The Younglies

The day begins with online literature circle meetings.

Some Thirdlanders tell me right away that they haven't finished the reading and I reassure them that it's fine.  One is proud to tell us that she wasn't sure she could finish, but she  "powered through."

Most have post its to share, but the conversation's not too meaty.  A Thirdlander holds her hamster to the camera. That gets me remembering all the hamsters I used to have.  Hamilton.  Hannah.  Helen. "Maybe I should buy a hamster today," I say.  I hear a mom laugh in the background.

The second book group wanders into a discussion of animal rights and animal testing and Spunky Girl runs off and returns with her shampoo bottle to show us the label, "No animal testing."  This is new to a few, who vow to look for the label from now on.

More sticky notes are shared. More pets come and go. There are some silences.  A Thirdlander types into the chat screen, "I love you guys."  We're all quiet for a beat. But our take charge girl says, "We love you too," and everyone chimes in, including me.

The meeting lasts for 90 minutes, with small groups coming in and out.  When I have to remove kids from the meeting to make room for newcomers, Thirdlanders yell out, "Don't kick me out, Dr. H!" and we all laugh and wave and yell goodbye. One of the last to leave says, "When coronavirus is over, it'd be great if we could all come over to your house."

"Yeah, that'd be fun," I tell her.

Over the course of the morning, every Thirdlander shows up to talk about books and pets and flying squirrels and love, and these new literature circles bring me new appreciation for the term bittersweet.

The Twilight

Crossword Puzzle Champs

Last night we watched a good movie called Bad Education. You should see it if you feel like it.  The older and younger generations alike enjoyed it.

This week I wondered if I had the virus.  After teaching on Thursday, I was overcome by fatigue and body aches.  I took a nap and woke with a low fever.  I watched about 10 episodes of Naked and Afraid and then slept again.  My fever was gone the next day.  I didn't feel that much better though. I decided to watch the entire Twilight Saga film series.  Now, days later, I may have a runny nose.  And the fatigue situation is dire.  Maybe I am just dealing with the common cold? Or maybe I'm dealing with typical seasonal allergies? Or maybe I have my own unique version of the virus that no one else knows about. If I could just get my hands on a test, we could put this issue behind us.

Until I can get the test, I'm putting 3 drops of bleach in my coffee each morning.  I'm also surreptitiously administering bleach to the coffee of the others.  I can and will protect my family from the invisible enemy. The pets get their doses in their water dishes.

The Lessons

I have 3 or 4 lessons to prepare for tomorrow.  Instead, I'm procrastinating.

I like to be prepared with lessons each week when we're in real life, but if things get away from me, I can still get the job done. With pandemic life, I have to have lessons published and ready to go.

Without published lessons, the Thirdlanders will click on the learning management program tomorrow morning and nothing will be there.  They'll start sending messages to my inbox. I could reply,  "Sorry, Thirdland, I've got nothing. Why don't you work on some math at Con Academy and then do a little writing in your notebook? Read a book if you feel like it? Or not. Whatever."

That wouldn't do.  Let's face it.  I'm going to get my act together soon.  I already know what the lessons are going to be about --- fractions on geoboards, finishing up our zines, the benefits of shopping local.  I've just got to kick it into gear.

The Suggestions

On a scale of 1 to 10, how open to suggestions are you?  I'm a 10.  If I hear someone else is doing something, then I think I should probably do it.  Case in point.  Yesterday I read about a guy who had a goal to conquer the cookery of 3 new recipes this year. One of the dishes was Baked Ziti. So now I'm constantly thinking that Husbandman should cook baked ziti. I've found him some recipes and he might make the ziti soon.

The Artist's Retreat

Today's Creativity Thursday. The Thirdlanders sent me some great creativity today, including spine poetry, small gardens, clay work and chalk work, colorful drawings and paintings, paper airplanes, lego constructions.  One Thirdlander is even making a swing set with his parents.

We're doing a good bit of creating as well.  After Rachel finished a complicated Paint By # painting that would make One Woman proud, she and #1 painted a box together.  Now, Rachel's on to a new painting and #1 Son is making up a song on the bass.  Husbandman's exploring a new casserole recipe and he's been doing quite a bit of piano playing as well.  Here I am, 'abloggin' like there's no tomorrow and soon I'm going to get back in gear with my bookmark making business. I even pulled out the ukulele the other night and practiced my four chords.

June the Clumber is ripping the stuffing out of a toy.  Only HeMan the WonderCat seems to be resting on his laurels. As long as he's not creating new tears in our armchairs, I'm okay with that.  Life is good over here on High Street.

The Giant Water Bug

While I was distance teaching this morning, I noticed a giant water bug walking across my desk.  It was a male, with dozens of eggs on his back.

     "Excuse me, Friend," he said in a whispery voice.  I'm far from home and I need to get these kiddos to a wetland, A-S-A-P.  Any chance you could give me a hand?"

      I was pretty busy at that point, grading a steady stream of online assignment submissions, but I reached down and Giant Water Bug crawled on to my hand.  As I drove to Griffy Lake, GWB said not a word, but sighed and tsk-ed repeatedly.  I didn't ask questions about how he came to be in my house with his offspring, because I recognized that I was in the midst of a true emergency.  We got to the lake in record time and I carried GWB to the edge.  He hobbled into the watery grasses without so much as a fare thee well.  It seemed rude, to be honest, but who am I to judge? Everyone's dealing with a lot right now.

      Though I had lost sight of him, I shouted, "Good luck, Giant Water Bug!" and returned to the car.

The Sassafras

It's getting kind of hard to sass up these days.  We're ordering Thai food tonight so that's going to help.  I actually had extra time today.  Finished up my online gig around 2:30 AND had tomorrow all planned out.  I walked around for awhile thinking about what I should do with my afternoon.  Instead of doing original, creative works, I ended up looking for an online read aloud that might tie in with the unit about economics that I'm teaching right now.  It was kind of comforting, so I guess it's okay to spend the late afternoon on my bed, reading about picture books.  Snagged a pretty good one about Jane Addams and Hull House, called The House that Jane Built. I wish there were more people reading books with social justice themes aloud on the internets right now.  I know we're stressed out, but we still enjoy reading about real stuff.

FYI:  I've actually walked by the original Hull House in Chicago and have read the plaque there.

ps I wrote this on Monday and forgot to publish it.  Let's face it.  I'm addled.

The Wishes

It's time to shake and shine, People.  I'm going to blog and then slog.  Then I'm going to plan the Monday lessons for the Thirdlanders.  

In Comfortable with Uncertainty, Pema Chodron writes that, "nothing goes away until it's taught us what we need to know."  I wish coronavirus would teach me what I need to know PDQ. Get on with it, CV.

I had a chat with three groups of Thirdlanders on Thursday.  One group was discussing the awesome book, The Fourteenth Goldfish in which a scientist character figures out how to reverse aging.  He's 76, but he becomes a teenager again.  Problems ensue. At the end, the character decides not to pursue his anti-aging line of research. A Thirdlander said, "I think he figured out that the world isn't ready for no-aging right now."   I wish the coronavirus would read Fourteenth Goldfish.  It could learn a thing or two from that book.

Last night, we had a zoom-Seder with kinfolk from California, Indiana and Washington.  It was comforting and comfortable.  #1 Son played music.  We read a few poems.  People made wishes for the post-Corona World.  I wished that our new president Joe Biden would get on board with the Green New Deal.  

#1 Son said, "That's probably not going to happen."

I see his point, but I'm keeping hope alive here on High Street. Shaking.  Shining. 

The Teaching

The online teaching is sometimes exhausting, and I'm not sure why.  I went to bed around 7:30 last night.  There's stuff about real life teaching I don't miss that much--- trying to get kids to line up to go somewhere, trying to get kids to clean up the room at the end of the day.  But here's some stuff I do miss--- Being the main person that's with them all day. Helping them get their work done.  Hearing their stories.  Telling them my stories.

Some stuff is the same.  I'm happy with the lessons I'm coming up with.  I'm happy to talk about books with them at our weekly meetings.  I'm happy to see their ideas for their writing. I'm happy when they appear on our morning announcements page by typing, "Hi Dr. H," always adding 10 to 50 emojis.

Some stuff is different.  It's hard to figure out how much to assign for the kids to have 2 to 3 hours of work.  I've gaffed a few times and as they continue to submit assignments into the afternoon, I get more and more stressed out, thinking that the parents must be hating my guts and that I'm torturing little kids who are already having tough lives. This results in depression and anxiety. Also, sitting in a chair for hours at a time with little messages coming up on my screen every few minutes gets me a bit cranked out.

In short, the teaching work continues to be emotional and that's probably why it's tiring me out.  But it's good work.  I like being connected to the Thirdlanders on the daily. Today we're going to start writing our zines.  I wish we were all writing in the same room, but if wishes were horses, beggars would ride.

The Animals

Have you heard about the animals taking over?  Deer dawdling through a Japanese shopping center. Mountain goats gallivanting gaily in Llandudno. Wild boars barging through Bergamo.  Monkeys mauling each other in the towns of Thailand.

It's happening here as well.  Chipmunks chewing through my lawn, running amok, boldly staring me right in the eye as I stake my claim to a deck chair. Sometimes I wish I had a pellet gun.

The Regrets

Don't you think this seed pod from the sweet gum tree is a copycatter of a certain virus we've come to know and hate?

Today I went to the pharmacy to pick up my blood pressure medication.  Let's face it, I need to keep the blood pressure steady.  No one has time for stroking out right now.

The pharmacy was darkened and there weren't many people in there.  I had gloves on and in my hand, I carried a clorox wipe.  My anxiety was a bit on the high side as I wondered if I should pick up a bag of chocolate.  Perusing the selection, I imagined coronavirus all over each bag, lurking.  I decided to leave the chocolate alone and head over to the pharmacist. I bitterly resented his wearing of a mask. I almost asked him if I could buy a mask from him, but he seemed distracted.

I'm home now, safe as far as we know.  The honest truth is I wish I had the chocolate.  I was right there. Instead of bravely grasping the bag of chocolate with the clorox wipe, I succumbed to my fears and now I'm living with regrets.