Hot or Cold...It Can Wait Till Later

Things are never the way we want it. It's about 30 degrees outside right now. Well that's too cold. Turn up the heat. Later this summer it will be 90+ degrees. Well that's too hot. Crank up the AC.

I need to dig some post holes in order to put up a new fence. It's too cold for that right now. I know I'm going to wait until it's warmer. Later, when it's warmer I'll probably decide it's too hot. I'll want to wait for cooler weather next winter for sure. One day I'll get that fence put up. It'd be better if someone else did it though.

I need to get out in the garden and do some work. Yep! Too cold. Wait till later is a good idea. Until, of course, it's hot. Then I'll want to wait.

Last summer Chris wanted me to help her clean out the garage. Gee Chris, it's too hot. Let's wait till it cools off. Well it's cool now. And guess what? The garage got cleaned out. Not by me though. I was busy with school work. Chris did it all by herself. Although I did move some boxes for her. It seems that she couldn't reach that high. She was able to clear out a lot of stuff. Look out Goodwill, here we come! The only problem is that she made so much room that I'm sure that it won't take long for it to fill up again.

© 2008 Barry T Horst


This work is licensed under a
Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 3.0 United States License.

Insert Twilight Zone Theme Music Here

Julie called me from work yesterday. Monday was apparently a slack day at her workplace. She told me that she Googled my blog. I suppose she couldn't remember the address and wanted to look at it or show it to someone. She clicked on the link that she thought was my blog. She got a surprise and had to call and tell me about it.

Cue the Twilight Zone theme now.

That's OK. I've done it for you here.



It turns out that there is another blog with a similar name as mine. This other blog is named Horst Happenings; mine of course is Horst Household Happenings. Now wait a moment. The similarities do not end there. First, both blogs are hosted on Blogger. Next, I started my blog on December 11, 2007. The other blogs first post was on December 23, 2007. WOW! Now, the weirdest part is that the other blog belongs to Barry Horst in Hanover, PA . Our names are almost the same. Our middle initial is different though.

The web address for my blog is horsthappenings.blogspot.com.
The web address for the other blog is bbhorstfamilyhappenings.blogspot.com.

Is that not weird?

© 2008 Barry T Horst


This work is licensed under a
Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 3.0 United States License.

FREE, FREE, FREE

I cleaned up the desk and went through all of the mail yesterday. No surprises were found. Thank goodness!

Now I know why the stack was so big. There must have been 5 or 6 magazines in there. Not catalogues, but magazines. So I decided to do some checking and actually see how many magazines we get.

Well, let me tell you. You would think this is a doctor's waiting room or some other sort of waiting room. I counted at least 17 magazine subscriptions that are current. We only pay for 2 of subscriptions. The others are free.

The magazines I receive are a varied lot. I receive several magazines that are home or decorating themed; such as, Metropolitan Home, Garden & Gun, Elle Decor, Old House Journal, Country Living, and Good Housekeeping. I actually paid for Country Living and Good Housekeeping. I have since found a way to get Good Housekeeping free. I'll tell you about that later.

I also receive several magazines that focus around the technology/hobby theme. They are Sound & Vision, PC Magazine, Popular Photography, Popular Science, and Kit Planes. I suppose related to the hobby theme would be Western Outdoors and Flying.

Since Chris and I grandparents we receive Grand. We receive a magazine from Kraft Foods, Food & Family. We even get Frozen Food Age and World Trade. Go figure!

Remember all of the above subscriptions were free with the exception of Country Living and Good Housekeeping. Here is a partial listing, in no certain order, of other magazines I have received for free in the past: Boating, Woodcraft, Edutopia, Cruise Travel, Skiing, Log Home Living, TV Guide, Log Home Design, and Electronic House. I have probably had more but can't remember them all.

Because we get so many I have let 3 paid subscriptions lapse because I don't have time to read them all. They were good magazines. I think you may have heard of them before; National Geographic, Texas Highways, and Reader's Digest. The only problem I had with them is that they weren't free.

How do I get free magazine subscriptions. Easy. I signed up with Freebizmag.com. This is a web site that offers free business publications and will offer free subscriptions to mainstream magazines also. If I remember correctly Veterans Advantage buys a lot of these as an inducement for their products and services. There is also a website called AdPerks that allows you to watch advertising at your leisure on your computer to earn subscriptions. This is how I got the Popular Science subscription and plan on getting Good Housekeeping this way when the current subscription expires. AdPerk looks like they will be adding several other magazines in the future. Country Living is one they plan to add. Good. That meansd I won't have to pay for any of my magazine subscriptions. Give it a look see. It can't hurt.

I suppose I better go. I think I need to catch up on my reading.

© 2008 Barry T Horst


This work is licensed under a
Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 3.0 United States License.

Here We Go Again!!

I was watching the American Idol Dallas auditions again last night with Julie. During the short piece on Kayla Hatfield something caught my eye. See if it catches yours. It happens approximately 11 seconds into the video.

That's right. The Texas flag is upside down on the windmill vane. Kayla is from Campbell, Texas so I imagine this is on their farm nearby.

Thanks AdelaideCate007 for the YouTube video. Visit her website Daytime Confidential.

© 2008 Barry T Horst


This work is licensed under a
Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 3.0 United States License.

Teacher's Life of Leisure

My desk here at the house is a mess.

It always gets that way at the end of the nine weeks period at school. That is when I get involved in student assessments and various other forms of paper work. Let's see; there is assessment data to enter in the spreadsheet, grades to complete, and report card entries to make. After report card entries are complete, the report cards have to be verified. After verification they are printed. After printing they have to have more information manually entered on them. Why in this day and age that information can't be entered on the computer I will never know. After all is said and done the report cards are sent home. And then I wait for parents to return them. And I wait. And I wait. Some never come back. Sometimes I wonder if they ever made it home.

Now that report cards are finished it is time to plan the next nine weeks. The kindergarten teachers gather and spread the Scope and Sequence for the 3rd Nine Weeks. Let's see there is Language Arts, Math, Science, and Social Studies. We begin by looking at the various objectives/learning standards in each subject and see which ones overlap. That way we can plan to teach those objectives at the same time and hopefully double the impact. We plot the learning standards on a calender and try to map out the entire nine weeks.

You see, in Texas we are blessed with the Texas Assessment of Knowledge and Skills (TAKS). This is the wonderful test by which life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness is measured. At least in Texas public schools. Teachers must be sure that the students are prepared for this assessment and life in general. The TAKS has various objectives that have to be covered. To assist in this endeavor we are blessed with the Texas Essential Knowledge and Skills (TEKS). The TEKS are divided by grade level and subject matter. The TEKS have broken down the TAKS into more precise and logical learning standards.

Wow! During the 3rd nine weeks at kindergarten we have 127 individual TEKS learning standards that we have to address. Of the 127 standards, 67 are in Language Arts alone.

After mapping out the learning standards we then double check to make sure that we have each one on the calendar. It wouldn't do to get to the end of the nine weeks and then discover that we did not cover everything.

Once the double checking is finished we get to plan our lessons and write our plans for the following week. Next week in Science we are going to do some experiments that involve 3 to 4 steps and changes that take place with the application of heat. We are tying in Math by working on sequencing up to 4 steps. Fun! We are going to be using cornstarch one day and gelatin on another. FUN FUN!

Having said all of this; that explains why my desk here at the house is a mess. There is a stack of mail about four inches deep and I can't even begin to count the number of magazines that have not even been looked at yet.

I'm going now and will begin to attack the mountain. No doubt that I will have a full trash can and paper shredder tomorrow.

© 2008 Barry T Horst


This work is licensed under a
Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 3.0 United States License.

Busy, Busy, Busy

It was pretty cool here in Robinson yesterday. I don't think it ever got above 40 degrees. Chris decided to clean out and rearrange a portion of the garage. I got home and she showed me what she did. WOW! It was like a new garage. Well, not exactly a new garage. It looked like an older garage that had been cleaned out with all the "stuff" rearranged in a good way. There was a lot of room in there.

She found a lot of stuff to get rid of. She asked if she could "load up the truck and move to Beverly.........." . Wait, it wasn't Beverly Hills; it was the Salvation Army. So we headed out to start loading. She went before me and dropped the tailgate......and there it went. The alarm on the truck was certainly working yesterday. I turned it off and we continued to load. As soon as this task was completed we headed off to the local Salvation Army.

It's surprising how high this old stuff can bounce in the truck bed when you hit a dip on the interstate going 65 mph.

On the way we got a phone call. It was one of Julie's coworkers. The told us Julie had passed out/had a seizure while at work. Chris told them we were on our way now and would check on her. By the time we got to the Dwyer Group she was better but had a headache. It seems that she tends to bump her head on the way when this happens.

She is doing better now and plans to go to work today but Chris will take her. Chris drove Julie home in Julie's car. I drove the truck home and stopped at the Salvation Army to unload. As I was unloading I heard a train going through town on the tracks on Mary Street. While I was at the Salvation Army I kept hearing a clanging sound. I looked behind the donation boxes and there was a fellow in the back yard area playing horseshoes. He was by himself and was having a good time. I don't know who won.

By the time I finished and finally got home Chris told that she and Julie just got home too. I asked why. She said she was stopped by a long train going through town. Imagine that!

© 2008 Barry T Horst


This work is licensed under a
Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 3.0 United States License.