Monday, August 29, 2011

On Thursday...

Thursday was a big day here at the Sheepish Household.  After several days of stomach trouble and not going to school to set up my classroom, I finally managed to drag myself 45 minutes southward and did my duty as an educator.  It had to be done.  Time is really running out.  School opens for teacher workshops on September 1st and the kidlets are going to be wandering in shortly thereafter.  It was a hot, muggy and rainy day, certainly not one I wanted to spend moving furniture and putting up posters that are just going to slither to the floor in a matter of hours anyway.  But I did it because time wasn't on my side anymore

Friday was going to be a much cooler kind of day, but that wasn't going to work for classroom prep.  I finally made the appointment with the vet and Da Boyz really needed to be seen for their annual shots and overall pokings/proddings.  I couldn't go to school after seeing the vet.  Once the guys realized that they weren't going to be seeing The Cat Whisperer whom they adore in a way that embarrasses me to no end, it was a tiring thing.  To be fair, they did pretty well.  And I learned that clipping a cat's claws is the most important thing to their survival and that only very, very bad pet owners do not clip their cat's claws.  Of course, this rule is suspended when Absurdly Gi-normous Kitties refuse to allow claw clipping and create a fuss that leaves the entire exam room coated in orange fur.  Then it is suddenly not so important and hardly worth the trauma.  In fact, there are cats who go their whole lives without claw clipping and do not die even if it is a beneficial service.  For the record, the Very Complicated Kitty was quite brave about having his claws clipped and duly praised for his good behavior.  This did nothing to encourage the AGK whatsoever.

Yes, Friday was busy and certainly not a day for classroom set up.  It was a day for recovery and napping off the whole morning.

And Saturday?  Hardly a day for going to school!  For one thing, I don't have a key card and I hate setting off those pesky alarms.  For another, I had a busy day ahead of me.  There was gassing up the car.  And checking the flashlights.  And ensuring that I had an adequate supply of snack foods.  And tucking away a little bit of cash just in case.  Once that was done, there was a Doctor Who marathon and that was going to take up what little time I had left after obsessively checking the weather reports and wondering how my friends and family were faring.

Much too much going on for anything remotely resembling "school work."

Sunday, much like Saturday, is not a day for going to school.  There is the issue with the aforementioned key card and the police showing up with guns drawn upon hapless teachers/intruders.  That is not the way to spend the latter half of the weekend.  However, even without that little problem, I still wouldn't have gone to school because there was the matter of Armageddon Minor.

Hurricane Irene settled herself down into a nice little tropical storm by the time it reached my door and I suppose it would have been easy to think it wasn't going to amount to much.  I guess that I maybe even did start to think that the worst was past by afternoon.  Then the power went out and the trees started to experiment with gravity and it all suddenly seemed a little more important.  Hence, I could not go to school on Sunday either.  I am not as young as I used to be and cannot dodge trees or falling power lines with any degree of grace.

Thankfully, I live on the coast and in an area that didn't flood.  We lost our power for 24 hours and that was annoying, but hardly what others had to bear.  And are still enduring.  No, I was fortunate to be where I was if I had to get any of this hurricane stuff.  Since I am currently watching television, using the interwebs and drinking an icy cold soda from the fridge, I'd say I'm a pretty lucky girl even if I did have to make coffee over a can of Sterno this morning like a hobo.

I have big plans for tomorrow and Wednesday, too.  I need to find my camera cord so I can someday upload pictures again.  That would be a nice thing to be able to do.  Especially if you just spent your morning cooking like a hobo because who doesn't want to record that for posterity????

So, as you can plainly see, I didn't have a whole lotta choice when it came to getting in to school.  I went on Thursday.  That was the day.  And next Thursday?  I'm going back again, only this time I'll be on the payroll and without anything resembling free will.

SA

4 comments:

sheep#100 said...

Our power was out for about 33 hours. Fortunately, we were able to borrow a generator late last night and did not have to stay up all night bailing out the sump pump pit!

Now, I finally have Internet restored and am starting to get myself ready for next week. Slowly....

Anonymous said...

This was one fast summer! I can hardly believe school goes back next week. I am not a teacher but do enjoy the summers with my son off school.

I hope your class adores you and brings us some chuckles.

Happy new year. Lu

Donna Lee said...

We didn't lose power at all, just a few flickers. No real damage despite the winds and torrential rains (for which I am grateful). I hope you're enjoying the last day of your vacation.

Julia G said...

Glad to hear you made it through the storm! New England really got clobbered. We were very lucky to not lose power, most of CT and RI did and many will be without power through the weekend. We lost a lot of trees and had coastal flooding, but it could have been much worse. Even so, school has been delayed until next Tuesday.

I was standing in a long line at the only Dunkin Donuts with electricity for miles and burst out laughing at the antics of the AGK, thwarting all efforts to clip his claws. We clip the claws of our Big Orange Oaf of a cat to keep him from inflicting too much damage on our older Maine Coon kitty, who is about half his weight. We have to be stealthy, grabbing him during his midmorning nap and clipping a claw or three before he figures out what's happening, then repeating at random intervals. The hard part is finding those needle-sharp claws in his ridiculously fluffy toe tufts.