1. Right now, this very minute, we are experiencing a thunderstorm. This may not be a big deal to some folks, but to those of us living in the Pacific NW, thunderstorms are rare. For this reason, they are noteworthy. The weather this spring has been cold and rainy until a few days ago when it warmed up around twenty degrees over night. Hilariously we all went from complaining about the cold, damp weather to whining about the heat and humidity. But the storm, which just dropped a ton of rain all at once, is signaling a return to colder weather, I presume.
2. I am retiring from teaching at the end of this school year. I've been in education for 37 years and it is time. This week I've been sorting through papers stuck away in my file cabinet. Many I should have tossed years ago but I also bumped into some old treasures that caused me to pause and reflect. Among the things I saved was a notice of a fine for a student. She owed the library 99 trillion dollars for a lost calculator. It was an obvious error but one that makes me giggle whenever I think of it. I had inadvertently assigned the barcode number on the calculator onto the 'amount' line. Barcodes are fourteen digit numbers, hence the trillion dollar fine. She owed more than the national debt. Tee-hee. I fixed it, of course, but not before I made a copy of the fine sheet. I think I will bequeath it to my library clerk on my last day.
3. I am currently reading five books and with one exception I have read less than ten percent of any of them. It is a very inefficient way to read books---a few pages here, a few pages there. And so I told myself today I would bear down and finish the one book I am further along on than the others, and, of course, I can't read it because I left it at school. I left abruptly this afternoon because the storm was heading our way and I didn't wear a coat this morning, so I wanted to get to the car before it started raining. Sigh. Which book should I spent a few minutes on now?
4. I've been thinking about the Harry Potter series lately, wondering if there will ever be another reading phenomenon like the one created by JK Rowling and Harry Potter. I doubt it. For one thing, there are so few bookstores left. Think about all the midnight parties that bookstores threw when we would line up to be the first to buy the latest book in the series. There would be hardly any place left to host those parties. And getting an e-book just isn't the same. Guess you can tell why it is time for me to retire.
5. I've discovered a new poet---Hafiz. Here is an incredible thought for the day from Hafiz, via me, to you...
"I wish I could show you,
When you are lonely or in darkness,
The Astonishing Light
Of your own Being!"
All the best for your retirement. 37 years is a great achievement. Hopefully you'll have more time to read now, although I've heard that retirement can often be just another form of busyness!
ReplyDeleteOh, I can relate to all that goes into readying for retirement...I can still feel the weight of all the boxes and bags, even with help, and carrying them blocks away as we had no close parking to our downtown buildings. And then I did it again on a minor scale after three years at a private company following my first retirement.
ReplyDeleteNow I'm happily blogging and reading!
The weather has definitely been unusual this year on the west coast...and everywhere, I think. Could it be the political climate tipping things? LOL.
Thanks for sharing...and for visiting my blog.
We never get thunderstorms and they are so much fun (especially if you know they are coming and can be inside)! I love the trillion dollar debt, that must have been quite a shock for the student :-)
ReplyDelete37 for me too, and although books are not the reason I'm retiring, they are part of it. I love technology as an aid and help, but not as my primary method of teaching. *sigh*
ReplyDeleteI had no idea that thunder storms are rare in your area. We've already had a couple this season here - lately though the weather has really cooled off and it's been rainy and windy for the last week or so.
ReplyDelete