A Summer Update!

 It seems like an eternity since I blogged last!   I guess I have been busy with things and simply have not had time nor had the pictures to add to the blog.   But I find myself with an open Saturday at the moment.   The heat is pretty bad today, with 100% humidity!  ( That is what the weather channel says.. and it certainly feels sticky.)    Time to catch up on the blog and all of the things I have been up this last week and a half...  

Well,  the school thing has been getting more real every day.   I have been working on lesson plans and strategery for what I aim to accomplish for the kids.   I am teaching two subjects at the moment and most of the lesson plans have already been done for me.   I simply cut and pasted them into my plan book and now have a scaffold to work with.   That does not mean I have every thing wrapped up and am ready to rumble.   It simply means I can now build and work with something as I familiarize myself on what previous teachers did in the past.  If that makes sense...

Science can be rather boring if you stick to the book and stay in the class room.  And as much as I would love to play with fire and explosives out on the athletic field... You simply can't do that every day.   So I am trying to find the proper pacing to keep things real while still being fun.  After all,   Science is sparked by human curiosity!   And I want to make it my job to get that curiosity roaring so they can advance to the AP courses later on and have a focus and drive to help them through the boring math and calculations. 

So as I comb the you tube videos and national geographic archives looking for cool things to build and blow up,  I find that time seems to move faster without me realizing it.  I guess this is called "flow"  when you are in tune with your subject and methods.   I find that with Origami and blogging I can achieve the same thing.   However, that does make time slip by faster.

Getting a handle on the tech and software side of things is a bit of a challenge for me.   Most of the other teachers have been using these programs and tech for a while now.   I have not been in a classroom since  2000!  And MSU had the cutting edge of tech back then.   Now, things have warped by at light speed and I feel like I am playing catch up with a Saturn 5 rocket. Heck!  Even rocket tech has evolved past the point of science fiction! 

But enough about school!   Last weekend I spent with Cheryl beach combing and running in Milwaukee.  It was fun!   And we certainly scored on the beach glass!   Finding a new beach during a rough and windy day,  we scored nearly 2 lbs of glass!  Lots of fun!

That particular beach also had a beer garden and we were able to takes breaks and eat fish and chips while sipping draft beer.   Kind of cool!  

Dave is finally home now.   But before he got back,  he found the Painted Bolete somewhere near Cadillac Michigan.   He also found some very beautiful mushrooms that were not safe to eat.  But still an exciting find!  I have not been in the forest much at all this week, so the mushroom hunting has taken a back seat...

To Fishing!   

Although I don't have any pictures of fish to show... I have been having fun catching small green sunfish and crappies at a local pond.   And a Bonus!  They had live music there last Wednesday!  I think it may be a summer thing so there will be a new band there next week.  I'm guessing the music changes with each band.  But the music they played was my kind of groovy.  Rhythm and Blues mostly.   

I have been helping folks out while fishing at the pond.   Sometimes young kids ask me why I'm catching so many and other times, Dads or Moms ask for help in getting their 5-7 year olds into fishing.  I find many young kids don't have the patience for fishing if the fishing is slow.  But luckily, the pond is filled with small voracious sunfish...  which are easy to catch if you use light line and small baits. It find it almost more satisfying watching kids catch the fish rather than just catching them myself.  

Of course, to fish with small flies, I have to tie my own.   And I was fortunate enough to find a fly tying vice for cheap at one of the local fishing stores.  (Racine)  I'm not sure what those people in California do with their vices, but apparently they cause cancer there.   Good thing I live in Wisconsin!

And finally,   little by little,  my new teacher Uniforms have been showing up.   Gone are the days of safety vests and zebra patches!   I now get to dress like I had always wanted to... A Math Teacher!  

Well, not exactly.   Science is close enough I guess.   Math teachers wear brown suits and wide ties.   My ties will be a little less tessellation and more outdoor artistic.  I still have to buy several shirts to go with them, but I have a few weeks to gather up the rest of the package.  

And that is all.  Summer is nearly over and I have yet to do any chalking!   The last time was the 4th and that seems like ages ago!   But with all the rain that is even now predicted for Sunday,  I don't know if I will ever be able to smudge up any sidewalks soon. 

Time moves so quickly!  And with every day, I find my anxiety being replaces with excitement for the coming school year.   I hope and pray that it is everything I have ever wanted teaching to be.   Not only for myself, but also for the kids!   Because I was once sitting in those desks and listening to teachers, both good and bad!   And I found that the best ones were the ones who made learning fun and engaging.  To do that almost requires a touch of divine intervention and a bit of magic.  But with God on my side,  how can I possibly fail?  

The fields are ripe and time is fleeting!  And every second counts!

The Big Clean Continues!

 I'm not sure how many days I have been at this, but it seems like several at least!  I started in the basement;  Moved up to the Garage;  Then Back down into the basement again.  All I seem to be doing is moving the clutter from one space to another...  Like chasing my tail and never catching it. 

But progress has been made!   At least I think so.   I currently am at an impasse when ti comes to throwing stuff away.  Anything important looking I tend to keep, but broken plastic bins are scheduled for the dump or recycle thingy.  I am actually pretty proud on how the Garage came out.   I now have all of the poles that would go in the boat out in the garage... ready for action if there was an emergency fishing trip required. 

In the basement,   I reorganized the tools and fishing supplies so that there is easier access to the flyrods.  Getting the pallets attached to the wall was no easy task...  But very satisfying!

The small pile near the wall has to have Dave's approval before I remove anymore.   And the garbage bins are already overfilled, so there is no real place to put it anyway.   So, for the moment,  I think I am done...  OR at least on hold. 

It was not a big decision to work inside today.   It rained pretty much all night and the heat and air quality was off the charts awful today.   Staying inside and working in the cool basement seemed like a no-brainer. 

I did manage to head out last night, just before the rain storm,  and find some mushrooms!   I discovered that my spots that I had been checking everyday have been previously harvested by COMPETITION!   At first I thought it might be animals, but there was no mistaking the knife cuts on several chanterelle stems!  

It is not that big a deal. I'm just pretending to be indignant for the blog.    In reality, I am probably mostly to blame, since I tell everyone and anyone who will listen about mushrooms and where to find them.   I guess I'm mostly counting on people not having the courage to actually hunt, find and eat unknown mushrooms.   Which makes no sense if you stop to think about it.  Why tell people about your secret spot if you don't want them to pillage your secret stash?

Ah well,   we humans are greedy.   And as it was, my basket was already overflowing.   Even if I had found more, I probably could not have eaten them all before they would spoil.   So...  Happy to share with the unknown fellow mycologists. 

I made the mistake last night of making regular coffee instead of decaf.   I drank the delightful brew just before bed to help me sleep.   However,   I was wide awake until about 2 A.M.!   The good news is that I got to watch the storm as it rolled in AND I went crawler hunting around midnight.   I found a couple dozen night crawlers for future fishing trips.   (Hopefully later this week!) 

I have to say,  I am a little out of practice when it comes to hunting night crawlers.   I used to do it every time it rained back when I was a kid.   Those things are FAST!   But,  like riding a bike,  I picked it back up in no time and was able to find a decent number. Now I just have to keep them out of the heat of summer long enough to be used as bait. 

And that is about all.   A busy day for me, with very little outside moments.   I didn't get to run today,  (Because heat and rain!   Duh!)   But hopefully I will be back on track tomorrow.   My goal is to get the run out of the way before I have to head out to Shoreland for the orientation meeting.   At least I made decaf tonight.  

Oh!  And one final thought:   I heard they "immortalized" my vest and hat in the VAS cage.  Like a grave site or trophy of a previous victim.   (Hear lies the Great Ethan Allen...  A once moderate Zebra employee who spent his last days in the cage...)

The weeks seems to be flying by, and there is so much more to still do.    I'm finding more and more everyday that every second counts!

Join The Rebellion!

 There was much to do today, and there was only one of me.   So I had to choose where I wanted to spend my time this hot and humid Saturday.    I had an opportunity to enter a  sidewalk chalk contest at Jerry Smiths Farm.   But it was supposed to rain today...  And I tried several times to register and it kept booting me out.  I take things as signs that perhaps I was not meant to take that path this year.  

The other thing was to visit Simmon's Island and watch a reenactment of the Revolutionary war battle.  Complete with live fire muskets!   Who wouldn't want that?!

I had to wait a bit for the good part to actually start.   In the mean time,  the motley crew of soldiers marched around the fiend and called off orders, looking rather silly or like first week basic trainees!  ( "Montalto!  Don't you know your right from your left???!") Watching solders march up and down the square is rather boring.. unless they are actually good and in sync.  

So I had an hour to kill along the shore of Lake Michigan.   Wonder what I could do with the new found time...

A little beach combing is always fun.  (Even without Cheryl)  I found a handful of Beach glass and some feathers from Sea Gulls.   ( To be used for later projects.)    Funny how the beach combing makes the times fly by.  

Before I knew it,  the battle had started!   I had a front row seat in the shade. ( Good thing too!  'Cause it was 80 degrees!)  I captured a bit of the action.   And have almost a minute of Video.  (The announcer was rather annoying, but some people do not know history and she was there to explain things.)  In the end,  the Brits lost....  At least this battle.  And ultimately, the WAR!   But that is for the history books to explain... Not this Blog. 

It was then on to cleaning up the Garage!   I had cleaned up and organized the basement,  only to pull the loose thread of the Garage project to totally unravel that beast!   It took me and Dave two days of cleaning and organizing to make the garage unrecognizable!   And by "unrecognizable"   I mean CLEAN!  And Organized!   You can now actually find stuff and walk through it with room to spare.   

It is a common fate of many garages:   to gain clutter over the years.   Dave had many things that actually came with the house that he simply did not have time to sort out and throw away.   But!  With a little help from me,   we got it done.   I will have to post "after" pics.   I'm particularly proud of the fishing pose holders I made out of Pool Noodles.  

Currently, the Boat is back in there and that takes up a majority of the room.  But it still looks so much better.  

I had some time to get ready for Church and afterwards,  go to "Ron's Place" to meet up with some friends.   They didn't show up in the time I had available,  but I did manage to enjoy one of Ron's Mushroom and Swiss Burgers.   And Can I say it was one of the best versions of Mushroom and Swiss I have had yet!   A little messy. ( I would recommend eating it with a fork and knife rather than your hands.)  But the sauce they put the mushrooms in was awesome.   It reminded me of Hardee's Mushroom and Swiss burger back in the 90's.   ( I don't know if Hardees has Mushroom and swiss on the menu anymore. ) 

And finally,  I linked up with Dave to put the boat back into the Garage.   Now small task!  At least not for anyone alone!   The boat is HUGE and takes up every inch of the space.  And it is HEAVY!   So two people pushing it up the driveway is almost a requirement.  But we managed to get it in and now I can peacefully prepare to retire for the evening.    A busy days without chalking or Mushroom hunting.   How was I ever going to fit those activities into an already booked Saturday?

So the weekend is almost over and Now the basement is trashed again, since we cluttered it back up trying to clear up the garage.  Ah well,  I have all day to organize it again.   It should go a little quicker this time around.   And I can always take a break and look for more mushrooms at the Pets.  Next week I have a couple days of meetings with the Shoreland High school folks.   Time is really moving fast!   And it can sometimes be a challenge to make every second count.

MUSHROOMS!

 Finally!  Some Mushrooms!   The constant rain we have been having seems to be deterring the mushrooms from their normal schedule.  But the last two days have finally produced a few of the summer mushrooms that I have been looking for.   Boletes and Chanterelles! 

I also found a number of Fawn Mushrooms. ( Or Scaly Shield Deer Mushrooms)  but did not eat them since my basket was overflowing with Chanterelles and Boletes.   I even found a small cluster of Crowned Corals.  

I left a bunch of Chanterelles in the woods since they were still pinning and needed to grow up.   The ones I left yesterday turned out to grow 3 inches across the top. My only hope in leaving them out there is that the deer, squirrels, bugs or "German people" don't collect and eat them before I get back out there. 

 I'm afraid that the constant rain might trigger all of them to pop up at the same time.   However, it could also be the opposite!  Meaning:  each small section where I have found them in the past, bloom at a slightly different time... so I can collect them all without them spoiling.   It's had to know.   But I do know that I can't eat them all by myself if I hit the Mother lode! 

 In the mean time... It is just me at the house ( currently)   Dave will be checking in sometime later this week and Sara, ( Who I have not really talked about until now...)  Had some car trouble and will be moving to a closer location near her job.  Bad luck on her Ford..Apparently the oil pump went out and destroyed the engine.   ( The oil pump was on recall....  Now they know why!) Best of luck to her that they fix that issue and her car in the process. ( I believe a new engine is the cure!)  

All that to explain why I won't be able to eat all of the mushrooms I find.  Currently, I have been trying.  I put them in my omelette and my soft tacos. Heck!  I would put them on Breakfast Cereal if I thought I could eat them faster.  ( Coffee?  Maybe...)  But I hate wasting those beauties... so I will find a way.   I guess it means I will have to continue to run further each day to keep up with the extra calorie intake.  

Other than that...  I have been fairly productive on my days off.   I recently got my Wisconsin Driver's license and registered to vote in this state.  I also got a fishing license so now I can be kicked off other lakes and not just the private one that we frequented last year.  

 I picked up my School Computer and it fits nicely in the canvas briefcase that Joan got me.  Now I almost look official! They also gave me my keys and a brief run down on the orientation.   Next week begins the main, two-day, orientation.  I can hardly wait!

And finally,  I got Dave's truck running again and fixed the spare tire to the boat.   It appears we will be moving the boat back to the house after not taking it out for over two years.   In that time,  the tires have deflated and we will be changing them again.   The Dodge truck that pulls the boat has a slow drain on the battery that we can not figure out.   So the best I can do at the moment is charge up the battery and keep starting it up periodically to keep the battery charged.  ( Maybe a done light or radio issue?   Don't know.) 

So that is all.   Tomorrow is Thirsty Thursday with the Zebra folks.  ( John and maybe some others.)  John will be joining me in my exit from Zebra at the end of this Month... So I have to take advantage of the Thursday meetings as much as I can.  Then he is off to Texas!    Forever! 

I have found this week to be very peaceful.   I have been running in the heat and I actually enjoy the suffering.   ( I know that is weird to say, but true!)  I listen to music in the house and am not afraid of offending or annoying anyone.  And I still have to clean up the basement as one of the tasks I have set for myself.   "Clean" is not the right word.   I have already swept up the dust bunnies and scraps of paper from the last projects.   I really need to organize the areas once again.   Mostly the Fishing area, since I now plan to use that fishing license before the school year kicks off and I find myself chained to a desk or classroom.  

So much to do and so little time.    But taking things at my pace has been therapeutic, actually.    And sometimes you can't put a price on free time.  And rest....  Because every second counts.