![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
Bits and pieces
Lots of stuff behind the cuts (though my neck is out putting me in a bad mood, so while I will try to be positive an upbeat, I don't make any promises...)
School went pretty good this week. I picked up History of Graphic Design from one of the other teachers (he has a new baby and the class takes -a lot- of prep time when you are not an actual history teacher.) Fortunately, I taught the class last year, so I am fairly up to speed on it. My goldfish-like memory means I still have to do a lot of prep, but at least I have the outline in my head. Last year the class was pretty grueling since that class never did their reading and pretty much refused to participate (and their grades reflected that...I love the seniors to death, but, my god they are lazy....) making it really hard to get any interaction or discussion going. This years class actually seem interested in the subject and class was pretty fun.
I have also come to the realization that I may not be able to be a teacher much longer. Per a post on![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
kehf's page, I have been thinking a lot about what I really want out of life. (Nothing like a month long cold keeping you tired a depressed for an extended amount of time to make you start questioning your reason for being!) What I realized is that while I have a ton of interests, being a college instructor is the first job I have ever really, really liked. It is something I am good at and enjoy. But if we want to retire before 85 (and then to something other than a card board box and tins of dog food) I may no be able to do this much longer. Our budget is finally working (We use a program called mVelopes to run our budget....I don't recommend it, the interface is so slow that balancing the budget is incredibly painful) and we loose about a hundred dollars a month with my current income which ends up on the credit card. And that is not even counting the vet bills from our elderly cats (In case you are curious: Ariel's cancer is still in remission and we finally have Biff's diabetes under control, though no they are worried about his kidneys.)
So. I have to come up with another plan. (Cue computer voice saying "Working....working...." as it crunches numbers on a problem while the automatic self-destruct system is seen counting down in the background.
Ron (rlegters) took the day off on Friday so we could go to the garden show. I don't do well in crowds, so having it be the little bit less crowded that it is on Friday vs. Saturday or Sunday is really nice.
The show gardens were...lack-luster this year. Nothing really interesting or inventive at all. One of the gardens kind of reminded me of a cathedral tour I took when I was in Israel during our Christmas tour when I was going to school in Italy. The cathedral was filled with art that had been donated by people from around the world. Big installation pieces. Big UGLY installation pieces. The crucifixion-scene mosaic made of pop-cans is the only one I can remember. Now, I am sure that the pieces were created with a great deal of love and faith. And that was apparently all that was needed (that and a large donation I'm sure) to get these pieces hung. (I felt the same way at the Seattle Erotic Art Show so this is not an anti-religion rant.) Anyway, there was a "peace" garden at the entrance to the display gardens. it was mediocre in every way. (It had Tibetan prayer flags hung over it though, so only a bad person would point that out....) Anyway, just calling it a "peace" garden was apparently enough so that when we came out there were people standing in it looking thoughtful and meditative. It immediately made me think of badly executed religious art. Apparently some people just need verbal or visual cues to masturbate in public on any given subject they want people to see them as virtuous about.
Anyway, the other stand-out garden (in a bad way) was "Figure and Form" in the landscape. Here is the description from their brochure:
Ick.
I hope they did not pay someone to write that.
Despite the best efforts of the brochure, the garden was dark and pretentious (complete with some sort of faux New Age/Philip Glass music playing in the background.) The recycled glass said, "there shall be no bare feet here...really, what were you thinking...have you no class at all?" and the overall effect was of the Stepford wife factory from the original movie. At the end we saw who the gardens sponsors were. Ah...the light dawned. I should have realized. The entire garden had that indelible stamp that says, "'A'-gays were here."
There was one garden we kind of liked. It had a great fountain and some cool gates. It had the usual outdoor seating with cushions that always make me roll my eyes though. I realize these are supposed to be fantasy gardens, but asking us to pretend it does not rain too much for outdoor furniture with cloth cushions is going too far. That and the disaster that our bog garden as been thanks to racoons made us both roll our eyes a little bit.
Ron: Those cushions will be wet and moldy in no time.
Troy: And how are they planning to keep the raccoons out of the water feature?
Ron: But think how cute it will be to look out in the rain and watch the raccoons playing with the moldy cushions!
The Tilth booth was cool too. A huge green house with tilt out windows fitted with planter boxes. I know it is supposed to give people ideas, not be an actual project, but as much as I support sustainable and green gardening and building, I can never help but notice that the only people who can afford planters made from recycled steel or living roofs are the same people who park their Escalades in the compact spots next to the door in any given parking garage. There is a big disconnect there.
The vendors booths were okay. The demographic of the show is apparently older women with a great deal of money, so we were able to skim past a lot of stuff. We did see our friend Paul from Earlington's Nursery. We usually get a lot of attention from all the guys who work there, but this time there was a young cute gay couple looking at things, so we got ignored pretty thoroughly. Grrr.
We kept our spending to an absolute minimum. I got some phermone trap stuff for the apple maggot traps but that was pretty much it.
Class went well. Ron taught and much fun was had by all. Keith brought his puppy who is as cute and soft as his picture. He and I also agreed that maybe since I still had not gotten all the content for the January/February newsletter, that maybe we could just skip it this time...
The club dance featured Stephen Cole in his first time calling for a gay club. He was a really fun caller so we are looking forward to having him back. I almost did not go. My back is out (at least I assume that is the problem) so I had been dizzy all day. Strangely it did not effect my dancing, but I sure felt crummy between tips. Ron worked on my back when we got home, but it is still feeling pretty awful. We really can't afford for me to go to the doctor (I only have "get run over by a truck" insurance) so hopefully it will continue to get better.
We went down to Rochester for my Dad's birthday today. I used the money that was supposed to be for haircuts to get him a heated seed starting tray. He is always starting seeds and has never had a good set up so he seemed to really like it. I taped some tomato and hot pepper seeds to the box so I will probably get some seedlings this spring.
When we got up on Friday morning Ron noticed that my back tire was flat. Well, we finally got a chance to change the tire when we got home from my parent's house this afternoon and the neighbor down the street was walking her dog and said that her car's tires had been slashed on Thursday as well, so I may have to buy a new tire. We will never be out of debt....
To make maters worse, the screw you have to turn to let the spare tire down is rusted solid so we could not get the tire changed. I'm going to call AAA tomorrow and have them do it for free. Hopefully the spare is something I can drive on so I don't need to buy a new tire...
Anyway, that is life since the last post in all its unedited glory....
School went pretty good this week. I picked up History of Graphic Design from one of the other teachers (he has a new baby and the class takes -a lot- of prep time when you are not an actual history teacher.) Fortunately, I taught the class last year, so I am fairly up to speed on it. My goldfish-like memory means I still have to do a lot of prep, but at least I have the outline in my head. Last year the class was pretty grueling since that class never did their reading and pretty much refused to participate (and their grades reflected that...I love the seniors to death, but, my god they are lazy....) making it really hard to get any interaction or discussion going. This years class actually seem interested in the subject and class was pretty fun.
I have also come to the realization that I may not be able to be a teacher much longer. Per a post on
kehf's page, I have been thinking a lot about what I really want out of life. (Nothing like a month long cold keeping you tired a depressed for an extended amount of time to make you start questioning your reason for being!) What I realized is that while I have a ton of interests, being a college instructor is the first job I have ever really, really liked. It is something I am good at and enjoy. But if we want to retire before 85 (and then to something other than a card board box and tins of dog food) I may no be able to do this much longer. Our budget is finally working (We use a program called mVelopes to run our budget....I don't recommend it, the interface is so slow that balancing the budget is incredibly painful) and we loose about a hundred dollars a month with my current income which ends up on the credit card. And that is not even counting the vet bills from our elderly cats (In case you are curious: Ariel's cancer is still in remission and we finally have Biff's diabetes under control, though no they are worried about his kidneys.)So. I have to come up with another plan. (Cue computer voice saying "Working....working...." as it crunches numbers on a problem while the automatic self-destruct system is seen counting down in the background.
Ron (
rlegters) took the day off on Friday so we could go to the garden show. I don't do well in crowds, so having it be the little bit less crowded that it is on Friday vs. Saturday or Sunday is really nice. The show gardens were...lack-luster this year. Nothing really interesting or inventive at all. One of the gardens kind of reminded me of a cathedral tour I took when I was in Israel during our Christmas tour when I was going to school in Italy. The cathedral was filled with art that had been donated by people from around the world. Big installation pieces. Big UGLY installation pieces. The crucifixion-scene mosaic made of pop-cans is the only one I can remember. Now, I am sure that the pieces were created with a great deal of love and faith. And that was apparently all that was needed (that and a large donation I'm sure) to get these pieces hung. (I felt the same way at the Seattle Erotic Art Show so this is not an anti-religion rant.) Anyway, there was a "peace" garden at the entrance to the display gardens. it was mediocre in every way. (It had Tibetan prayer flags hung over it though, so only a bad person would point that out....) Anyway, just calling it a "peace" garden was apparently enough so that when we came out there were people standing in it looking thoughtful and meditative. It immediately made me think of badly executed religious art. Apparently some people just need verbal or visual cues to masturbate in public on any given subject they want people to see them as virtuous about.
Anyway, the other stand-out garden (in a bad way) was "Figure and Form" in the landscape. Here is the description from their brochure:
The Sacred Geometry of the Golden Mean. In relation to body and movement, the spiral-abstracted here as the garden path, is very powerful. As you walk along the spiral your view and experience changes with each step. The path made of recycled glass, is a symbolic "life path" in which the ultimate euphoria is the connection of ones body, mind and spirit. The result of this connection is glorious harmony within.
Ick.
I hope they did not pay someone to write that.
Despite the best efforts of the brochure, the garden was dark and pretentious (complete with some sort of faux New Age/Philip Glass music playing in the background.) The recycled glass said, "there shall be no bare feet here...really, what were you thinking...have you no class at all?" and the overall effect was of the Stepford wife factory from the original movie. At the end we saw who the gardens sponsors were. Ah...the light dawned. I should have realized. The entire garden had that indelible stamp that says, "'A'-gays were here."
There was one garden we kind of liked. It had a great fountain and some cool gates. It had the usual outdoor seating with cushions that always make me roll my eyes though. I realize these are supposed to be fantasy gardens, but asking us to pretend it does not rain too much for outdoor furniture with cloth cushions is going too far. That and the disaster that our bog garden as been thanks to racoons made us both roll our eyes a little bit.
Ron: Those cushions will be wet and moldy in no time.
Troy: And how are they planning to keep the raccoons out of the water feature?
Ron: But think how cute it will be to look out in the rain and watch the raccoons playing with the moldy cushions!
The Tilth booth was cool too. A huge green house with tilt out windows fitted with planter boxes. I know it is supposed to give people ideas, not be an actual project, but as much as I support sustainable and green gardening and building, I can never help but notice that the only people who can afford planters made from recycled steel or living roofs are the same people who park their Escalades in the compact spots next to the door in any given parking garage. There is a big disconnect there.
The vendors booths were okay. The demographic of the show is apparently older women with a great deal of money, so we were able to skim past a lot of stuff. We did see our friend Paul from Earlington's Nursery. We usually get a lot of attention from all the guys who work there, but this time there was a young cute gay couple looking at things, so we got ignored pretty thoroughly. Grrr.
We kept our spending to an absolute minimum. I got some phermone trap stuff for the apple maggot traps but that was pretty much it.
Class went well. Ron taught and much fun was had by all. Keith brought his puppy who is as cute and soft as his picture. He and I also agreed that maybe since I still had not gotten all the content for the January/February newsletter, that maybe we could just skip it this time...
The club dance featured Stephen Cole in his first time calling for a gay club. He was a really fun caller so we are looking forward to having him back. I almost did not go. My back is out (at least I assume that is the problem) so I had been dizzy all day. Strangely it did not effect my dancing, but I sure felt crummy between tips. Ron worked on my back when we got home, but it is still feeling pretty awful. We really can't afford for me to go to the doctor (I only have "get run over by a truck" insurance) so hopefully it will continue to get better.
We went down to Rochester for my Dad's birthday today. I used the money that was supposed to be for haircuts to get him a heated seed starting tray. He is always starting seeds and has never had a good set up so he seemed to really like it. I taped some tomato and hot pepper seeds to the box so I will probably get some seedlings this spring.
When we got up on Friday morning Ron noticed that my back tire was flat. Well, we finally got a chance to change the tire when we got home from my parent's house this afternoon and the neighbor down the street was walking her dog and said that her car's tires had been slashed on Thursday as well, so I may have to buy a new tire. We will never be out of debt....
To make maters worse, the screw you have to turn to let the spare tire down is rusted solid so we could not get the tire changed. I'm going to call AAA tomorrow and have them do it for free. Hopefully the spare is something I can drive on so I don't need to buy a new tire...
Anyway, that is life since the last post in all its unedited glory....