Action and Adventure in August #15: The Search for Ross Gay

August comes to an end.  I didn't succeed at the blog challenge of 20 entries this month, but 15 is passable.  75%. A solid C.  I'll take it.  Thanks to everyone who blogged their actions and adventures. Kudos to us.

On this final day of the eighth month, I ventured out in search of the internationally famous poet, Ross Gay, who lives in our town. Husbandman didn't know that he was on this particular adventure, but he was indeed a passenger on my escapade. We started out at the community garden and orchard.  The garden is impressive, full of flowers and foods and finches.  The orchard less so.  Scrubby trees and rotting fruit.  I've heard tell that Ross Gay is an orchard organizer, so I had a hope that he might be there, pruning a pear tree or two.  No luck.

Next we headed to the Garlic Festival and the Fourth Street Festival. At the Fourth Street Festival, I saw a tall African American man at a booth representing a local arts organization. He didn't look too much like the photo of Ross Gay on his book jacket, but I walked closer anyway. I heard the guy introducing himself to someone and found out he was not Ross Gay.  I was embarrassed but decided to cut myself some slack.  This guy was tall, African American and an arts organizer, so I had at least some slim, barebones evidence for my brief stereotypical generalizing assumption.

There was a poetry stage set up at the festival, so I zipped over to check out the schedule of poets.  Ross Gay's name wasn't there.  I was embarrassed again because for Pete's sake, would a famous poet be standing in the middle of Fourth Street reading his poems to people wandering through a craft fair?  I think not.

This whole Ross Gay obsession is turning into another Meg Ryan wild goose chase.  I need to let it go and get on with my life.  It's pulling me into dashed hopes and embarrassment time and again.  Case in point.  We shared our Delights books with parents at Open House.  A dad asked me, "Did you read Ross Gay's book?"

"Yes!" I exclaimed.  "Do you know him?"

The dad said, "Yes."

I got fairly hyped at this point, "What's he like?  Is he nice?"  Come to find out, the dad did not actually know Ross Gay but he had heard him read his poetry a few times and admired his work as do I.

Maybe Ross Gay will be at The Comedy Attic watching Esther Povitsky.  I'll keep my eyes peeled. If you see Ross Gay, please let him know that I'm looking for him. Or, better yet, please don't mention me at all.  Let's just leave our eventual meeting to chance.

Action and Adventure in August #14: La Mujer

Yesterday, I was teaching away, really putting my heart into it, when a woman entered the classroom.  I had never seen her before in my life.  She started speaking in a foreign tongue, making remarks like "Hola Clase," and "Buenos Dias."

The Thirdlanders were going along with it, keeping her calm, responding with tentative "Holas" or "Graciases." They glanced over toward me with seemingly "For the Love of Pete Do Something" looks.

I walked out of the room in search of help.   I ended up using the copier, which was another grand adventure I won't go in to here.

I found a friend and told her about the crazy situation with the immigrant.  My pal reminded me that the woman was our beloved Spanish teacher and nothing was amiss.

I gathered my wits about me and returned to Room 200.  As Maestra wrapped up her lesson, I took over the class.  Everything turned out okay.

Action and Adventure in August #13: The Upcoming Molt

 As you know, a tarantula by the name of Harriet lives in my classroom.  Harriet's a great pet.  She doesn't do anything at all, and she's fascinating to look at because she's a tarantula.  Every once in awhile she walks up the walls of her tank, delighting all of us. That's a rare occurrence, so she's never much of a distraction to our learning.

A pal at work loves Harriet.  She even reaches in and pets her gently from time to time. She supplies water for her whenever I forget to check on the water supply and she talks to her every afternoon.

The other day, this pal said, "Have you noticed that Harriet is losing hair on her back?"

Of course I had not.  I barely look at Harriet except for a quick glance each morning as I walk into the classroom and call out, "Hi Harriet" as I schlep my 80 pound bag over to my desk.

"Rats," I said.  "I hope she's not dying.  I can't handle that right now."  I walked over to check her out and sure enough, she had a bald spot on her abdomen.

I finally got a chance to google this tarantula hair loss condition today and come to find out, Harriet's going to be molting soon.  Not sure if you've ever seen a tarantula molt, but it's quite a dramatic adventure.  I've seen it twice and it does not get old, my friends.  Between the monarchs and the tarantulas, Room 200 is turning into a Wild Kingdom with Marlin Perkins episode.

Action and Adventure in August #12: The Killing Fields

A red tailed hawk flew down into my backyard about 15 minutes ago.  His back was turned toward me, but he seemed to be pecking at a small creature which he held beneath his fierce talons. I'm hoping it was a chipmunk.  He's gone now, but I'm pretty sure he'll be back soon and the killing will continue.

Action and Adventure in August of Long Ago #11: The Goodyear Blimp

Last night I had a dream that the Goodyear blimp  crashed into our house during a torrential rain storm.

I'm not sure I've told you this before, but I rode in the Goodyear blimp when I was a young child.

It was quite an adventure.

Action and Adventure in August #10: The Tracker

Here's a harrowing adventure that I'm on right now that I do not recommend.

Husbandman's out of town, so I ordered some food using a web based food delivery service. I once again foolishly chose the option to track the food being delivered.

The restaurant is 8 minutes away from my house, but for the past 30 minutes, I've watched as "Sonny" drives all over town on a little adventure of his own, careening north and south of my home, NOT delivering my food.

Okay, Sonny just arrived.  He seemed friendly enough.

Action and Adventure in August #9: The Monarchs

I've never raised monarchs before, but everyone's doing it at school, so why not?  Let me tell you something about monarch caterpillars.  They eat constantly.  I had to replace the milkweed leaves sometimes twice a day. They also poop out small round balls called FRASS, which must be removed from the habitat for health reasons.  After a couple of weeks of constant gorging on milkweed, they stop eating, climb to the top of their habitat, walk around for a day or so and when they've found their sweet spot, they hang into a J shape.  This happened towards the end of the week, so when I go back to Thirdland on Monday, I'm prepared to see my two buddies in chrysalis form. In two weeks, they'll emerge as butterflies.  Somehow I'll get them out of the habitat at that point and they'll begin their winged adventure, probably heading to Mexico.  Unless they die in the chrysalis, which happens sometimes.

Action and Adventure in August #8: The Good Bye Party

There are a few Thirdlanders that like to tag around with me at recess.  Some are in my class, some aren't. Yesterday they wanted to pretend that recess was a good bye party for one of the crew because she was moving away after school.

A suggestion was made that we share memories of our friendship at our goodbye party.  "You can add your own memories," one told me.

I've only known some of these kids for a couple of weeks, but whatever. They chatted as I scanned the horizon for walnut throwers, swing jumpers, monkey bar trapeze artists and injured soccer players.

"Remember when we met in Kindergarten and we talked about being friends?" one asked.  They chatted about that good memory until I broke in.  "Remember the time we were in Paris and we went to the top of the Eiffel Tower at night?  The city lights were so beautiful."

They stared at me for awhile until one gal said, "That never happened, Dr. H."

"Oh come on.  You couldn't have forgotten about that," I countered.  "What about that Hawaii trip where we saw that pod of humpback whales and they were jumping out of the water right next to our boat?"

They just went back to their memories about playing at Bryan Park Pool and sleepover arguments.  Honestly, it was as if I wasn't even at the party the way they chattered about their own private adventures.  Finally the whistle blew and the party ended.  That one kid has left town and is probably in her new state by now.  We miss her already.

Action and Adventure in August #7: The Pontoon

I took a half day off work on Friday. This is a rarity for me.

We headed to Lake Monroe and walked the plank onto our very own rented pontoon boat.

Brother Dan captained the ship.  As first mate, I provided direction and refreshments.

Father Dan regaled us with stories of his 80 foot dives into the quarries of the Northeast.

Husbandman attended to the standing rigging, including the halyards, vangs, shrouds and stays.

After a time, we drifted into a hidden cove and swam with the rare freshwater stingrays of Indiana. It was fun to leap out of the water while clinging to the back of a friendly freshwater stingray. It felt like flying.

Then we sailed the pontoon into a hidden cave and fed caterpillars to the sheath-tailed bats roosting there.  I had to wake a few up because they normally feed at night.  They were disgruntled at first, but then seemed to settle down as they feasted on the insects.

We said farewell to the sheath-tailed bats and headed the boat back to the open seas. As the wind blew through my hair, I thought about the importance of skipping work every now and again in order to enjoy a maritime adventure. Highly recommend.

Action and Adventure in August #6: The Octopus on the Face

You probably heard already about the gal who put an octopus on her face in order to take a photograph which she hoped would win a prize in a famous contest.

Come to find out, she got bitten several times by the octopus and ended up hospitalized with a quite nasty infection.

I admire this gal and talked about her adventure with some Thirdlanders at recess today.  I even showed them the famous photo.  The three girls were unimpressed and made remarks like,

"That wasn't a good idea."
"Everyone makes mistakes sometimes."
"Some people eat octopus. I've heard of that."

I felt they were missing the whole point of the adventure. Putting an octopus on your face in pursuit of artistic excellence is a cool, yet risky, thing to do.

Action and Adventure in August #5: The Tiny

There's a woman I know who spent 4th of July weekend in a tiny house.  Before I left for Toronto, she and I talked about her upcoming tiny adventure.  She knew everything about tinies. I saw her on Saturday and asked how it all went.  FYI:  She was in a 275 square foot tiny, which isn't super tiny in the world of tinies, but still, it's tiny.

"I'm not too hooked on living in a tiny anymore," she told me.  "It was fine, but there's no place to store anything. No place for a vacuum cleaner.  No place for a broom, even.  I got to see some workers emptying the septic tank, so that was interesting.  Also, another tiny arrived so I got to see it being placed on the foundation, and I enjoyed that.  There was some trouble with the lights, so that was unfortunate.  My dog enjoyed getting away for the weekend, but I've decided tinies aren't for me.  I kind of felt like a college student living in a dorm room."

I was disappointed in her report.  I'd been hoping for a more gung ho debriefing.  Some adventures don't pan out, let's face it, and yet, I still would like to try the tiny for myself sometime. I think this gal needed to think bigger where tiny living is concerned.  Watching the septic tank workers and the loading of a tiny onto a foundation?  I would do it all differently and I hope some day to get the chance.

Action and Adventure in August #4: The Mission Possible

I read in Ross Gay's The Book of Delights that there are some pawpaw trees on the IU campus.  The Ross Man highly recommends the pawpaw as a fruity delight.  I've given Husbandman an adventure mission.  He must find the pawpaw tree and return home with its fruit.  Husbandman might do it, but he's not sure.  He actually didn't seem super enthused. Not sure why he can't get this done.  He works on the IU campus Monday through Friday.

FYI:  The pawpaw is sometimes called the Indiana banana.  It's weird that I've never eaten a pawpaw.  I've lived in Indiana for over three decades.  Eating a pawpaw will be a new adventure. If Husbandman gets the job done.

The Water Snake and the Tin Whistle

Okay, everyone, huddle up.  I can still pull off 20 blog entries about action and adventure in August.  It's going to require a herculean effort on my part, but let's face it, I've done harder things.  At this moment in time, I can't recall anything I've done that might be considered harder than 19 entries in the next 21 days, while working full time in Thirdland, but whatever.  I'm pretty sure I can do it. And if I can't, who really cares?

The first 3 days of school are behind us. Great crew of Thirdlanders this year and we've already had an adventure or two.  I'll share one thusly.

Let's set the scene first.  Recess.  Thursday afternoon.  I'm carrying my tin whistle because I'm experimenting with using a tin whistle to call Thirdlanders to line, rather than blowing on the hideous playground whistle I abhor and deplore.  I'm getting to be an expert at making creative sounds on instruments I don't know how to play, such as the harmonica as well as the tin whistle. Thinking of getting a bodhran, which I've already mentioned in a previous post, and a cowbell and a zither.  

Anyway, that's neither here nor there.  As we crossed the bridge, the thirdlanders pointed out a small water snake in the creek, completely submerged, biding its time.  That small snake was still as a "sheltered space when winds blow loud."  We stood and watched it for awhile. A Thirdlander said, "See if you can make it move with your whistle."  With little confidence, I began to make sounds with the whistle by blowing air through its fipple and metallic barrel, popping my fingers up and down on the finger holes in a random fashion.  Sure enough, the snake began slithering and gliding toward the bridge, even lifting its head above the water. Thirdlanders were pretty darned impressed for awhile.  Then the snake swam under the bridge and we moved on to some playground playing.

 Add snake charming to my repertoire of skills, please.

Action and Adventure in August: Hot Air Ballooning

 Remember awhile ago when I blogged that I didn't go up in a hot air balloon this summer?   Well, come to find out, I just went up in one yesterday.

Husbandman and I went to Connor Prairie and they have a hot air balloon.  For 17 dollars you can soar into the sky for 15 minutes.

Connor Prairie is amazing.  Lots of history, hot air ballooning, and pigs, goats, sheep for the asking.
I texted both 20 Something and #1 Son to apologize for never taking them to this Hoosier Landmark.  20 Something went with her class in second grade, but I think it's a Hoosier parent's responsibility to make sure their kid prances on the prairie at least once with their family unit.  Neither kid seemed too broken up about it, but it's still chapping my hide that I didn't take advantage of this opportunity when they were young and soaking up the knowledge. When it comes right down to it, I've got to remember that I did my best and now I have to forget the rest.  Easier said than done of course.

After the prairie, we went to see the movie YESTERDAY.  I loved it and truly believe you should see it if you want to.

Action and Adventure in August

 It's time for another blogging theme.  This month we're focusing on ACTION AND ADVENTURE in AUGUST!

It's going to be awesome.

Today for instance, Husbandman and I are driving to a place we've never before visited.  CONNOR PRAIRIE, where we will step back in time to pioneer days.  I'm excited.  Husbandman, less so.

I had a friend who used to be the school teacher at Connor Prairie and that's a job I think I could do.  Maybe I can get an interview for the position.

So, let's blog our actions and adventures this month. 20 blog entries?  Seems doable.  Let me know if you're in like Flynn, so I can read your blog and make interesting comments and VICE VERSA.

Dear Readers, please add your actions and adventures in comments as well.  August can be a scary time for all, so let's be brave and bold, and show this month who's boss.