Homework
the boy
Saturday, Late August
It's late August -- the time of year when cooler autumnal temperatures approach, but sometimes not quite fast enough. Daytime temperatures can still get up into the mid-90s, and summer's humidity still lingers, making it feel even warmer.
That's all fine and good if your HVAC system is working well. Sure, it might work a bit more than you would hope. The heavy heat of July is a thing of the past, and although it can be hot, late August usually brings a bit of a break for one's HVAC system and one's power bill compared to mid-July. Not much -- just a bit.
Still, we have a relatively high-efficiency system, and the difference I guess is no big savings. Five or ten bucks perhaps.
But then the system starts stalling, starts leaking coolant, and the indoor temperature climbs despite the temperature outside. Specialists arrive, investigate, diagnose, and give a $2,200 quote for fixing the system or $800 for a temporary bandaid.
"How long will it last?"
"A few months to a few years."
Cheap is expensive; lack of information leads to poor decisions. It lasts less than 24 hours. $800 for 20 hours of cooling.
More specialists arrive. They'll do the fix for about 75% of the other company's quote. We go for it. The system works for a couple of weeks, still showing some strain and problems but keeping the house comfortable.
And then the whole thing shuts down. Completely. When temperatures return to the mid-90s. And the company we've been working with doesn't work on the weekend, so we're stuck until Monday. And so you start researching things like this.
First Scout Meeting
Late August Sunday
Our Games
The Boy's first games with his new soccer team took place today. It was a tough start to the season: 0-4 and 0-5 losses. I was expecting him to be terribly disappointed about it, but he was surprisingly stoic: "We have some things we need to fix, but we could be good."
The Girl's high school varsity team, for which L plays middle, won their first tournament today.
A day of contrasts.
First Day 2022
The Boy had a rough day of it: he's been in a multi-age classroom for four years, meaning he's been with the same group of people (mostly) for those four years. Fifth grade, though, doesn't have a multi-age program, so he's back out in the general population -- and none too thrilled about it. All his closest friends from the last four years -- all of them -- ended up in different classes. A few of them got grouped together, but none of them are in E's class. Which makes him less than thrilled about school after this first day.
We tried to help the Boy see things from a different perspective, but for the longest time, he just wasn't interested. It was going to be a disastrous year, he was sure of it. There was no way it could get better -- he was convinced. He might as well just switch to homeschool.
After some time in the pool and a lot of reassurance, he informed us on the way home that "all of Mama's speeches" had made him a little more excited about tomorrow.
As for the Girl, she sat down in the car after volleyball practice, looked at me, and said, "Guess what we have in English class?" I raised my eyebrows in anticipation. "Articles of the week!"
I've been giving my students an article of the week for almost ten years now. It's one of the most effective tools I use.
"Do you know what this is?" one of the Girl's friends asked her.
"Yes," she whispered back. "I've been grading them for years." Which is dramatic sounding, and it probably got a laugh, but it's not quite true. I've had her checking multiple choice questions, adding up the points, and using my scale to determine and write the grade on the paper, but that's not really grading them.
"Same difference!" L playfully huffed when I pointed this out.
Teachers’ First Day 2022
We had our first day back at school today -- teachers have a week of preparation before the kids come back. To be honest, a lot of it is less preparation and more endless meetings: three hours this morning; meetings in both the morning and afternoon tomorrow.
In the afternoon, returning home, I discovered that the Boy had painted the ramp into Papa's room (always it will be Papa's room) in the morning. After dinner, he applied a quick second coat and now we have a lovely, freshly-painted ramp.
Last Day in Jablonka 2022
Here in Jablonka, we began our last day with rain and temperature keeping us indoors. It never rose above the high-50s, and it rained all morning before taking a short lunch break to prepare for an afternoon and evening of rain. Depressing weather to go with a day of mixed feelings: ready to go home, we're both a little sad to leave the adventure here.
In the meantime, K flew out of our local airport heading to Newark for a funeral. In New York, it was sunny and lovely, and K got to see a friend she hadn't seen for years. Still, the motivation for the trip was a tragedy. A mixture as here.
With the weather as it was, we had few choices this last day in Jablonka. We watched some television, talked, packed -- and repeated it all.
And for dinner: kiszka heated on the stove Babcia uses for hot water.
Random Bit for Future Smiles
A regular during our stay here was was the Magno-Z commercial: we got to see that a few times during our month here. The Boy groaned each time it came on, but he still sang along with it.
Commercials, it turns out, are a great source for learning a language.
Bike Ride to Bory
Family Ognisko
One of the things that must happen during a trip to Polska (from the point of view of our children anyway) is an ognisko in Spytkowice. We tried three times this visit -- three weekends -- and got rained out each time.
It looked like this time we'd get rained out as well, so we did the simple and obvious thing: moved the ognisko to Jablonka, where there's a covered gazebo. Problem solved. Ognisko complete.
