Potpourri or A Little of This and a Little of That

I hate allergies.

I don't know what blew in, but I wish it would blow out.

Yesterday was not a particularly good day. I must have gone through a box of Kleenex and several allergy pills. When this happens to me I get cranky. I was cranky at school yesterday. I am sure the kids thought I was cranky.Today has got to be better. This weekend has got to be better. Baylor has a bye week so I don't have to worry about going out to a football game. The Heart of Texas Fair does not start till next week. I still have time to get better and get rid of this. If I don't get rid of it maybe I'll get used to it.

Tutoring starts in a few weeks. The kindergarten teachers need to get together to determine which students should attend tutoring. We also got our schedules on Wednesday. I have been assigned to tutor 5th grade.

Wow! What a switch. Spend all day with my kindergartners and then head upstairs and spend an hour with 5th grade. That's a 5-6 year jump in a matter of minutes.

The neighbor across the street called the other day. He wanted to know where we picked up our campaign sign. After the remnants of Ike blew through his signs were gone. He had them placed along his frontage with the road. He had placed several about every one-quarter mile. It looked good. I'm not sure if the wind blew them down or if they were "taken" down. I noticed yesterday that he had a new sign up. This time it was placed next to his driveway.

© 2008 Barry T Horst


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Say Again...,Again

In an earlier post "Say Again..." I mentioned a tendency of mine to hear what is not said.

It happened again today during training after school. Prior to our session one of my coworkers was finishing lunch. Another coworker mentioned, "I can smell your onions."

That is not what I heard. I am not going to say what I heard. I knew my coworker would not say this particular thing, but yet I thought I heard it.

Later in the afternoon I mis-heard again. This time the same coworker was cleaning up the table and asked me, "Are you through with your bottle?"

And what did I hear you ask?

My ears told me I heard, "Are you through with your BODY?"

"No, I'm still using it. It's not ready for recycling yet!"

© 2008 Barry T Horst


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A Man of Letters, Sort Of!

Does anyone out there use a Logitech G15 keyboard?

I use one and for the most part I love it. My keyboard is an older model G15. I've had it for probably 5 or 6 years. It has a blue back lit keyboard so I can use it at night and not disturb my wife by having the lamp on. It has 54 Macro enabled keys which allows me to have tons of shortcuts. It has multi-media controls on it along with a flip-up LCD screen which gives a variety of information.

There is so much to like about it. However, there is one thing I don't like. Many of the keys are beginning to wear through. Actually the black paint is rubbing off and the blue back light is shining through in all of it's glorious blue. The "E", "R", and "T" keys are basically a blob of light if you can envision light being a blob. The U, I, O, A, S, F, J, N, M, and Space Bar are also beginning to show definite signs of wear.

One day last summer I wrote the company to inquire as to the availability of replacement keys. Apparently Logitech has no replacement keys. Silly me! I just thought someone could pop down to the assembly line pick out the keys I needed and send them my way.

Life is just simply not that easy.

I was assured that they could replace the keys IF I sent them the keyboard, AND the keyboard was within the warranty period.

First, the keyboard is 5+ years old. I strongly suspect it IS out of warranty. Perhaps I could go to the "warranty" store and by some more and fill it up. Secondly, send the keyboard back?? And just what do I use in the meantime? It would be easier to simply buy a new one which is exactly what I don't want to do. The new ones are not the same as mine; plus, there's nothing wrong with mine except the keys.

I did buy a keyboard at Target yesterday. Brought it home and looked at it. I took it back a few hours later. I just couldn't bring my self to actually spend $75 for the keyboard just to get 13 keys.

Let's see, that's about $5.77 per key.

Perhaps I'll write Logitech again. If I bug them enough perhaps they'll send me a bag full of letters one day.

© 2008 Barry T Horst


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Loose Training???

Autumn, Day 2.

More training.

This time it is Science training. The district is implementing a new science program called Loose In the Labs. I am attending a training of trainers session. After the training today i will need to train the other Kindergarten teachers on our campus how to properly use the kits and the lab materials.

This training thing could actually be pretty good. I went to training one day last week and taught for four days. This week I have training today and Early Release tomorrow. Three and a half days teaching and one and a half going to training. Not bad.

I don't know what I'll do next week. No training and five days teaching.

It'll work. It's a job and I love it.

© 2008 Barry T Horst


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Picture Monday, September 22, 2008

I was going through a couple of picture boxes yesterday and found some old vacation pictures. I could tell they were old because they are so grainy. I could also tell they are old because they say "1961" on them.

In the summer of 1961 we took a vacation to California. While there we went to Disney Land, Yosemite National Park, and San Francisco among other places. I seem to remember Knott's Berry Farm but I never found any pictures to prove it.

I suppose the picture above is a general crowd shot at Disney Land. This area reminds me of one of the boat rides. I was five years old at the time and I remember wanting to ride this boat but we had to wait. While waiting, I was climbing around and generally being mischievous. Yes, I was a touch on the mischievous side in my younger years. While climbing and cavorting I accidentally kicked my dad in the head. You see I was climbing on the netting and hand rails and my dad was sitting. Let's say that my dad was less than pleased with my behavior and he certainly wasted no time in letting this displeasure be felt.

I also really wanted to ride the Dumbo ride. We didn't have tickets for that and to this day I haven't ridden the Dumbo ride.

No, I'm sure I didn't kick my dad in the head because I couldn't ride the Dumbo ride.

This is a picture of my brother and who knows what he is standing with. My brother is the one on the left without a hat.

Ahhh! This is me, the skinny fellow next to one of the Three Pigs. I remember this pig vividly. I was sure that he was wearing a costume and was determined to prove it. I tugged on his snout and his ears. That is certainly why he has his arm to the side; holding me at bay while trying to be civil since my parents were snapping a picture of the whole scene.

My brother and I on top of a boulder or rock, or other mineral outcropping in Yosemite National Park. Fortunately my brother didn't push me over the edge.

I'm not sure who this is, but I think it is near one of the falls at Yosemite. That might be me in the shorts and possibly my sister to the right. Who knows?

This is my mom in front of a house in San Francisco. Why?? I don't really know. This is the sort of thing people do on vacation. Take a few pictures of family members in front of places that you will soon forget what it is or where it is. Especially some forty some odd years later. Maybe this was simply a snapshot that was taken to set up an alibi. NAHHHH! My mom wasn't that kind of person.

© 2008 Barry T Horst


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Slowly Back To Normal

All is well in Houston. Or at least, all is as well as can be expected.

I finally spoke with my brother last night who lives in Houston. He lives in the general vicinity of the Gulf Freeway and the South Belt Tollway. This was near the approximate path of the eye wall of Hurricane Ike. I would say probably within 7-8 miles west of where the eye wall passed.

His family decided to stay at the house which was boarded up and sealed up as best as he could get it. The reporters at KHOU who covered the storm in the Galveston - Houston area referred to this as "hunkering down". I suppose my brother and his family were "hunkering down".

Lance said they lost power around 11:00 PM on the night (Friday, September 12, 2008) the hurricane began to approach the area. The electricity was turned on Friday night the 19th. One week. He was so excited that the cable was on he checked e-mail and watched a movie until 2:00 AM. Pam was tired and went to sleep.

Lance was looking forward to getting up early on Saturday morning in order to tend to untended business on the computer. (Read that as checking on and paying bills again.) He went to the computer; no Internet. He went to the TV; no cable. AAARGHHH! Now it was off to Kari's house with the laptop to take advantage of the Internet.

I suppose the worst thing that happened was my brothers fence blew down courtesy of the near constant hurricane force winds for several hours straight on Friday night and early Saturday morning. There were also a few lost shingles but not much else. No flooding fortunately.

My brother is now retired living a life of leisure. Pam still teaches math in Clear Creek ISD. She learned that her buildings roof was torn off and many classrooms flooded; probably her own. Clear Creek will not be ready for teachers until Friday, September 26 and students returning the next Monday. Under this situation I don't think a 12+ day vacation at the the beginning of the year is very enjoyable.

Lance said his family made the decision to stay because the storm was only a Category 2 and they did not think it would be as bad as Alicia many years ago. They stayed in Houston for Alicia and the eye wall passed over their house. He told me that he remembered walking out and looking at the calm blue sky. Didn't happen this time around.

Having said all of this all things in their world are slowly returning to normal.

© 2008 Barry T Horst


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Please visit the Giveaway of the Day near the bottom of the left sidebar for free software downloads daily.