Musings

I took this out the bathroom window. Usually both sides of the street have cars parked on it because of the duplexes with not enough parking. The street is a T street and we get a lot of traffic but it really is a good spot to live.  I am within two miles of downtown and the Interstate and so it is easy to get places.  If I went to the Mall it is also fairly close.  The only place that is not close is the movie theater but if I go east to Dayton and then south I can skirt all of the traffic on the way down there. Oh and it is also close to the Lodge. I like where I live.

I also like that my yard is fairly private.  I am sure you have seen pictures of Molly in the back yard and you can see that it too is fairly private.  I used to have bushes along the South side but my neighbor took them out so now I am open in that direction.  I don't like that much but I hung a blind there so when I sit on the porch it is still private. It is one of my favorite places to be. Unfortunately it has gotten to cold to sit out there now.  36 degrees  - Brrrr!

John makes these for me.  I appreciate them (and I do like oatmeal) but it is a running joke on Found For Friday. So he has made all of the Oatmeal MEMEs and I need to thank him. He also sends me a lot of other stuff and occasionally catches my errors (mistakes, goofs, etc) and I really appreciate his help.  Here is another one.

So let's have a round of applause for John.

We are halfway to the week-end folks.  It is downhill from here on.

Welcome Janus

January was named after the Roman God Janus.  He has two faces, one looking forward and one looking to the past.

I have seen several little posters on Facebook place the following on their posts.



"What happened in 2012 stays in 2012."

I can relate to that. There is no point in my listing everything that went on last year.  Besides you can always click on the links on the side to see what happened if you are really interested.

I will share one bit of news that I got today and it tops off the year on a positive note for me.  As you may know I am a diabetic.  You may not know that I do not have to take insulin. For this I am extremely grateful.  I take one 50 mg pill for control and I monitor my blood sugar.  I also a test which measures the BS over time I get a score called an AC1 (The A1C test result reflects your average blood sugar level for the past two to three months. Specifically, the A1C test measures what percentage of your hemoglobin — a protein in red blood cells that carries oxygen — is coated with sugar (glycated). The higher your A1C level, the poorer your blood sugar control. And if you have previously diagnosed diabetes, the higher the A1C level, the higher your risk of diabetes complications.)
My AC1 test in September scored at 6.8.  Today I went in and it was 6.6 which is much better so the nurse told me to keep on doing what I have been doing.  Now if I could just get the pounds to come off again and the knees/shoulder to stop hurting I would be happier.  Actually the knees don't hurt it is just hard for me to get up and down out of low chairs.  That is one reason I don't go to many meetings as before.  

As far as looking forward to this year I have some things to look forward to. Getting my driver's license back in March so that I won't have to be dependant on others to drive me places.  A trip to Kansas City this summer for the Red Cross of Constantine meetings. A visit (I hope) by Miles in the summer and  perhaps another trip towards the end of the summer would be nice.  We will see how much more money I have to pay in taxes. 

 I am going to leave it at that. I don't do well in making predictions. And I don't worry about the future.  What is the point?  I am grateful for my sister and nephew and as long as I have Molly and Cassie to keep me company, some friends and brothers to socialize with and books to read and PBS to watch I am content and I wish you a very

Facebook

I have mixed feelings about Facebook. Or at least I used to have. Now I kind of like it. A lot.

I got upset with it once and quit it for awhile. I thought it was just stupid self-promotion, and to some extent it is. And the groups you can join can turn out to be annoying but one really nice thing has happened to me because of Facebook.

In 1988-89 I was teaching 5th grade. An opportunity to move up to 6th grade came along and I took it so I got to be with a group of students for two years. Some were in my home room for two years and others were mixed up with my partner teacher but no matter I still got to work with the entire group. There were 29 in my class one year and 28 the other. So that means there were about 57 kids that I worked with over those years. - Well I have "found" some of them again through Facebook.

Without identifying any of them I have had a couple of really nice comments from one in particular - He said:

it is really nice to reconnect and I did mean what I said to you initially about the my memories of you as a teacher. You were one that has a special place in my heart.. even tho we butted heads but that was part of it. I was a trouble maker and you were good for me J

Since you said you were glad that I am reading (which made me feel pretty good btw) I should tell you that my neighborhood has two wonderful bookshops. I gotten to know the owner of Twice Told Tales when I was picking up a couple Harvard Classics Edition books (Plutarch, Cicero and Two “Years Before the Mast”)… long and short of it she sold me the entire collection for a song. I’m the very proud owner of all 51 volumes of the Harvard Classics. They old and they are gorgeous… and I am completely out of shelf space to display them. I’ll feel so accomplished when I make it through them

Reading is so important. I have mentioned before that it was a big part of what I taught. I have told this story many times but there was a boy in my class that year who had never read a book. He could read but he was not into books. I required that my students read. They read books of their own choice. I spent a lot of my own money to have a collection of paperback books for them to choose to read and then they would have discussions with me about the books. Anyway this boy had never read a book. By the end of the year that is all he wanted to do, I had to tell him _______ stop reading the book and get over here for math class, I used to offer to take the students out to lunch if they read 100 books. They achieved the designation "Century Reader" and a couple of them even read 200 books during the year. (I gave six boxes of books to the school when I retired and they were full boxes) Enough about that. I digress.

Back to my student referenced above - one of his Facebook posts says:

lustrous golden leaves against the wet black bark and dark evergreens.

all dominated by the hulk of mt. rainier,

wearing the laurels of a snow storm about his peak.

cool white columns of the sunrays holding open blue holes in the clouds.

gorgeous.

I have autumn and mountains back in my life!

He has recently moved to Seattle and this was written as a Facebook post. - I told him it was a poem and have written it that way here. Because he is a reader he can write. I am really "pumped" to have this young man in my life again. Yes, we did "butt heads" but underneath I think he knew I liked him. And I am so very proud of him and all of my kids. One of the other things I did to build a love of reading was to read to the students.

As a teacher, sometimes you don't get the "feedback" that lets you know how you are doing.

Another former student who lives in the same area said

I have no doubt that you hear this all the time, but your teaching had a huge impact on my childhood. I have many fond memories of being in your 5th & 6th grade classrooms. (I was lucky to have you for both years!) I think it's important for you to know that some 20 years later, this student still thinks back on those years and marvels at your teaching. Thank you for everything, these many years later!!

She wrote on one of her Facebook Posts

the light and air of this morning made me believe it was spring for a moment. i found myself searching for the telltale tiny green buds on branch tips but was faced with clinging dead leaves instead. i still managed to smile at all the beautiful people through my disappointment.

She is working as a baker and it sounds like the perfect job (but I would gain to much weight). She is poetic also. And I love it that she is also back in my life

Thank you Facebook (BTW both of these notes made my eyes mist. You can't hear praise often enough)

Facebook is a great way to reconnect.

I love the Seattle area. Perhaps one day I shall return there. It would be great to see these kids (adults now but always kids to me) and I do have cousins out there.... Who knows. Perhaps if I win the lottery. Thanks for stopping by. ARTYAL Hugs, j-bear

Q & A

I had a thought this morning about "waterboarding" - Just wondering why what is described below sounds like something you would do for recreation like showboarding. I found the answer in the Wikipeda article which also says"

Waterboarding is a form of torture^[1][2] that consists of immobilizing the victim on his or her back with the head inclined downwards, and then pouring water over the face and into the breathing passages. By forced suffocation and inhalation of water, the subject experiences drowning and is caused to believe they are about to die.^[3] It is considered a form of torture by legal experts,^[4][5] politicians, war veterans,^[6][7] intelligence officials,^[8] military judges,^[9] and human rights organizations.^[10][11] As early as the Spanish Inquisition it was used for interrogation purposes, to punish and intimidate, and to force confessions.^[12]

In contrast to submerging the head face-forward in water, waterboarding precipitates a gag reflex almost immediately.^[13] The technique does not inevitably cause lasting physical damage. It can cause extreme pain, dry drowning, damage to lungs, brain damage from oxygen deprivation, other physical injuries including broken bones due to struggling against restraints, lasting psychological damage or, ultimately, death.^[4] Adverse physical consequences can start manifesting months after the event; psychological effects can last for years.^[14]