MY BOGGY BLOG: find your way through the murk

Rain Rain Go Away

How strange the weather has been this year. First it's so dry for most of the summer, no rain and so hot that the farms were all drying up to a crisp. Now since August we've had so much rain, and it is a rainy, cloudy week again. All the leaves are laying in a slick matt on the sidewalks, and I just feel like staying inside, curled up on the couch under a blanket, a good book in front of me and a cup of tea.

It's a nice visual, n'est-ce pas? Unfortunately, I've been watching too much TV lately, so it's more likely to be me sitting in the chair-I-bought-for-my-husband-but-I-always-hog-instead, under a blanket, watching the video tape of my Thursday night shows (Grey's Anatomy, The Office, My Name Is Earl, ER), eating crackers. At least I got the blanket part right!

It's been a long week. It feels so much longer than a regular week, and I'm not sure why. Well, DH is out of town AGAIN; for the last 6 weeks he's been traveling and teaching for 3 of them, or maybe more, I'm losing track. He's been in Rotterdam since leaving last Friday. Why should it make such a big difference when he's gone, outside of the fact that I love him and miss him? The kids are now old enough that it's not so physically demanding with them. It just feels harder having him gone for many days... like it's more work, more vigilance, my parenting radar never getting a break, and I get to do all the driving all on my own, no one to split it with.

And with MEA (or whatever they call it now) weekend, the kids are home for a four-day weekend. We got to sleep in at least (yay!). This makes up (a little) for the fact that now that older DS is in debate, he has to get to the school by 6:45 AM on Saturdays now. Ack!

So this week has felt long, even though it's a 3 day school week. To me it feels like it should at least be Friday, if not Saturday. Isn't it weird how we have "feelings" about Time like this?

I know that I want this week hurry a little because then DH will be home again!

Teaching & Rocket

I don't know how teachers do it. This was my second year of teaching a 4-hour workshop at The Loft with my friend S. Last year, our workshop on National Novel Writing Month, or "How to Write a Novel in a Month," was very popular-- 30 students-- and we got such good feedback that we decided to do it again. Now I have taught kids many time, usually in 1-2 hour segments, and that is tiring enough, but teaching adults for 4 hours just totally wipes me out! This time we had 25 students, and we already had an outline from the year before, but S and I still met several times to go through our material and make changes. We have a lot of info we are relaying to students. And I always get nervous about public speaking. I'm not good at it really, and luckily S has the gift for gab and she could probably do the whole 4 hours on her own. I do okay, as long as she is there backing me up.

So, now that's done for another year! I came home totally wiped out, wondering how people who teach all day, every day, do it. It's hard work!

And then this afternoon was the dedication of the rocket sculpture newly installed at the park a block away, Brackett Park in Minneapolis. Before our playground was remodeled a few years ago, we had a 40 year old 3-story rocket climbing toy, the signature of the park really. When we got new equipment, the city said we had to get rid of the rocket for safety reasons, and people have worked for many years to bring the rocket back as a piece of public sculpture. There were many fundraising events over the years, and now it is finally finished. The old rocket has been refurbished and mounted so that it looks like it is taking off and flying away, with cables tethering it to the ground. It really looks great!

And it was fun to see the neighborhood come together, celebrating and having fun with live music, speeches, lemonade and cookies and a rocket cake, rocket-paper-airplanes, bouncing contraptions for the kids, etc. It's unseasonably warm today, 85 and very very humid after lots of rain this week. It feels much hotter! So another day of wearing shorts, even if it is October.

And that's the new from Lake Woebegone for today!