Atmospheric River

I have never heard of this thing the meteorologists call an "atmospheric river", but it sounds like an exquisite phenomenon.  A river of clouds and rain flowing across the sky directly towards us -- what could be more wonderful?  The tiny puddle that the last rain left on the dried mud bottom of the "pond" is just about gone.  Hopefully four days of serious rain will give us back at least the serious beginnings of renewed pondage.

I've been dutifully walking my two mile route every evening.  I'm not really feeling the better for it but am determined to keep it up...at least for now.  My weight and fitness level seems to be stuck at the same level.  I've been told that I need to up my amount of exercise if I'm to lose weight, but I'm reluctant to spend more time on this than I already am.  Two miles has me walking the last bit in the dark as it is.

Tomorrow night is our school's Science Fair.  This year we tried to spread more of the duties around among the staff, but it's still a lot of work.  What really stings is that the 4th grades as a whole didn't make a very strong showing with the judges.  When I look at their projects, I must admit that they didn't deserve to.  I'm wishing I'd put more energy into checking projects and giving help and advice.  This was the year I wanted to skip Science Fair altogether so I could put all of my energy into learning the new Common Core Standards that we've been given.  With Science Fair, I just ran out of steam and hoped that somehow everything would come out alright.  I also had consciously decided that I was willing to accept our scores going down for this.  However, I've now realized that, with the amount of time and effort put into this event (not just by me, but judges, parent volunteers and other teachers), not giving it the attention it was due with my students was a mistake.  Lesson learned. There's always next year...

Anyway, tomorrow the principal arranged for a substitute to watch my class in the morning so I can get all of the ribbons filled out and placed on the projects.  In other years, this is an enjoyable task, but this time, when the majority of the ribbons for my class don't include the reds and blues of first and second place, it's not fun at all.  Tonight is our Science Night and we'll unlock the doors of the multi-purpose room at 5:00 PM to let in the excited throng of parents and students.  The 4th grade ones are going to be seeing a lot of light blue "Participant" ribbons...

Can you tell that I'm tired?  I'm also coming down with a cold and looking forward to a rainy weekend at home --  a fire in the stove, a cat or two on my lap and a good book.  I'll sit at the window, watching that atmospheric river stream by.

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3:37 AM : I just woke up to the lovely thump-thump-thump of water drops dripping merrily down the gutter pipe along the bedroom wall.  I believe the river has swept in... Oh, be joyful!