Roses
around the house
Tomorrow’s Job
Spring
Spring has begun poking its head around the corner, hinting at what's to come with warm sunny days that have brought the yellow bells to bloom and encouraged the lawn to shoot up in a few spots. The blueberry bushes at the base of the driveway are already opening blossoms and whispering of the cobblers and preserves that K will be making in the coming weeks. Trees are budding, and soon the wisteria that hangs from the trees across from our house will start sharing its blue and white blooms. I've mowed once, and K has begun planning our spring planting.
We all begin thinking about the summer and our trip to Polska to celebrate Babcia's eightieth birthday -- it will be the first time we've ever gone back-to-back summers. My first year at the new school is coming to a close slowly (only one more quarter remaining), and since we'll be moving into our new building next year (though we keep hearing it will be ready by late April, I doubt it), it's like starting over a second year in a row.
That's the heart of spring: starting over -- the beginning of warmth, of evenings on the back deck with friends, of early-morning light that stretches into the late evening, of fresh. We brush off the malaise of the late winter (inasmuch as we have such a thing here in the south) and warm ourselves again.
Everything seems to be ending and beginning at the same time. The Boy is finishing middle school; the Girl is beginning college, truly learnings is rhythms. And next week, spring ends with temperatures falling to the twenties...
Monday
There's often a sense that gratitude and Monday are incompatible. There's a whole network of memes all suggesting the same thing: there's nothing positive about Monday. It's built, I suppose, on the assumption that, with the weekend complete, the best part of the week is behind us, and we have little to look forward to. But that assumption is, in turn, based on another assumption: that the fun weekend is superior to the business week day, and that Monday is the worst possible of the five workdays because it's waking up from the dream that was the weekend and returning us to the daily reality that seems to have less choice and more obligation. After all, one can choose to sleep in or to get up early on a Saturday morning; a Monday morning lacks the former and demands the latter. So what is there to be grateful for on a Monday?
I went to work, which means I have a job and can provide for my family. That's certainly something to be grateful for. My kids are (relatively) safe at school during the day: certainly not all parents have that same assurance. I woke up in a bed and will return to it: not everyone has that simple privilege. I get to work with some amazingly sweet (though predictably chatty -- middle schoolers are the same everywhere) students. The list could go on and on. We can literally find things all around us to be grateful for.
And I'm especially grateful that I don't have to write any more. It's not a job, not an obligation, and so I can tumble off to bed at 9:16.
Saturday
Snow 2026
Preparing for the Storm
Monday
Wednesday Photos
Tornado?
5
The wind came so suddenly, seemingly instantaneously, and it was so immediately intense, that we were sure it had to be some kind of mini-tornado. What's a F1 tornado's wind speeds again? The news report later classified it as only a thunderstorm, but I'm not convinced. It came up suddenly, the whole thing lasting no more a minute, then disappeared almost as quickly. There were lingering gusts, but nothing like what the main storm was like. According to the news:
Thunderstorms accompanied with wind gusts as high as 71 mph have caused power outages in areas of the Upstate and Western North Carolina.
As of 10:15 p.m. Tuesday, at least 25,000 customers are without power in the Upstate. More than 10,000 are without power in Western North Carolina.
WYFF News
Still, gusts of 71 miles an hour classify it as a EF0 tornado according to the Enhanced Fujita Scale. What would a EF0 tornado be? Isn't that just a not-tornado? Strong thunderstorm?
Whatever it was, it knocked out our power. K's phone only had 5% battery left, so we plugged it into L's computer to get a bit of a charge.
Fortunately, it's not a terribly hot or humid night, for the power company estimates getting the power restored some time early tomorrow morning.
The Boy took the opportunity to go to bed early, as did K. And the GIrl? She's not here. She's in Gainesville for orientation at the University of Florida. Yes, we looked at our finances, looked at the possibility of getting in-state tuition (do-able, but not this year), and decided it was the better option for our girl. A six-hour drive away, so she's close enough to be relatively quickly reached in an emergency and far enough for her to feel she's on her own.
She and I texted extensively this afternoon when she was making decisions about her class load for the fall semester. She's done AP Calc 1 and AP Calc 2, so her plan was to take Calc 3. She was getting advice from her advisor (because that's what they do) that she might consider re-taking Calc 2. "There's some stuff they go over that most AP classes don't cover" he/she (not sure) explained. "I looked at the Calc 2 syllabus," she texted me, "and I feel confident in everything on it." What to do? I explained that it's up to her: "If you feel you need to re-take it, re-take it. If you want to go for Calc 3 but are a little nervous about it, all universities have programs for assistance in subjects like math and English. You can go there and get help from some grad student, I'm sure."
That she was asking for advice was a little surprising. She's so strong-willed, so confident (she planned her entire high school academic course with no input from us, and she never really asked either of us for help or advice) that I took this to be another sign of her maturing. She's independent, yes. But independence doesn't mean doing everything solo.
If she comes hope during Thanksgiving break asking for help in Calc 3, it won't be me helping her. I'm no good in math. Truth be told, I never even took Calc 1. I tried it in college (liberal arts -- one or two math courses required for all), but I just got lost. It didn't help that the professor would fill a whole board with an equation and then stop and erase it all, mumbling "I don't think that will show what I want it to show," just when I was thinking, "Hey, I think I'm getting this..." That help will have to come from K. And since she won't be taking any humanities, I'll be out of the loop.
Also out of the loop has been the Polska countdown I always do. I have been taking a break from writing, posting only pictures because frankly I had nothing to say. And with a bunch of pictures, my countdown wouldn't format properly. But we leave in five days. I guess I should update the flag: we're going to Greece first, but I'm not too worried about that: it's still, first and foremost, a trip to family in Polska.