He understood the first assignment was going to be tough. Teaching in the Inner city as a student teacher gets to the heart of the matter, but this is especially true when you don't have a supervising teacher. It breaks out to be you alone seeking your own solutions unaided.
He would have no reason to suspect that there wouldn't be any teaching supplies either. As Wm. T. would say, "An impossible situation".
Yet Mr. Collins came up with a plan very quickly! He promoted a fund raising plan on the internet for his disadvantaged middle school students.
The promotion was a great success and he was able to buy some text books. Now both he and his students have a fighting chance for an education!
Week 49 began with a note of concern that later was followed up with a real hazard. First, as you can see above in the photo, it appears that beavers are beginning again to construct one of their architectural marvels.
I've known them to put on two shifts when they get really serious. If they build the dam here then it floods my basement, dock, and the general waterfront. The river is higher than normal for this season so I can't get into the river very well and redirect their energies.
Yesterday, the power was out as a result of high winds. Normally not a big deal except this time it blew over a tree onto my power line. A couple hours later when it was light, I proudly solved the problem. Pulling the pickup over to use as a platform, I cut the offending sections off with my handy little chain saw and reduced the remains to its natural state of firewood.
The day gets better! At the end of last season, I bought a generator. It had never been tested. So...I fired the bad boy up, and chou wow- a light and heat festival in my cabin. After twenty seven years the implementation of a back-up plan!
The 2017 Cruze is very quiet in fact so quiet that I didn't realize it was shutting down at traffic lights.
It also has keyless entry as long as you have the keys with you. The car is also wired to make it possible for a person to stream music through their phone while they are driving.
But there is a downside to all these technological advancements. Sometimes the bluetooth signals on a cell phone will interfere with the car's ability to restart. Last month, I found myself stranded at a gas station far from home as other folks kept pulling in and leaving. My bluetooth wasn't connected, but a lot of other ones that were coming and going that day were on. I finally was able to restart by using a remote button on the key fob.
Traveling the mountains of East Tennessee in my little Cruze has been quite a challenge this year. The car gets great gas mileage (44-46 mpg) but with the little 1.4 engine and the six speed transmission, I often find myself in the wrong gear at the wrong time. What compounds this problem is large pickup trucks that just love to bear down on you and sweep the road so to speak.
I picked up some big iron from an another era to level the playing field.
Our president was very even handed when he was asked at a press conference what he thought of the Republican candidate. "It is a very responsible job". That really says it all!
Asked again at a later date about "The Donald" the President didn't reply in kind to all the abuse he had received from this particular quarter of the political spectrum.
He simply stated, "He is unfit for the job".
If someone had asked me I probably couldn't have stopped talking about how dangerous and crude I think Mr. Trump might be as President. Reduced to one sentence would be that he an unqualified egotist who churns up hate and reacts to criticism with a hot head and thin skin. Not the qualifications necessary to lead an already great nation.
Sometime this week, a tree fell from the public landing across
the fence and was perched precariously close to the power line going into my house. Couldn't get my chainsaw started which was quite fortuitous since I'm not very good with it anyway. This event called for more skill than I could provide.
I thought, why not go to the DNR and see if they could take care of it since it was really their tree. In the past, I've always taken care of these situations myself especially when storm damage blocked my driveway. Time for a different approach.
They were very nice when I reported it and said they would take care of it. Well the next day, as I'm driving down the road, I passed a pickup truck with a state seal tattooed on its door. I turned around and went back to the landing and talked to the the guy. I showed him the tree and he said that he would handle it Sunday. It seems the state doesn't allow employees to operate a chainsaw unless there are two people present. Good safety rule I say!
I dislodged this ice chunk from my dock in an attempt to get a pail of water for my cabin. The mallard duck flew in just in time to paddle furiously to avoid being swamped. As he turned the bend, the ice was still on his tail.
You can't step in the same river twice. Heraclitus
Nature hates a vacuum. Bacon
You can't roller-skate in a buffalo herd. Miller
"He drew a circle that shut me out--
Heretic, a rebel, a thing to flout.
But Love and I had the wit to win:
We drew a circle that took him in!"
Edwin Markham
