It's Not Nice to Blame the Homeless Guy

We make fun of my husband a lot in this house. He has a quirky way of thinking that only family gets, not sure how well he translates though.

But I'll give it a shot.

I asked the group of dog walkers at our local park how to keep the feral cats from pooping in our yard. They all agreed that there's no magic product out on the market, but most people think that CD's in the yard are helpful.

I was so fucking confused I did not even know how to ask my next question...

Like, aaahhh, what kind of music are you talking about that scares away stray cats and keeps them from pooping in the yard?

It was then explained to me that you just PUT the CD's out there, propped up, so the shiny side reflects out. It supposedly scares the cats away. Apparently my neighbors have not seen these cats up close.

Yeah. Right. Kooky people. I didn't give it a second thought for weeks.

Then, this morning while I was running BC at 5:45 before work, there was a stack of CD's next to the trash can. So I figured, WTF? Why not give it a shot? It couldn't be worse than all that stray shit the cats lay on the lawn and don't even bother to bury. I set the CD's up while I watered the yard before work.

Flash forward 12 hours later and Daughter and I are riding home from work (me) and college (her). Hubs calls all freaked the shit out because he found a weird layout of CD's propped up in our yard. Then he adds that he saw a stack of CD's at the park by the trash can. So the way he puts 2 and 2 together, a homeless guy took the CD's from the park, jumped the fence into our yard, and set up a little weirdo mirror action to the sun.

Daughter was laughing so hard she she was wiping tears.

I asked my husband if he has EVER seen a homeless person up around the boonies of the valley we live in.

Well, no, but what else could it have been?

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I had intended this post to be a Random Tuesday, but that first diddie is long enough to fly solo.

How's this? I have figured out that all the cool stuff in my sidebar is at the bottom of the page. HOWEVER. On the design page of blogger, the layout is same as always (sidebar, not 10 feet under in hell).

Anyone know how to fix this? I hate dicking around with this kind of stuff.

For real Randoms, head on over to Keeley's at the Unmom's.

Ah Eddie, You're the Greatest!

I'm getting roasted at Eddie's at Clouds and Silvery Linings this weekend. Come on over and bring some marshmallows.

BTW. Is it just my computer, or is all the good stuff in my sidebar not showing up? Effing blogger.

Let Me Read a Road Again Someday...

I love a road trip.

Growing up, we spent our first vacations at Carpenteria beach. I have lots of wonderful memories from those vacations. Rubber rafts and wave riding, the smell of Coppertone, liverwurst sandwiches on white bread with mustard, lots of mayo, and a little bit of sand, nightly bonfires with marshmallow roasting...

When we moved to the mobile park on the beach, taking vacations at another beach must have seemed redundant to my parents. Not sure how and when the wandering spirit took over for them, but starting the summer after 6th grade, our vacations became road trips. A little bit of camping, a bit of motels as well. We always started going straight up from LA along the coast and spent a few days in the Redwoods. After that we saw most of the Western United States over the next few summers.

It got to the center of my soul and after years of living on an island, one thing I miss the most is hitting the road.

A good friend of mine who moved here from the Seattle area and taught with me for several years moved back to the Northwest a couple of years ago. She sent me a viral email with the photos I put in this post. I am not usually fond of those forwarded emails, but this one, well. Take a look for yourself.

Which of these roads would any of you like to hit first?

Someday, after getting kids through college and elderly parent into assisted living... after recovering from illness and medical bills and furloughed paychecks... one of these days I am going to use my summers appropriately. I hope to hit the road. Nearly any road will do, but one of these would be amazing.

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Got a road trip to share? Any posts about how to feel like your on vacation even when you hang out around your own home turf? Link on up...

"The World is a book, and those who do not travel read only a page." ~St. Augustine

Damn It!

I’ve been teaching for awhile, 12 years full time teaching, six years part time before that.

I was at my last school ten years. Not meaning to sound cocky, but I kind of had it down. The systems within the school that is. The kids, the day to day stuff, it’s different everyday and that’s what keeps it interesting.

So, here I am at a new job in a different district. Trying to stay on top of things. However, somehow, things seemed to get the better of me last week. Nothing big, but a whole lot of little.

Like on Monday, while I was at a workshop, some kid grabbed a pair of scissors and cut the power cord to my ELMO. The sub had no idea who it was.

Then, a couple days later, while lined up outside my room to go to an assembly, one of my students spit over the rail at the kids down below. I was locking my door and didn’t see it happen. But she almost spit on an admin. Who told me about it. I thought I was doing well just to line them up this time. The first assembly I just released them to walk down because that is what we do in high school. I got schooled for that as well.

Then there was the email that I forgot to do my yard duty. Yard duty. Not something that has ever come up in my career before – a thing I thought ended at the elementary level. The memo about yard duty assignments was in my opening documents folder (there are like 40 gabillion memos and protocols there). I brought the whole kit and kaboodle home for a reread this weekend.

I have pass codes for programs. I think there are like six pass codes. I keep getting them mixed up.

Then, the clincher. The students were supposed to take a school wide computer based test and all I had to do was charge up my laptop cart. Which I did. Plugged both plugs in.

However, when I passed the laptops out to my class, with the help of the Vice Principal who was assisting me, the students all started complaining, “Miss!! My laptop is about to die. It’s almost out of battery.”

Fuck me.

The Vice Principal told me that we would have my students take the test on Monday.

Meanwhile, a techie type kid finds a switch on the side of the cart that can turn off the whole system. Apparently some ADHD dodohead kid flipped it. I never even knew the switch was there in the first place so the chances of my checking it were pretty much nill.

That afternoon at the faculty meeting, the data collection part, it was mentioned that the data for the first test would have to wait as one teacher did not get her kids tested.....

I worked this whole weekend. I’m coming in tomorrow wide eyed and ready for them. Interesting is one thing; looking and feeling like the village idiot is quite something else.

Traveling Memory Lane

Partly because I don't have a camera...

Mostly because I have been busy working...

and taking the bus to work because I sold my car this summer....

I thought I'd post a Random Tuesday on Wednesday, but hell, might as well get Thursday up.




It might seem like this blogger is asleep at the wheel...


But the truth is she's trying to hang in there.

Hope to travel with you all though. Any Blogher travels? Summer vacations or staycations?

Link on up...

Red, red wine....

Cheers!

Blogging has not been making it to the top of the to do list lately.

New job is going well, but keeping me over busy.

Situation with elderly mom is resolving, but has caused many a stress induced migraine of late.

Hope to be around reading and visiting blogs this week or at least this weekend.

Today's travel tip? Sometimes staying home and pouring a nice beverage is all it takes.

Link on up!

Traveling Thursday: Makapu'u Beach

Last week we went to the tide pools at Makapu'u. If you can make out that lighthouse in the background, the tide pools are around the other side of those cliffs (click on the photo to enlarge).

This is Makapu'u Beach. It's a beautiful beach on the south shore of Oahu. Great for body boarding; on a big day it's not for beginners, this day it was mild enough for a middle ager. My kids took me here the day before the hike.

Back at work this week and busier than all hell. The kids are great. Middle schoolers smile a lot more than the high school kids. We're having a lot of fun getting to know each other.

Link on up with a travel post and make my day!

Spin Cycle: Old Wives' Tales

Jen's assignment this week is "old wives tales."

My hubs and I come from very different backgrounds, so we have an eclectic mixed bags of superstitions from our childhoods.

My dad's family came from Texas and they were practical people and I don't remember dad or his family passing any on to me.

From my mom there were certain "rules" that fit into the "tales" category.

• Never open an umbrella in the house.
• Never use the last match (my mom smoked the whole time I grew up and match books with only one match left could be found all over the house).
• Don't walk under a ladder, it's bad luck.
  
• Knock on wood when you say something that might tempt fate.

Hubs was raised by his maternal grandmother, who was from the Philippines, and she came to live with us when we bought a home. Her rules and superstitions have more clout than my mom's if your asking me.

• Never clip your toenails or fingernails at night (they carry your code and if the night spirits get them they can work the devil on you). When our daughter was a baby I was sitting there with the teeny, tiny nail clippers one evening trimming her cute little toes. Hubs walked in and screamed at me, "WHAT ARE YOU DOING! It's dark out, stop clipping her nails!" I was all like, what the fuck?? Has he been drinking? When he explained to me why, I could not decide whether to laugh or be a little freaked out at what I had gotten into in this marriage. Then I remembered that to this day I do not open an umbrella in the house.
• One should not celebrate birthdays ahead of time. It could cause extreme bad luck and tempt fate to make sure that one does not make it through the next couple of days to said birthday.

As an adult, I kind of get the ladder and the umbrella. Ladders have a little shelf and might have something on that shelf that a kid could knock over and spill, like paint for instance.

Opening an umbrella in close quarters could knock over just about anything.

The nail clippings superstition still kind of creeps me out though. The idea of little spirit trolls lurking around my house for discarded bits of DNA....

For more spins on Old Wives Tales, head on over to Sprite's Keeper. Jen puts the list up on Friday.