Just a few random snow days thoughts. And not just regular snow days but the rare “night before” snow days—Thursday’s called at 9:00 p.m., Friday’s at 3:00 p.m. I should start a new blog entry category called “Now why did I agree to be a teacher…?” That way when I’m about to lose it on a student, I can quickly click and remember the benefits.
Benefit #1 = Sixteen days off for Winter Break, three days of teaching, then two snow days (a.k.a. the four-day weekend).
Random Thought #1: It’s no secret that Missouri rarely makes the national news in any way that doesn’t provoke laughter. If we’re on CNN, it’s usually because somebody from Missouri wants to marry a goat, or an entire hillbilly family got arrested for turkey rustling on Christmas Eve, or parents marched on a high school in protest over the school musical department’s provocative presentation of “The Wiz.” So it was nice to read an article in the New York Times stating that “Mr. Paterson’s task force was rightly impressed with Missouri’s juvenile justice system…New York clearly needs to follow Ms. Carrión’s advice and adopt a Missouri-style system.” We’ll take what we can get.
Random Thought #2: I played a mound of Lego Star Wars on the Xbox 360 over break, but I also got into Assassin’s Creed 2. It’s easily the most beautiful game I have ever viewed, filled with amazing panoramas of Florence in the 14th century. However, much of the scenery either (1) rushes past as my character stumbles through the streets and frantically attempts to evade guards, or (2) spreads out from frighteningly exposed perches, accessed only by having my character climb hand-over-hand up windows and rails to reach the tops of the towers. (And, even worse, then I have to make him climb down!) I’m stressed and sweaty and filled with vertigo the entire time! Laugh at me if you haven’t played it, but if you have, you know what I mean.
Random Thought #3: Yes, I should have insulated my pipes better. I tried to seal the cracks in the foundation from the outside, but “50 effective” doesn’t count for much in the face of epic cold. So they froze, exploded, took out part of my basement ceiling, caused us to be without water for 24 hours, and cost me more than $700. Rough week. Now I’m starting the “Small jobs that you need to stop slacking on, Bill!” list. (Excuse in my favor = We have lived here almost eight years and it hadn’t happened before. It lulled me into laziness.)