One thing, and another.

Tomorrow night we'll be listening to music and dancing in the streets.  Cynthia will be here with us.  She arrives tonight on a jet from the westernmost point of the continental U.S., Berkeley, California. We go way back.  We met Cynthia 40 years ago today.  And that's another thing that's happening constantly. I'm getting old and everyone feels like commenting about it.  720 times this week people asked me when I was retiring.  I don't really like to talk about the ending of my career and my eventual enfeeblement and probable death so I wish people would stop bringing it up and just focus on friendships old and new and world music festivals and dancing to Kokoko. And One for the Foxes.  I've got to finish the bot project with the Thirdlanders today. Time keeps slipping every which way.  I also must type the last 2 Poem Partner drafts.

Autumnal Greetings

Fall is here.  Maybe we'll make some cards today to celebrate.  Maybe we'll make some #FallBots.

Last night we saw the movie Mike Wallace Is Here.  Pretty good.

The Anecdotes

Enjoying the Thirdlanders.  Two fun anecdotes:

Anecdote 1:

I was blowing tunelessly on my harmonica as we walked up to the cafeteria on Friday. I stopped playing the song I was spontaneously creating and said to a kid near me, "Don't you think the harmonica has a fabulous sound?"

He nodded and said, "Usually people play it in their jail cells."

Anecdote 2:

A quiet Thirdlander surprised me by signing up to share at morning meeting. When his turn came, he told us, "2 days ago I started using deodorant."

This led to a discussion of deodorant, which was interesting.

Those are the anecdotes of the week.

The Bugs

We released the monarchs. We were excited to watch them flutter up and away.  One of the Thirdlanders shouted, "Goodbye Kitsy!  Goodbye Bitsy!"  Turns out she had named them without telling anyone.

We read about ants yesterday. Some ants farm root aphids in special milking chambers, keeping them alive in order to milk them for their liquidy honeydew and nutritious protein.  I disagree with scientists that call this a form of mutualism. Let's face it, the aphids are getting a raw deal.  Ants known as slavemakers overpower foreign ant colonies, taking them as slaves and forcing them to work. Also, if an individual ant decides to reproduce, the other workers hold her down for a few days so that her eggs don't hatch.  Then she goes back to work.  The queen is the only reproducer, so the workers have to just deal with it.

Ants are industrious, but they do have character flaws.

The Monarch

One of the monarchs came out of its chrysalis today, right after the morning bell rang.

It really created an uproar. Thirdland was happy to see it emerge.

I wasn't too jazzed about the comments shouted out randomly all day long about the other chrysalis possibly emerging right at the moment.  It got super annoying.

The other chrysalis stayed in its stage all day and the Thirdlanders hope that it will wait until tomorrow to emerge.

Friends, if there's any justice in this universe, that other chrysalis will emerge tonight, suck on the orange slice I left in the habitat and both butterflies will be ready for release into the wild on the morrow. Enough is enough already.

The Three Midways

We are about midway through our unit on wellness.  I like this unit.  It's the third time I've taught it and I keep changing it up. We've learned about the brain, about physical exercise, about Maslow's Hierarchy of Needs.  This week we'll learn about the importance of public services like the new Switchyard Park and about how some animals live in groups in order to survive.  After the whole group lessons, the Thirdlanders will be working on six wellness inquiry centers in small groups. We need to finish this unit in the next 2 weeks.  Right now, that seems unlikely.

I'm writing a paper about a project in my classroom.  I'm about midway through it and it's coming along well.  The second half is going to be a challenge, but this afternoon, Husbandman and I are going to head out to a coffee shop for some work, after a brisk thirty minute walk.

When my dad was visiting, we took him to see the Tarantino movie, Once Upon a Time in Hollywood.  About midway through the film, which I was enjoying, Dad decided he didn't want to be seeing it any longer and walked out, with my assistance, since he can't walk very well, especially in dark spaces, because of his macular degeneration and shuffling gait. Dad's a man who follows his whims, which I support for the most part.  Still, Husbandman and I want to see the ending of this film.  I'm reluctant, however, to pay to sit through the first hour all over again, so I guess we'll be waiting for the future streaming.