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I have not wholly abandoned blogging. Eleven months have passed since my last post and a lot has happened. I am now in the thick of my second year coaching girls basketball. On top of the normal teaching responsibilities I also have a student teacher; he is a doing a great job which leaves me time to work on all kinds of projects. I am in the middle of planning a Coaches vs. Cancer game for our basketball program. While this is only a quick update, I am going to try to post a more consistent basis.
Point One: It seems that the rat community in Frontier Heights–my strange little ‘hood–has put out an APB for a missing rat. There were little rat prints on the deck this morning–I suspect this advance scout was looking for a fellow disease carrying rodent. Tonight I will capture this advance scout. Now I understand how Gargamel must have felt about Smurfs–small blue creatures must be caring some kind of disease or radioactive contamination.
Point Two: Todd you have asked and it has come true; it must be a Christmas Miracle™! Take a look–
I wonder if PETA knows about this? For those of you looking for something that, and I quote: “…is ideal for dispensing of both rat and mouse subjects…” just head over to Kent Scientific.
With the weather changing, we have been visited by one of the locals from the rodent population. Sara, being a rat person–it is her desire to own a rat and teach it to speak (sort of a like the rat whisperer or Jane Goodall for rats),–was a little leery about setting traps; she also was concerned our literally retarded dog–he had meningitis, real bad–might try to catch his tongue in a trap.* Finally it was too much for me so I set my traps with a little peanut butter last night. I thought to myself, “self, what kind of rat eats during a snow storm?” Apparently this guy:
Goodbye Rat King or Queen
While I am not a fan of killing things, it is satisfying to get rid of something that could bring harm to your family–rats, after all, were the species that transmitted the bubonic plague to humans through their proxies fleas. In fact I think that the Department of Health owes me a medal or ribbon for stemming the tide of a potential plague outbreak. In a world where everyone gets a trophy or medal simply for existing and having parents that can afford to pay for you to play sports, I do not think it is too much to ask from the DoH;)
My real point to this post, circuitously as it has turned out, was to inform Todd that I have joined the ranks of the rat catchers. While Lake Stevens rats may not measure up to China rats, you have to start somewhere.
*I was trying to get as many punctuation marks into one sentence that I could; is there an order of operations for punctuation?
Follow the link. On a side note, I had this saved as a draft for a very long time.
Last month I was shocked to see $35.54 extra on my Verizon phone bill. It seems somebody signed up for long distance and internet fax services on my number instead of their own. Instead of informing me of a change in my electronic debt, Verizon took the money out of my account. When I saw this in my register at my bank, I was very upset–in fact it made me more than ever want to cancel my useless land line. On the phone with Verizon I talk to Tony and explain that I did not authorize Verizon to increase their EFT and informed him I would appreciate a reversal of these charges that are not mine. Well, Tony said he could put a block on these charges but could not reverse the fees–I had to call the random companies that can piggyback onto anyone’s phone bill. To this I informed Tony that in the state of Washington I can contest this charge and put a stop payment on the EFT. This seems to be a silly way of dealing with this issue and it would make more sense for Verizon to resolve this issue. Tony goes and takes a leak and finds a “manager” that magically authorizes a credit to be put on my account. Fair enough, now I will not have a bill for next month.
Enter this month: Verizon charges my account while a credit that is OVER the monthly charge sits on my account. Should I be surprised? What happens when the government de facto allows a company to become a monopoly but then to offer the olive branch of competition with these crazy services that can add onto Verizon’s bill. I am resolved to cancel my land line forever and to demand my money back. Tomorrow I will waste at least 30 minutes of my life on the phone…to the phone company.
And one more thing; a company that claims to offer 21st century technology with wireless and internet connectivity cannot figure out a way to have email support for their land lines. I know there are regional rules, but can they not route emails to the operators that already deal with these issues? Pfft! Verizon will see not even a red cent from me…I will let someone else charge me money for things I marginally need.
Good summer to you all; I have been derelict in my blog writing. My apologies. Here is a quick rundown of my summer thus far:
- Summer Basketball (usually 4 days a week 10-1230)
- An AP World History summer institute
- Reading Bound Together and Harry Potter
- Saw Josh Ritter and Andrew Bird
- Trying to teach Bradie to poop on the potty
- Thinking about teaching again
- Visiting my parents in Olympia (they just moved)
- Wondering why my school district gets out so late
- Polishing my list making skills
There is a quick list; I am sure I will expound soon, but I have a letter to write to my friend first (snail mail!)
We are home! Currently Bradie, Beau, and Sara are sleeping. Here are some more pictures, enjoy.
I am small and sleeping…
Bradie is practicing her little sister technique–minus the eye-gouging…
And finally, Bradie asks, “who farted?”
The other day Sara and I were returning from a trip to a neighborhood park–not our neighborhood park, but that is a different story. As we drove down our narrow little road we saw our neighbor standing across the street with his friend–who lives on the other side of the street from us–with a bow, and get this, shooting it toward the friend’s house (presumably the target sat perched in the garage.) Lest you be worried, these boys were not uptight; they were both consuming capitalism’s idea of beer while honing their wayward aim. Before red flags start shooting up in your mind, you should know a Tony Stewart flag flapped above them, giving its approval after every breeze (should you not know who Tony Stewart is, he is a Nascar driver.) The question that now must be asked is this: if this same scenario happened in Spokane, would it change my reaction to it?
I suppose my question is dependent upon my feelings about Spokane (which, if you are wondering, are fond.) In fact, I found a blog about Spokane that I quite enjoy. While I enjoy living on the wetter side of the state, I do miss a lot about Spokane. I miss not running into people who think that somehow living in an urban environment–read:Seattle–automagically makes you an elite and people who live in the suburbs, by choice or situation, are predisposed to stupidity. The aquifer supplied water will not wash all of the blue from the collar of Spokane, no matter how strong the economic growth. Also, a rush hour commute of 30 minutes is long in Spokane but here that equals a good day. Maybe I am being a bit melancholy.
At church tonight, as an aside to the main topic, the pastor talked about asking for help and connecting with people. Specifically he described how he needed help fixing a leaky dishwasher; he found a neighbor to help and made a connection with him. He wondered why he had not talked to him before. At this moment Sara leaned over and said, “Can I shoot your bow?” While everyone was laughing at the pastors anecdote, I could not contain myself. Should there be any question, this is why I married my wife.
PS Click on the links or a kitten will die–or a puppy if you are a dog person–or a pony if you are a horse person.
Over a pound of love–no worries, this is the affectionate name for a basket of fries–and some good beer–except Josh, somehow he has been converted to…shutter…Bud Light–we welcomed Jeremy back to Rory’s last night. As always, Jeremy had a question for the night: what do you think about church membership? I will not go into the discussion that we had, but I do want to share with you something I read this morning that deals with that issue. It comes from a book called The Death of Adam: Essays on Modern Thought by Marilynne Robinson–a book that I picked up while getting my substitute notes together this morning. One of the essays is on Dietrich Bonhoeffer. Here is what she has to say about Bonhoeffer and the Church:
By “the church” Bonhoeffer means Christ in this world, not as influence or loyality but as active presence, not as one consideration or motive but as the one source and principle of life of those who constitute the church.
It seems we have a hard time creating this idea of the church in a local body because too often the focus is on influence or loyality and not the active presence of Christ in the body. Food for thought.
Wish me luck, now I must go to a district training on the newly adopted Senior Social Studies materials. It is my belief that school districts remove spoons from training rooms to cut down on missing eyes lawsuits.
