On the way home from school...

I passed one river, two moose, three eagles, piles and piles of snow and thousand of trees. And that is just in an 8 minute drive!

Monday, monday

I just spent thirty minutes on the phone with customer support for my MP3 player. Remarkably, that whole time I was actually talking to a person (not on hold). Even better, we were able to reset my player and get it working again. The music was wiped, but at least it is functional. I have already reloaded some albums. And now I know how to fix it if I need to do it again--I took notes.

It is funny, I still sometimes tell my students that during a certain activity they are allowed to listen to their Walkmans. They look at me like I am crazy (and rightly so). I am really not THAT out of touch with culture, it just slips out.

Speaking of school, I just assigned a really cool project in science. We are doing a unit on the scientific method. Some of my students were talking about the show Myth Busters and I thought that would be a great way to look at the scientific method in action. Don't worry, they are NOT to try to bust any myths at home! Instead they are watching an episode of Myth Busters and evaluating their use of the method.

Students each have a different myth covered on the show. They will be making a Power Point or other digital presentation to be presented to the class on the Smart Board. Plus we will make a Myth Wall at school were we will post the myth and whether or not it is true. Students will also have the opportunity to add their write-up of the episode to the Myth Busters fan website Wiki. The website it set up to have people outline the scientific method as covered in each episode, so it fits in perfectly with what we are doing and gives the students a chance to contribute on a global scale.

I am psyched about the project. I hope they do a good job. I put a lot of time into recording episodes and outlining the project/grading rubric.

Funnily, here's another thing that dates me. A number of students don't have VCRs at home, they only have dvd players. I thought a VCR would be standard in everyone's home. I guess I need to learn how to use Phil's DVR for future projects.

By the way: You will actually get wetter running through the rain than you will walking. That myth was BUSTED.

Missing Kids

There was an avalanche last night about 21 miles north of here. So some of our kids (who commute from up to 30 miles away) couldn't make it in to school today. They did have the road cleared by this afternoon, so I'll see them tomorrow, unless the snow slides again--it is still quite wet here.

Unlike the Lower 48, we don't get school called off for snow. Even when I was teaching out in King Cove in the Aleutians we had school when we routinely had 100+ mile per hour winds.

Perspective

When you have to collect your own water, it gives you a new perspective on rain. Most of our household water is rain water which is caught and then goes through a double filtration system. Our tank holds 1000 gallons of water. With the snow and ice of winter we have been down to about 400 gallons left.

However, today alone, we gained about 100 gallons from the rain. I am actually happy about the rain, now. Rain is a blessing, even when it is freezing cold and has been pounding down all day. I don't have to feel so guilty about washing the dishes or my hair.

These are picture from this summer of our water system in action:

Avalanches

Phil and I were supposed to go to Anchorage last night to see "The Wallin' Jennys," but he had to work and couldn't get out of it (we both have jobs that are hard to get away from). Well, in the end, it was good we didn't go. The roads were in horrible condition. In fact, the road between here and Anchorage was closed (and still is) due to avalanches. They are working now on clearing it out.

Phil owns property about 30 miles from here and that area is called "Avalanche Acres" as the mountains are so steep on both sides. When we get this wet, heavy snow avalanches often come down. We are having mini-avalanches here at the house as the snow keeps sliding off the roof. It is about 34 degrees out and the rain/snow just keeps on coming. I am spending more time upstairs these days, as down here I feel like I am in, as Phil calls it, the snow cave.

My work environment

The front of my school

The side of my school

My Classroom

Cat Love

Buried

We're being buried in snow. There is a blizzard warning today.
The snow is actually covering the downstairs windows. It is pretty, but treacherous as well.

I'm two away...

Three tardies equals a lunch detention, and I got my first tardy today! I was late to school this morning. It is the first time I have ever been tardy, even including when I was a kid (I think). My car was still stuck this morning, so I waited to go to school until Phil got home with his car. I was about two minutes late. Funnily, no one seemed to care. The principal was in the office (not in his class) trying to get the copier to work and my kids were just sitting in the computer lab area (between the 8th grade classrooms) waiting for me to show up. I didn't have any prep to do, so I was ready to just jump into gear when I arrived. Everything went well, and all in all it was actually a pretty good day.

The student council had a school wide Valentine decoration competition on Thursday. The kids were supposed to decorate their lockers and the teachers their doors. I had a sub on Wednesday as I was at the meeting at the district office (about 2 hours away) and I asked my last hour math skills class (which is small) to decorate my door. I thought there would just be hearts everywhere. Well, there were, but what they did do was write them all as Valentines to me. It was neat. They wrote some sweet things and I was pleasantly surprised.

I went to NAPA after school and ordered chains for my car ($90!). I have all wheel drive and studded tires, but sometimes that is just not enough. It will be good to have the chains for backup, even though they blew my budget for the month. When I finally got home , my car was still there, stuck. Just as I got done making my way up the slippery driveway, I heard the sound of the front loader. Yeah! Two plow trucks and the loader all arrived at once. They plowed out the drive and then towed my car out and up the driveway. It's free again! I feel so relieved. Unfortunately, this does mean I will have to do my Saturday chores....

I still can't believe it!

Surprise, surprise...

I had a lovely surprise at school today. Phil had a beautiful bouquet of flowers delivered. It was the talk of the school--or at least the teacher's lounge. He is very sweet!



I had a not so sweet surprise also. With this wet, sloggy rain/snow I was unable to get the car up the driveway. What I did manage to do was get the car stuck in such a way that I don't even know how it will get pulled out. I like this house, but it is a pain in the winter It would probably be less of a problem if our plow guy would actually come by and plow. I can't get anyone out until tomorrow afternoon to try shift the car, so I am going to have to take a cab to work and back tomorrow. Marching my way up and down the driveway this afternoon, I couldn't help but flash back to last winter when I fell on that hill and fractured two of my vertebrae. I hope I'll make it down and up again in one piece tomorrow.

Something new to celebrate.

Happy Lunar New Year!

Check this site out to learn about your Chinese Zodiac sign. I am a Boar.

Moose Morning

Usually the first thing I do when I get up in the morning is look out my bedroom window to see how much new snow there is, or figure out how much window scraping I will have to do. Yesterday what I saw was a huge moose standing about 10 feet from my car eating some Alder. By the time I went out to start the car I couldn't see the moose, but I still heard it crunching on branches. So luckily I was able to get to my car and safely out of the driveway. When I got home that afternoon the moose was still hanging around on our street.

It is cold here. Our house is not well insulated--there are a lot of windows and many have cracked seals. Plus, the furnace is a bit old and not very efficient. Fuel prices are so high--we spend about $350 a month on heating oil. Still we cranked the thermostat up to 82 in the afternoon and by bedtime it was just registering 67. It is supposed to stay cold for a while, so I guess I better just bundle up. The positive side of the cold is that it is also very clear and very sunny, which is lovely.

A Lovely Day

Yesterday Phil and I traveled to Anchorage to see the opera. There isn't much in the way of cultural activities here, so we have to drive the 240+ miles round trip (through mountains, ice, snow and darkness) to see performances. We usually go to 6-10 events a year. So far this year we have seen Roy Haynes and Ravi Coltrane (jazz), Leahy (Celtic) and last night's performance of Guiseppe Verdi's "Il Travatore."

The opera was sung in Italian with English supertitles--we both prefer non-English opera. As always, I found the singing amazing. I won't usually listen to opera at home, but hearing/seeing it live is wonderful. Two years ago Phil and I saw "Madame Butterfly." It was the first opera for both of us and couldn't have been a more perfect introduction to the genre. We had seen the musical of "Miss Saigon" the previous spring, which is based off "Madame Butterfly," so the plot as easy to follow. The singing itself was stunning, but what capped it all off was that it takes place in Japan, so the set was very Asian and everyone was dressed in kimono (kimono is not pluralized in Japan). With my penchant for Japan (I have been there twice) I was hooked.

Contrary to what some of my friends back home might think, we actually traveled to Anchorage by car, not dog sled. I have a Subaru Forester, which is a quintessential Alaskan car, as it is so good for winter driving. So what did this typical drive to Anchorage entail? On the way up we passed ice climbers on the frozen water falls around Turnagain Arm. The mountain walls are steep along the side of the road and sometimes it feels like the climbers are right above you as you pass by them. This day the roads were fairly clear of snow and ice, except around the mountain pass, and although it was cold, it was a beautiful sunny day.

On the way back it was dark (we left Anchorage around 11:30 p.m.--I drive up and Phil drives back). For most of the drive there is nothing but pure wilderness. As matter of fact, the Travel Channel and several other organizations list it as one of the top scenic drives in the country. A little out of Anchorage a passing car flashed its headlights at us, even though our brights weren't on. Just seconds later Phil saw a moose lying on the side of the road. The car had apparently just hit it. There are hundreds of moose fatalities every year on the roads in Alaska. We don't know if that moose survived or not (and yes, we do have moose that sometimes walk/browse their way through our yard).

Last night was clear and cold and dark. With the moon a waning crescent and not much light pollution, you could see a galaxy of stars. Not only that, but the aurora was out. It was a quite, green aurora (at low elevations in the sky, which this one was, it means the gas emitting the light is Oxygen).

While it is a long drive, it was pretty easy going, with little traffic that late. We got home at an exhausting two in the morning. Even though it made for a long day, it was still a quite lovely day all in all.