from the porches

i wish

I wish I could say it was warm here, but it's not.  Yesterday Truett and I took Madeline to her last swim lesson of the year.  I suppose they will start classes up again in the spring.

      

 She swam in an unheated pool for thirty minutes, then jumped in the heated baby pool to warm up.  Maddie is a lot braver than I am.  Here she is with her final ribbon for this class.  Her kitten towel is draped on her head and Nana's jacket is keeping her warm.  What a sweetheart and great little swimmer she is.

I wish I could say it is warm here, but it is not.  It will dip to 29 degrees in the morning and only be 63 for the Gator game against Citadel.  I'll definitely have my jacket and mittens on.

      

 I wish I could say the weather is perfect for a cruise down the Santa Fe, but it isn't, at least for me.  The North wind blew another cold front our way today.

      

 I wish I could dive in the water and swim with the fish, but it's too cold for that as well.

      

 There is a cross on the Sata Fe banks.  I suppose this man died at the river or his cross would be elsewhere.  I wish that hadn't have happened.

I just wish that if it were this cold in Florida, we should at least get a bonus...Snow!  But we won't.

a craving

This afternoon I had a craving.  I'm not a chocolate eater, so it wouldn't be chocolate. I'm not an ice cream eater, so it wasn't Rocky Road.  I wasn't craving bread, especially cornbread.  What then?  I could almost taste it.  Then it hit me...I was craving nature.  

I was craving that quiet beauty found all around me.  No more Waffle House pictures for a while.  No more Gator games for a while.  Just give me a taste of nature. 

      

             So Truett and I drove to the Santa Fe River and walked along the bank.

      

                                      Mostly I saw reflections.

      

                    You can see the shadow of the Hwy. 47 bridge in this shot.

      

   Autumn colors are still with us even though the temperature this morning was 23 degrees.  Brrrr!

           

          Truett took this photograph of afternoon reflections. 

Yes, I had an insatiable appetite that could only be satisfied by nature, and now I'm content.

 

no grits

This morning on car rider duty I happened to look up between the eaves of the metal walkway and my building. 

       

  "Gosh, that's pretty." I thought.  Now ignore the metal carport and look at the moon, sky and pecan tree.

      

At 7:30 a.m. this isn't a bad view. It was only two weeks ago, before daylight savings time took effect, that we were opening car doors in the dark.  Don't be fooled and think, "Ahh, sunny Florida.  If only I could be there right now."  That beautiful blue sky is an indication that the night temperatures will plummet into the twenties over night.  Brrrrr!  That is too cold for me!

"I'm sorry about the cold weather,"  one mama apologized as she dropped her little darling off.  "Yeah, me too,"  I answered.  "Do you want to switch places?"  She shook her head and exclaimed,  "No, thank you," and I could have sworn she burned rubber getting away from me.  Do you think she thought I was going to yank her out of her toasty car and stick her out in the 28 degree weather with me?

Well, tonight I picked mom up for our Tuesday night dinner. "Where do you want to eat?"  I asked.

"How about Waffle House."  So that's exactly where we went.

      

 Not much to look at, but I will tell you right now that those over easy eggs, hash browns, bacon and toast hit the spot.  Especially, with hot coffee to wash it all down.  MmmmMmm!  Good eating every once in a while.

      

Since Mom and I were the only customers for about twenty minutes I asked our waitress and cook if I could take their photograph.  They happily obliged. 

I do worry about Waffle House, though.  Tonight they didn't have any orange juice.  I told the waitress it was a good thing I wasn't pregnant and relayed the story about me being pregnant with Merry Jennifer in 1972.  Back then Truett and I went to a Waffle House and I ordered toast and jelly along with my bacon and eggs.  The waitress back then told us they were out of jelly.  Well, my hormones were raging all over the place and I lit into the waitress and manager for all I was worth.  "NO JELLY IN A BREAKFAST PLACE!  UNHEARD OF!"  I refused to eat my food,Truett apologized, and quickly ushered me out of there. 

My waitress tonight said,  "I'm sure glad you aren't pregnant tonight 'cause we're out of grits."

good news

1.  Yipee!  It pays to be and "A" school.  We received our bonus money from the Feds for doing a decent job in raising scores according to "No Child Left Behind" Act.  (I'm buying some new eyeglasses...the no-frame-Sara Palin-look.)  

Actually, all that means is no rims around the frames.  Gosh!  These eyeglass take up a HUGE amount of  my bonus money. 

2.  Then I figure I'll go to Publix grocery twice; and, there you are an A year's worth of hard work.

Oh ny gosh!  What are these?

      

                                          No, these are not bats.

      

Oh my goodness, what are they?  They remind me of The Birds by Alfred Hitchock.  Dag nabit, they're crows in High Springs, FL!  /why are they flying?  Why are they unsettled. 

Because it's cold!

swamped

What a great weekend.  The mighty, MIGHTY Gators swamped the Gamecocks of South Carolina!  Dear old Steve Spurrier's team.  The same Steve Spurrier that left the Gator Nation high and dry.  The same Steve Spurrier that broke the Gator fans' hearts.  But we all got over it and several years later, in comes  Urban Meyer who restored our faith by proving he can coach and produce a winning team. 

So now I'll show you a few photos of our day, beginning with the pre-game lunch at McAllister's.

                         

                         

Then a short tailgating session followed by a ride to the stadium in bicycle rickshaws..

                          

Past churches and and other scenes.

                       

Then we arrived at the stadium and came across the Krishnahs who entertain the fans.   

                      

And then the rains began to fall.  Not heavy, but enough to make us uncomfortable for a while.

                     

                     

And now I'll leave you as one big happy Gator fan.  

      

              

dreaming

It is truly amazing how attending a writing workshop away from my school for seven hours rejenuevated my interest and enthusiasm for teaching.  As much as I love my weekends, as much as I love my freedom, as much as I love time off, after the workshop today I couldn't quiet my mind.  I wanted to get in there with new vim and vigor and try strategies that I had forgotten about. 

I wanted to take a student paper and draw arrows from supporting details back to the main idea sentence.  But most of all I envisioned the children excited along with me.  I could see in my mind them whispering to themselves,  "Yeah, that's what I need to do to earn a '6'."  Then I was thinking, Maybe the children should attend the workshop and then they would believe ME and think, She's not so bad after all.

 Oh, well. Enough for dreaming.  My niece, Alyson and her love, Alan are visiting for the weekend.  We're headed to the Gator game against South Carolina tomorrow.  It is taking a lot for Alan because he is a die-hard Seminole. So I feel compelled to show this picture again just to be ugly.

       

                                                     Go Gators!

Now I feel all better!  Once again, enjoy that weekend of yours.

 

sun and moon

Just a couple of shots of the sun and the moon.

      

 This moon probably explains why a few fourth grade boys were so disrespectful yesterday..sticking their fingers in their mouths and letting out  big POPS!  Obviously, they didn't want to write, so I flipped the lights off and had them put their heads down...in the dark.  So, do you think you want to be a teacher now?

      

The moon here looks so eerie while I was on car rider duty.  But wait.  That's NOT the moon.

      

                              It's the sun covered by clouds.

Have a great day.

death of a woodpecker

This afternoon as I was leaving school one of the teachers said she had read my post about the bat laying outside my classroom door.  She went on to say,  "I'm surprised you haven't taken a picture of the dead bird by the gym."

"What kind of dead bird?"  I asked.

"I'm not sure, but it might be a woodpecker.  It has a red head."  She also told me it was found face down with its beak stuck in the sandy ground. 

Then we discussed how it might have died.  Was it West Nile Virus or did it fly into the gym window?  Do we need to report the death or let it be?  More questions to fill my mind which is already cluttered up and scenes to disturb my soul.

  So off I scurried back to my classroom to grab my camera and then off for the search of a dead bird with a red head.  Sure enough, it was woodpecker.

    

                                             "Aw, poor thing. 

Then I looked up to the gym window and thought it probably saw its reflection in the window and flew into it.  Probably.

      

                                               Yes, way up there.

      

                                         Aw, poor thing.

After viewing the photographs Truett brought out The Sibley Field Guide to Birds and we looked through the woodpecker pages to try to correctly identify the bird.  It appears to be a Yellow-bellied Sapsucker.  Now I'm truly amazed that all these times I've seen this bird I thought it was a red-headed woodpecker.  Not so.

       

                                           Good-bye little bird. 

So this afternoon I'm mourning the Yellow-bellied Sapsucker and realizing that without my camera I wouldn't catch any of life's joys and sorrows.

economic woes

All around our neighboring communities I see businesses that have been serving our area for decades, closing their doors.  My goodness, the Cadillac dealership in Gainesville closed right about the time I was thinking about buying a new caddie.  (Just kidding)  Then there are the restaurants that have bitten the dust.  What about our Waffle Houses?  Even one of our own local restaurants is shutting down.

I see the economic woes everywhere and I want to say,  "Don't close your doors.  Things will get better."  But then again, I'm not carrying their debts, and after watching the nightly news with Peter Gibson tonight, things are going to get worse. 

So how does the poor economy affect me?  Right at the seat of my pants, starting with our dry cleaners in High Springs.

      

It's not a BIG thing, but my trusty dry cleaners stopped cleaning clothes on Monday; therefore, on Tuesdays I can no longer pick up my cleaning.  "But why?"  I asked.  "They're just cutting back hours," one employee told me.  Every Tuesday afternoon I go to the dry cleaners to pick up or drop off clothes.  Every Tuesday for the past 4 years, and now, all of a sudden management has decided that I can no longer get my clothes on Tuesday because they don't work on Monday anymore.  Phooey!

Oh, I whined a lot to the new employee.  "That means I have to drive twenty miles back to High Springs another day when I already come to High Springs EVERY TUESDAY!"  The poor girl threw up her hands and said,  "I'll speak with management."  HA! 

I've also noticed that the turnover in the dry cleaner's employees is constantly fluctuating.  A new person every several weeks.  I want to scream when they ask me my name, so since I'm relatively pissed off because of my inconvenience of an additional trip to the dry cleaners,  I make the new employee scratch out "Mary" and put my correct name "Merry."  I know that's being hateful, so I apologize right now.  Sorry.

      

 Here's a photo of the inside of our dry cleaners with its antiquated ironing boards and steamers.  I asked the new employee,  "Well, can I at least take a photograph of your place?  Boy, did she stammer, "Uh, I'd have to call management about that."  Good grief!  For four years, they knew my car, my name, my clothes, where I'd be going to eat that night with my mom...everything.  But now they know nothing!  Phooey!

      

Well, last Thursday was my lucky day.  A NEW young employee with cute little dog ears and hat waited on me.  After teaching her how to spell my name correctly and while she was searching for my clothes, I asked,  "Do you mind if I take a photograph in here?"

"Sure.  Why not,"  she answered.  Quickly I took photos of the inside of the dry cleaners.  I even got a fuzzy shot of her snake ring.  The poor young thing was flattered.

      

 Shhh!  Don't tell management.  I think the dry cleaners should be happy they still have customers.

   

tom

An old friend of ours showed up this morning in our driveway.  He was on the way to deposit his trash in our trash cans (with our permission, of course).   He only fills one bag of trash a week so we save the city a few bucks on gas by having Tom bring his garbage to our cans. 

      

 Back in the late 70's Tom became one of Advent Glass Works, Inc. employees with the job of building stained glass church windows.  Tom later bought property from us, married and had a couple of children, divorced and moved away for a while.  He sold most of his property, reserving only a small tract of land for himself deep in the woods southeast of our house.

      

 Tom is vegetarian and often resorts to eating wild plants off his land.  He is a machinist by trade and also helps in refinishing houses, including ours.  Did I say he is a perfectionist?  I often felt out-of-place and in-the-way as I meandered around Tom during the remodeling of our house for fear I would get the look, which meant get out of my way, lady.

      

I have found memories of Tom.  During the late 70's one Christmas the temperature dipped into the teens and our house was completely without power or water for days. Tom's house is on a different power line; therefore, Truett and I and our two children and our nine guests trekked up to Tom's for warmth and showers.  Thank you, Tom.

I also remember when we would get heavy summer rains; and if Tom were visiting, he would grab up Clay's toy dart gun and take aim at giant palmetto bugs that were seeking dry refuge in my airy old house. I don't remember if he ever snagged one, but he sure did scare them off into the woodwork.

      

Tom's philosophy is simple:  Live and let live and don't bother no one, and especially, don't bother me.

      

Even though we are a stone's throw from Tom's house, we rarely see him, and when we do we catch up on what's happening now.  He is a friend.