, but I personally am not used to driving that many miles in just one day.  I went 15 miles to the church in Winston(took about 35 minutes), 15 miles return (somehow that was shorter), another 7 miles to deliver (drive wasn’t as long as unloading), to homeward church from there (another 10 or so miles) stayed for 90 minutes, back to Winston for the dentist and return home. 

            Wrote this post.  Slept great last night.

Times Have Changed

            The earth spins around as it faces the sun and away from the sun.  It takes 24 hours to complete each spin.  We call the spin cycle of 24 hours a day.  While the earth spins, it also circles around the sun.  It takes 365 ¼ days to circle the earth.  Thus a full year is 365 days except every four years when we have a February 29 added to the calendar.

https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/nation-now/2016/02/26/leap-day-february-29-calendar/80618064/

            The earth has a northern hemisphere and a southern hemisphere – each experiencing seasons opposite of one another.  For example, someone from Minnesota may comment about how cold it is and how much snow they’ve had to shovel while someone in Indonesia may express how hot and muggy it is.  Both of these examples were posted the very same day – though maybe roughly twelve hours apart as one was experiencing night while the other was experiencing day.  But who knows?  The one in Indonesia may have gotten up during the night because he was too hot and sweaty to enjoy a comfortable sleep.

https://www.slideshare.net/geeta1967/motions-of-the-earth-presentation-1

            I had learned about the earth orbiting and rotation when I was in elementary school – I thought we had started learning it in fourth grade, but it could have been sixth.  Either way it had been in elementary school.  In this county the sixth graders start middle school. 

I also remember being more focused on geography in elementary school.  I specifically remember learning the names of the countries in Africa.  We would often have guest speakers from the different countries.  I remember labeling and coloring several maps.  I remember researching states and making posters about our findings. 

from my collection of scanned school work

I also remember learning to type in seventh grade.  I had taken typing as an elective and typed on an actual typewriter and not just a keyboard.  I understand the students are required to learn how to type now.  That is good – but I think it’s something they should learn BEFORE they get to middle school as the keyboard is now a part of their lives (computers were not a staple when I was in school).

Why not?

Another Facebook quiz - just for the sake of posting - I guess

40 things about me

1. Do you put ketchup on a hot dog? Sometimes.  Mostly just mustard and relish, but ketchup (catsup?) is good too

2. Choice of soda? Code Red Mountain Dew

3. Do you own a gun? No, Not even a squirt gun

4. Can you swim? Yes – perhaps it’s a lame version of swimming.  I can hold myself up and move quicker on my back than on my stomach.

5. Hot dogs or cheeseburger?  Cheeseburger usually

6. Favorite type of food? Italian

7. Do you believe in ghosts? Yes

8. What do you drink in the morning? Water, juice, or milk (usually in that order)

9. Can you do 100 pushups? No

10. Summer, Winter, Spring, or Fall? Autumn

11. Favorite hobby? Compiling Memories

12. Tattoos? No

13. Do you wear glasses? Yes

14. Do you have a phobia? Accounting (numbers)

15. Do you have a nickname? Husband calls me “Sweet Pea” – but there’s no one that many people use

16. Three favorite drinks? Water, code red, cherry coke

17. Biggest downfall? Sweets (lack of will power)

18. Rain or Snow? Rain

19. Can you change a tire? I do know how.  Do I have the strength to remove the bolts?  Not hardly

 
20. Favorite flower? Marigold

21. Can you drive a stick? I suppose I could if I needed to but I prefer automatic

22. Ever gone skydiving? No.  There was a time I would have jumped at the opportunity, but I don’t see myself doing it now.

23. Kids? Yes

24. Favorite colors? Green and Purple

25. Employed? Yes, part-time right now.

26. Can you whistle? That’s up for debate

27. Where were you born? Utah

28. Siblings? 3

29. Surgeries? 3? – I was conciense for only one – my ingrown toenail.  The others were the removal of female parts

30. Shower or bath? Shower though I’d love the opportunity to soak in enough water to cover all of me

31. Last song you listened to? Roaring 20’s normally sung by Panic! at the Disco but the version I heard this morning was Jenna’s singing

32. Age? 57 soon to be 58

33. Broken bones? No, I have had sprains and torn ligaments though

34. How many TVs are in your house? 2 – which is 2 too many

35. Worst pain? Ectopic pregnancy – (see here) 

36. Do you like to sing? I do.  I’m not good at it, but I do enjoy it

37. Favorite sport? Watching Figure skating without the commentaries, participation in bowling

38. Do you like camping? I did at one time, but have outgrown that desire.  Give me a hotel

39. What do you enjoy binge watching? Did you notice my answer on 34?

40. Pecan or Pumpkin pie? I agree with my brother’s answer: They are both good. Maybe pecan by a nose.

Rain and Snow

We have had wild weather all the way around. 
Mostly rain. 
But it snowed on I5 between Canyonville and Azaelea. 
I got pictures on the way down to Medford. 

When we returned, the snow was gone.

Love For Music

           I’m guessing that before Jenna was born

she had learned the words and notes to music

of many authors and artists and carried it

with her when she came to earth.

When she was inside of me I would

put headphones over my belly and play

songs for her, mostly classical or

primary songs. She seemed to enjoy them.

And after she was born, I would sing to her. 

I would sing songs about whatever toy she was holding

or whatever picture we were looking at. 

For example, I would sing “You’re a Grand Old Flag”

whenever I caught her looking at the flag on my tee shirt. 

Or I would point to the animals on her teething ring and

sing songs about each animal if I could think of one.

I don’t know why it surprises me whenever

Jenna sings along with a song that is decades

older than she is. 

I caught her singing along with Sam Cooke

last night and asked, “How do you know this?” 

She hadn’t been aware that she had

even been singing along.  She shrugged.

I think Jenna has an entire stash of

music genre within her and she can’t

help it whenever it comes out. 

She is just a happy positive upbeat personality

and music is just one way she lets it shine through. 

I love listening to Jenna sing.