Late Summer

What to do when the high temperature for the whole year falls in September?

Fire up the grill!

Traction

This is our fourth year of doing Tolerance Club, and today's meeting was full of surprises. In other years, we have embraced the largely sixth grade participation as a good thing, hoping that we could count on their commitment as their middle school time progressed. That was never the case, though. For some reason, Tolerance Club just wasn't appealing to 7th and 8th graders, and all but our most faithful participants dropped out. This year, we made the conscious decision to be happy with whoever we got-- everyone can use a little tolerance, right? So, imagine our delight when the majority of the kids who showed up were in seventh grade, most of them our alumni from last year.

Could it be that this tolerance thing is finally catching on?

Laying Odds

And so the weekend ends...

with a wet and happy tired dog,

and a homegrown butternut squash casserole.

If the week ahead is half as satisfying, we'll do just fine.

Standard Time

Getting used to a 48 hour weekend?

Gonna take some practice.

Rolling with It

A long time ago I heard a piece on the radio about how you can calculate the temperature by counting the rate of the crickets chirping. I was driving to the mountains on a beautiful fall Saturday in the September of my first year of teaching, and everything seemed so perfect already that this information was as intoxicating as spiked koolaid-- the blue skies, leaves turning in the golden light, and the slow but steady singing of crickets marking the entrance of Autumn was all almost too much.

Today, the first Friday of the school year, was an equally lovely day, and tonight I hear the peeping of crickets outside my open windows. I paused a few moments ago to count their chirps and applied the formula I heard so long ago.

48 degrees? That seems a little off.

Out of the Running

September 5:

What happened!!!??

Just wait till next year, Charlie Brown. You'll see! Next year at this same time, I'll find the pumpkin patch that is real sincere...

Haters Gonna Hate

Having attended high school long ago and far away, I appreciate FaceBook for its easy access qualities. There are so many people that I might never have heard from again with whom I'm in touch. I have to be honest that for many of them, the reality of busy lives in distant geographic locations might not be a great loss for either of us, but I do value the connection I have with more than a few folks.

Even so, this morning when I got a message that the administrator had posted to a private group nominally set up for anyone who attended our school from 76-79, I was a little appalled. He was asking about someone who was requesting to join.

Does anyone know a MC. No recolection of guy nor does he have high school info about himself?? 

Not only do I remember MC, but I happen to know that he's made a concerted effort to connect with other alumni both on and offline. I rolled my eyes and closed the app, but by the time I checked again this evening, there were even more comments.

I don't recall either. So I didn't reply to friend request.

and

I believe I graduated with him in 1980... he was a rugby player?

and

he was a fat slob. he probably is still a fat slob. I owe him something that I hope to give to him someday.

Seriously?  I felt as if I had been transported back to high school again. The popular kids were running the group, posting their pictures, admitting their friends, and keeping the wannabes out. 

I only had one question.

How did I get in? 

I may never find out though, because right after that? I quit.