What I did on my winter break...

Well, aside from spending most of December in Austin...

And just a side note on that--the battery in my car died at my son's bank.  As soon as I raised the hood, though, some knight in a clunky old truck pulled up next to us and jump started the car so we could go buy a new battery.  I mean it was that fast.  We weren't stranded at all...but the new battery put a dent in my finances.  At least I didn't have to call a tow truck!

I spent most of the break reading and updating my Moodle courses.  I began my reading odyssey with An Instance of the Fingerpost by Ian Pears.  I've had this book forever, and, when I went looking for something absorbing, I rediscovered it.  Not an awful book.  It tells the same story from four points of view.  I'd classify it as an historical mystery.

Then my son and I indulged in a Terry Pratchett marathon.  I read Wyrd Sisters, Witches Abroad, Hogfather, The Color of Magic, The Light Fantastic...I don't think I've left anything out.  I can't tell you everything he read, but we kept swapping books.  My son clued me in to Pratchett, so I'm doing my best to catch up.  I've read Good Omens, the book he wrote with Neil Gaiman, and passed that on to my son.  So we had fun with that.

When I came home, I started reading The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier and Clay by Michael Chabon.  I have three more of his books ordered, so I'll work my way through those during the semester.  I won't have much time to read as the semester progresses, but I'll have some time during our Easter get-together at Toledo Bend. 

I love to read and lament that, while I'm teaching, I don't have time to read much of anything except what I assign for my courses.  Still, I amass these huge piles of books for later...later usually comes during the summer or over Christmas.  Sigh...And pile on top of that my writing, and most of my "free" time is not so free!

But I'm not complaining!  As long as my eyes work, I'll read!

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The one puzzlement from the Christmas break:  I was gone from home for about 16 days.  When I came home on Jan. 2, the only mail I received was the "hold mail" card I left with the local post office, two pieces of junk mail, and my water and mortgage bills.  Conspicuously missing were my phone, car, and gas bills.  I stopped into the post office today to enquire--I kept hoping the PO would deliver the errant mail--and the guy behind the counter couldn't explain it, and he couldn't find any mail for me.  He says he'll talk to the carrier, but I wonder if I should just contact the Post Master General and file a complaint--I'm waiting until I hear back from the local PO. I get more than two pieces of junk mail a week, and my creditors ALWAYS send bills.  So to receive four pieces of mail for 16 days is odd (or suspicious).  More on this as the situation unfolds...

I hope everyone had a great break.  I did, except for the mail thing!

The Wandering Mom...

Hello from Austin, TX, one of my favorite cities in the US.  I'm fond of it, mostly, because my daughter and son live here, so I have ample opportunities to visit.  Austin has a great deal to offer the eclectic, artistic, musical person, but us regular folk can enjoy it, too.

My son had spine surgery on Dec. 8 to remove a Schwannoma, a Schwann cell tumor.  The tumor was approximately the size of a fist, and, according to his doctor, was the largest one he had seen in 17 years of surgery.  The operation took about six hours; Dan was in recovery for about two hours; he was in the hospital for about a week. 

I made a trip to Austin for his surgery, then went back home for five days, then drove back to Austin, where I've been since December 18.  My daughter went to Ireland for Christmas to visit her boyfriend's relatives, so Dan needed someone here to cook, clean, nag, and otherwise transport him around.  That job fell to me, of course, since I'm his mother.

We've had a pleasant time, really.  I've cooked and baked, washed clothes, etc., but we did go to see "Avatar."  While I loved the special effects, I thought the message was less-than-subtle, which distracted me somewhat.  But seeing it in IMAX is awesome--and made me extremely dizzy in spots!

I've baked two batches of cowboy cookies, two loaves of French bread, cooked pots of soup and spaghetti.  Right now, I'm waiting for the last dozen peanut butter cookies to bake.  I'm surprised I haven't gained 50 pounds with all the cooking I've done.

We took a trip to Book People, a nice multi-story bookstore here in Austin.  And we've made a few trips to the grocery and dollar stores.  But, mostly, we've hung out at home, watched movies, and read...we've barreled through quite a few books this Christmas.

I hope your New Year is excellent for you!  See you soon, I hope!

Random Thoughts on Summer 2009

Wow!  What a summer!  I managed to do so much--paint the walls and rip up the carpet, have bookshelves installed, teach a class...where did the time go?

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And I managed to take three trips this summer--to Houston, Austin, and Durango, CO.  I had fun with my family (color me surprised!).  I also enjoyed Dot and Pete's visit, as well as a visit from my sister, Lydia.

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Writing all of this down seems to diminish it.  All of these activities seemed more monumental while I was in the middle of them.  Funny how, when I look back, the work appears effortless, though, at the time, it wasn't to me.  I felt overwhelmed.  When I finished my tasks and returned home from my trips, I took it all in stride.  I have a house more to my liking (the outside needs work!), and I had fun in other places, too.

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It's almost time for the fall semester to begin.  I'll be teaching TWO freshman comp classes, a 105 hybrid and my 115 online.  I also have a 215 on campus and a 226 online.  This will be another semester when I'll grade papers constantly...but I've never been one to shy away from a challenge (summer proved that).

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Colorado--what can I say?  Exceeded my expectations.  I loved the weather--cool, breezy days.  And the thunderstorms were scary!  So here's a picture of what I loved about Durango (apart from my brother's family, that is):

How beautiful is that?  I took this picture while I was on the steam train to Silverton, CO, an old mining town turned tourist trap. I could fill my blog with pictures like this, but this gives you a good idea of what I saw everyday.

 

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Enough.  I've had a great summer, am almost sad that it's about to end, but I am looking forward to a new semester.  I'm going to try to enjoy the next two weeks; I don't plan to work constantly, but I do need to get my courses ready.

I hope everyone had a pleasant summer, too. 

Surprise, Surprise...

I went to Austin to visit my kids for four days.  My son performed in a show some friends of his put together, and he wrote and performed a rap song...in gold lame pants and spray-painted blue shoes!  It was fun and interesting...I got tired just watching them run around the stage.

While I was there, the temperature, with the heat index, was somewhere around 105 degrees.  My daughter doesn't like to use her air conditioner, mostly because it runs up the electric bill, but also because she's used to the heat.  My son, who shares the house, finally decided he needed an A/C for his room, so we went to Lowe's and bought one.  I'll let them work it out.  They're good at compromising with each other, and Dan is willing to pay extra to stay cool.  On my last evening, my daughter finally relented and turned on the A/C.  I think my red, sweaty face convinced her that I'd have heatstroke if she didn't cool things down!

I almost made the trip home Sunday in six hours.  Usually, I get home six hours to the minute, and that includes a gas/potty break.  But I hit the Kountry Korner store in Marquez at a late shift change and had to wait 10 minutes to buy a Coke.  That put me home about 15 or twenty minutes later than usual, but I was in the door by 5:30pm.

My inside cat greeted me with strident meows.  She followed me around all night, even climbing in bed with me, which she hardly ever does.  But I figured she would have her kittens soon, and she did--between my knees, under the coverlet on my new bed!  I slept through the whole thing.  I'm just grateful I didn't roll over on them. 

When I was in junior high school, our family dog, Lady, had her puppies in bed with me.  I slept through that, too!  I had to sleep on the sofa until she moved the babies. 

The four kittens are beautiful, and, as I hoped, one of them looks like Buddy, the tomcat who disappeared about a month ago.  So, I have a replica of him, though nothing will replace him.  My awful neighbor gave Buddy to me--the only remotely "nice" thing she's done since she moved in.  He was my "puppy cat" and followed me around.  A sweet tomcat.  I miss him.

I'll take a picture and post it as soon as things calm down. 

One thing leads to another...

The A/C guy came out yesterday with his little girl in tow. Where else but Coushatta could a repair person bring his/her child along on calls?

Some starter motor had broken on the A/C unit, so he fixed that and added freon to the unit. I had to turn the water on outside so he could flush out the line. When I went to turn the water off, I couldn't get it off. The outside faucet on the side of the house didn't have a handle, so I used pliers to turn it on and off. When I couldn't turn it off, I watered the garden until the plumber could get here. He put on a new faucet--cheap, too. My garden flooded, but I'm sure the plants were happy about it.

But now I'm broke. Only so much money to go around.

I'm packing up to go to Austin on Thursday. My son is in a production, "Faster Than The Speed of Light." He wrote a song for it, and he's in the chorus. It should be fun.

Here's a random thought: I talk more to my children on Facebook than on the phone! Isn't that odd?

A Totally Satisfying Turkey Day...

Greetings from Austin, Texas, the Music Capital of America! 

Unbeknownst to me, my daughter is no longer a strict vegetarian, so my Turkey Day wasn't all veggies.  We went to a nice gathering with tons of great food--turkey included--and chowed down.  I'm still full.

After dinner, we worked off the calories by bowling on the Wii.  It was fun, but just confirmed what a lousy bowler I am!

While my NaNoWriMo novel sits for a week or two, I have two other novels employing the same characters--one is complete, the other is about 112 pages and needs to be finished.  All are in great need of editing, so I've been working on the first two, but I also began another novel in the urban vampire genre, which is probably a bit overdone right now with Twilight and True Blood, but I have a different angle I'm working on.  I have about 11,000 + words (about 45 pages or so).  So, I keep writing or revising.  I'm getting myself in the habit of writing/editing about two hours every day--some days, I write longer than others, depending on what else I need to do.  But establishing the habit is the hard part, so that's what I'm working on--to get in the habit.

As a teacher, I have to be disciplined--those papers don't grade themselves, and I hate grading papers!  It's time-consuming.  My students often tell me that I don't need to give them the work, but, if I don't, I can't give them grades.  It's a no-brainer.  I can't grade them on personalities--that just wouldn't be fair to the shy ones.

I haven't been so disciplined with my writing--as a poet, I wrote when I had something to say, and only then.  I didn't constantly write poems, either.  But, with prose, I have to write to develop the plot and the characters--that takes more time, so I have to set aside the time to get it done.

Okay, my fingers hurt, as does my back, so I'm going to stop for now.  I've finished grading a set of essays and have been writing for about four hours--and this is supposed to be a break!  But, I guess, writers never stop writing.

Hope you've had a restful and yummy holiday.

Believe it or don't...

I actually had one day when I didn't have to grade papers!  So, what did I do?  I wrote lectures and recorded podcasts.  Sounds like fun, huh?

The day was gorgeous, and I was inside.  What was I thinking?  Today, however, is also beautiful, and I have three + sets of papers.  But, you know what?  I'm going outside for a while anyway.  The papers will wait--the grass won't.  I need to mow one more time before the cold weather comes.  I think the temp is going to 37 or something on Monday night.  Winter all ready?  That was fast.  That probably means we're in for a cold one.

I slept until 10:30am on Friday, but I didn't go to bed until 2am, so I think that's not too late.  On the weekends, I get my times screwed up, and have to adjust when Monday comes.  Next semester, though, if all goes well, I'll only be teaching on campus on Mondays and Wednesdays, and my first class doesn't begin until noon.  But that means I'll probably need to be on campus by 10am, since I can't count common hour as an office hour (which I think is stupid, but I'm not "the boss").  I'll have more time for my online classes, which, sadly, I don't this semester.  I'm usually all over them, but I've had too many other tasks that needed my attention. 

Podcasting, which I've just started doing, is fun, but requires time and energy.  The good thing is that I've got the podcasts done, and I can use them next semester for my class, since they aren't dated.  I still need to record podcasts for all of the drama sections, but those will be forthcoming.

I heard the dryer buzz, so I need to fold clothes.  I'll go out for a while, then jump right on those papers.  Sigh... Thanksgiving is right around the corner--I think a trip to Austin is in order.

I Called It...

Didn't I say this was the semester from hell? 

I was eating dinner and reading assignments on the computer Saturday night.  I chewed my food and swallowed, and then realized a cap had disappeared from a back molar.  Oh, geez.  I swallowed it.  I hope I crunched it up; the idea of that porcelain crown making its way through my body is frightening. 

So, tomorrow, I need to find a dentist--fast.

Then, I called my daughter this morning to get some information to add her and her brother as beneficiaries to my insurance policies.  I asked her how the previous week went--she's two weeks into her teacher certification program at UT Austin--and she said, rather nonchalantly, "Well, funny you should ask about that.  I was hit by a car on Thursday and couldn't go to class Friday.  But I emailed my teachers to let them know."

Wait a second--back up.  You were hit by a car, and you didn't call me? 

"Well, Mom, he was only going about five miles an hour.  I was crossing Congress [It's a huge, busy street in downtown Austin] and he came around the corner and knocked me down.  I fell on my bicycle [she was pushing it through the crosswalk, trying to get to her bus].  The bus driver called 911.  The EMTs checked me out.  Nothing broken; I'm just bruised and sore."

Enough to make a mother's heart stop.  She acted as though she was talking about a walk in the park.  She was a bit disgruntled, though, because the EMTs offered to give her a $500 ride to the hospital, but no one offered her a ride home!

If she had called me, I'd have been on the way to Austin Friday before the sun rose.  But, really, what could I have done?  Make her tea, get her ice packs, take her to the doctor. I know, she's a grown person; she can take care of herself.  But that's not what worries me--what worries me are those other people, the ones who come around corners and run into my children.  I can't stop them, and I wish I could.

Beautiful Things...

Pete, my daughter's boyfriend, made a cutting board and a trivet for me today. The trivet could be used as a small cutting board, also. I didn't mean for him to do that. All I asked him to do was trim a couple of pieces of scrap wood so I could make a trivet when I got home.

Pete installs floors for a living. From what I've seen of his work, he's a fine craftsman. He installed a Brazilian mahogany floor in my daughter's kitchen--all "reclaimed" wood--and he put down a floor in her "dollhouse" and paneled the lower walls. He also built her a plant table for the kitchen (she's helped with all of this).

As part of his job, he has to take up the old floors before he puts in the new ones, and he tries to reclaim as much wood as possible. As a result, he's stockpiled enough lumber to build a small village. Most of it would have been burned or ended up in a landfill--what a waste. He's also reclaimed tile--enough to tile the bathroom floor at Dot and Dan's house with a surplus.

Here's the cutting board, waxed and ready to go (with a great view of my son's leg!):

I have a close up, but it's kind of fuzzy and doesn't do justice to the piece. And the batteries in my camera have played out, so I'll take another close up when I get home and install fresh batteries. I'll take a picture of the trivet as soon as I wax it. The cutting board combines white oak, some Spanish wood I can't pronounce, mahogany, and purple heart wood. The trivet combines walnut and purple heart wood. I almost don't want to cut or put anything on them because they are too beautiful.

Here's another view:

You can see the purple heart wood well in this picture.

I'm hauling a stack of things home. I brought a carload with me, but I didn't think I'd have so much going back. I have some sheetrock, drywall screws, a post for the garden my sister and I are building, some large coffee sacks, and assorted scraps of wood for other projects. I also have a lampshade, some fabric, seeds and compostable trash bags that I can't seem to find anywhere else. Seems silly to drive to Austin to haul stuff back, but, when the stuff is free, and I can have a good time while I'm getting it, why not?

Home Again, Home Again...

I had a great time in Austin, but my stay there was too short! I mostly sat around watching my kids do things, ate too much great food (my daughter's an excellent cook), ran around town getting a first-hand look at how poor, creative people get what they need for less. My son traded a bicycle frame, parts, and tires for new tires for his own bike. I watched him pirate parts from that bike frame to spiff up his. He's creative and resourceful.

My kids have gardens all over their backyard. I like making a salad from greens picked straight from the garden, only getting what you need, and not having the extras turn brown and slimy in the fridge. My daughter and her boyfriend spent Saturday framing a shed for the washing machine that's in the backyard. Dorothy also rigged up an irrigation system from the washer's draining to water the plants with graywater. It's ingenious, made of pvc pipe and a soaker hose.

I went to Treasure City, a resale shop run totally by volunteers, for their Saturday Sidewalk Sale. Everything outside was 25 cents. We racked up on some good stuff. My son's girlfriend helped start the co-op, and she also works at Ecology Action in Austin. She's a contractor, and she and her roommates are renovating the house they just bought. She's an amazing person.

We also went to Tops, which is an office furniture resale warehouse. I found an excellent desk chair for $10! I'm sitting in it right now, and, I can tell you, it's more comfortable than the straight-back chair I've been using.

My cats missed me. I know this because they have been following me around the house since I got home. I hope they get used to me being here for a while. With gas prices the way they are, I don't think I'll be taking more trips soon, except for driving to and from school. But, when summer gets here, I'll be teaching online, so I won't have to leave the house. And, in the fall, I'll be teaching two online classes, so I'll only be going in two days a week. I'm looking forward to not driving so much.

But, I'm home, and life is good, until I have to pay my taxes!

A Beautiful Day in the Neighborhood...

Windy and slightly cool, one of those nice, early autumn days.

We're about to take off for the Maker's Fair, a huge event hosted by the editors of Make magazine and Craft Magazine. If you've never seen Make, you should take a look at it. You can buy it on newsstands, or you can go to their website (I don't have the exact URL, but you can Google it).

When I arrived in Austin on Thursday, the temperature reached around 91 degrees. But, from Thursday night on, it's been really cool at night, with temps around 60 and daytime highs have hovered in the eighties. I spent most of my time in the car yesterday, which I hate. The worst thing about Austin is that you practically have to drive everywhere and the traffic is horrendous any time of the day or night.

We ate at Mars restaurant last night--that's where my daughter works--and the food was good. We ate out on the deck and it was so dark that I really couldn't see my food, but that didn't stop me from eating it--a Mongolian chicken stir fry. I get tired of the "organic" thing while I'm here, but I certainly eat better than I do at home.

We plan on cooking tonight. Since both of my kids cook for a living, I always eat well here.

I may add more later, but, right now, I'm just waiting for Dot and Pete to get back from the bank/coffee shop. Hope you are enjoying your fall break, too. More later.