The Halloween

 I kept a pretty good attitude during Halloween at school yesterday even though I'm not generally supportive of celebrating holidays at school.  Why can't people just dress up and eat candy at home? I'm not the most innovative teacher when it comes to school parties and seasonal celebrations. Though the 3rdLanders are always kind and polite, there's a sense at my parties of, "This is it?  This is the entire party?"  I can overhear kids sharing memories of former teachers who wore banana costumes or helped them make jack o'lantern totem poles or hosted an ice cream sundae buffet.

 I do feel bad that I'm not more festive, but all I can do is my best.  I'm forgetting the rest, until December arrives and the winter party rears its ugly head.

The Muting

Had a 3rdLander being extra chatty the morning after the 3rd and last debate.  I talked to the 3rdLander a few times during the day. To no avail.  Finally I chided the child with a stern tone, "You said you were going to get this under control."  

The 3rdLander reached up with an imaginary key and locked up their mouth.  They said, "I'm muted.  Just like the president."  

 

The Candidate

 

I encourage you to listen to the interview with Joe Biden on the Pod Save America podcast.  

Quite good.

I keep thinking about the moment in the debate when Joe referred to Trump as "Abe Lincoln."  

Also quite good. 

 

The Fall Flakiness

Evidence of individual flakiness on my part: First I told the Thirdlanders they couldn't bring costumes to school for our "Fall Party." Then I told them they could wear their costumes.  Complete 180.

Evidence of institutional flakiness:  After I asked an amazing parent to organize snack donations, I've now been told that snack donations will not be allowed. 

Lots of flakiness going into this Covid Holiday Time. And sure, part of it's on me.  I guess I just have to accept that this is a weird, flaky time. Let the chips fall where they may, so to speak. Let's remember that we can get through this together. 

 

The Prime

 It's time to head back to work, but the partying will not stop because ...

...today is Husbandman's birthday!  He's 61, which is a prime number. 1 x 61 = 61.

More celebration.  More cake and libations.  More singing and dancing in our kitchen. 20 Something is rigging up a disco ball kind of thing.  I even made a beautiful collage card for Husbandman.  He brings fun and love into my life every day, so why wouldn't I? 

The 60

 Happy Birthday to me.  I'm 60 years old.  

It's freaking exciting getting to live this long.  I'm kind of surprised by my astounding longevity, but mostly happy as a clam.  

Today will begin with report cards.  (Boo!  Hiss!)

Then with that chore behind us, we'll take a long walk along a trail somewhere, create some artworks, zoom with #1 son, and wrap up the day by partaking of the pumpkin pie that Husbandman made this morning.  

The birthday pumpkin pie is a fine tradition. 

On my birthday, I send out love to anyone and everyone.  Hope you all have 60 moments of fun today.  Or even 6. The point being, I hope you have fun. 

Here's my new favorite song:

The Zoo

Lots of good news going around right now.  We're on Fall Break and today we went to the zoo.  It's ZooBoo time right now, so most zoo visitors were in costume.  As 20 Something and I snacked on tangerines and watched the elephants, a young toy storied character stared at my tangerine and said, "It's not fair.  I never get any!" He folded his arms across and his chest.  Stuck out his lip.  The whole nine yards.  I offered him a tangerine section and he took it happily.  I thought his mother might be concerned.  Food from strangers and all that, but she found the whole scenario amusing.  I guess Halloween time is here and snack sharing is an important part of the festivities.  Happy to oblige, Kid.

 

The Vote

 I voted yesterday, for Joe Biden and Kamala Harris.  As well as others.

There was a long line and I waited about an hour.  #20 Something stayed with me and we chatted.  

When I got to the door to enter, I asked the worker about the line.  She told me that the line has been long and constant since early voting opened up a week ago.  

That's the good news.  The bad news is there are still people trying to suppress our right to vote all over this godforsaken land.  

Who's going to win? 

The Jets

 We took some sandwiches to the lake yesterday. 

Chatted and checked out the foliage and the sailboats.

The jet skis, I've decided, are the enemy of the people and should be banned from public lands from this point forward. 

The Visitor

 #20Something's here!  

We're having fun, talking and talking and talking.

Walked a bit yesterday.  Saw foliage and this garter snake.  

The Symptom

 I had a massive headache all day yesterday.  Took ibuprofen at lunch and it went away for a short time.  When I returned home at 6:30, I took more ibuprofen and this time it stayed away for good.

Even though the headache dissipated, I still spent time researching headache as a symptom of covid.  13% of people who get the virus suffer from headache.

Luckily, I am fine now. 

The Snacks

 I went to MA's house after school yesterday to talk about a unit of study she's working on.  I love doing that kind of get together, where you chat about and plan curriculum.  And have great snacks.  And tea.  

The Math Video

 I made a little math video for the Thirdlanders yesterday where they could practice subtracting across zeroes.  

They could shut off the video, work the problem, then click back on and see how they did, as I solved the problem with vim and vigor.

Everyone seemed to be engaged and they solved along at their own pace and it was kind of pleasant.  

Muffo the Monster helped with the video.  All the math problems had to do with him borrowing money from me to buy various wheeled objects --- scooters, hover boards, roller blades.  He never pays me back. Muffo offered excuses and lame promises throughout the video, and I expressed annoyance and impatience.  The Thirdlanders spent time admonishing Muffo as they turned in their papers.  Fun times in Thirdland. 

The Magazines

 

I'm thinking about putting one magazine on each 3rdLander's desk this morning so we can start our day with some collaging.  Henceforth, all Mondays shall be Magazine Mondays.

The Preserve

Hiked at the Hitz-Rhodehamel Nature Preserve.  It's been there since 1985, but we only learned of it yesterday.  We're not sure how a 3 mile loop took us two hours to complete, but maybe that's part of the mystery of the Hitz Rhodehamel. We looked for the cerulean warbler, but no luck. 

The Fists

 There was talk at Morning Meeting about the President's health situation.  Some Thirdlanders were pumping their fists when they heard from classmates about this current event.  I felt it important to shut down the fist pumping, because it's not right to celebrate the misfortunes of others.  

One Thirdlander announced, "How do we know he's telling the truth?  He's probably lying.  That's all he does." I suggested we move on to other relevant topics. A Thirdlander volunteered to share a photo of her old dog wearing sunglasses which led to a deluge of anecdotes about pets and costumes, which probably sounds more interesting than it actually was.

I don't remember feeling this way about the president when I was in third grade.  It's a little bit sad.  

The Challenges

Sometimes I make up one minute challenges at recess for one of the Thirdlanders.  Run to the ladder.  Go across the monkey bars, down the slide, around that tree and back to me.  Stuff like that.  Yesterday more and more kids wanted in on the one minute challenges.  It was fun, but impossible to social distance.  So now I'm not going to do the one minute recess challenges any more. 

 

The Death

 Harriet the Tarantula died yesterday. She was 15 years old and should have lived to age 20, so I don't know what happened.