return to the blog, November 2012

Looks strange to me, this blog. Why did I create this nonsense? Let's see what we can do to be more focused.

The Longest Day, aka "I survived the first day back"....

Wow. OK, those of you who know....today was day one for most of NOVA's public schools. Back to school for the kids, that is.

I am still awake, alive, and breathing. I consider that an accomplishment.

FWIW I am making a mental comparison to those nerdy horn-rimmed glasses-wearing geeks camped out in Mission Control during the Apollo 13 disaster. I feel like I just made a square filter fit a round hole.....just before the bell rang for dismissal.

OK, that was a pretty obscure reference, but that's what you get at 4:55pm from the "captain's chair" here in Mission Control...

comparo: '83 vs. '08 - what is up with that hair?

No excuses, here....my "current hairstyle" or lack thereof bears a remarkable difference to that visualized in the accompanying photograph. I'm not gonna go out on a limb here, I think it's pretty clear that Jeff's hair is no longer as cool as it was when he was slappin' that old green bass guitar, either...
Virginia Tech had no idea what the heck happened THAT particular day in '83. It's pretty weird when people start throwing jello at you.....

The homely, generic Prius...my new Road Warrior

Any Prius econo-miser folks out there? All I can say is, these cars are great. With all the cruising Christine and I do over the summer and throughout the year, it's the best. On many levels. But what I wanted to bring up was, well..just how quickly my "new" car became my "used" car. All it took was one brief visit to a hippie fiber farm in northwestern Mass and an ensuing dog assault on my right rear passenger door to give my Prius that nice, "lived-in" look we new car owners all cherish and adore.

Step one: our dog, Nutmeg, sleeping inside our car as we walked back down the country lane from visiting the farm.
Step two: "barn dog" stealthily followed us back which we didn't realize till the last second.
Step three: Nutmeg hears "barn dog" approach, and leaps into frenzied blitzkrieg-like assault on the interior of my car, doing a virtual Fred Flintstone-ish paw pedal all over everything....including biting attack on my door interior panel....and chewing into my window, leaving a nice series of scratches....
Step three: "barn dog" jumps into her own attack, leaving deep series of long scratches embedded into Prius door.
Step four: Adam runs into driver's side, throws the starship into "drive" mode, and has hell of a time getting "barn dog" to disappear into his back window.....

photos at eleven.

cheap trick live at budokan: distraction or epiphany?

How many of you commute to work for any significant length of time? Long enough to listen to at least one track from your iPod/MP3 player? Then I'll go ahead and put in this simple recommendation: any track from Cheap Trick's Live at Budokan will be guaranteed to set you into flashback mode and make you totally forget what exit it is you are supposed to take off I-66.

For example: this happened to me, I'll just go ahead and admit it and get it out there...I do this monotonous I-66 trek from 110 at the Pentagon to Rt 28 Northbound at Centreville. Takes about 30-40 minutes, depending...anyway: I was rockin' my flashback to 1979 so hard I found that I zipped right by my turnoff.....oh well, it was fun and I learned that the next exit to take wasn't so far away.

Cheap Trick: antidote to driving attention, or just dang awesome rock-n-roll?

prepared for student onslaught

So, are all you K-6 teachers ready for school? Yay!!! I can't wait!!

Just kidding. It's back to the trenches...well, for comparison's sake, here's the chaotic clutter that my classroom looks like the day before school starts. Notice the "careful" way I crammed books and crap so nicely into the student cubbies.

the point of it all....what do we talk about here?

Sure sounds like a good question. Here's a short list of likely subject matter that I plan on dredging up: organic farming, military modeling, pop culture (but NO reality TV), goats/alpacas/chickens/other livestock, all sorts of stuff to do with wheeled and tracked transportation devices, history in general/American and military history in specific, hedgehogs, pets, computer crap, educational pedagogy (occasionally), and KNITTING.

Yes, Chris and her sisters have got me all fired-up and I'm struggling to learn the nuances of casting-on, knitting, purling, and the "magic loop". Well, it might be a while before I can handle the Magic Loop....

First off, though - I want to get a thread rolling here 'right quick about my M35A2 deuce and a half and the somewhat interesting ideas I have developed on alternative fuel sources to "feed" it.

I gotta hurry up and figure out how to get Steve, Jim, and all those other folks on over here some time....ciao