Thursday, November 27, 2003
Thanksgiving
Last evening, the Sw's--minus L, R, and Ky plus Da and Gr--celebrated Thanksgiving. This was the second year in a row we celebrated it on Wednesday, due to A having to work on Thanksgiving. I'm not sure I want this to be a tradition because then, for sure, B and I will always be alone on this one day.
(Daughter) A cooked the turkey, and she did a wonderful job (with a few phone calls to B at work)! The turkey was perfect. She made cranberry sauce, oh, I mean relish, too, and made other dishes. Earlier she had grocery shopped. She was super awesome!
Today B and I just chilled, each in opposite rooms, as usual. I spent a good amount of time on the computer, no surprise, actually all morning and later in the afternoon. About midday, I finished watching Whale Rider--that I couldn't stay awake for last night--while B napped. Very good movie. I'm thinking of showing it to my students. I'll have to look into the story more and figure how to tie it to the curriculum. Should be easy, though. The beauty of teaching language arts is that I can teach just about anything!
L called this afternoon. In less than a month, she and R will be "home." Woo-hoo! She dyed her hair black. A's hair's been black for quite awhile now. I just don't like unnatural black hair, at least not on my natural brown-haired daughters.
Ka didn't come by today like she said she would, but I guess the So's, with a houseful of family including T, H, baby, grandmother, and others, must have had a lot of visiting to do.
Tonight B and I went to see The Missing, also a very good movie.
This will have to do for now as I'm seriously falling asleep.
(Daughter) A cooked the turkey, and she did a wonderful job (with a few phone calls to B at work)! The turkey was perfect. She made cranberry sauce, oh, I mean relish, too, and made other dishes. Earlier she had grocery shopped. She was super awesome!
Today B and I just chilled, each in opposite rooms, as usual. I spent a good amount of time on the computer, no surprise, actually all morning and later in the afternoon. About midday, I finished watching Whale Rider--that I couldn't stay awake for last night--while B napped. Very good movie. I'm thinking of showing it to my students. I'll have to look into the story more and figure how to tie it to the curriculum. Should be easy, though. The beauty of teaching language arts is that I can teach just about anything!
L called this afternoon. In less than a month, she and R will be "home." Woo-hoo! She dyed her hair black. A's hair's been black for quite awhile now. I just don't like unnatural black hair, at least not on my natural brown-haired daughters.
Ka didn't come by today like she said she would, but I guess the So's, with a houseful of family including T, H, baby, grandmother, and others, must have had a lot of visiting to do.
Tonight B and I went to see The Missing, also a very good movie.
This will have to do for now as I'm seriously falling asleep.
or email: blahhog@comcast.net
Sunday, November 23, 2003
Wait! First read "The answer is blowing in the wind," Thursday, Nov. 20.
Yesterday B and I raked and swept leaves to the street. While doing so, across-the-street neighbor came home, left again, came home again. Did she thank us for raking our leaves? Hell, no! No surprise. She didn't even acknowledge us.
While the temperature (60) is warm now, the forecast calls for falling temps, wind, rain, and even snow later. The wind has been blowing fiercely all morning. B and I were out early this morning doing more yard work. The first thing I noticed was that while our front yard was leaf-free, across-the-street neighbor's had many wind-swept leaves! Considerate person that I am, I hosed our piles of leaves in the street in front of our house. I hosed each additional 'barrowful of leaves I took to the street. I even hosed west-next-door neighbor's piles, too. Every time the wind picked up, leaves from other neighbors' piles went airborne and blew into across-the-street neighbor's yard! Snort!
While the temperature (60) is warm now, the forecast calls for falling temps, wind, rain, and even snow later. The wind has been blowing fiercely all morning. B and I were out early this morning doing more yard work. The first thing I noticed was that while our front yard was leaf-free, across-the-street neighbor's had many wind-swept leaves! Considerate person that I am, I hosed our piles of leaves in the street in front of our house. I hosed each additional 'barrowful of leaves I took to the street. I even hosed west-next-door neighbor's piles, too. Every time the wind picked up, leaves from other neighbors' piles went airborne and blew into across-the-street neighbor's yard! Snort!
or email: blahhog@comcast.net
Thursday, November 20, 2003
The answer is blowing in the wind
The question is...
When I came home from work today, the woman across the street pulled into her driveway. She called my name as she came across the street, so I went toward her, meeting her in my yard at the street. We rarely speak. She's the unfriendly one, so when she called out to me, I thought she had something important to say. I greeted her in a friendly manner.
Well, she had something to say to me all right! "M, when are you or B going to rake your leaves? They're blowing over into my yard."
I said, "Heh, we work 10 to 12 hour days. We'll probably get to it this weekend."
"Well, I'm tired of raking your leaves that blow over in my yard. Even the neighbors are tired of it. I raked your leaves from your driveway on Wednesday before they came to pick them up."
"We'll do it when we can. Thanks for doing my driveway."
I really tried to be civil. Well, I WAS civil, considering her nerve. Um, hello, neighbor. We work at our jobs Monday through Friday. It's dark when we get home. We have more to do than worry about raking leaves. Oh, and I resent that she was on my property when she raked our leaves from the driveway! But did I say anything? No. I thanked her!
This is not the first time she's complained to us about what we do or don't do.
Now this woman is in her 70s, I'm guessing, has been widowed for about 14 or 15 years, and takes care of her house and yard herself. We've been neighbors since we moved here almost 17 years ago. We've spoken through the years, but she really keeps to herself, unless, of course, she's complaining.
When her husband was alive, she complained about our porch light being so bright and being kept on so much that it bothered her husband when he tried to sleep at night. We grumbled amongst ourselves about her nerve, then changed the 100-watt bulb to a 75-watt one but didn't turn it off until all kids were home. Duh!
A few years ago, she griped about the girls sunbathing in the front yard! Well, to be honest, I didn't like that they did either, but after she bitched, I told them they could do it all they wanted.
This woman is not really a bitch. As I said, she keeps to herself. But her nerve has really ticked me off. Damn, I could complain to my next door neighbors whose grass clippings and whose teeny, tiny leaves (from whatever kind of tree is in their yard) end up in our driveway. But I'm just not like that. Too timid, I guess. And B has less nerve than I. So we just live with the grass clippings in the driveway, which eventually dry up and/or blow away, but the teeny, tiny leaves are tracked into the house, and that's really annoying, but I don't complain.
If all I had to worry about was a neighbor's leaves blowing into my yard!
I think we should wait until just a couple of hours before dark on Sunday afternoon to rake the leaves.
When I came home from work today, the woman across the street pulled into her driveway. She called my name as she came across the street, so I went toward her, meeting her in my yard at the street. We rarely speak. She's the unfriendly one, so when she called out to me, I thought she had something important to say. I greeted her in a friendly manner.
Well, she had something to say to me all right! "M, when are you or B going to rake your leaves? They're blowing over into my yard."
I said, "Heh, we work 10 to 12 hour days. We'll probably get to it this weekend."
"Well, I'm tired of raking your leaves that blow over in my yard. Even the neighbors are tired of it. I raked your leaves from your driveway on Wednesday before they came to pick them up."
"We'll do it when we can. Thanks for doing my driveway."
I really tried to be civil. Well, I WAS civil, considering her nerve. Um, hello, neighbor. We work at our jobs Monday through Friday. It's dark when we get home. We have more to do than worry about raking leaves. Oh, and I resent that she was on my property when she raked our leaves from the driveway! But did I say anything? No. I thanked her!
This is not the first time she's complained to us about what we do or don't do.
Now this woman is in her 70s, I'm guessing, has been widowed for about 14 or 15 years, and takes care of her house and yard herself. We've been neighbors since we moved here almost 17 years ago. We've spoken through the years, but she really keeps to herself, unless, of course, she's complaining.
When her husband was alive, she complained about our porch light being so bright and being kept on so much that it bothered her husband when he tried to sleep at night. We grumbled amongst ourselves about her nerve, then changed the 100-watt bulb to a 75-watt one but didn't turn it off until all kids were home. Duh!
A few years ago, she griped about the girls sunbathing in the front yard! Well, to be honest, I didn't like that they did either, but after she bitched, I told them they could do it all they wanted.
This woman is not really a bitch. As I said, she keeps to herself. But her nerve has really ticked me off. Damn, I could complain to my next door neighbors whose grass clippings and whose teeny, tiny leaves (from whatever kind of tree is in their yard) end up in our driveway. But I'm just not like that. Too timid, I guess. And B has less nerve than I. So we just live with the grass clippings in the driveway, which eventually dry up and/or blow away, but the teeny, tiny leaves are tracked into the house, and that's really annoying, but I don't complain.
If all I had to worry about was a neighbor's leaves blowing into my yard!
I think we should wait until just a couple of hours before dark on Sunday afternoon to rake the leaves.
or email: blahhog@comcast.net
Friday, November 07, 2003
Just my second post
Hmph! A few weeks later, and this is just my second post! I've been busy with school work: grading papers and more papers and doing grades and trying to organize my desk and work area at school. And I procrastinate so much!
Last Saturday I went in to my classroom to unpack several boxes of books left by one teacher and then another. That was a huge job. Countless books. On the way in, I had purchased a cheap bookcase at Meijer. That wasn't enough to hold all the books, so I went back Sunday morning to get another one. That corner of my room looks very nice. Now I need to spend considerable time organizing the various piles of papers, folders, books, and such on my desk, on the floor behind my desk, on top of filing cabinets. Ack!
Now that I think I've figured out how to get back to this, I should come here everyday and just write instead of spending so much time on the boards. Even if I write just a little, I could develop a habit and start writing longer, meaningful posts. We'll see.
Last Saturday I went in to my classroom to unpack several boxes of books left by one teacher and then another. That was a huge job. Countless books. On the way in, I had purchased a cheap bookcase at Meijer. That wasn't enough to hold all the books, so I went back Sunday morning to get another one. That corner of my room looks very nice. Now I need to spend considerable time organizing the various piles of papers, folders, books, and such on my desk, on the floor behind my desk, on top of filing cabinets. Ack!
Now that I think I've figured out how to get back to this, I should come here everyday and just write instead of spending so much time on the boards. Even if I write just a little, I could develop a habit and start writing longer, meaningful posts. We'll see.
or email: blahhog@comcast.net
