The Project

Do you ever find yourself stuck in a project that turns into a series of never-ending annoyances?  I'm in these sorts right now.  It's a simple enough thing I'm trying to do -- sew a new set of curtains to replace the ones the cats put holes in two months ago by leaping up and swinging merrily while the sheer fabric tore.  I bought four sturdy all-cotton panels at Ikea which needed no work at all other than hemming them up because they were too long.  I did this with one panel and then discovered that somehow I'd gotten the measurements off and it still dragged on the floor by a good inch.  As busy as I was with school, I left that panel up and put off the entire project until summer when I'd have more time and patience.

It is now summer and I have more time.  Patience -- not so much.  Yesterday I took down the curtain to begin work and my first discovery was that Arby had given it a good spritz some time in the intervening two months.  Not a good beginning, but something I chose to ignore for the present.  The first order of business was ripping out the stitching on the hem of the panel that was too long.  First I needed to find my seam ripper.  After finding it, I got to work and was reminded how tedious taking out a hem is.  When that was at last done, there was another slight delay as I looked for my fabric marking pen and then my cloth tape measure.  Then I set to work measuring off 87 1/2" and cutting off the excess.

At this point, things were going well, so I decided that it would be nice to listen to "Morning Edition" on NPR.  So I got my laptop and clicked what needed clicking and was gratified when everything worked and my show was streaming in with an interesting story.  I got down on the floor again to continue marking a panel and the program cut out.  I got up and fiddled with the WiFi and eventually the program came on again.  I got down on the floor and had just recommenced marking the panel, when the program stopped for the second time.  And so it went.  After about the fourth attempt to stay connected, I gave up and lay down for a bit of a rest, but fell asleep instead.






An hour later, I woke up, gritted my teeth and finished marking and pinning the panels in a room devoid of entertainment.  As each panel was pinned, I hung it up on the rod to make absolutely sure that none of them dragged on the floor.  Then I stitched all the hems and finally washed and hung all the panels out on the line.






Fun though yesterday was, today I was determined to get this entire project completed.  I set up the ironing board and iron and got the first panel pressed and up on the rod.  And it's dragging on the floor -- only a little, but still...  How this can be is beyond me.  I can understand cotton shrinking after washing -- but lengthening???  Never mind -- a tiny bit of dragging will be endured.  I refuse to take all those hems out.


I brought in the second panel and noticed that one edge was crusted with dirt.  I must have inadvertently dragged it on the carport while hanging it on the line.  I didn't want to rewash the entire panel, so wet a cloth and carefully blotted out most of the dirt.

Then I went back to pressing it, only to discover that the iron no longer worked.  Yes, the iron had chosen this particular day to be its last.

This afternoon I've got to go up to Angels Camp to pick up my new glasses and will stop at the hardware for a new iron. At this point, I won't ask what else could possibly go wrong because the Curtain Gods would be sure to hear me.

Home Again

My Google In Education Summit weekend is over.  Thankfully.  It did indeed turn out to be a bit too much after four weeks of the Writing Project Summer Institute.  Actually, it may have been too much even if I'd just returned from four weeks of relaxing at a luxury spa -- this event was Google on Steroids, while I was expecting at least a few sessions to be Google Paint by Number.  

I attended several sessions for more info on applications that I've already worked with in a rudimentary way in my classroom -- for instance, Google Drive and Edmodo.  I've managed to learn how to haltingly navigate through them by bumbling around and clicking everything in sight.  When I sat down in these sessions I was happy that at least I had a little knowledge under my belt already to get me started.  However, the presenters either blasted forward like charging buffalo or hesitatingly rambled along like amiable armadillos.  In either scenario, I was left wondering what they were talking about.  

It didn't help that on the first day, all of the Internet action generated by participants so completely overwhelmed the lines that half of us couldn't even get online and even those who could get on, had to wait many minutes for each site to load.  In one session, not even the presenter could connect.  The tech team must have worked through the night to remedy the situation, because the next day our connectivity was much better.  

By far, the absolute best part of the whole two days was sitting in the auditorium and listening to keynote speaker Richard DeVaul on the second day.  He's a lead in the Google think tank that dreams up new outside-the-box ideas.  The man is amazing and I never thought that I would have the opportunity to listen to one of our present day visionaries.  Here is a link to one of his videos:  

 https://www.solveforx.com/about/whatisamoonshot/

He also talked about his own vision that's actually coming to pass about getting everyone on the planet able to connect on the Internet through the use of balloons in the stratosphere.  If you're interested,  Google up Project Loon.  

So, even if I gained nothing technical from the two days (and I did come back with a few more tools in my teacher tool belt), I was inspired beyond imagining.  And I plan to send this inspiration onward to my students in the fall.  The Google Summit was worth attending just for that.

Here is the front of the auditorium of the Sequoia High School where the Summit took place.  Note the owls -- the one on the left looks quite regal in his crown.  Sue and I sat on the steps and ate our box lunches under their baleful stares.

Today was my first day alone at home in what seems like ages.  I took pleasure in doing things like cleaning the fish tanks, hanging out laundry, repotting a plant, hosing off the front of the barn and weeding the raised bed by the house.  I've missed this place and there's a lot for me to catch up on.  

 

A Very Google Weekend

After four weeks of early rising for my Summer Institute sessions, I had to set my alarm for 4:30 in order to leave the house by 5:00 for my Google for Educators Conference today.  Not surprisingly, getting up at dawn was a bit difficult this morning, but I made it out the door and over to Sue's house in Escalon by 6:00.  I parked my car there and she zipped us over to the Bay Area where we joined about 800 other educators at the conference held at a very large high school.



I came home this evening with lots of Google swag -- a tote bag, t-shirt, plastic cup, pen, stickers and a Google lanyard.  Sadly, though, I didn't come home with as many new skills on how to use Google apps as I'd hoped and neither Sue nor myself won any of the door prizes.  Still, it was nice spending the day with Sue.  And we did come away with a few more pieces to the puzzle that is technology.





And now, I'm off to bed so that I can haul my bones out of bed tomorrow morning.  I'll tell you what, though -- come Monday morning, this teacher's sleeping in!

A Frogpond Friday

First Tomatoes

I now hold in my hand my certificate stating that I'm a Teacher Consultant for the California Writing Project.  I'm happy I stuck with it and faced my demons -- I look forward to bringing what I've learned into my classroom.

When I got home this afternoon, I lay down for a little while and Bruce went outside to water the orchard garden.  About 20 minutes later I got a message from him saying that he smelled smoke and would I check the Cal-Fire website to see if their was a fire nearby.  I did this and then went outside to tell him that no fires were reported in the area.  As I was heading back to the house, Corny began banging on the gate of his pen with his big hoof, demanding to be fed.  When I went to the barn to get a flake of hay, I heard a loud buzzing coming from one corner.  I rushed out again, yelling, "Snake! Snake!" to Bruce.  He came hurrying up and found my little rattlesnake friend.

He caught it in the snake tongs and lowered it in a lard bucket.  This as one angry snake -- his tail rattled and shook non-stop.  Bruce took it up to the same stone wall that he deposited the small snake we found in the garden about a month ago. I stayed home this time, but he told me that this snake coiled up on a rock on the wall and furiously shook his tail the whole time.  When Bruce left, the snake was still rattling.

Later, I found both geese at the front door, poised to come right on inside.

All of this happened in the first two hours I was home:  just another summer day at Frogpond.

Almost Over

Second to last day of the Institute -- our marching orders were to write and write and write all day as we wandered through the old part of the city of Livermore.  This isn't exactly what we ended up doing (at least not the small group I was with).  We walked a bit and then drank coffee in a cafe and then visited a thrift shop or two or three and talked nonstop.  It was fun, though.  It ended up being more of a social/bonding time than a writing time.

Tomorrow is our last day of the Institute.  Sue, my teaching partner, will be coming to our celebration BBQ at noon -- I'm happy about that.  It's been such an emotional, intense four weeks.  I'm looking forward to some down time after all of this, but am glad that I had my feet held to the fire.  There also are several people in the group who really touched my heart.  I hope like crazy to keep this bond with them.  It's not every day that you meet kindred spirits.

Tomorrow we'll all be wearing our light blue Great Valley Writing Project polo shirts for a group picture together.

Saturday and Sunday I'll be attending a Google conference in the Bay Area with Sue.  Monday, I'll be home at last.

When did I get to be such a busy person?

Red Hills

On Sunday, Bruce and I took an afternoon drive to Red Hills.  It's only about 45 minutes from Frogpond, but I'd never been there.  It's not exactly a state park, but it's a protected area.  This trip we only drove and stopped here and there to take pictures.  There are trails going through, though, and next time we'll do some walking.  Bruce (who's been here before) said that the hills are full of wildflowers in the springtime.

This old barn and windmill against golden hills embody the essence of the old ranches of California.  

The holes in this old fence post were drilled by acorn woodpeckers.  Look closely and you can see the acorns that they stashed away for later.  The fences on both sides of the road were held up by these wooden posts -- and every one of them was being used as an acorn cupboard.

It was good to get away, if only for a little while and not even that far from home.  Actually, it felt like I'd gone on quite a journey.  Sometimes it doesn't take much!

There are only 3 days of the Summer Institute left.  I'm finally pulling all of the pieces together and this is turning into the affirming experience I'd heard (and was praying) it would be.  It just took longer getting there than I thought.  Another sort of journey...

"Carrat"

I pulled an interesting carrot from the garden this afternoon and brought it in to Bruce to ask him what it looked like.  He said, "It looks like a rodent."

I have to agree.

Cooler Days and Battles with My Inner Critic

The heat wave finally broke -- today was 15 degrees cooler than yesterday.  It's like every living thing outside breathed a sigh of relief.  The forecast is for temperatures in the low to mid 90's through next week.  I'm hoping like crazy that the temperatures stay like this for the remainder of the summer.


I have been so busy with my work at the Writing Institute that I've neglected things around Frogpond.  This afternoon Bruce and I took a slow walk around the pond and I enjoyed paying attention to what was going on around here.  I also realized that I have a lot of work to catch up on.

These pictures are of the area by the pond where water flows from the pipe connected to the solar-powered well.  The willows are rampant because I haven't had time to prune them. The flowers look happy though.

We went into the Dodge Ford (edit: Damn!  Stoopid monosyllabic words with an "o" as the second letter)  dealership in Escalon this morning and signed the paperwork to order a truck.  The old Jeep is ready to fall apart and we've needed a vehicle for hauling stuff for a long time.  We were able to get quite a deal on one and it should be here in about 6 weeks.

Other than that, we've been sticking close to home.  I've been working on writing the pieces that will be in the Institute publication.  The goal is to have five finished ones but I'll be happy if I get three ready by Monday when they're due.  I've reached that awful place where I'm unhappy with every piece of writing I've produced that I'm almost paralyzed by it.  This is a common enough phenomenon that it has a name -- yes, it's my "inner critic" that's been bashing me about for the past three weeks.  All I can say is that if I ever catch this inner critic dude, I'm going to wrap my fingers around its skinny neck and... Luckily, both Mama and Bruce are helping me with the editing of my pieces and have done a lot to calm me down about all of this.  Cousin Anke, from far away Germany, has also helped just by writing several comforting, sensible emails. It helped.

I never expected that participating in this institute would create such an inner storm of self-doubt and failure.   I truly have learned a lot and know that profound change and growth can be painful.  If I went back in time and could make the choice again to do this, I'd sign up.  That said, I'll be glad when this emotional turbulence has died down.

I've missed the freedom of writing in this blog and look forward to getting back to it.  Next week is the last week of the institute and things will be winding down.  Our writing pieces will be mailed to the secretary by Monday and she'll print and bind the books.  On Tuesday, our matching Great Valley Writing Project polo shirts (light blue, I believe).  Wednesday is picture day.  We'll also have various presenters sprinkled in on these days.  Thursday, all of us will be participating in a day-long writing marathon -- in small groups we'll wander about the campus and write for ten minute stretches in various locations.  Then we'll read what we've got to group members and set off to write in another place.  This should be an interesting day for my inner critic.  Friday is the last day  that will end with a barbeque in the afternoon.  And that will be it.

However, did I mention that early last spring (in a moment of ultimate optimism) I signed up to take a Google technology class in the Bay Area?  It starts the very next day; on Saturday.  My inner critic has let me know that this was a stupid thing to do.  In this one thing, I must agree.

The Heat Continues

The days are still hot, but it doesn't look like the temperatures are going to climb up to 112 degrees as previously predicted.  I'm grateful for "only" 107!

Every day after class I come home to begin watering.  It's the hottest part of the day and I want to get the entire garden at once, but that's not possible.  So I put the sprinkler on whatever section looks the droopiest and start there.  The garden is pretty stressed by all the heat, but most of the plants are hanging in there so far.

The pond is looking dismal, though.  I expect it to completely dry out this year and that's always such a sad thing.  I'm already crossing my fingers for lots of rain this coming winter.

The morning of a hot day to come

I took my coffee cup outside this morning and went around and took some pictures.  This is what the place looks like in the early morning of a very hot day to come.

I'm starting week three of the Writing Institute (and feeling pretty good, I might add) and won't be home until after four this afternoon.  The latest weather report says that we're supposed to reach 110 degrees today -- and tomorrow too.  Heaven help us.