Cool Spring Sunday
Month: March 2019
From Ten Years Ago
Friday Exploring
Flip
0-0 Tie
Three Photos from School
The Books
I am fortunate to teach three honors classes. This means I work with kids who, by and large, do everything I ask of them. So when I said, “As you read the chapter on Tom Robinson’s testimony, you need to note passages of importance,” this young lady took it seriously. Plus, she has her own personal reading she’s keeping up with.
Spring
The cherry trees outside my classroom are starting to blossom. Everyone is taking note.
Notes
Once we’re done with To Kill a Mockingbird, I have a special lesson for the kids: a local trial lawyer comes in and discusses the case from the point of view of an attorney who has himself defended individuals against rape and murder charges. How would an actual lawyer with such experience view the case? It’s always eye-opening to the kids.
To prepare for it, I have the kids make detailed notes about the case from the testimony of Heck Tate, Bob Ewell, Mayella Ewell, and Tom Robinson. “Make schematics of all the movements,” I say. “Make sketches of anything described in detail. Make sure you note what you know explicitly from the text and what is inference. Also make sure you note what things are less than clear.”
Where We Do Our Adventuring
Story
His homework: write a realistic story.
“What does that mean?”
“No dragons and such.”
He wrote a story about a little boy who eats cereal for breakfast and watches Tom and Jerry as he eats.
Where do you think he got that idea?
Sunday Bike Ride
Saturday Growth
The day began with a bit of unusual work: pulling old wiring out of the attic. At first, the plan was just to remove them from the area over the old carport. But when in the afternoon I began the second part of today’s tasks — adding insulation to the lower part of the house — I realized I could pull almost all the wiring out — just about the whole length of the house. It was a relic from the past: old 10-gauge wiring used for long-removed baseboard heaters.
We took a break around lunchtime for E’s first game of the season. Emil had his first break of the spring season in the second quarter. (Youth soccer is divided into quarters.) He beat the last defender, sent his shot past the goalie toward the far corner, and would have made a goal but for a few inches.
Afterward, it was back into the attic for me. In the end, I put in several bags of insulation and took out one full contractor back of wiring.
Floor Joists
are in. Our builder tells us he will be done with framing, plumbing, and wiring by next week.
Out and About
Sunny Day
We finally had a warm-ish, sunny day today. I know — other parts of the country are still buried under snow, but this is the south. It’s not supposed to be this cold this long.
We also managed a bike ride at our favorite little haunt: Conestee Park. We took our favorite trail — White Tail Trail — and immediately had a problem: the Boy, jabbering away and not quite watching what was in the path ahead, hit a root which wrenched his handlebars out of his hands, causing a wreck with him lying on the ground in a bit of shock and the bike on top of him. He began sniffling and almost started crying, but I talked him down: “Deep breaths. Deep breaths. You’re okay. Deep breaths.” He calmed down almost immediately and was up for a reattempt of that trail that knocked him down.
That’s strength.
Changes
The other day, I was looking through old posts here and noticed this picture:
I had forgotten completely that when we bought this house, there was an enormous antenna on the chimney. I found the image in Lightroom’s catalog, played with it a bit, and then found this image:
This was from about 2008. The bushes in the foreground are long gone, as are the pine trees and dozens of sweet gum saplings, which I thought, at first, were some kind of maple. What an idiot.
That is all to say, things change around the house. Since we moved in twelve years ago, we’ve replaced the windows, replaced some doors, remodeled a bathroom, remodeled the kitchen, added insulation, replaced the outdoor sewer line twice, redid the landscaping in front of the house, replanted the front yard at least three times, repainted a few rooms a couple of times, replaced the whole HVAC system, and dozens of other little things.
Today began the first of another change: remodeling the carport to make it an extra room and to convert the laundry room into a bathroom. Nana and Papa are moving in with us, and I began the transformation today by removing the brick steps up to the door. It wasn’t necessary, strictly speaking, but we’ll use those bricks to close up finally the gaping hole left when we removed the old heating system.
An odd feeling, realizing that our house is about to undergo its most radical change.
(Click on images for larger version.)
Shelebration
The Boy only took a couple of evenings to memorize his short poem for his class’s “Shelebration,” which was a celebration of Shel Silverstein’s poetry for children. (“Did he write anything but poetry for children?” Yes, in fact, he did.) It’s quite short, after all — four lines:
They could be poison ivy,
They might be poison oak,
But anyway, here’s your bouquet!
Hey–can’t you take a joke?
Fortunately, the performance was at the beginning of the school day, else I would not have been able to attend. K, having other obligations, was unable to attend. Thus, the Boy would have been probably the only child there without a parent or grandparent in attendance. Which would have been heartbreaking for him, I know. It would be for anyone.
After the performance, when we (read: E) were partaking in the after-show snacks, he was very clingy, very physically affectionate. I looked around the room and realized quickly that he was being more physically affectionate with me than any other child with his/her parent that I could see. I was touched and a little worried. Was he that glad I was there or was he just a bit clingy, a bit lacking in confidence that I provided by being there?
Ash Wednesday
“Repent, and believe the Gospel.”
Sometimes that’s easier than other times.
Rain Approaching
A normal Sunday morning: breakfast followed by Mass, after which I took some time to photograph the lower church for Fr. L for the project we’ve been working on. I focused mainly on the altar and the statuary as I only had forty-five minutes or so.
After lunch at Nana’s and Papa’s, the Boy and I headed out for some exploring. Is it exploring if you keep going back to the same spot?
We wanted to head out for a bike ride after the Scout den meeting this afternoon, but the rain began anew. We’re something like seven or eight inches above average for the last twelve months, and it doesn’t seem to stop. Every week there’s a rainy day or two.
When the rain slowed a bit, we went back to our normal exploration spot: the normally-tranquil stream that we can leap across was impassable.
Saturday Adventuring
The first day of spring work — outside collecting hundreds of Sweet Gum seed pods to prevent potentially thousands of saplings, mowing, cleaning.
Dinner at Nana’s and Papa’s, preceded by some exploring.
