Giving Thanks

Last year


This year

I just realized that this year will be the first Thanksgiving at home in the US in 2 years. One year ago, Robin and I were hiking with friends on a very foggy Mount Takao outside of Tokyo, and then going to dinner at the beautiful Ukai-Toriyama, which is tucked into the valley beneath the mountain. Dinner 2 years ago was in Tokyo in our new home there, with just the 4 of us. Thanksgiving dinner had never tasted better. That was the year I spent 50 dollars on the turkey! Yikes.

This year as I prepare for dinner, I hear drilling, grinding and banging on my roof. Huge pieces are being thrown down from above, falling past my windows and landing with loud bangs that startle me over and over. Every time a big piece falls, I think it's some BODY falling off my roof and landing in my yard with a plop. The yard is a mess, the porch in the back is covered with debris. I have 12 people coming for dinner tomorrow, and things are really not pretty here. I will just pretend it's a kind of still-life art exhibit made of trash, twisted metal and rotten wood, and try to ignore it all.

On the plus side, ALL my boys will be home and we will all be together for the first time since July. We are all busy doing what we should be doing. Working, going to school, following our passions. We are healthy, have the best friends on the entire planet, (all over the planet!) and loving families. There is much to be thankful for.

Vote for Radio the Ape

Please vote every day. Use every email address you have to register. They have moved up from 6th place to 5th place. Find them in the Northeast Region. Lets keep those votes coming!



http://namm.promo.eprize.com/schooljamusa/create_profile

The Kendall- my new favorite hotel.

The Kendall is a hotel in Cambridge, right near the MIT campus. It was built in 1894 to house the horses and fire wagons of the Cambridge Fire Company no. 7. The fire house served all of the surrounding Kendall area. The men who worked there considered themselves to be the black sheep of the Boston Fire Department. I'm not sure why, but that's the lore. There is now a restaurant in the lobby of the hotel called "The Black Sheep" in homage to these men. Matt and I ate breakfast there, right in front of one of the large doors that opened to the street. The rest of the hotel is decorated in period antiques and displays of antiques. Late Friday evening, at the end of our long drive, I walked in an immediately loved the place. There is parking outside and under the hotel, and the people there were completely friendly and accommodating. They were completely cool with me checking out on Saturday, but keeping my car parked for the day while we visited Emerson College. Plus- Hurricane Ida rained on us all day, and they loaned us an umbrella. If Matt ends up at Emerson, I've got a home away from home only 3 train stops away from campus. Where else could I find brightly colored cotton patchwork quilts on a King sized bed?

The Kendall is listed in a registry of Historic Hotels. Just a delightful accidental find in Boston.

Renewable Energy in Trumansburg

My friends are getting their windmill fixed today. It's a pretty big ordeal. The tower is 100 feet high, it requires replacement parts, a crane, a fork lift and many hands on deck. Luckily for everyone, today was a fairly still, clear, sunny day. There was wind, but it wasn't too bad. Anne had her coffee friends over (and included me!) so that we could eat, drink coffee and watch the work being done.

My green-minded friends put the wind turbine up to help off-set the electricity requirements to have a farm with animals throughout the year. Originally, Farmer Bill had thrilled at the prospect of popping open a beer and watching his energy meter run backwards on windy days! Whatever extra energy the windmill generated would go back on the grid, and NYSEG would pay them for it. What a sweet deal! It took them several years from the conception of their idea to actually building the tower and operating the system, so they were pretty disheartened when it broke down some time early this year. It had only been up and running for a relatively short time, when the equipment that was supposed to turn the fan blades out of very high winds didn't work, and the engine burned out. Apparently very strong gusts are bad for the turbine and the whole thing is supposed to turn parallel with the wind instead of directly into it. It can only stand so much mph.

Today the crew arrived with the new engine and tail pieces and set about taking the old parts down. It was fun to watch, the company was entertaining, the dogs were adorable, the scenery gorgeous and the weather lovely. We left before the job was done, but I expect that Farmer Bill will be dancing a jig one of these days as he again pops open his beer and sees that ol' meter spinning backwards. We should all be taking a page from farmer Bill's Book.

There are giant wind turbines up on the Tug Hill region of NYS. They are an awesome and beautiful sight. My eyes see clean, green renewable energy, the elegance of modern technology, sleek futuristic design and a brighter future for our children. For those folks who say, "Not in MY backyard" to wind generated energy, I say, it's just a matter of time. Hopefully soon our generation will aggressively knock down the obstacles to renewable energy and openly embrace the beauty of going green.

National Battle of the Bands

Radio the Ape

Radio the Ape entered a competition sponsored by an organization that supports music education. NAMM is the acronym, and I believe they sell music equipment and support active music making. NAMM chose 10 high school rock bands from each region of the US to "battle it out" on-line. Out of all the entries, RTA and nine other bands made the top 10 in the Northeast! Now there is a frenzy of daily voting going on, where anyone can go to the web site and support the band of her choice. The band with the most votes in each region will compete in Anaheim California face to face early in 2010. They will also receive money for their local school music department. A pretty good deal for everyone.

http://www.wannaplaymusic.com/programs/schooljam-usa

We just found out that Radio the Ape is ranked 6th out of 10 in the voting. Sadly, I suspected as much. Most of the other bands are from large metropolitan areas, have more friends, a bigger fan base, more votes on their side. So if you can cut and paste the above address into your search window, enter in some basic information (email) you can then vote everyday for our boys. Once every 24 hours.

If nothing else, it's pretty interesting to go to the web site and listen to the great variety of original music coming from some very talented teens from across our great land!

Feast or Famine

My youngest son Matt was in the One-Act plays this past weekend at our High School and was truly hilarious. Many of the kids were brilliantly funny, and it was a highly entertaining evening.


So things have been pretty quiet in my blog world. School has been keeping me busy. I am happy to report that there were a total of 30 kids out 5-8 today. The swine flu has apparently peaked and is waning. Good! This weekend was Area All State, the High School one-act comedies, the cast party, a visit with my friend with new baby twins, dinner with Mom and Dad and brother and a Taiko concert at Cornell. I guess there are only 2 settings for me: boring or frenetic.

Exercise has gone out the window as work takes over my life. Tonight I had Community Chorus. I think it went pretty well. I wish I had more time for friends, but I am considering joining a Taiko class up near Cornell. I have a friend who likes to say, "I'll sleep when I'm DEAD!" Meaning, of course that life is meant to be full and busy and rewarding and slightly frenetic. We only get this chance once. Live it to the fullest I say.

I am looking forward to tomorrow- after school I only have to meet with my general contractor to make some decisions concerning roof, windows and doors for our up-coming project. Then Wednesday! Ah Veteran's Day! No School! I need to take my car in for an oil change and then will go to my friend's house to watch their new wind turbine go up. If you know enough interesting people, there's always something fascinating going on.

H1N1- in my face.

What do Snow Monkeys have to do with Swine Flu? Look carefully at their expressions.



I found out at our faculty meeting today that our district, and more specifically our building is the hardest hit by the Swine Flu in the County. I really didn't need to be told though. My classes sound like a TB ward. My hands are raw and chapped from hand washing. Every time a student coughs out on all of us, I go insane and rant about the correct way to cough. (My personal opinion is the only correct way to cough is in your own home, and into your pillow) Our preferred method at school is into one's own elbow. So what do the munchkins do? Lamely cough in the direction of their elbow. Then I really go nuts, and make everyone in my class jam their elbows onto their faces and feel their arms pressing firmly over their mouths. I am losing patience- both with the kids and the administration. (I was secretly wishing the Super could sit in my room today and listen to the kids.) Sadly, many of these kids who are recovering from Swine Flu are coming back to school too soon after being sick. Last Friday, we had 65 students absent. Monday we had 128. Today and yesterday it was about 105. This is 1/4 of our student population.

Parents cannot afford to miss work, so they desperately try to send their kids back- only to get a call from the school nurse by 9:00 that their child needs to go home. I understand there was some talk about managing the pandemic by encouraging employers to be flexible with their employees, allowing them to miss work to be able to care for their children at home when they get sick. So far, we haven't seen any of that. I am feeling a bit annoyed, having to go into this bio hazard work zone every morning. And just yesterday, our nurse told us that she had gotten a phone call from a concerned parent who was told by her son that kids were coughing on each other on purpose. Welcome to middle school. Welcome to germ hell.

I am teaching ukulele to 6th graders. It's pretty fun. But now every time I move a student's finger onto the correct position, I cringe, I shudder, I quell. I asked a child today to cut his nails and wash his hands before tomorrow. I think I embarrassed him. He tried to hide his hands from me after that. Too bad. There was a time when I would have felt really sorry for making a kid ashamed like that. Now I am indignantly and unabashedly protecting my own health and safety. Teachers have become more like parents than ever. For some kids, we are their only decent role models for behavior and hygiene. If this were Japan, BTW (y'all know what I'm about to say, dontcha?) everyone would be wearing masks. Not just to protect themselves, but to protect others.

I'll step down off my soap box now. That reminds me. Time to wash my hands again.