The unreality of vacation

One of the places I enjoyed taking a vacation best was the extreme eastern edge of Maine, bordering Canada, in a town called Lubec. There, the tides rose 25 to 30 feet, all in the space of 6 hours. The rushing waters, the granite edged seacoast, the ever-present fog bank, and the remoteness, all captivated me. For some reason, the blues of the ocean seemed bluer, the green of the pine trees seemed greener, the tang of the salt air seemed tangier. Or was just that my imagination, as holiday fantasy took hold and the real world receded, even for just a week?

On the nearby island of Campobello, which is actually across the channel in New Brunswick Canada, there is a lighthouse one can visit...if only at low tide. As the tide rushes out to play among the whales in the deeper ocean, it leaves behind a temporarily exposed spit of sand attached to the lighthouse island. If you dare climb down the granite cliff on a nearly vertical rusty ladder, you can walk over the spit of sand and inhabit the lighthouse, imagining keepers and storms and swells and another era. However, if you linger there too long, you will be stuck. As the cold Atlantic tide returns, fresh from its swirl among the whales, it will fill in and cover the spit with a speed that will at first astound you and then claim you, if you are unwise. See the sign?

On summer days such as those, with clear blue sky and old cannery brightly adorning the wharf, you never imagine a harsher time. One of unforgiving Maine winters, Atlantic spray, fog, ships blindly creeping in among jagged rocks desperate for harbor. On vacation, I only see the blue skies, calm waters, and town charm. Vacation has done its job, presenting another reality, if only for a week.

Apparently I have healthy eyes

I've gotten a couple ideas for some blog essays here at The Quiet Life. I think you'll like them. I'll be writing them in these first weeks of the summer. I know for sure my life will be very quiet! Plenty of time to write.

I got new glasses frames and inside the frames are new prescription. It had been ten years since I had them checked and reading had become a little dicey as my eyes would not focus to see the words with my old glasses on or off.

The Eye Doc said I have really healthy eyes. Go figure. One problem was my glasses had slipped and I was looking out the wrong part of the bifocal. Adjusting the nose pads fixed that. My eyes have changed prescription, it's been ten years after all, he said. But nothing abnormal nor anything to indicate any disease, which I had been hypochondriac-ally imagining the worst. I was mentally in a hospice already. So, good news. He also said my right eye has an issue seriously reacting to allergies. I hadn't known that. Go figure.

I'm always happier before I go to the Doctor and I dwell in ignorant bliss. I made that remark to Tracey & said also the time I went to the X-Ray guy after I fell in school and the Doc said did you know you have a lot of arthritis in my knee and I said "NOO, sheesh". And the other lady buying glasses who was also my age burst out laughing. Sistas in infirm golden years. We had a moment.

The lenses were expensive, even after I had the nurse X out all the extras on her list with the prices next to them. No to compressed. No to progressive bifocal. No to transitional. No to everything except a Coke bottle glass fitted on there with duct tape. But the frames were free. My friend helped me pick them out. I didn't even look, I'd had enough by then. So, it will be a surprise when they come in.

Anyway, new glasses should be in next week. Just in time to read the stack of books I have on the coffee table.

Today I finished packing the classroom. My half of it anyway. My classroom is packed up tight, as are most of the rest of the classrooms in my school. The halls are filled with upturned furniture temporarily stored there while the custodian crew clean the walls and the floors in the eerily empty classrooms.

Tomorrow we have one final meeting, then a retirement picnic for the three retirees who will be leaving us, then our summer begins. Nine weeks of glorious hermitage. I even did my grocery shopping today so tomorrow all I have to do is come home and BASK.

Summer...here is a magnolia flower. They're blooming on the tree out in the front yard. White velvet with dewdrops, ahhhh.

I hope everyone had a nice Thanksgiving

It's the holiday season and then shortly it will be the New Year. 2016. Wow. I remember the 1999 Millennium panic like it was yesterday. Come to think of it, I remember Flower Power of the 1960s, Race Riots in the 1970s, high collared, ruffled prairie shirts of the 1980s, and the grunge fascination of the 1990s like they happened yesterday. The decades pile up.

Yesterday I looked in the fridge and what did I see? Withering cukes, not too tasty to me. Yet when they arrived in what is likely to be our last Bountiful Basket, I'd vowed to use them.  Since I had a package of stale Pita pockets (I buy them that way, they're usually marked down only 50 cents at my regular store) I decided to make raita.

The Pitas being stale already meant they wold become great Pita chips. All you have to do is take a Pita disk, brush or rub with olive oil, and sprinkle with flavoring, garlic salt would do, or in my case I used lemon-pepper salt. Then cut them into triangles. Pop them into a preheated 375 oven for 10 minutes or so and you have a nice chip. Watch them carefully as the done-to-burned moment comes in a flash.

Raita is a cool yogurt dip favored in Indian cuisine because of so much heat inherent in Indian dishes. Curry, Tandoori=spicy...raita is a usual accompaniment to cool the palate.

I used my plain yogurt, and splashed out the yogurt water pooling on top. It makes a thicker raita. Chop cukes small, salt, and let drain or blot. I mixed in some lemon juice, lemon-pepper salt, and the cukes. Let set for a while to let flavors blend. Here is a photo of the result-

Additionally, I made Lentil Soup, Brown Rice and Pea salad, Asian Slaw with mayo-mustard sauce for wraps, and figured out what to do with 15 tangerines from my Bountiful Basket and my BB friend who gave me hers too- I'll candy them.

Also on the docket yesterday was a promise to myself to push away from the computer and read a lot. These are my books currently on deck or in various states of progression:

The Anatomy of Evil is by Will Thomas and part of a wonderful detective series called Barker and Llewellyn. It is a series set in London in the late 1890s where Barker and his sidekick Llewellyn solve a number of crimes on the gritty but not gross streets of the city. Well written and fast paced, it occasionally features Charles Spurgeon, the Director of the newly instituted Scotland Yard, and other notables who had lived at the time.

One Minute After You Die by Erwin Lutzer is a biblical look at what the Bible has to say about heaven, not heavenly tourism where someone comes back and gushes out what they have allegedly seen while they were 'clinically dead'.

I'm in the middle of Angels Evil & Elect by C. Fred Dickason. Apparently Dickason was known for his biblical, scholarly studies on angels, and so far I find it illuminating and fascinating. Ever since I listened to a John MacArthur sermon on Revelation and he pointed out just how much the angels do (execute all the judgments, for example) I have been fascinated with these kindred creatures. Kindred in the sense that they are created by God but are not human, yet we both worship Him. The holy ones among us both, anyway.

The Nov-Dec issues is my last issue of TeaTime. A friend at work subscribed to it as a Christmas gift for me and I enjoy the magazine tremendously. I'll probably re-subscribe in February. The word search, lol...I have been placed as para-support in second grade this year in addition to being in Kindergarten. Occasionally the teacher makes a word search out of the vocabulary words, or holiday word searches for the kids to work on independently. When a student can't seem to find a word and comes over to ask me for help, it's fun. I get addicted. Apparently word searches are relaxing and soothing for kids. I find them to be so as well. I like to do the search while watching an inane show to keep my hands busy and my mind half-occupied.

Speaking of televised inanity, during this week of vacation I've watched

Today's Special: "In this super-feel-good foodie comedy, young Manhattan chef Samir rediscovers his heritage and his passion for life through the enchanting art of cooking Indian food." I wouldn't call it a comedy, but it is a nice movie.

Quartet: "At a home for retired musicians, the annual concert to celebrate Verdi's birthday is disrupted by the arrival of Jean, an eternal diva and the former wife of one of the residents." Featuring Maggie Smith, Pauline Collins, Billy Connolly, Michael Gambon...it is a visual feast, and auditory triumph, and a sweetly affecting movie.

Famous Nathan: (documentary). "A Coney Island-inspired, densely-layered visually dynamic documentary portrait of the life and times of the original Nathan's Famous, created in 1916 by filmmaker Lloyd Handwerker's grandparents, Nathan and Ida Handwerker. 30 years in the making, Famous Nathan interweaves decades-spanning archival footage, family photos and home movies, an eclectic soundtrack and never-before-heard audio from Nathan: his only interview, ever as well as compelling, intimate and hilarious interviews with the dedicated band of workers, not at all shy at offering opinions, memories and the occasional tall tale." An interesting film about a grandson's search for who his grandfather really was. He never found out, but along the way we learned of Nathan Handwerker's backstory from 1892 Poland to immigration to the US at the turn of the century, a rags to riches by the sweat of your brow kind of story that never gets old.

TV, The Man in the High Castle: an alt-history television series that depicts if WWII had been won by the Japanese and Nazis. The US is divided into threes, the left coast being the Japanese spoils, the east coast being the Nazi's, and the middle strip a neutral zone. The show is visually stunning, with an America of the 1960s that looks much the same as it actually did, until the camera pans over a payphone dial with a swastika in the middle, or a poster of the Fuhrer. The series examines oppression and freedom, and it's chilling.

Battle Creek, starring Dean Winters. I like Dean Winters. He's like Donal Logue, everywhere, great at everything, yet unknown. He is a rumpled, old fashioned detective in Battle Creek Michigan resentful of his new partner, a spiffy, technologically adept FBI agent. Fox has canceled the show already and either by the end of the 13 episode series I'll agree with their decision or mourn yet another one-season wonder cancellation like Hope Island, Terriers, Enlisted, and The Finder.

Beachfront Bargain Hunt: (HGTV) Because I like beaches, bright colors (the Hitler tv show and Battle Creek are dark, metaphorically AND literally) and also because I like being mentally critical of whiny, entitled rich people who think having only three bathrooms isn't enough and having to walk across the street to the beach is a burden. I also enjoy looking up the buyers afterwards to see if they are a) divorced yet, b) overextended already or c) renting their 'dream property' instead of living there happily ever after.

And, of course I collaged a little, napped a little, wrote a little, and got started making my Christmas gifts. Last Friday I was invited to a sumptuous dinner at a friend's church and it was relaxing and wonderful. Tomorrow I'm going on gadabout with a friend to take photos of the scenic places in the county, after buying a muffin and coffee of course to sustain us for the drive. Next Friday I'm headed to a Christmas White Elephant Party. So all is well both at home and in my thriving social life. LOL. How are things with you?

Birds on branches and death in paradise

This is an actual photo of a bird silhouetted against the sky, with Pixlr overlay pak Mermaid and Dreamscape added to the background, which was a very dull late afternoon misty gray.

This is the original

What I love about school break is:

-sleeping until after 5:30,
-not getting dressed until I want to,
-being able to wear leggings and a soft turtleneck all day,
-washing my dishes on the same day that I dirty them,
-spending time playing with pictures and reading my twitter stream and not worrying that I am wasting time,
-being quiet,
-discovering more about my Logos bible software, like you can select a passage to be read aloud to you,
-listening to sermons and Gospel music in the afternoon
-cooking (today will be granola, and roasted broccoli)
-having time to go through my Youtube subscriptions and culling the dead ones and uninteresting ones,
-organizing my photos on the laptop...

and so much more.

I found another tv show I like. It's British, which means there aren't a lot of them. Their seasons, or series as they call them, are only 6 or 8 shows long. I watched all 8 of the first season and it is a top-quality show: Death in Paradise. Despite the goth title, it is a 'blue skies' program, and a 'fish out of water show' and a 'police procedural' if you like categorizing shows by title. It is about a London police detective temporarily assigned to discover why the Chief of Police on a small Caribbean island (a UK protectorate) was killed. Of course, his temporary stay becomes lengthier through no will of his own, he hates the heat, the sand, the slower ways, and mostly everything about the place. He is a stiff, a British man through and through with a single minded head for solving crime and absolutely no social skills, quite an abrupt thing for his colleagues living a friendly island reggae life. Of course he is brilliant and successful at solving murders so his colleagues forgive his quirks, even as he has a harder time overlooking theirs. The characters are realistic, nice, well-played and distinct.

There is no profanity, no sex, no gore (well only a drip here and there, but it's minimal). The setting is glorious, actually being shot on Guadaloupe. It is well-written and acted (usually the case with BBC TV shows). I like it. I will be sorry when I finish season 2, because I learned that the main character is killed off in the first episode of the third series. He found that being away for six months at a time to shoot on Guadaloupe was too stressful on his family whether they stayed there or flew to the island. So he gave it up. Sigh. Anyway, it's lighthearted, sometimes funny, and good. On Netflix.

Well it's nearing noon so I will get dressed and then continue on the peaceful day set before me.

Brrr it's cold

Well I can't complain, I'll complain a little. It was a wind-chill/real feel of ten degrees this morning. It was cold, cold cold. I had to bang against the front door to get out, it had iced up all around.

The midwest and north got a worse dose though so that is why I can't complain. It will be warm here in a few days, and up north it will be warm there in a few months.

My Christmas vacation is winding down. I will head back to school Monday for an in-service day (no kids) and then on Tuesday it will all start back up. Routine, kids, headaches, laughs, business...everything.

Church will wind up too. We have not had a Wednesday night prayer meeting for two weeks because of the holiday and many people have been traveling so attendance has been low, and our SS teacher was traveling so we have had subs. All the routines will ramp back up for the new year, which for me is like the second half of the old year because I go from May to May. ) School out to school out :)

I finished When Crickets Cry which was a good book. A heart surgeon confronts his past via the illness of a little girl. Well written, and absorbing, if a tiny bit slow. It was a bit sentimental but not overly so. I give it a B+. I started an Anne Rivers Siddons book so we'll see how that goes. So far it is OK. A jilted wife rebuilds her life.

I watched many good movies on snagfilms. City of Gold, about the Yukon Gold Rush and followed that up with The Fatal Glass of Beer, an early WC Fields short, a spoof on Yukon Gold Rush movies. City of Gold is a great documentary about the city of Dawson during the Klondike Gold Rush. The narrator uses photos in a realistic way, a method Ken Burns said he copied in his Civil War documentary. Anyway, after that, I watched WCFields in the 1933 short, "A Fatal Glass of Beer" spoofing all the early movies about the Klondike Gold Rush. In the short, WC Fields would constantly open the door and say "T'aint a night fit for man or beast!" and an obviously fake bucket of snow would hit him in the face. It was funny, and even funnier *after* watching it. Like, I chuckled when I remember WC Fields had a dachshund in his dog sled line. "Mush!" Or he went outside to the well and pumped and ice cubes came out. Or he announced to his wife, "Bessie, I'm a-goin to milk the elk!" The fatal glass of beer is a spoof temperance song he played for a Canadian Mountie, off key, on a zither, in mittens...It was very Monty Python-esque movie. Seeing the 'City of Gold' and then 'Fatal Glass' was a hoot.

I had coffee with a friend yesterday at the local yuppie cafe. Our coffee turned into breakfast, then three hours of chat. Girls!

I made a kickin' slaw this week. Cabbage slaw, roasted broccoli, raisins, and hummus-mayo sauce. And wrapped in a flour tortilla. Yum!! I also made roasted veggies, and penne with veggies. I baked a pumpkin-angel food cake with chocolate chips too. That was delicious and- light.

January is hard. After a blessed vacation like this, in fleece jammies, drinking steaming tea, cooking, reading, and watching movies, who wouldn't be loathe to have it all end? But work is good too. It does me good to get back. But not yet. Monday is still three days away ;)

Slinky, slinky, it's a wonderful toy!

The children at school are as excited for Christmas as I've ever seen them. They exchanged their stocking stuffers today and they were thrilled over the smallest gifts. Those excited them as much as an X-Box or an iPad. They got mini-Slinkys and it was all the teacher could do to get them to put them back in their box when examining time was over and the next gift was to be passed out. They giggled in delight over a blue candy cane with a ribbon on it. They were totally content with a coloring book and crayons. They were happy kids.

Why do we overload them so in real life?

Today was the second of two staff nibbles days, where we bring something to eat and set up a nibbles buffet in the teacher's lounge. Today I tried the veggie dip (great), spinach dip (great) and a variety of other sweet and savory things. It was all pretty rich though, and by the afternoon my stomach cried uncle and begged for a cantaloupe. I had brought some cut up chilled cantaloupe for a snack and it hit the spot. Ahhh, something fresh and healthy.

Wednesday is a half day and the kids go home at noon. That's good, because today they were NUTS. Teachers from K-to-3rd grade let their classes out in the afternoon for an extra recess. Thank goodness it was 60 degrees and sunny.

Tomorrow after the kids leave we have a staff lunch. The only other obligation I have after that is picking up my Bountiful Basket on Saturday morning, and Sunday church. Otherwise I am IN like a groundhog through the winter!

Day four of vacation

I'm four work days into my week off. Of course I love it! I've had a relaxing time so far. Even the weather has cooperated. The first few days were sunny and warm, int he 70s. And today is cool and rainy and in the 40s, just perfect for cozying up or making roasted vegetables.

I hear the bird under the air conditioner in the sill going and coming with food. Whenever she comes back, she lands on the AC which makes a small scratching sound with her claws on the metal. The baby birds nestled underneath it pipe up and make tiny tweets. This arouses the cats, who run from wherever they are (including my lap) and hurl themselves on the table in front of the AC to catch a glimpse of this tantalizingly close but eternally distant prey. Rinse. Repeat. LOL.

I watched Slumdog Millionaire last night on Youtube. Why not watch on Netflix, you may ask. Because NEtflix is LAME and never streams the movies I want to see. AARRGGHH!! I am getting plenty sick of seeing the phrase "Unavailable to stream" in the search results box.

It was an excellent movie which I liked very much. An 18 year old in Mumbai wins big on "Who Wants to be a Millionaire?" the Indian version. But before he is asked the final question for 20 Million rupees, when they cut to a break, he is arrested on suspicion for cheating. Authorities cannot believe that a slumdog of lowest class, orphaned and with no education, could possibly know the answers to the increasingly difficult questions. His story to the police in the interrogation room (no Miranda in India, but plenty of blood on the floor) reveals through the various events in his life how he happened to know the answers. His story is compelling, told with heartbreaking honesty. Eventually the policeman understands that the boy is honest, lets him go, to return to the studio the next day to answer the final question for all the treasure.

It is a hard movie to watch, seeing the extreme poverty of the slums and how the orphaned children fend for themselves. I have no doubt it was true to life. But for all its grittiness it is a beautiful movie to watch cinematically and also emotionally. I even liked the music.

I also watched Turner Classic's Young Tom Edison and Tom Edison the Man, made by the same producers, to make a bookended account of America's most famous inventor. As a side note, these two movies also were on Youtube and NOT NETFLIX. Both of them came out in 1940, featuring Mickey Rooney in the younger and Spencer Tracy as the man. I mentioned that the producers were the same because I remember the names. The producer is Considine, which was a name that my parents used to mention a lot. And who can forget the name of the associate producer, "Orville D. Dull"?

Orville used to be a common name at the turn of the last century, and how unfortunate is Dull? Trying to increase its stature with the D only makes it worse, because it points right back to the D in Dull. Oh well, I'm glad at least he had obtained good work in the Depression.

I finished Willa Cather's "O, Pioneers," a towering work of immigrants in the midwest during the 1800s. For all its towering scope, it is a short book, which means the writing was concise and also very, very good. I started Normal Lewis's Jackdaw Cake, his autobiography from eccentric boyhood in Wales to world-renowned travel writer. The eccentricity of his aunts and their life together in a crumbling Welsh mansion in the early parts of the book are so well recounted that it's slightly icky to read it. But then there is a sentence like this:

"Here the Towy finally unwound itself into the sea, its estuary enclosed in a great silken spread of sand occupying a third of the horizon, to which our century had added not a single detail but the bones of two foundered ships in the process of digestion by mud."

Spectacular!

It's writing like that which helps me get over the eccentric ickiness of the aunts and keep plowing through. Eventually the kid has to go away to school, and I bet it smooths out from there.

The rain is pelting and the skies are gray but all is warm and well-lit inside the apartment, And, except for the rain on the metal awnings, it is quiet. Just how I like it.

I'm totally wasting my day

It is the first week day of spring break. I enjoy having the Monday off. Sunday was great knowing I didn't have to get up today and rush out this morning. I had banana pancakes, watched a couple of videos, and did the dishes. Then I moseyed to the PO and then to a friend's house for a visit. We yakked for a couple of hours, then I stayed for lunch. Back home, I am watching hulu.com and munching crackers.

Except for the dishes and a blog entry at The End Time, I have done nothing productive. Perfect.

I'm totally wasting my day

It is the first week day of spring break. I enjoy having the Monday off, Sunday was great knowing I didn't have to get up today and rush out. I had banana pancakes, watched a couple of videos, and did the dishes. Then I moseyed to the PO and then to a friend's house for a visit. We yakked for a couple of hours, then I stayed for lunch. Back home, I am watching hulu.com and munching crackers.

Except for the dishes and a blog entry at The End Time, I have done nothing productive. perfect.

I am on vacation this week

I know the populace at large doesn't think so, but we work really hard in elementary schools.  We balance the emotional, physical and educational needs of 22 students at every moment of every day, 7 hours at a time. It is quite a juggling act to get a classroom full of 5 and 6 year olds to function as a cohesive whole. My hat is off to the teachers. As a teacher's aide myself I know the hard work my para-pro colleagues do as well.

We are on spring break this week and I am really glad. The weather is perfect and I am looking forward to kicking back. I've accumulated several books to read, theology etc. I plan to do a little work at my front door sprucing it up with plants and bushes. The landlord dug out the soil last year and cemented over right next to the door so I can't plant, but I'll put some pots out and some flowers. I plan to take it easy, but I'm not traveling anywhere. Gas prices are too high and I like to be home anyway.

I read this morning that three people won the record jackpot Mega Millions, splitting 200 million apiece. Wow. What I could do with that money... Someone's life is changed this morning. I'm glad for the three families, but worried too. That much money always brings trouble.

My cat is so polite. When I'm on the couch, he sits on the floor and looks at me quietly. He only jumps up to my lap if I pat the couch invitingly. This morning he sat on the other end of the table and waited for me to finish breakfast. I don't know how he knew I was done, but when I took the last sip of coffee and set the cup down, then he got up and sat next to me.

I was reading a book with a kindergartener in class. Sam and Al. Sam is a lion and Al is a zookeeper. Sam and Al are pals. I explained what pals are. At one point Al patted the lion through the bars of the cage. I said, "I don't know if I'd pat the lion with my hand like that. He might bite it off." The child said, "Mrs Prata! They're pals." Everything is so literal and so simple for kids.

Though in another instance, their minds make a leap that are uncannily spooky. I was working with a boy in math. We had a pile of little colored plastic puppies. I had him do different groups that make up ten, and then I said he could play with them. He immediately lined them all up in rows of three. I said, "That looks like a kennel." He didn't know what a kennel was, so I explained that it is a place where doggies go when their human mommy and daddy go on a trip. All the dogs stay at a place like a doggie hotel. He must have picked up on the abandonment part and not the hotel part. He immediately rearranged the groups and said, "Look. They're waiting for their soup."

I laughed and said it's not an orphanage...but he was sort of right.

So it is 63 degrees out, the birds are singing. There was a gentle rain all night so maybe the pollen will lay down today. It's sunny and bright. I have the privilege of deciding whether to go to the Farmer's Market, or stay in and slunge in my PJ's. Ahhh, vacations.

Soup and vacation

I've had a good two weeks off. Now on Friday I go back to work. It is a teacher's workday with no students at school so it's like easing back in and it won't be a shock to the system. (Like Monday will be)

I was concerned with how tired and how sick I was the day after vacation began. I slept a lot the first week. I slept an obscene amount of sleep at night and also during the day in naps. I never fully got rid of the bronchitis, I still cough quite a bit, especially at night before bed and upon waking up. But I do feel lots better and the second week I stopped with the naps and just slept the regular 7.5 hours at night. I'm regulated again. Or as The Dog Whisperer says, 'I'm balanced.'

I made a really good pasta e fagiole I'd enjoyed for several days straight. Yesterday I made salmon patties and today to go along with that I"ll make another soup, this time collard greens and butter beans. I like soup. I think it is culinarily under-rated.

The cold weather finally arrived. It seems funny that just less than a week ago I had the windows open and it was in the upper 60s and low 70s, and the sunflower in the pot by my front door was blooming. Now it is in the teens. Hence, the soup!

Wednesday is my weekly grocery shopping expedition so today I will go out. Yes, out. Emerge from my tiny apartment to where there is fresh air and trees and...shudder...other people. But I'll brave it and as always, find that it will be a pleasant experience. And after all, I have to get used to other people at some point when this two week seclusion in my hermitage ends, because Monday there will be 600 big and little people to get used to again.

But the good thing is that after all that I'll do out and about today, which always does me good anyway, I'll be back IN. Yay for IN!

Christmas Vacation

Our school department gives us two weeks off at Christmas and New Year's. I look forward to it every year. We start school on August 1st so by the time December comes around I'm ready for a long break. Contrary to popular myth, we don't get paid during this time. We get paid through this time but we only get paid for the days in the year that we work, 185 days. The pay is just spread out through the year so we can plan and budget.

Our District does an excellent job of that. Really excellent finances. I'm proud to work for the Madison County Schools. But when the vacations come along I'm happy for those too.

I don't have furniture that is all that comfortable. My couch is a futon, and the depth is off. If you sit with your back straight against the back, my knees don't hang over the edge. Moreover, it tilts upward. So when I want to get up, my knees are not hanging over the edge so I have no leverage, and I have to hurl myself to get over the deep tilt. Of course the cat laying across my legs and the other one draped across my shoulders are also a hindrance, lol.

Anyway, I put my laptop on a pillow and type or surf the net as I watch TV. TV is so inane these days I could be working on solving cold fusion and still get the drift of most TV shows. Every website I've read says NOT TO DO THAT to your laptop. Finally after about two years I heeded the warnings about pillows and overheating laptops and I bought a laptop desk. It came yesterday and I really like it.

It is a lot lighter than I thought it would be and less bulky too. It works like a charm. Unfortunately as I went to the Amazon.com page describing the product is says out of stock, they don't know when more will be in stock. Too bad! I would have bought another one, they are only $12. But now I can surf with the computer on my lap, guilt-free.

I also ordered a book, The Apostle: A Life of Paul by John Pollock. The editor's description says "The Apostle masterfully combines careful adherence to biblical text, detailed research, and a storyteller's gift to create a book equally relevant for both casual readers fascinated by Paul's life and serious biblical scholars. Pollock begins his fast-moving narrative with Stephen's death and follows Paul through his conversion, missionary journeys, and eventual execution. Many will enjoy it simply as a satisfying and insightful true-life story, although maps and a study guide allow for deeper exploration. The Apostle was originally published in 1969, and this new edition marks the first significant revision in many years." I started it last night and I really like it.

What a blessing it is to have time to read, to cook, to rest. The resting part is especially appreciated. After four and a half months of daily contact with every germ known to man, I am well and truly sick by the time Christmas comes. Ever since I started teaching, I always spend Christmas vacation recovering from bronchitis and this year is no exception. My lungs feel like they weigh 90 pounds and my throat is raw from coughing, suppressing coughing, or recovering from the last cough. Good timing though, just when I need to rest my body and my throat, I can stay home and sleep and not use my voice. Except when I talk to the cats, of course.

This week I am going to try and make pasta e fagiole, and make a citrus salad with the oranges I was given, and pineapple and kiwi. Avocados were on sale for 78 cents, yay! I'll make something with those, or just eat avocado and tomato sandwiches, one of my favorite sandwiches of all time.

I've been working on a series on the other blog that means a great deal to me. I love writing, and I feel most at home in front of a keyboard. I remember when I switched from typewriter to computer, what a happy day that was. The scene in my head is vivid: college circa 1981, in my loft efficiency apartment, sun streaming in, me at my desk in front of the typewriter. Deadline looming, this paper has to be finished NOW. But I never had lessons in typing and I am not an accurate typist. I was awash in Wite-Out, managing my typos, waiting for the white-out to dry, adjusting the paper with an eagle eye attempting to line up the last thing typed with the marks on the typewriter roller...I remember screaming AAARRRGGGHHH! And yelling that 'someone HAS to invent a better way!' By the time my Master's degree course rolled around in 1997 I was comfortably enconsed in front of a PC with word processing software, pressing cut and paste and the backspace with no Wite-Out in sight. Goodbye typewriter! Whaddya know, someone DID invent a better way. I was at the library a while ago and as I browsed near the table with an old typewriter on it, a child said, "What's that, Mommy?" I would have answered "It's a torture machine, son".

Isn't it weird to be old enough now that the common things you used in your youth are now obsolete relics. I often used to wonder what life was like in that regard for my grandmother, born in 1901 and emigrated to the US in her twenties. She was born in England when electricity and telephones were relatively new inventions, and she died in 1982 after we had gone to the moon, invented computers, and vanquished polio. Her life  during the twentieth century must have been a whirlwind of new technologies emerging every day.

I'm finding myself tuning out of the latest inventions. I don't care about Blu-Ray (I don't even own a DVD player). I wonder why the Birds are so Angry, why don't they spell Wii correctly and I don't need a virtual reality when the one I'm in is just fine, thank you. I think I am on my way to becoming an official fuddy duddy. Oh, well, at least they still have books. For now at least.

Christmas (vacation) is here

Christmas and holiday vacation is here. We are released from school as of yesterday afternoon and won't go back until January 6th.

I am liking this! I plan to rest and recuperate from my sinus infection that is heading toward bronchitis. [coughing a lot today!] My mum sent me birthday bucks. I went hog wild and bought a book on the life of Apostle Paul and a laptop lap desk for when I'm typing on the couch. I am really looking forward to both!! My bible reading plan is to re-read several of the minor prophets, probably Obadiah and Hosea, and Micah.

For fun I'll likely lounge on the sofa writing while using that new laptop desk, and watching old reruns of Law&Order, lol. I'm at peace and very content, and 100% sure of the Holy Spirit's working in me for God's glory.

I am looking forward to visiting with friends, and writing. Eating the goodies people have shared with me, including making a wonderful fruit salad out of the many oranges I've been given. What I do not plan on is being busy. I have enough of that at work.

The Holy Spirit has given me a job that puts me in a lower standard of living economically but a high standard of quality of life. I have the opportunity to work with children, which I consider the noblest of professions. That is high-quality to me. I have time off,  lots of it, to pursue my interests. I can rest my mind and be refreshed to study deeply, without being tired, and that is very high-quality to me. I have opportunity to recover from the myriad colds and sinus infections, and that is very good. I can be with friends through online ministry or in real life, OR stay by myself if I want to, and that is excellent. All these and many other things are wonderful benefits of the job I have.

So the next little while will be filled with the same peace and contentment I feel every day, except I'll be able to appreciate it in a less hectic manner because all is calm at the Prata house.

Why do vacations go so fast?

It has been a marvelous week off. I have been busier that I expected, and have not had as much time to delve into deep reading subjects as I had hoped, but the activities I have been working on have been just as fun.

Saturday I spent 6 hours mucking out a friend's garage with her and of course when I arrived home late afternoon on Saturday I was pooped. Naptime. And there went the first day of vacation.

Monday and Tuesday I was busy running around doing errands. Things pile up when you work 11 hours a day and everywhere is closed by the time you are let out of work. And it is too much to try and get it all done on the few hours you have on Saturday mornings before stores, banks, and Post Offices close. I completed visits with my insurance agent, had a tire fixed, grocery shopped, pored through bills, met with my banker to change some statuses, and finished a host of other tasks that had been left for better days.

Wednesday afternoon I went over to a friend's house and helped her put together a couple of a massive eggplant parmigiana casseroles. She had never made the dish before and was unaware of how long it takes to fry the eggplant. With two casseroles and four eggplants to prepare, it really did take all hands on deck to get the dish done before marauding family members trooped in fro their weary travels. It was really fun to help her and her pleasure in having something good-smelling and tasty to pull out of the oven just at arrival of her children and grandchildren was gratifying to see!

Yesterday's visit with a friend for Thanksgiving was terrific. Her home is beautiful to start with, as she herself is, inside and out. We talked and heated up our banquet, and then we ate together at her table. Afterwards we rested in the big comfy recliners and watched tv and yakked. We had pie a while later, and that was good too.

And now it is Friday and I wonder, where did the week go? My week of reading is almost over before I cracked the first book. Over the last three months I've bought six books I've been looking forward to getting into. The first set was Radical by David Platt and Crazy Love by Francis Chan. Next I bought Pilgrim's Progress, John MacArthur's Because the Time is Near, and Warfield's Counterfeit Miracles. That last one is an oldie but a goodie. This month I got two CS Lewis books: Miracles, and The Great Divorce.

I'm looking forward to reading them, though I probably should get them into some semblance of order. Maybe read Crazy Love and Radical together, then Counterfeit Miracles and Miracles, then Pilgrim's Progress and the Great Divorce. Hmmm. It's all nice to ponder, the anticipation almost as fun as the actual reading.

As I was getting out of the car from returning from the Post Office (to get my last 2 books and also an inkjet- amazing how fast those inkjet cartridges diminish) I noticed that a winter rose was blooming. How beautiful!

And that almost concludes my week. Saturday I have my own mucking out to do: I have to empty a room and put the stuff in the garage because the landlord needs the space. And Sunday of course, is worship and then rest. Monday, Monday, you're not so far away!

Happy New Year

Waiting for a friend to pick me up to go to lunch, I walked around the yard today, taking winter photos. Enjoy the tour of the yard as I recall Christmas day!. So here is how Christmas went. Christmas was great. I spent it with a few friends in town. At one point on Christmas morning, we drove around in Athens, and were admiring how closed down the city was. "Yay!" we'd say, passing a closed and shuttered Wal-Mart. "Good for them!" we'd shout when passing an empty mall. It was also spooky. Weird that there were literally NO cars (lol, except ours) on the city streets. It was like Day One on "Life After People."

We returned to their house and started making brunch. They had just gotten back the evening before from North Carolina, having visited their daughter and son-in-law for Christmas Eve. Therefore, there was no turkey cooking, lol, but we were thrilled with making 15 grain toast, home fries, and omelets. Retiring to the living room, we watched "A Little House on the Prairie Christmas", hokey I know but sweet and charming also. After that, we exchanged gifts and talked until early evening. That was Christmas.

This Christmas vacation since then  has also been great. I've had plenty of time to do what I love best: read, write, and research. I read Christian novels. I usually spend most of my day researching deep hermeneutics, bible interpretation, and my brain longs for something lighter by the time night comes and it's time to kick back. I read a very good Christian book called "Tides of Truth: Deeper Water." I liked it very much and appreciated the character development and scene-setting. Best of all, it is the first book in a series so there are more coming. I read some other books too but they are forgettable, only time-passers designed to provide their part in a relaxing night-time apartment environment.

Yesterday I spent a good amount of time at the library tutoring another friend on how to use the internet. She is fearful but curious, so we brought our laptops, set them up in tandem at the back table so we wouldn't disturb anyone,  and dove in. Today I went to Olive Garden with a friend who had received a gift certificate and she called me to share it with! Woo-hoo!  We enjoyed lunch very much. I had that great special, the endless soup and salad and breadsticks thing. I admit I had two bowls of salad. If I could make dressing like that I would eat salads every day. I saw a bunch of friends at the restaurant, which was great.

Being in Athens already, and making use of the gas, we did some errands after lunch. She had to go to a vitamin store in the mall, and lo and behold the vitamin store had bulk nasal salt! I've been looking for that since I moved to Georgia. I can get nasal salt for my neti pot/ nasal wash at the local drug stores, but it is in pre-packaged packets, like sugar is. 100 to a box and it's kind of expensive, $11.00. This jar was $5.50 and offered about the same amount of nasal washes. I use the stuff when I have a cold or bronchitis and I would not live without my nasal salt!. I definitely felt like I'd scored!

My friend had a couple more errands to do, one of them being the Christian bookstore in town, an always fun stop. I leafed through a Chuck Norris book, "written by the actual Chuck Norris!" but I wasn't temped to buy anything I had browsed in the store. Back home, I made some tea and checked my Facebook page. And then wrote a blog entry!

Happy 2010!

I HOPE for a different work ethic from Obama

Only weeks into his Administration, Obama has begun a tireless round of parties and events and social butterflying.

NYT reports: "These days, President Obama and his wife, Michelle, are popping up all over this city. Like basketball? There was Mr. Obama sitting courtside recently alongside astonished fans at the Verizon Center as he cheered on the Chicago Bulls in a losing battle against the Washington Wizards."

"Enjoy the performing arts? The Obamas have been to the Kennedy Center twice, once to see the Alvin Ailey dance troupe — with daughters Malia, 10, and Sasha, 7 — and once for a musical tribute to Senator Edward M. Kennedy"

"How about a tasty meal? The Obamas have enjoyed white-tablecloth dining at Equinox, Bobby Van’s Steakhouse, B. Smith’s and Georgia Brown’s, and street-corner casual at Ben’s Chili Bowl and Five Guys Burgers and Fries."

The Obamas are equal opportunity partiers. They party inside the White House too.

Fox reports:
"Only eight weeks into the Obama administration, the president and first lady have already hosted their fair share of social events. Indeed, White House social secretary Desiree Rogers has announced that the Obama administration plans to make Wednesday night social events a tradition."

And let us not forget that the last 8-weeks of cocktail socials, theatre events, basketball games, and dinners out must have been absolutely draining for him, because President needs a rest from all that...

Obamas set off on spring's first Camp David tripPresident Barack Obama and his family are spending a long weekend at the presidential retreat at Camp David, MD.

Busy and happy

My time is filling in. I’m going out socially, I’ve picked up three part time jobs, and I’m writing a book. The long days of nothing are coming to an end, my much-needed vacation now a distant memory.

I’m working for a nationally-known writer and it’s interesting to see the publishing world from inside her success. I’m learning a lot and taking notes for when it’s my turn. Hey, I like to envision the positive! My book, it’s about what it’s like to be the local editor of a newspaper in a politically contentious New England town. Names may be changed. Or not! It’s taking a lot of time just organizing my notes so I see this project taking at least another 18 months. I’m writing a column for the local weekly, and yesterday I got a job as correspondent for the local daily. I cover news and features in our county.

I really like writing about people. My first article was published in the daily newspaper this week. The woman in the story is elderly and in the nursing home, and misses her dog. The article was about her and her dog and the separation when folks have an emergency and can’t be with their pets anymore. I’m so happy her story got told. For next week I’m featuring a Habitat for Humanity family and also a feature on an area man with a neat hobby.

People around here invite each other out all the time. I was in a group of folks that included a new person to town. She and I hit it off. She invited me to a party at her cousin’s house, where I met another person who invited me to lunch Sunday. On the spot! In Gray, it seems to take years for anyone to say ‘Let’s go for coffee.’ It’s nice to have a social calendar again and it’s nice to meet new people. I can’t say enough how nice people are around here. Busy and happy, what could be better?