Longish day
It was a very longish day today. We had conferences to which nobody comes so we diddle around and have meetings and watch educational videos and try to think brave thoughts about curriculum and standards and such. About the 12th hour, none of it makes much sense. If we had cable tv, I'd be watching re-runs of Leave it to Beaver right about now.
I got a new old book in the mail today. Shirley Jackson's Life among the Savages. I don't know if I ever read it or if Jane has told the story enough that I think I did. A baby is sitting in one of those 1950's style car seats that just hooked over the back of the front seat. It had a little steering wheel and she describes how he is scanning the road ahead for possible cookies. That's the part that makes me laugh because in safe driving for the elderly we teach the strategy of scanning. Get it? Scanning the road for possible cookies?
We had dinner with Anders last night, our friend whose wife passed away two months ago of that awful breast cancer. Anders asked what I was reading, "for Jan." She would want to know, he said, and we believed she was listening. Jan took Out Stealing Horses with her for the afterlife. A good choice because it's a book you can read twice and not get tired of it.
Regis finally came out of the pod of isolation or whatever they call it and is set up to work at home. That only took about five months. Quite a business plan these people have. I'm shocked and I work for the public schools. We'll see how well he likes this when he realizes he doesn't have ten miles to leave the stress behind. I forgot to ask how they liked the noodle recipe.
This is my 385th post on this blog. That would probably be a book if you laid them end-to-end. Or if you literally laid them end-to-end and you assumed that each one was about 6 inches long, you'd have 192.5 feet or about a third of a mile. If I did the math right and I'd say there is a slim chance of that. It wouldn't be much of a book because, well, because most of it is like this one, blather. I think of it as a public service...if you're reading this, you aren't watching the news.
I listened to a podcast this morning, the gist of which was that in a contest between Bugs Bunny and Daffy Duck, Bugs Bunny always wins. Here' s an excerpt:
Bugs is at ease, laid back, secure, confident. His lidded eyes and sly smile suggest a sense that he knows the way things work. He's onto the cons of his adversaries. Sometimes he is glimpsed with his elbow on the fireplace mantel of his remarkably well-appointed lair, clad in a smoking jacket. (Jones once said Cary Grant was his inspiration for Bugs. Today it would be George Clooney.) Bugs never raises his voice, never flails at his opponents or at the world. He is rarely an aggressor. When he is pushed too far and must respond, he borrows a quip from Groucho Marx: "Of course, you realize this means war." And then, whether his foe is hapless hunter Elmer Fudd, varmint-shooting Yosemite Sam, or a raging bull, Bugs always prevails.
Here's the whole essay if you want to read it. It's about politics but could probably be about other things, like job applications and marriage.
I realized today that I have to change my haircut appointment again. I have a meeting at 3 and I'll be nervous about making it to Mankato by 4 and back again by 6:00. I think haircuts should get a dispensation from the pope, like St. Patrick's Day and capybaras.
I can tell this is going from silly to foolish so I'll stop now and say goodnight.
I got a new old book in the mail today. Shirley Jackson's Life among the Savages. I don't know if I ever read it or if Jane has told the story enough that I think I did. A baby is sitting in one of those 1950's style car seats that just hooked over the back of the front seat. It had a little steering wheel and she describes how he is scanning the road ahead for possible cookies. That's the part that makes me laugh because in safe driving for the elderly we teach the strategy of scanning. Get it? Scanning the road for possible cookies?
We had dinner with Anders last night, our friend whose wife passed away two months ago of that awful breast cancer. Anders asked what I was reading, "for Jan." She would want to know, he said, and we believed she was listening. Jan took Out Stealing Horses with her for the afterlife. A good choice because it's a book you can read twice and not get tired of it.
Regis finally came out of the pod of isolation or whatever they call it and is set up to work at home. That only took about five months. Quite a business plan these people have. I'm shocked and I work for the public schools. We'll see how well he likes this when he realizes he doesn't have ten miles to leave the stress behind. I forgot to ask how they liked the noodle recipe.
This is my 385th post on this blog. That would probably be a book if you laid them end-to-end. Or if you literally laid them end-to-end and you assumed that each one was about 6 inches long, you'd have 192.5 feet or about a third of a mile. If I did the math right and I'd say there is a slim chance of that. It wouldn't be much of a book because, well, because most of it is like this one, blather. I think of it as a public service...if you're reading this, you aren't watching the news.
I listened to a podcast this morning, the gist of which was that in a contest between Bugs Bunny and Daffy Duck, Bugs Bunny always wins. Here' s an excerpt:Bugs is at ease, laid back, secure, confident. His lidded eyes and sly smile suggest a sense that he knows the way things work. He's onto the cons of his adversaries. Sometimes he is glimpsed with his elbow on the fireplace mantel of his remarkably well-appointed lair, clad in a smoking jacket. (Jones once said Cary Grant was his inspiration for Bugs. Today it would be George Clooney.) Bugs never raises his voice, never flails at his opponents or at the world. He is rarely an aggressor. When he is pushed too far and must respond, he borrows a quip from Groucho Marx: "Of course, you realize this means war." And then, whether his foe is hapless hunter Elmer Fudd, varmint-shooting Yosemite Sam, or a raging bull, Bugs always prevails.
Here's the whole essay if you want to read it. It's about politics but could probably be about other things, like job applications and marriage.
I realized today that I have to change my haircut appointment again. I have a meeting at 3 and I'll be nervous about making it to Mankato by 4 and back again by 6:00. I think haircuts should get a dispensation from the pope, like St. Patrick's Day and capybaras.
I can tell this is going from silly to foolish so I'll stop now and say goodnight.
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