Even though it is raining torrents today, the weather has been generally nice these last 10 days – sunny and warm. I even got inspired to put more grass down in the yard. Got out there with the hand-hoe and chopped up the ground then seeded it...and amazingly grass actually is growing! :-) However, to prepare for more rainy days that may lay ahead I am going to stop at Canadian Tire tonight on the way home and buy a neon orange plastic suit, for over my motorcycle armour. If someone hits me on the road it will truly be because they are blinded by my brightness. :-)
School life is great too. Love going there everyday and now that the weather is nice I am using Friday afternoons for field trips or outdoor activities. Adds some extra fun to the week.
Meetings and service are fine too. Haven't got any spectacular calls in the territory but I did have a very nice stimulating conversation with one of my students about deteriorating world conditions and how the Bible used to give people guidelines, but now many people float aimlessly because of not knowing anyone who is wise to help them. I think I mentioned before the students that told me they made decisions about life by watching television. :-/
Since Pearl's bee sting nothing serious has happened to them. They are presently laying like doggy-potatoes on the couch probably. We have increased our walking time another 30 minutes in the evenings. A man in the resort inspired me. He told me a couple weeks ago that in the last 11 months he has lost 103lbs only by using his dog as an exercise program. They walk two loonng walks each day. I don't have 103 lbs to lose, but I do want to stay fit. :-)
Okay, will go. Students are pouring into the room.
Love to all,
d :-)
Thursday, April 26, 2012
Monday, April 16, 2012
One Detail More On That Last Post
Baking Soda is highly toxic to dogs so after a person applies the paste make sure to cover it with sock or cloth bandage of some sort.
:-)
:-)
I Like The Internet
Hey hi everybody :-)
I hope everyone had a great weekend.
I am sitting here on the couch a little bleary eyed - got my taxes sent this weekend, my place cleaned out after a water problem, and the window on my truck fixed using one of the in-store products (dreary story on how that happened :-( )
Was planning to wash the truck and motorcycle yesterday afternoon but decided to take Harvey and Pearl to the lake instead - which lead to a heavy duty evening and night. They were playing on the beach when suddenly Pearl started yelping and crying. People were coming from all directions to see if she had broken her leg. I couldn't see a thing so with her crying at high pitch stuffed her in my coat and thought that maybe she had twisted her leg and it would wear off. But no. The pain and loud wailing escalated after an hour, and the swelling grew.
I started to think that maybe a snake was in the grass that I didn't see, or maybe something else was...so I left Pearl laying on the bed crying and ran the 15 minutes back to the beach myself. It was almost completely dark but I got down on my knees and felt for ANYTHING that could have done this. Finally I picked up a bee in my fingers and knew this was the culprit. So ran back home at high speed. The internet said: make a baking soda paste and apply to entire area to draw toxins out and neutralize pain. And give plain Benadryl to stop swelling. It worked. Before the internet people would have had to go to the vet, because bee stings are often dangerous for dogs - so yay internet! But by this time it was quite late and I got up during the night to make sure the skinny white dog as responding well to the treatment...therefore, a little tired this morning but had a big smile when I saw her bouncing into the yard a few minutes ago to do her business.
Other than this a splendid talk by Chris Docksteader yesterday. He has a great way of painting mental pictures. Now, off to work. Looking forward to a great week. :-)
Okay, hope everyone else has a great week also.
Love to all,
d :-)
I hope everyone had a great weekend.
I am sitting here on the couch a little bleary eyed - got my taxes sent this weekend, my place cleaned out after a water problem, and the window on my truck fixed using one of the in-store products (dreary story on how that happened :-( )
Was planning to wash the truck and motorcycle yesterday afternoon but decided to take Harvey and Pearl to the lake instead - which lead to a heavy duty evening and night. They were playing on the beach when suddenly Pearl started yelping and crying. People were coming from all directions to see if she had broken her leg. I couldn't see a thing so with her crying at high pitch stuffed her in my coat and thought that maybe she had twisted her leg and it would wear off. But no. The pain and loud wailing escalated after an hour, and the swelling grew.
I started to think that maybe a snake was in the grass that I didn't see, or maybe something else was...so I left Pearl laying on the bed crying and ran the 15 minutes back to the beach myself. It was almost completely dark but I got down on my knees and felt for ANYTHING that could have done this. Finally I picked up a bee in my fingers and knew this was the culprit. So ran back home at high speed. The internet said: make a baking soda paste and apply to entire area to draw toxins out and neutralize pain. And give plain Benadryl to stop swelling. It worked. Before the internet people would have had to go to the vet, because bee stings are often dangerous for dogs - so yay internet! But by this time it was quite late and I got up during the night to make sure the skinny white dog as responding well to the treatment...therefore, a little tired this morning but had a big smile when I saw her bouncing into the yard a few minutes ago to do her business.
Other than this a splendid talk by Chris Docksteader yesterday. He has a great way of painting mental pictures. Now, off to work. Looking forward to a great week. :-)
Okay, hope everyone else has a great week also.
Love to all,
d :-)
Wednesday, April 11, 2012
A Couple Fun Things To Do
Hey hi everyone :-)
Hope all is great. The weather is finally warming up. Was about 70 yesterday, which is definitely moving in the right direction. :-) Now, I know everyone is pretty busy with service activity and meetings and LIFE everyday, but if you want something a little fun to throw into the mix there are a couple things we started doing at the college that I think fit the bill - the first one is called GEOCACHING. It is kind of like treasure hunting using GPS coordinates. There are routes planted in most cities now. I was amazed that most places are already really active with this - and it is free! Yay!! I am kind of hoping we can use it for a congregation outing. In Kelowna there were over 400 and in Palm Springs there are over 500 routes. A team or individual follows the coordinates to the final "treasure". Then you leave it where you find it (hidden for the next seeker) or take a picture of it before you leave. ...The second is SCVNGR. Both these website can be googled. This one is more like the Amazing Race where a team or person does challenges around the city or landscape earning points. Anyways, just wanted to share because sometimes it is fun to do something a little different when one has some time.
Harvey and Pearl are doing great. At this moment Pearl is doing a sausage sprawl across the couch giving me the sad eyes hoping I will break down and give her something from the fridge. And Harvey is still curled up in bed. Ahhhh a dog's life!
Hope everyone has a great day.
Love to all,
d :-)
Hope all is great. The weather is finally warming up. Was about 70 yesterday, which is definitely moving in the right direction. :-) Now, I know everyone is pretty busy with service activity and meetings and LIFE everyday, but if you want something a little fun to throw into the mix there are a couple things we started doing at the college that I think fit the bill - the first one is called GEOCACHING. It is kind of like treasure hunting using GPS coordinates. There are routes planted in most cities now. I was amazed that most places are already really active with this - and it is free! Yay!! I am kind of hoping we can use it for a congregation outing. In Kelowna there were over 400 and in Palm Springs there are over 500 routes. A team or individual follows the coordinates to the final "treasure". Then you leave it where you find it (hidden for the next seeker) or take a picture of it before you leave. ...The second is SCVNGR. Both these website can be googled. This one is more like the Amazing Race where a team or person does challenges around the city or landscape earning points. Anyways, just wanted to share because sometimes it is fun to do something a little different when one has some time.
Harvey and Pearl are doing great. At this moment Pearl is doing a sausage sprawl across the couch giving me the sad eyes hoping I will break down and give her something from the fridge. And Harvey is still curled up in bed. Ahhhh a dog's life!
Hope everyone has a great day.
Love to all,
d :-)
Saturday, April 7, 2012
It Is Not As Easy As Some Think
Hey hi everyone! :-)
My keyboard is gradually wearing out so if you see some weird spelled (missing (“a”s mostly) words you'll know why. :-)
Life is going okay this week. We actually had our last snow last week and I am riding my motorcycle again. Yay!! At least I am hoping it is the last snow. :-( It was a long cold winter. Fine though. No matter how cold it got outside it was warm and cozy inside our little home. Did have a couple glitches though. When a public water main burst in January the resort turned off my water pipes for 10 hours while they fixed it. But at -30 it caused my pipes to freeze and my back water tank to burst so had to bypass tank for 6 weeks until that was fixed – thanks to Dad. A challenge, but doable. Then a couple weeks ago the electrical pedestal caught fire. That was the one that made me cry because it happened while I was at work. Miraculously it didn't burn the RV down. But it was teary for me because Harvey and Pearl are at home alone during the day, and it the RV went up in flames it would be the end of them. As a joke, when I am leaving in the morning for work, as they are sitting on the couch staring at me, I give them instructions: “if someone knocks growl once then run and hide under the covers, if a flood happens run and hide under the covers, and if there is a fire run to the corner of the yard and wait for someone to save you.” Never thinking that any of those things could actually happen. ...Now that the weather is improving I am just looking forward to a nice uneventful Spring and Summer.
All is great at work. I work with really great staff who are nice people, great teachers that are really invested in teaching, and of course the students that make each day interesting. I am so thankful Jehovah gave me the motivation and ability to get that training. However, I was recently reminded of what people think of teaching, or maybe it is about what people think of teaching English. :-/ When I was taking my teaching program, the instructor told us that many native speakers think that anybody can teach English because they speak it. But when you actually hear someone say it, it leaves you feeling deflated. When a group discussion about teachers came up among none-teachers recently, I just sat there and said nothing, and then eventually tried to offer a couple small insights into what being in a classroom is like, and then someone turned to me and asked, “you still just teach English, right?” ...yup...sure. When other people talk about their jobs inside my head I am always in awe because I think about the skills that person must have to do what they do, whether it is working at McDonald's, or being an artist with special talent, or doing some job of intricate skill a person got special training for. (When it was slow a while back I had time to talk to a McDonald's worker about the best things about her job, and it was really nice to find out some details and gave me some insight.) Anyway, this morning, I was feeling a bit defeated about this. I guess I don't have pride about my job per say, but feeling it is nice to be somewhat respected for what you do...like anyone else, so I started reading an essay written by another teacher on the subject and it really put things into perspective for me. He was a molecular biologist that decided to become a teacher and what he learned. Since some of you reading this are classroom teachers too, if you want to read it it is can be found at this link: http://www.musingsonlifeandlove.com/2010/09/13/the-hardest-job-everyone-thinks-they-can-do/ And you know what....maybe I will never be respected for my work by some, and I guess that is okay too. :-)
Okay, it is the long weekend. Very exciting. :-) Soooo, I am going to study my WT, then go into town to do some GEOCACHING. A cool activity where a person hunts for hidden “treasures” or spots in an area. I decided I will take my GPS unit on my motorcycle and see what I can find. There is an international website of maps for anyone interested.
And finally, wash the truck and motorcycle so they can be all sparkly for the week. :-)
I have been able to have a couple discussions with students about the Bible lately so that has been great, AND our Memorial attendance on Thursday was 189. Awesome numbers for our area.
Have a great weekend!
Love to all,
d :-)
My keyboard is gradually wearing out so if you see some weird spelled (missing (“a”s mostly) words you'll know why. :-)
Life is going okay this week. We actually had our last snow last week and I am riding my motorcycle again. Yay!! At least I am hoping it is the last snow. :-( It was a long cold winter. Fine though. No matter how cold it got outside it was warm and cozy inside our little home. Did have a couple glitches though. When a public water main burst in January the resort turned off my water pipes for 10 hours while they fixed it. But at -30 it caused my pipes to freeze and my back water tank to burst so had to bypass tank for 6 weeks until that was fixed – thanks to Dad. A challenge, but doable. Then a couple weeks ago the electrical pedestal caught fire. That was the one that made me cry because it happened while I was at work. Miraculously it didn't burn the RV down. But it was teary for me because Harvey and Pearl are at home alone during the day, and it the RV went up in flames it would be the end of them. As a joke, when I am leaving in the morning for work, as they are sitting on the couch staring at me, I give them instructions: “if someone knocks growl once then run and hide under the covers, if a flood happens run and hide under the covers, and if there is a fire run to the corner of the yard and wait for someone to save you.” Never thinking that any of those things could actually happen. ...Now that the weather is improving I am just looking forward to a nice uneventful Spring and Summer.
All is great at work. I work with really great staff who are nice people, great teachers that are really invested in teaching, and of course the students that make each day interesting. I am so thankful Jehovah gave me the motivation and ability to get that training. However, I was recently reminded of what people think of teaching, or maybe it is about what people think of teaching English. :-/ When I was taking my teaching program, the instructor told us that many native speakers think that anybody can teach English because they speak it. But when you actually hear someone say it, it leaves you feeling deflated. When a group discussion about teachers came up among none-teachers recently, I just sat there and said nothing, and then eventually tried to offer a couple small insights into what being in a classroom is like, and then someone turned to me and asked, “you still just teach English, right?” ...yup...sure. When other people talk about their jobs inside my head I am always in awe because I think about the skills that person must have to do what they do, whether it is working at McDonald's, or being an artist with special talent, or doing some job of intricate skill a person got special training for. (When it was slow a while back I had time to talk to a McDonald's worker about the best things about her job, and it was really nice to find out some details and gave me some insight.) Anyway, this morning, I was feeling a bit defeated about this. I guess I don't have pride about my job per say, but feeling it is nice to be somewhat respected for what you do...like anyone else, so I started reading an essay written by another teacher on the subject and it really put things into perspective for me. He was a molecular biologist that decided to become a teacher and what he learned. Since some of you reading this are classroom teachers too, if you want to read it it is can be found at this link: http://www.musingsonlifeandlove.com/2010/09/13/the-hardest-job-everyone-thinks-they-can-do/ And you know what....maybe I will never be respected for my work by some, and I guess that is okay too. :-)
Okay, it is the long weekend. Very exciting. :-) Soooo, I am going to study my WT, then go into town to do some GEOCACHING. A cool activity where a person hunts for hidden “treasures” or spots in an area. I decided I will take my GPS unit on my motorcycle and see what I can find. There is an international website of maps for anyone interested.
And finally, wash the truck and motorcycle so they can be all sparkly for the week. :-)
I have been able to have a couple discussions with students about the Bible lately so that has been great, AND our Memorial attendance on Thursday was 189. Awesome numbers for our area.
Have a great weekend!
Love to all,
d :-)
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
