When I started this blog, I had expected to post to it daily. Now a whole week has gone by and I haven't posted. That is probably because nothing much outstanding happened this week. I taught school every day and things went well. I had one ballistic mother come in and complain because I took away her daughter's cell phone in the middle of class when I caught her texting, and the office will not give it back except to her sponsor who is at sea. And Wednesday, Thursday, and Saturday I went swimming for half an hour the first two times and for 40 minutes on Saturday and then walked for about 20 minutes on Saturday in addition. The rest of the time I had been reading the Bruce Trilogy which is a novel about Robert the Bruce, the King of Scotland during the early 1300s.
Much of the time I would have put into my posts on Thursday, Friday, and Saturday, I instead put into caring for one of the sisters in our ward who had some needs that Grandma and I could help with, and helping a new family in our branch get settled into Japan. Maybe I will do better this coming week. I hope to start up kendo again but slowly tomorrow evening. I'll try to make the time to comment on how it went.
I don't know if I mentioned it yet but I've done rather well on the challenge that Grandma gave me to lose about 20 pounds and get back in shape so I can go to the Pennsic War the first week in August. She is correct that it would not be worth the money for the airplane ticket to go to the biggest Society for Creative Anachronism event in the year unless I'm in shape at least to be an archer on the battlefield. I've lost that easy first 5 pounds this week. I have actually done rather well at not eating in between meals and all the other bad habits I've developed that help me keep heavier than I ought to be. Swimming has helped burn away some of the fat and firm up what's left so I'm kind of excited. Now all I have to do is repair my armor, build some more arrows, and practice, while I am enduring to the end of the summer.
I just got an e-mail from my daughter Cait indicating that her sons and and husband would like to do a Boy Scout style primitive camp out in the mountains with me this summer. I'm hoping David's and Steven's sons will want to go along. We shall see.
That's all for now I'm going to go on with some reading.
Sunday, May 18, 2008
Sunday, May 11, 2008
2008 May 11 Mother's Day
For our first speaker at church today I played the DVD of M. Russell Ballard's Daughters of God presentation from the April 2008 conference. Then I had the oldest son or daughter from each of the four families present come up on the podium with me after I had presented Grandma Graham with one of the pink roses that I had in a vase behind the podium. The fourth family's oldest son is about two, Emilito Martinez. I had gathered him in my arms and brought him back to the podium on my way back from giving grandma a rose. I commented that I had warned each of the older children that they would get a moment to make a presentation to their mothers, but I hadn't forewarned Emilito so he was speaking extemporaneously. I asked Emilito, "Do you know where your mother is?"
And he said, "There!" and pointed straight at her with a big smile. And I said would you like to give her a nice rose and he shook his head "yes" on cue. So I picked up another of the roses from the vase and carried it and Emilito over to his mother. He had latched onto the plastic wrap that the rose was wrapped in, with a ribbon, so he handed it to his mother with a big smile. I'm not sure who smile was bigger, his or hers. Then he reached out toward his mother and sat on her lap during the rest of the presentations which were made from youngest to oldest. We had enough roses so all of the younger children were able to come up and get a rose and take it to their mothers too. There were nine children present ages 13 or under.
After church mom and I went home and ate some sandwiches for lunch and then went over to Huis Ten Bosch to see the Rose Garden. Last year Mother's Day was a week later and the roses were splendid. This year because of the drought they were only half as splendid. It was the first time that I hobbled around without my crutches since I stretched my Achilles tendon last week. Everything went okay, though we covered most of the distance by riding a bus to the castle where the Rose Garden is. After we took a leisurely hour stroll back to the front gate passing through all of the gardens on the way and having our traditional melon flavored ice cream cone, we decided to take a boat ride all the way around the park and back to where we started at the front gate.
We went home and took our naps and I made pizza for dinner. After dinner I put my lesson together for Monday having to create eight of the 10 slides in the PowerPoint presentation for Geometry Day 79. So all is ready for next week. That will be the last lecture in geometry for the year. The rest will all be tests and student presentations of their May projects. In a couple days more than a month we will be on the airplane back to the US for summer vacation.
And he said, "There!" and pointed straight at her with a big smile. And I said would you like to give her a nice rose and he shook his head "yes" on cue. So I picked up another of the roses from the vase and carried it and Emilito over to his mother. He had latched onto the plastic wrap that the rose was wrapped in, with a ribbon, so he handed it to his mother with a big smile. I'm not sure who smile was bigger, his or hers. Then he reached out toward his mother and sat on her lap during the rest of the presentations which were made from youngest to oldest. We had enough roses so all of the younger children were able to come up and get a rose and take it to their mothers too. There were nine children present ages 13 or under.
After church mom and I went home and ate some sandwiches for lunch and then went over to Huis Ten Bosch to see the Rose Garden. Last year Mother's Day was a week later and the roses were splendid. This year because of the drought they were only half as splendid. It was the first time that I hobbled around without my crutches since I stretched my Achilles tendon last week. Everything went okay, though we covered most of the distance by riding a bus to the castle where the Rose Garden is. After we took a leisurely hour stroll back to the front gate passing through all of the gardens on the way and having our traditional melon flavored ice cream cone, we decided to take a boat ride all the way around the park and back to where we started at the front gate.
We went home and took our naps and I made pizza for dinner. After dinner I put my lesson together for Monday having to create eight of the 10 slides in the PowerPoint presentation for Geometry Day 79. So all is ready for next week. That will be the last lecture in geometry for the year. The rest will all be tests and student presentations of their May projects. In a couple days more than a month we will be on the airplane back to the US for summer vacation.
Saturday, May 10, 2008
2008 May 10
Slept in today, it is a rainy Saturday. Spent a couple hours this morning answering e-mail particularly for my Society for Creative Anachronism pages. Then grandma and I went to mama-sans alley in downtown Sasebo to pick up pink roses to be given to the mothers at church tomorrow. Then we went over to the Navy base and had club sandwiches for lunch at the bowling alley and went shopping at the NEX.
I sorted through the DVD bargain basket and found half a dozen interesting looking swashbucklers or swords and sorcery films and then decided they really weren't worth the six or seven dollars apiece just to waste a couple hours watching them. So then I went back and took a nap in the car until grandma came out with a sack full of gifts for our family back in the states. Now you just have to wait until we get there to find out what they are.
Now I'm going to attempt to do some writing related to my book that I plan to write this summer. So until later, take care.
I sorted through the DVD bargain basket and found half a dozen interesting looking swashbucklers or swords and sorcery films and then decided they really weren't worth the six or seven dollars apiece just to waste a couple hours watching them. So then I went back and took a nap in the car until grandma came out with a sack full of gifts for our family back in the states. Now you just have to wait until we get there to find out what they are.
Now I'm going to attempt to do some writing related to my book that I plan to write this summer. So until later, take care.
Thursday, May 8, 2008
2008 May 8
Today was a great day. I took my geometry classes outside to measure the height of a four-story building and several telephone poles on the school grounds as an exercise in indirect measurement using similar triangles. Most of them did very well. It was one of those perfect spring days with hazy sunshine so it was almost too warm in the sunshine and just perfect in the shade. So I supervised from under a shade tree. :-)
The only difficulty was I am still stumping around on crutches and will be for another week. During kendo practice I was running forward and turned around 180 degrees too fast and came down on the toes of my left foot and all my momentum reversed through the Achilles' tendon and it stretched and felt like it popped. Fortunately it didn't break, but it sure felt like it did, very, very painful. But I iced it overnight and took it to the doctor Saturday morning and he's told me I was lucky nothing really was broken or torn very much but I should stay off of it for two weeks and gave me a pair crutches and showed me how to wrap it everyday. So I will suffer through.
I lay down on my back while watching television tonight and did every motion I can think of for about an hour while watching American Idol. Leg lifts, setups, arm crosses, each in half a dozen forms, I even tried bicycling in the air. But the blood rushed to my head for that one and I decided it was a really bad thing so I quit.
The only difficulty was I am still stumping around on crutches and will be for another week. During kendo practice I was running forward and turned around 180 degrees too fast and came down on the toes of my left foot and all my momentum reversed through the Achilles' tendon and it stretched and felt like it popped. Fortunately it didn't break, but it sure felt like it did, very, very painful. But I iced it overnight and took it to the doctor Saturday morning and he's told me I was lucky nothing really was broken or torn very much but I should stay off of it for two weeks and gave me a pair crutches and showed me how to wrap it everyday. So I will suffer through.
I lay down on my back while watching television tonight and did every motion I can think of for about an hour while watching American Idol. Leg lifts, setups, arm crosses, each in half a dozen forms, I even tried bicycling in the air. But the blood rushed to my head for that one and I decided it was a really bad thing so I quit.
Tuesday, May 6, 2008
2008 May 7
My grandchildren have inspired me to write a blog. I prefer to call it a journal or just log. I never remember where the "B" in blog came from. Hopefully as I use this more and more I will learn to post pictures and sounds as well as written words. For my journal, it was my habit to write an open letter to all my children, but they rarely responded so I didn't know whether the time was worth it. This time I think I will just journalize for myself and if you all happen to read it sometime then it will be worth it. It occurs to me that most journals seem to be more valuable in a hundred or two hundred years after they are written. I have started journals many times, but I have great difficulty remembering to make daily entries. It will be interesting to see if this is any different.
It is 6 am now and I have to get ready for work. As I finish my raisins and oatmeal, which is my daily breakfast, I will make a few notes. Yesterday my AP Statistics students took the AP Exam. It will count as their final exam so I expect some lamentations in class today. Usually, on Monday, Wednesday , and Saturday, I go to Kendo class. But today I will just come home and read as I pulled my left Achilles tendon last Friday in Kendo class and Saturday morning the doctor gave me crutches and told me to stay off of it for two weeks. TWO WEEKS without a sword fight!? Oh my this is terrible. How will I ever make it? What can I do for exercise when I can not use my left leg?
It is 6 am now and I have to get ready for work. As I finish my raisins and oatmeal, which is my daily breakfast, I will make a few notes. Yesterday my AP Statistics students took the AP Exam. It will count as their final exam so I expect some lamentations in class today. Usually, on Monday, Wednesday , and Saturday, I go to Kendo class. But today I will just come home and read as I pulled my left Achilles tendon last Friday in Kendo class and Saturday morning the doctor gave me crutches and told me to stay off of it for two weeks. TWO WEEKS without a sword fight!? Oh my this is terrible. How will I ever make it? What can I do for exercise when I can not use my left leg?
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