My morning commute

It's brutal. The traffic, man.

That car is too close. Sheesh.

Sunrise over the pastures, brutally ugly.

The horrific development of the county is changing the face of everything. Such a shame.

Sunlight dancing over the hay rolls, an assault on the eyes. I try not to look.

Dew on the rolling hills, sun rising over the tree stands. It makes the commute interminable.

I go through this every day!

My drive home

Come along with me on my drive home from school. It is 6 miles, down one road, and passes many beautiful sights.

It's rural here, and the pastures in any season are gorgeous. Right now it is still in the low 80s and the overnight temps are in the low 60s. There has been little rain, though, and the fields are brown. Pardon the dimness of the photos, I took them while driving at speed through tinted dark glass... Oh well.

Leaving school, the skies are blue-blue-blue with gorgeous puffy clouds.

I whizz past pastures with occasional barn.

 

There's one of our County school buses. Hello Driver!

Poor barn! Poor shed! Needs repair...

Chicken barns! Agribusiness dominates the local economy, with poultry production particularly important. Farm gate is over 300 million for this small county. Horses are also raised here.

Approaching Gholston's Stand, so named (the oral tradition goes) because of a skirmish between county settlers the Gholstons and their neighbors, and the local Creek Indians, in the 1700s. Read about the tale here. Still loving those clouds.

The traffic is a killer.

A large, fine home. With a fantastic rock wall.

A nearby farmstead. Getting close now.

One of the other county schools. I live close by. I hear the opening and dismissing bell, the busses crank up, and the children at recess.

There's Ralph's Farm Stand. Hi Ralph!

A church on every corner. Literally. There are two other churches within stone's throw.  Both are mine, we own two buildings. This one is sad...hardly anyone goes.

My street. Man, I really need to clean my windshield.

The shed on the property. And the small herd of sheep. Hello sheep!

I'm home. 6 miles, 10 minutes, from a great apartment to a great school and pretty all the way. Life is good!

Morning commute

My morning commute is only 10 minutes. It's a straight shot up one road and then I veer off a bit to the school road. I go by pastures and a few homes and trees and ponds and cows. I love the moon in the  morning and the when I pass the open fields I can see it very well as it sets.

This time of year, the drive starts out dark. (7:00 AM)

The hay is in!

I think about what's ahead. Usually I think about all I have to do and the little time I have to do it in. But I try to focus on the kids as I drive. I think about the funny things they say and do. For example, I overheard this yesterday:

When the day begins at school, kids enter the building and some go to the cafeteria for breakfast and some go to the gym and wait for the first bell. When the bell rings, there is a lot of traffic in and out of the gym.

The kids don't naturally align themselves into the proper traffic pattern of entering or exiting on the right side and the left side. This year we put little P.E. cones on the floor to direct them in, and out. Otherwise a lot of kindergarteners get bumped into by fifth graders trotting off to breakfast. However, some kids still cut the last cone going in and go across the threshold in the wrong direction.

There is a decorative cone-shaped neck-high plastic tree in the hall. I took it and put it in the spot where the kids tend to cut across.

Two of the fifth-graders came out of the gym. They spotted the tree.

The girl said, "That's a nice touch!"
The boy said, "I think it's going overboard."

LOL!

The day brightens fast around here. I took this picture while driving, putting up the camera, and aimlessly shooting the road ahead as I went tootling down the highway. I'd stop, but as you can see, there is no shoulder.

Today a kindergarten boy cracked me up. He's all boy, plain spoken, down to earth, loves his four-wheeler and says what's on his mind. I love him.

He had to choose 6 books for his book basket. He wanted books about puppies and snakes. We looked through all the puppy and snake baskets and he found five books he was interested in. We went through every other basket but nothing else appealed. We started to go through the baskets a second time.

Pink sky, moon set, cows wake up. (The blobs are cows)

I was started to get a little desperate. I had other kids to work with and he was taking a lot of time...and he was starting to lose his focus. I held up a book I knew other kids enjoyed, it was hilarious. But the cover featured a granny looking women scrubbing the floor. I said "Hey! This one's funny! You will like it!" he looked profoundly skeptical. I opened to the hilarious page, and showed it. "Look, she hung the Meanies on the line."

Glanced at the page, looked at me, waited a second, shrugged and said, "I ain't laughin'".

He had a point. Okey dokey then. Back to the book search!

I love morning ground fog.

It's full day when I arrive. There are a few cars lined up by the front door with puffs of air coming out the tailpipe, these are parents in idling cars with kids waiting for the opening bell so the kids can exit the car and enter their school day. I walk across the parking lot and think about all the important things I have to do. And those are: for the 2000th time, listen to the story of how the tooth fell out, ask how old they are when they tell me "It's my birthday!", say "Yes!" when asked "Do you like my dress/shirt/hair? And all in all, love on some kids.

The day has begun.