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The Land of the Weird

R.I.P. Chris Deneka

2/15/2019

Chris and I were not good friends. In fact, there were times that I could not stand being around him (and probably vice versa). That did not stop us from having good times together, nor did it stop me from mourning when I heard that he passed away today. I'm still in shock. He was talking about haircuts or something else mundane just a couple of days ago (probably moaning about women ... he did that a lot). Now he's suddenly gone.

Chris and I shared a lot of common interests; although he tended to go a little darker than I preferred. The first I really knew about him was after he dumped one of my friends. Then the jerk had the audacity to be fun to hang around when we were in the Sound of Music together our freshmen year. We only had small speaking parts, but in one scene we self-choreographed a hostile encounter between the two of our characters, utilizing a prop cane that he carried.

He, Chad, and I sang a trio version of "You've Lost That Loving Feeling" at one of the first Spaghetti Dinner concerts. We, with Derek, were part of the quartet of Keystone Cops who received silver chalices in recognition for our crew work (as well as singing and dancing) in The Pirates of the Penzance. He and I stole Paul Chamberlain's lines every time Paul didn't show up for a South Pacific rehearsal. The two of us and Aaron were the low basses in the Men's Choir that was state ranked.

The jerk dated my sister (I'm talking about Chris here, not Aaron--although he did too), and I did not think the best of him when that didn't go well. Then he would get me laughing again about some off-color Dungeons and Dragons joke. He broke a couple of my friends' hearts, but we still commiserated together during the times when our hearts were broken too. Like many high school connections, we lost touch during college.

Once Facebook was invented, we reconnected. Again, I cannot claim a close friendship, but we read each other's posts and commented from time to time. I had expected to be able to do so for decades to come.

Not this. I did not expect this.

I mourn his passing and pray for his children.

Ben and Jerry's

2/14/2019

When Janelle and I first started dating, she lived in Bartlett Hall and I lived next door in Moore. Connecting them, and the smaller Skarland doom, was a sort of entryway that included a game area, a small stage (where I had a regular membership to the comedy club), and a tiny sandwich and snack shop. One of our preferred items to take up into one dorm or the other were the pints of Ben and Jerry's ice cream that they sold there.

Over the years, getting these tiny, overpriced but tasty pints has become a bit of a tradition for us. We do not get them often due to their cost and sugar content. However, they are my go-to treat for days like Valentine's or our anniversary. Janelle will often pick them up if she's in a cuddling mood. They do not get shared with the kids.

And so today, being Valentine's Day, Janelle brought chocolate dipped strawberries, I brought the Ben and Jerry's, and we spent a romantic hour watching the second to last episode of the second season of the Punisher.

Happy Valentine's Day, and thank you, Ben and Jerry's.

A Loser Teacher

2/13/2019

As angry as I have become due to the rhetoric spewed by a number of demagogues and their followers, I have to admit that one of them hit the nail on the head yesterday: I am a loser teacher. It's unfortunately, miserably, horrendously, and laughably true. As a teacher, I have certainly been on the losing side.

Since becoming a teacher over two decades ago, I have lost quite a bit. I've lost a good portion of my healthcare, and what is left comes at a high premium. I have lost the pension plans which teachers used to be able to rely on, and now sit on a "death tier" which also loses my social security. I have lost a marketable salary, especially when accounting for education and inflation. I have lost much of the respect which teachers used to be given, and instead read posts even from family, friends, and former students who denigrate my profession--and thus me by extension.

I have also lost my patience.

Despite all this loss, I fight doggedly on, for I am determined that I keep my charges from being "loser" students.

A Close Shave

2/12/2019

For most of my life, I have used an electric razor. The process is easy, painless, and does not leave any cuts or nicks. I did not really see any reason to change.

Then I shaved with a disposable razor, and felt how smooth my face could actually get. It had just assumed that my face or whiskers (or both) naturally led to an early 5 o'clock shadow. I was shocked at the difference.

That was a couple of months ago, and I have experimented with a couple of different types of razors to see which one works the best for me with the fewest nicks and cuts. On occasion, especially on a couple of hurried mornings, I have used my electric razor only to feel ... well ... unclean for the rest of the day. Sure, part of the issue might be that I haven't replaced the blades in my electric razor since I bought it about a decade ago, but as I said, I never remember having my face feel this smooth.

R.I.P. Monte Long

2/11/2019

I was devastated to learn that Monte Long, my mentor and friend, passed away on Saturday. He had been suffering from a number of health issues for a quite a while now, but was as vociferous as ever on social media just last week. The outpouring of memories and love for the man on Facebook this evening is a testament for how deeply he affected so many lives.

Monte was my vocal coach, and so much of the musical ability that I currently have is due to his deft honing. He could be brutally honest, but he always knew when to push and when to give praise. He molded my understanding of my voice, my presence, and my confidence, and I am forever indebted to him.

There are many, many stories to share about Monte, but three stand out the sharpest in my memory to the point that I can hear his voice and see the room as though I was there right now:

The first time I spoke with him was at my audition for The Sound of Music. At the start of my audition, he said that he had seen me around the school and wondered why I had not joined choir. My infamous reply was, "Because I sing like roadkill." To which he simply said while laughing, "Fair enough."

During a vocal lesson, as I belted out the piece I was practicing for solo and ensemble, he stopped me with a "No! No! No! 'Gia Il Sole Dal Gange' is a love song! You are to sing it with emotion and delicacy, not like the lyrics are 'Let's go to the bar and get drunk!"

Lastly, early in our rehearsal schedule, I asked him why he chose me to play Tevye in our school's production of Fiddler on the Roof when there were so many amazing voices in our choir. He told me that they all did a great job in their auditions of playing the role of Tevye, but that when I started my audition, it was clear from my eyes and expression that I WAS Tevye in that moment.

When Katrina entered choir at Northwest, I made certain that she would have the privilege of working with such a master instructor. She only had him as a vocal coach for a year or two before he moved out east, but he had an impact on her life as well. Thus, his work inspired not just me and my sisters, but multiple generations of my family.

Monte left behind an amazing legacy. I am glad that social media has allowed me to stay in contact with him throughout the years. I already miss his audaciousness.

The Fifth Sunday in Ordinary Time

2/10/2019

In today's Gospel, Jesus tells Simon (who will become Peter) and the other fishermen to cast their nets again despite not having caught any fish there before. Simon clearly doubted that anything will happen, but after they pull in the nets teaming with fish he prostrated himself before Jesus. In the homily, we were asked to imagine the encounter: the Carpenter goes to a fisherman and tells him how to fish. Why would Simon listen to Him? Simon had some reason to believe in Jesus already after Jesus healed his mother-in-law. Still, Simon was clearly sceptical and hesitant. Yet he followed Jesus' request anyway, and was rewarded for it.

Our live are better when we follow the teachings of Jesus. Work which we normally struggle with becomes better when we follow His direction. Through Him, we receive a greater satisfaction from our daily activities, often achieving more than we could have expected on our own. Often, when we try to do work on our strength, we find that strength flagging and the work disappointing. By allowing God to work through us, our endurance increases and we succeed in ways that we did not expect.

Powerless

2/9/2019

Today's above freezing temperatures allowed ice to accumulate on multiple powerlines in our area, breaking them. As a result, many neighborhoods, including ours, were without power while crews worked to find and fix the problems. Ours was out for over five hours. Thankfully, only about one hour of it was after sunset. In fact, the lights came on right while we were eating dinner.

I really don't like being without power. Much of my entertainment, my schoolwork, and my job rely on it. Janelle had to come up with an inspired workaround (using our grill) to bake the English muffins and bread that was proofing just before the power went out. We kept our refrigerator and freezer doors closed, and used water and the bathrooms sparingly.

We are fortunate that these sorts of power outages are less frequent than in the other places that we have lived. Still, I would like to have a backup. In truth, I get so frustrated with power outages that I would like to have my own system entirely--which just isn't practical right now.

For now, I am grateful for the line workers who went out on a cold Saturday to get our power running again.

Time to Organize

2/8/2019

I really feel that we did a better job organizing when we moved into this house than we did for any of our previous moves. This is saying something considering that we have moved about a dozen times and that we have accumulated a great deal in the past several decades. Somehow, we have most of it put away so that we can get to it rather quickly.

There are some areas that could certainly use improvement. My tools, for example, are still in wide disarray with different tools and pieces of equipment in various locations in the garage and the house. However, the area that needs the most work at present is our "pantry" room, also known as Trevor's LEGO room. While Trevor's LEGOS are kept in good order, because it is right next to the kitchen, it has become a bit of a catch-all for any food or kitchen accessories (as well as some of my aforementioned tools) that don't fit in the kitchen cupboards. It is also our storage for paper products that we buy in bulk from Costco.

Currently, it's difficult to even walk into the room. Janelle has long said that we need to put shelves on the far wall. Unfortunately, we can't use a freestanding bookshelf or similar premade shelving system because of the baseboard heating that runs along the bottom of the wall. This means setting up wall-mounted shelves, a process that takes me a while if I want to do it right. Thus, we have not made much progress in this area since we moved in.

Considering the growing clutter, I think that I need to start making progress in that room tomorrow. I just hope that my resolve is still with me in the morning.

"Spring" Conferences

2/7/2019

Although usually referred to as the spring semester, it's hard to think of it that way when we're in the first week of February. Today's parent/teacher conferences, like most spring conferences that I've been a part of, was quite sparsely attended. Most of the parents I saw today were of students who are doing quite well in my classes. It is reaffirming to tell parent after parent how much I like their child, so today was not without merit.

I also enjoyed the chance to get better acquainted with my colleagues and friends. Not only did we have down time during the conferences and were given multiple opportunities to communicate during our professional development half day, but I also got to go out to lunch with some of my SoHi friends in between. This made today an even better day.

I'm still not sold on the idea of having parent/teacher conferences so early in the semester. However, all-in-all, I'm glad that the day played out the way that it did. Once again, my own plans and expectations are so often exceeded by the actual experiences provided for me.

Wheel Spinning

2/6/2019

I'm not making much headway in my dissertation. I seem to keep getting tripped up in the opening stage (the prospectus). It feels like every time a new person sees it, another unseen roadblock gets tossed into the path. I make the changes suggested each time, but then the next set of feedback takes it in a different direction.

I just got back another request for revision this morning. Due to a variety of unfortunate circumstances, this feedback got to me over two months after I sent in the latest draft. The required revisions include a complete reworking of my methodology in a way that I do not know how to accomplish. Yet it also includes the note, "Sounds like an interesting study!"

I'm baffled. Hopefully, it will make more sense after I give myself a few days to digest it.

I just thought that I'd be farther along by now.

Berms

2/5/2019

Now, I love snow, and I also still like being able to get places. Normally, this slow accumulation of a few inches every day or so would bring me a great deal of joy. However, the shoveling is starting to cause my back and shoulders to complain (and thus for the rest of me to complain too). At least I've been getting in some exercise.

The real problem is that we've needed to drive on the fresh snow before we really have a chance to shovel it. This packs the snow down compact enough that shoveling it is not easy (or sometimes feasible). It's particularly concerning on the narrow part of the driveway as it makes the vehicles want to slide a bit towards one side or the other (where I have been stuck before).

I spent a while chipping away a few of these berms today while shoveling the few inches of snow that accumulated last night. The progress was slow and wearing. The boys did not seem to make any headway on the ones they attacked. Last year, Janelle poured salt directly on the ones that lead to the garage to soften them up before chipping them away with our large ice scraper.

For the meantime, I get to pretend that I'm off-roading with my Prius as I leave for work.

Goodbye Google Plus

2/4/2019

I started getting notifications about a week ago that Google Plus was going to stop its service at the beginning of April, at which point Google will start deleting account information loaded on it. This is not the first time that Google has removed or significantly changed a function of theirs that I have used, nor will it be the last. I'm just hoping that Google doesn't decide to eliminate Hangouts or Drive, as I've really come to rely on them.

Google Plus was just not as easy to use or as visually appealing as Facebook. I also didn't know as many people who were using it. Probably my favorite updates were from the NASA pictures and Felicia Day (who cracks me up). However, I had been seeing even less and less from those sites in the past year.

Still, copying my daily blogs and posting them to Google Plus (like I do on Facebook) has been part of my daily ritual for nearly five years. Anytime we lose something familiar, there is a bit of emptiness in the space it once took. However, I think I'll get over this loss pretty quickly.

Fourth Sunday in Ordinary Time

2/3/2019

In today's Gospel, Jesus is chased from His hometown. People who knew Him from His youth wanted to go so far as to throw him headfirst from the top of the hill ... all because He was not what they expected. They wanted a Messiah who would solve all of their problems for them. One who would crush all of their enemies, heal all of their sick, and make them into a nation that would make the world tremble.

Instead, He tells them that they need to change the way that they live their lives. He accuses them of not helping the poor and sick enough. He tells them that He is there to bring God's love to those who are not the "chosen people."

God is not who or what we imagine. He is beyond it in ways that our minds cannot comprehend. Yet He still keeps Him message simple: love. Even those who are weird. Even those who believe differently than us. Even those who have wronged us. Even our greatest enemies.

I struggle with this so very much in my life. It is too easy to pass judgment on those who seem too stupid, too strange, too hateful to deserve anything less than contempt. Yet in doing so, I separate myself from God, for God is within each of us.

... even the Patriots.

Running Free

2/2/2019

As much as I like the new dog yard for the freedom it gives our dogs and the time they can now play together, I still would like to let them loose out in our main yard so they can get to full speed. Unfortunately, they are not the best about staying in our yard or in coming back to us when we call. When outside together, they listen even less, but instead goad each other on to go farther and farther out.

Occasionally, I try letting them out anyway. If I let both of them go, it takes forever to get them back. When I take them out one at a time, they are a little better about staying closer (especially Starbuck), but then the other one goes a little wild in the house, or dog yard, with jealousy.

Today, Starbuck made a break for it when I let them into the dog yard. Thankfully, I was able to keep River contained while I tried to coax Starbuck back. When she finally made it back in, I decided to let River have some free time. This time, I brought a pocket full of dog treats. She still didn't come right when I called, but she didn't go as far and came back quicker than usual.

Later, I tried let each one out again. They still weren't the best at coming to me when I called; although they generally stayed within sight. Interestingly, they both responded quickly to the phrase "Let's go back in." When I said that, each of them headed to our door--even if River did come up to me expecting a treat first.

I still don't trust them both out together.