28. The End of the Thirty Day Blogging Challenge

So, I didn't quite make my goal of 30 blog entries in April, but what difference does it really make?  At least I tried.  And 28 is pretty good, a 93% which is an A, in anyone's grade book.

But what have I learned from doing this 30 day challenge?  I've learned that I really do love blogging, and that it doesn't matter if the blogs are good or bad, it's fun to write and share out with pals.  Thanks  to Miscellaneous Missives and One-Woman Adventures and WordSavvy for joining in and to anyone who actually read this blog in April.

I've also learned that I'll probably wait for June for another 30 day challenge.  I don't feel like challenging myself during May.  Enough already with the challenges.

27. The Healthy Water? On it.

There are some surefire steps to find out if your backyard creek or stream is healthy.   I've galvanized into action to integrate these steps into our latest Costly Choices economics unit.    I'll now tell you how to judge your creek's health and then comment on how Thirdland is going to undertake these various ecological directives.

1. Check out the pH of the water?   Not going to be a problem because I have ordered pH measuring strips and they'll arrive tomorrow.

2.  Determine the level of nitrates in the water?  Come to find out, we're not going to do this one because I don't really care about the nitrates in the water.

3.  Calculate the rate of the flow?  I borrowed stopwatches from our gym teacher, so this shouldn't be a big deal.  All we have to do is divide the distance an object flows by the time it takes to travel that distance.  (Let's face it. That's probably going to be a flop).

4. Examine the clarity of the water?  Obviously, easy to do.  Doesn't even merit discussion.

5. Determine quantity of bacteria hanging out in the creek?  Hard pass.

6.  Identify the biodiversity around the creek?  We can look for bugs and birds as well as the next class. Not going to be an issue.

Going to throw in another test, which is 7. temperature.  I have borrowed the submersible thermometers and they're ready to go.  Not sure what the temperature of a creek should be, but is accuracy the point of this enterprise? Not necessarily.  We're out there to act like scientists and increase our appreciation for the world around us.

26. The Syndrome

I'm pretty sure I have Stockholm Syndrome.  That's where a hostage feels connected to their captor.

Case in point---Husbandman left for a week and I basically stayed right here at home, even though I had plenty of opportunities to escape.

Stockholm Syndrome isn't really a big problem for me, because I've developed such strong feelings for Husbandman over the years.  He captured my heart decades ago and it's all worked out great.

25. The Leafy Hair

Photo Credit:  @DailyRos

Woke up this Saturday morning after ten solid hours of sleep.  I ran my hand through my bedhead as I sat up, my feet searching for slippers down at floor level.  My hair felt weird, as if I were pulling my hand along a leafy hedge.  Sure enough, I looked in the mirror to discover my head covered with green waxy leaves, growing every which way.  I should have been startled, but come to find out, I thought I looked great. The leaves were actually a huge improvement.  I headed downstairs for coffee, feeling special and unique, perhaps even extraordinary. I mulled over Alice in Wonderland's words when she was swimming in her own tears, "....everything is queer today." Coffee at the ready, I opened my tablet to read some print journalism. My heart sank when I learned there was nothing special about my situation after all.  A lesser headline, toward the bottom of the screen, announced, "Treelike Tresses Bloom Atop Human Heads Across the Midwest."

"Damn it," I whispered.  My phone dinged suddenly.  Then it dinged again and again.  It was time to face the music and accept that I was just one person in a sea of people with leafy locks. I took a breath and decided to relax. I resigned myself to getting comfortable with being one of the peculiar plant-headed people of Peoria.

24. Inquiry into Incubation

We're watching the Cornell Lab Bird Cams again.  The Barred Owls have two babies.  They're feasting on snakes, bluejays, mice, chipmunks, shrews.  Every day new snacks arrives in the box. A living snake was in there earlier in the week.  Crazy.

We're waiting for the hawks to hatch.  Every day, a Thirdlander asks, "How long does it take for hawk eggs to hatch?"

I answer that I don't know.

And every day someone says, "You should look it up."

And I say, "You should look it up."

And then the whole cycle begins again.  Today I finally looked it up.  28 to 35 days.  But the Cornell Lab Hawks usually hang out on the eggs for 40 days.  No one knows why.

23. Shades of Blue

We pass my house when we go on field trips, because, come to find out, I live and work on the exact same street.  I always point out my house to the kids sitting near me on the bus. Recently we painted our house blue, but as we drove past on the way to the museum, the Thirdlanders asked, "The purple one?" I ignored it because The Thirdlanders are often off base with their commentary.  Then on the way home, I sat with a different crew of Thirdlanders.  Pointed out my house again.  Again, comments about the purpleness. I started to wonder about this.  Is my house actually purple and not blue? 

If you're a local reader,  drive by sometime, give it a gander.  I'm curious to learn what you think. If you're reading from afar, look at the pictures of my house and comment on the color if you want to.

22. The Importance of Gloves

Have you seen the documentary Free Solo?  You definitely should if you feel like it.

It's about Alex Honnold's climb to the top of El Capitan, using no ropes at all.

Come to find out,  Alex's mom just published a memoir.  She's the oldest woman to climb El Capitan.  She climbed it at age 66, which is pretty good, but let's not forget that she used ropes.

Over 30 people have died trying to climb El Capitan, so if I were you, I'd think twice before you give it a try.

Rock climbing is good fun, but use ropes.  Also spend a few extra bucks and buy your belayer some gloves.  Many climbing accidents occur because belayers without gloves let the rope slip through their hands.

21. The Wrong Side

I woke up on that wrong side today, so while I'm drinking my coffee, I've been searching on the internets for "what to do when I'm in a really really really bad mood."

The advice sucks of course.

Investigate your bad mood?  No.  Leave me alone.

Help someone in need?  Are you freaking kidding me?

Dance around to a favorite song?  Looking like an imbecile is going to solve all my problems. Sure thing.

One site just said, "Let the bad mood be."  So that's what I'm going to do.  It'll probably go away once we began the standardized testing (Math Performance Tasks) around 9:05.

20. Museum of Common Sense Physics

This is one of those days where I wonder why I thought a 30 day blogging challenge in April was a good idea. But I'm here, getting it done, and soon I'll be in bed asleep.

I was reading the NYT yesterday and came upon one of their 36 Hours in Such and Such a Place pieces.  This week it was Mendocino.  I thought of 20 Something right away.  Mendocino is only 90 minutes from where she lives, so why wouldn't she just drive up there and spend 36 hours poking around?

There's a museum there called The Museum of Common Sense Physics.  I spent time reading all about the gentleman who made this little museum.  He's dead now, but he seemed like a great guy, full of curiosity.  He was interested in physics, so he opened up a TV store, where he sold and repaired TVs.  Most of the time, he was just working on physics experiments, using various television remnants and spare parts.

When I was reading the NYT article, I miscued and thought the museum was called The Museum of Common Sense.  What an awesome idea, I thought, and clicked on the link with vim.  I was disappointed that the museum is really just about physics, which is not one of my major interest areas.  But that's neither here nor there.  Larry Spring turned his job into a front for his real passion, which is pretty sensible thing to do if you can swing it.

19. The Duck ID

Photo Credit:  Judith

I've been learning a ton of stuff today.  I've been at my computer for about 3 hours, just looking at things and texting with people and ordering stuff online and drinking five cups of coffee.  It's been a lot of fun.  20 Something and I have spent a lot of this time sending duck links back and forth.  She sees ducks at Lake Merritt and sometimes she asks me to work with her to identify some of them.  That's when we both roll up our sleeves and get to work. Today we believe we've identified the Swedish Black Duck.  During our search, 20 Something turned me on to the Magpie Ducks.  Sweet birds.

Magpie Ducks, FOTO uncredited.  Sorry, Magpie Duck Photographer

18. The Locals

We're learning about going local in our economics unit.  One of the benefits of spending time and money at local businesses and institutions is that you help promote the uniqueness of your town.

As part of this lesson, the Thirdlanders were searching for images on the Visit Bloomington page in order to plan a weekend for their families, where they would frequent some new local spots.  After planning the schedule, they used their images to make cool collages.

I could tell I didn't do a great job with my lesson on what going local means when they started working on their collages.  I kept hearing questions like:

Is Denny's local?
Is Brown County State Park local?
Is the IU Art Museum Local?
Is Chipotle local?

  I guess there's no reason for them to know that there are millions of Denny's and only one IU Art Museum, but it still seemed strange to me. I had given many examples of local businesses and had displayed photos on my power point and I had also shared some fascinating anecdotes of my personal interactions with local entrepreneurs.  Sometimes I think The Thirdlanders are ignoring the heck out of me.

17. The Adventures of Husbandman

Tomorrow, Husbandman journeys to Nantes, in the country of France.

I learned this morning that Nantes has been labeled a Gamma World City.

What's a Gamma World City, I asked myself, and maybe you also are haunted by this question, as you read this blog entry.

Don't worry, I've looked into it for all of us.

Come to find out, cities are ranked by economic factors. Being a Gamma World City isn't all that great.  The Gammas are way behind the Alphas and the Betas.  Case in point:  Kansas City is also a Gamma World City.

I'm sure Nantes has some great things going for it, but in terms of economics, it's not in the same ballpark as London or New York or Shanghai.  Not even close.

16. Emily St. John Mandel

I finished The Lola Quartet this week.  It's by Emily St. John Mandel.  I learned that St. John is the author's middle name, so if you're shelving her books, they should go under M if you use an alphabetical system for shelving. Lola Quartet was the third Mandel book I've read.  I began with the masterpiece, Station Eleven, then spent time with her first novel, Last Night in Montreal, and then I read Lola Quartet.  It's fun to acquire a new fave author.  I'm looking forward to her new book, Glass Hotel. Mandel writes characters that get themselves into some tricky situations.  She's good at quietly building up suspense.  She lives in the United States now, but she was born in Canada.  She went to school to be a dancer.

15. Elliptic Regularity Theory

Elliptic Regularity Theory, (ERT) is all about the smoothness of solutions to elliptic partial differential equations.  Turns out when you solve an elliptic PDE in a region where you've specified the values on the boundary, the solution is really smooth inside the region even if the values on the boundary aren't that nice.

This probably seems super basic to all of you, but it took me awhile to get the hang of ERT. I spent most of the afternoon reading the seminal work on the topic by Gilbarg and Trudinger.  Elliptic PDE are ubiquitous so the regularity of their solutions is really important. Put the time in and learn more about ERT.  The sky's the limit, when your heart is in it.

14. The Baldi

A trio of Thirdlanders stood with me at recess today, teaching me about Baldi's Basics.  The way they talked about the animated teacher, Baldi, who comes at a kid with his ruler when he answers math questions incorrectly cracked me up.  When they left for the day, I watched a Baldi's Basics video and quite enjoyed it.

Have you learned about Baldi's Basics?  If not, get up to speed by watching this 2 minute video.

This crew of Thirdlanders has taught me a lot about Marshmello as well.  Marshmello has some great songs and we listen to his music during our clean up time.  Sometimes I let them watch his videos too, if I'm in a decent mood. The video for FLY shows Marshmello flying through the skies. During FLY, some Thirdlander always patiently explains to me, "This is animated.  He can't really fly."

13. The Pockets With Poems in Them

Photo Credit:  Nancer

Poem In Your Pocket Day started back in 2002 in the hustle bustle of New York City.  

The country copycatted NYC in 2008, hopscotching into  Poem in your Pocket Day from sea to shining sea.

Canada crashed the party with northern neighbor poem popping in 2016.

Fast forward to 2019.  Tax Day.  I've yet to find my poem.

This week, I'm green with envy.  I keep watching the poem project video peeps feeling their favorite poems and reciting them with straight up verve.  

Why don't I have one favorite poem that lifts me up and away?

My poem's out there somewhere.

12. The Bridge

Photo by Nancer

As you all know, we're learning how to play bridge.

Bridge is extremely hard to learn, but it's going to be worth it.  One author calls the game of bridge a "life long friend."

Last night, one or two bridge rules started to make sense to me.  I was a little embarrassed because these were basic rules that have been explained to me 50,000 times over the last few months and that are written down on a piece of paper I keep in front of me at all times throughout the game.

"Why is it taking me so long to learn this game?" I wondered aloud.  I noticed the others nodding solemnly and making quick eye contact among themselves, with raised eyebrows, as if they too were pondering this same question, and simultaneously feeling concern about my progress right along with me.

One web site says it could take me 3 to 6 years to learn how to play bridge. In short, hold the horses, my friends.  We're in for the long haul.

I suggest everyone start learning bridge.  I like to think about all of us in our 80s and 90s playing bridge with our bridge club. We'll eat snacks, drink wine, do our best, forget the rest. I can take photos and collect bridge blog stories.  A ride service can take us home or we can all spend the night and Husbandman can make breakfast in the morning. Let's not worry about details.  We'll cross that bridge when we come to it.

11. The Paparazzi

There are all these damned paparazzi out in the yard today. A 2 day gap in the 30 day blogging challenge has caused quite a stir on social media:  Is she sick?  Is she giving up?  Did her husband leave her? Will she fail at a challenge yet again?

People, just calm down.  I'm fine.  I had a dinner date on Thursday and then a field trip on Friday. The 30 Day Blogging Challenge is still happening.  Chillax and get off my freaking lawn.

10. The Bees In Your Eyes

Imagine four sweat bees inside your eye, feasting on your sweat.    Sure, your eyes are stinging and swollen, but don't get all keyed up.  Just go to the doctor and have them pull the bees out.

9. The Georgians

Lotus Blossoms came to our school today, with a group called Adilei.  They're from Georgia and they sing crazy harmonies with a bit of yodeling thrown in.  The group invited people to come to the front to dance to their music and I was sorely tempted to jump up and throw down. I resisted the urge and restricted myself to some fast-moving foot tapping and hearty head bobbing.

I'm now an Adilei groupie, so I'm planning a trip to Georgia sometime soon. Besides Adilei, Georgia has four UNESCO world heritage sites, including the Gelati Monastery.

8. The Museum

If you feel like seeing a movie called Museo, you should go ahead and see it.  Husbandman and I saw it last night.

La película (the film) is loosely based on the true story of a major theft of el museo (the museum) of anthropology in Mexico Ciudad (city) in 1985.

Super good movie.  I don't usually like heist movies por que (because) no me gusta (I don't like) watching movies about pathetic losers, but this one was quite bueno (good).

Two dropouts from veterinary escuela (school) planned the heist on Feliz Navidad (Christmas Eve).  The guards were not vigilant and some report they may have been borrachos (drunk).  The thieves pilfered some great archaeological tesoros (treasures).

I wonder if the thieves are still in jail.  I was unable to track down this (informacion) information.

7. The Tiny Houses

Peter Menzel is an amazing photographer.  His collection called Material World fascinates me.   

We looked at, and mapped, Menzel's photos, and then we read about wants and needs, stuffocation and carbon footprints.  We also read about people who want to live with less stuff and people who live in tiny houses.

Using cereal boxes, we created tiny houses.  In the spirit of Material World, we also displayed some wants and needs, using play dough, outside of our houses.

We ended with some writing, reflecting on the impact of buying stuff and on whether or not we'd like to live in a tiny house. Most Thirdlanders are ready to move into a tiny house tomorrow, but a few prefer more space.  "I just love my big house," wrote a cheerful Thirdlander.  I myself am looking into buying a tiny house for my elder years.  I'll probably keep it in the backyard because Husbandman does not want to live in a tiny house.  Best of both worlds.

6. The Headline

I love the DIAGNOSIS column in the NYT.  Just today, as I scrolled through headlines, I got a shiver of excitement running through my entire skeletal system as I spotted, "The Boy Was Feverish, With a Swollen Testicle."  I could barely contain myself.

Sadly, today's column was a little disappointing.  There didn't seem to be many clues that directly led to diagnosis.  Parental intuition ultimately tipped off a specialist that the kid might be suffering from Dengue Fever. The teen in question eventually recovered.

 I've read a bit about dengue fever, and it's nothing to laugh about.  It comes from mosquitos and now with global warming, infected mosquitos are slowly coming around to new neighborhoods, right nearby. There's not a ton you can do for dengue fever, but know this.  If you get dengue fever a second time, all bets are off.  You're on your way out, my friend.

The commenters were harsh about this article because the family had wealth.  While their son was ill, they continued on with their European vacation, exploring London and then Rome.  I was surprised that not one person commented that since nothing can be done about the dengue fever, the family was right to continue on with vacation activities.  When in Rome, or London, I personally believe that it's okay to ignore your child's incurable medical condition and enjoy your adventure.  Your kid is comfy in a luxury hotel with room service.  Win win.

5. The Volume

I think I have hyperacusis, a growing inability to tolerate everyday sounds.

The Thirdlanders were loud today and I found myself struggling to tolerate their volume.

  We were creating tiny houses with cereal boxes and colorful tape, which was fun, but I started twitching because of the noise level.

Because of my hyperacusis, I'm sure my doctor will tell me I have to start wearing noise cancelling headphones whenever I'm at work.

By the way, there's no cure for hyperacusis.

4. The Fox

A Thirdlander told us that he saw a fox at the park this week. I asked him what the fox was doing and he said, "Oh, he was just doing fox things."  Today, his mom sent a picture of the fox, lying down in the middle of a solid rubber playground surface, near the swings and climbing materials, emitting a certain air of nonchalance. That really didn't seem like a "fox thing" to me, but come to find out, I was wrong about that.

Come to find out, foxes are not true forest animals.  They are an "edge species."  They like to live in between two habitats and quite enjoy hanging out near humans.  I read a fascinating article about a fox slipping into a suburban home when the family was carrying in groceries.  The fox lived in their home for 3 weeks, happy as a clam, sleeping most of the day away in their coat closet and wandering around the house at night. The parents could see the fox slinking around the halls as they prepared for bed.  They never fed the fox because they knew not to do that, but the fox found plenty to eat on its own.  They could hear it catching squealing mice at night in their kitchen.  What's weird is they didn't even know they had a mouse problem until the fox came to stay. 

So, bottom line, foxes are an edge species and they're not dangerous to us.  They are relatively lightweight---topping off at around 15 pounds. They eat mice.  They like to do fox things, so just leave them to it.  

3. The Piano

Our piano is dying.

Our piano is 90 years old, so that makes sense, but we're trying to decide what to do. Replace almost the entire piano for quite a lot of money, or say goodbye to our piano.

Right now there's a fine gentleman here talking to Husbandman about our piano.  It's sounding kind of bleak.

Here's something I learned today as I've been eavesdropping on the piano conversation. The sound of a piano depreciates.  With a cello or violin, the sound appreciates, or improves over time, but with a piano, that's not how it works.  The sound gets worse as time goes on.

The depreciation situation has nothing to do with our eventual decision.  I just thought it was an interesting fact.

2: A Tale of Heroism

I didn't do or learn much of note today, so here's a story of heroism, texted to me by a family friend who works with my sister in a Veterinary Clinic.

A stray dog was running around the clinic and it ran out in the road and was hit by 2 cars but got up and ran away. Faith and 3 others from the clinic went after the dog and Faith was the first to him but even the owner who came up could not touch the dog. Your sister took off her shirt and grabbed the dog and it was biting her. I got a blanket out of my car so she could hold on to the dog with it. She is crazy but saved that dog's life chasing it down. She is a hero.

Faith is my sister.  She does brave stuff like this quite frequently. She sent me some photos of her injured hand this afternoon.  I'm more the Look-The-Other-Way-Kind-of-Gal when confronted with crises. It doesn't occur to me to intervene most of the time.  We all have our strengths and flaws.  Faith sent me a photo of the bite marks on her hand.  I wondered if she might have needed a stitch or two, but I learned from Faith that sometimes animal bites aren't sutured.  I hope she got some antibiotics.  What if it gets infected? 

1: The Changing Times

We had an extra recess because of a Thirdlander birthday.  The Thirdlanders play this game called Infection.  It's a ramped up version of tag, as far as I can see.

A Thirdlander came over to me to tell me another Thirdlander was cheating at the game.

So I called that kid over to talk to him.  He admitted he had been cheating.  Then he said, "But that kid called me an idiot and kicked me."

So I had to call over the original kid, who admitted he did both those things.  So I told them both to stop the shenanigans.

Recess is always like this.  Either kids get injured, or they start yelling at each other.

 Back in the day, when it was recess time, we played happily, relieved that we didn't have to be in our classrooms.  I wish for the glorious times of yore.