Fall Break

The past week we were free from school. Well, not totally. I spent many hours grading a huge pile of tests. It was nice to spread out the work though, so my weekdays are a bit more peaceful. 

I did the grading while we were at Naomi’s mom’s house. She was doing much better than she sounded on the phone, so that was nice to see. More test results this coming week, so we shall see how those turn out. 

Last night we had our first and possibly last guest stay with us from Airbnb. She was a great guest, and we enjoyed the time we spent together, but it still felt like an intrusion. I have made lots of progress on the chest though and even wrote a bit more of my novel. I figured it might be fun to stick a little excerpt in this blog from time to time, so here is something I just wrote:

Souleymane awoke with a start as an unusually colorful dream escaped from the grasp of his mind like a handful of sand slipping though fingers. The bright magentas, neon greens, and midnight blues wafted away though the desert air. The tapping on his shoulder that had awakened him continued, but before his eyes alighted on the nearby face, he noticed everything had grown darker and quieter. The mosque was dark and sealed tightly. Sounds of the city had all but disappeared. 

His eyes didn’t have to wander up very far to see the child standing at his side. The boy was only a head higher than Souleymane in his slumped, seated position. He pulled lightly on Souleymane’s shirt sleeve and repeated a few words in a whisper that Souleymane could not understand. Soon he did make out the French word manger, eat, and quickly realized that sleep had come before dinner. His stomach gave a slight rumble of approval as he chose to follow the boy through the sandy streets of the sleeping city. 

Before long, the crisp night air sharpened Souleymane’s senses and as he followed in silence his mind began to wonder where this angelic little boy had come from, why he wasn’t asleep like everyone else, and who would offer a meal to a stranger so late at night. The whole situation felt rather other-worldly, but perhaps pieces of his dream still lingered more closely than he imagined...

The Last Week

This was the last week of school before our week-long fall vacation. The students were much more normal than they used to be at PRO. I gave them all tests, so this means I gave myself a ton of work to do over the break. Oh well. We aren't going anywhere special this year, so I might as well spread out the work load to make the school days restful.

The Maple Chest is coming along nicely. I got the guts installed this week - the dividers and the bottom. Today I hope to put some trim around the top and possibly start on the railing or seats. Tonight we will head to the East Side to spend time with Naomi's mom. She is quite sick.

Yesterday we spent the day in Amsterdam, Naomi visited some college friends and then we saw the progress at her dad's place. He has not been motivated to fix it up, but some things have improved in the past year and a half. Hopefully he will be more or less finished by Christmas when my family visits.

The night before we had two of my colleagues over for dinner and a movie. We watched The Emperor's New Clothes, historical fiction about the true nature of Napoleon's exile. It was clever and the story was good, but a bit on the slow side. Hopefully next month we get more people to come.

Assembly

Yesterday I finally put together the skeleton of the chest. As always, it took a lot more time and effort to get to this point than I imagined. Now it is nice because I can just make and add things piece by piece, but the living room space is further diminished. Yesterday I worked a lot on it and we also took a nice walk to see a house that we really like. Today the rain is relentless and doesn't feel like it will ever stop. Hopefully it will let up after lunch...

This week at school was quite relaxed. My two most difficult classes were in Bath so I had a light schedule. This coming week will be full of reviews, tests and other busyness. I will give myself a huge pile of grading to do over the fall break. Also, my intern is not doing so well, so myself and the other supervising teacher will need to sit down and discuss things with him.

We had one of my Social Studies colleagues over for dinner and an episode of John Adams on Tuesday and we had a really nice time. Hopefully we will get to spend more time with him. This Friday will be our first Movie Club of the year, so I also hope that this goes better than it did last year. The crowd at this new school seems much more up for it, so I am optimistic. We will be watching The Emperor's New Clothes. Probably good that it is raining so much today because I really could use a day of rest...

As the chest takes shape our Living Room shrinks...

Carpentry Week

Even though I had a bit of a heavy week at school, I managed to scoot home whenever possible to get outside and build. The salvaged Canadian Maple floor we picked up is proving to be an excellent material, it even smells faintly of maple syrup. I wish I could say the same for my tools and workspace (totally weather-dependent). The tools were bought with one thing in mind - the budget. Needless to say, some are doing their job properly, and others not so much. Tools, wood, and sawdust have been flowing in and out of the living room like a daily tide, enveloping our living room in chaos.

Yesterday was spent wrestling the mess into some semblance of order, though keeping the sawdust outside seems nearly impossible without an air compressor - another tool on the list. I buy most things through Marktplaats, a Dutch combination of Ebay and Craigslist - I think it is a big improvement on both. But I digress. The point is that the chest/bench for the hallway is progressing nicely, I am getting a suntan in October (last year we had forgotten what the sun looked like), and we haven't used the TV much.

School is also humming along. The new colleagues are nice. We are setting up some social engagements and such. Kids are great - although a surprising number are changing answers on their quizzes/tests after I had them back and asking for a recount. Good thing I make scans before I hand them back.

This coming week a group of my students (the most difficult ones) will be in Bath, England. This is said to be one of the best out of many trips that our students take so I hope they enjoy it. My teaching load appears to be less this week so that is a bonus for the carpentry if this beautiful weather holds!