The High, the Low, and the Undecided

The High:
This week in one day I experienced one of the great joys of teaching. A student who was reluctant to take chances in an adventure-learning class. Something happened in the last ten days and all of a sudden, this young lady started to take risks. Here she is jumping off the pamper pole last Friday. I just doesn't get any better than that as a teacher. That's the high.

The Low:
The same day that a student made a great leap forward, I found out that a colleague of mine is struggling. He seems to have lost his ability to solve problems. I don't know how well this has been going on, perhaps this is not new. None-the-less all is not well. I worry that this man may go the way of Brad Randall, another former colleague who suffered from depression and ended up taking his own life.

The Uncertain:
Yesterday I also learned that I will have a new boss next year. I don't know what this means. Will we have a vision as a community, or will it be sameo, sameo. I am sorry that my colleague Becky Farber has to end a great teaching career being shown the door. The guess is that the job was offered to someone outside, and that is why it has taken the school so long to make a decision. The speculation is that we were turned down and that the current choice was the number two man, but who really knows. It doesn't matter. What matters is that there is a new man on campus.

May is here...

Finally, life is beginning to slow down a bit. This week my class at the U. ends, and baseball ends on Saturday. It is nice to have time to attend to school work a bit more.

The kids are taking finals and they are beginning to wind down.

The weather is the only part that doesn't seem like it is nearing the end of the year. Today it was rainy and 49° at baseball practice. Not so nice.

Better times are coming...

70° and Sunny....

The sun made a personal appearance this afternoon, much to the delight of everyone in the Twin Cities. This was a nice ending to a pretty good weekend.

This week promises to be interesting on a number of fronts. My son should find out which college he will be attending and my father has his last week of work, not by his choosing. It sort of odd that the synchronicity of one man starting out as another man is being shown the door. Hmmm....I love you Dad. I am sorry that fifty years of preaching ends this way...

Another step on the Adios Tour - LuAnn Wagener

I had my first difficult day at work. With the sun, we were very busy, and one of my co-workers interrupted my work to get his stuff done. I need to process this event with him at a later date. It wasn't done well.

My loving wife is getting over a terrible cold. She has been shut down with bad headaches the last few days. I hope her recovery continues to move forward. I am sure that good weather helped a bit...

Ten Thousand Hawks and No Camera....Whose in Charge Here?

This morning we had our interview and tour at OWU. Great school. Perfect for me, probably a number three draft choice for my son.

We drove for a kazillion hours and arrived here in Galesburg, Illinois. Dinner at the House of Pizza and dessert next door at Kadij's (or something) with the beautiful baristas.

Unfortunately, I forgot to recharge the camera, so we don't have pictures of the ten thousand miles of vacant corn fields that we passed. We did see a few amusing signs, "Jesus is Real" and "Where will you spend eternity?" There were also lots of signs from the "Guns Save Lives.com" folks.

The highlight of the day, other than getting here without hitting anyone (sorry to the guy in the green Land Rover - "Didn't see ya dude") or without getting hit by anyone (a shout out to the four old ladies in the huge blue car in the McDonalds parking lot who just about drilled us) was seeing lots of birds of prey. Unlike yesterday's vultures, more of these seemed to be hawks. Too bad the camera was out for the day.

Time to shower and work or sleep... More later...

Too Many 18 Wheelers...

It is late. I am tired. Here are the shots from today.

What is Happening to the Yankees?

Normally I take great joy in rooting against the Yankees. They have represented big money, spending tons to lure free agents to New York. I find the idea of trying to buy championships distasteful. However, it would appear the Yankees are headed in a new direction. This winter they didn't dive in with both feet to scoop up Johann Santana, which is an unusaul sign of restraint. Then this past week the Yankees ventured down to Virginia Tech to pay tribute to the people who died last year's school shooting and to play a baseball game. An editorial in today's New York Times sport's section cites the Yankees as demonstrating "class". I would have to agree.

I hope the Yankees continue to demonstrate some fiscal restraint. They could still dominate baseball by developing a world-class player development farm system, but I don't know if they are hard wired to be that patient. We shall see.

Tip of the cap to the men in the pinstripes.

Saturday in New York

This piece caught my attention. Eyes on the outside so that you can see through the wood. How clever. When I looked at all the other Egyptian sarcophigi I was amazed at the level of detail spent on layer after layer of wood, plaster, and stone. These people had to be very wealthy to afford that kind of attention. Was this work done with slave labor? I need to read more about Eygpt.

This coffin/sarcophigus isn't that amazing, but the eyes caught me.