My First Year Teaching

Finally, last night I got a game night. Actually, my girlfriend has been playing board games with me for the past two weeks. And that is a relief. But last night I got to play a role-playing game online. There was a piece shared by my boss on how we shouldn't be arguing with our children during this time. Instead of arguing about helping around the house, invite them to learn how to do the laundry. Instead of insisting they do their schoolwork, give them a hug. That sort of thing. I think there is a therapeutic value in gaming. And RPGs, in particular, allow us to enter a fantasy world (whether it is a scifi setting or a horror setting or whatever) and live out our fears, desires, dreams and nightmares. So last night I got to play an RPG for several hours. I didn't even notice the pain in my back from sitting on the kitchen stool for three hours. It felt good. Next time, I'll kill an orc in your name. ;)

Home fix-it projects are the rage among people these days. For me, getting my things out of storage after several years it has meant returning things to a condition to enjoy. A case in point is my teak table. Five or six years ago it was a central piece of furniture in my home. I'd invite friends to come over for dinner or just an evening in my garden. I had a fire pit, a green and inviting space and, under a trellis, the teak table. Maybe it was overdone. Maybe it was part of the ambiance of the space, but I put up miniature lights, candles, tiki torches (it was in the Midwest and there are those darn mosquitos). The grill would be going. A homemade sangria would be available. There were comfortable chairs for everyone. Each winter the teak table would be put away. And each spring it would be returned to the garden. Moving the teak table was a two-person job. But five years ago, maybe six years ago, I tried to do it alone. My partner at the time had become distant. Shortly...

It will be weeks before the stimulus checks go out. And, really, they are not meant to keep small businesses going. They are meant to help people pay their rent. As I wrote in a previous post, take a walk through your neighborhood, its shuttered shops and empty sidewalks are a sign of worse to come. Yesterday I learned I'd lost my first student. She was withdrawn from the school. I suppose the parent decided that since they were doing most of the work in educating her there was no reason to pay the school for those services too. Here at Castle Boylan my hair continues to grow. I should be going into the barber for a trim. But under the circumstances that's not happening. I'd love to call some friends to come over for a game night, but-- not going to happen. Restaurants are out. Worship is out. Walking is okay, as long as the group is small. No tennis, no exercise clubs. People are going to places like Walmart simply to walk around the aisles and look at things. Yo...

Last night at dinner I did something I almost never do: I listened to the news while eating. I should have known better, but sometimes there is good news and in addition, we'd heard through the 'grapevine' that something had happened. Texas Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick on Tucker Carlson, March 23, 2020. Fox News The result: I was put off my dinner. I'm still suffering from indigestion this morning. One more time our government is putting an economic value on life. My sensibilities are spinning. The party that proclaims itself as being 'pro-life', the party that announced it would oppose ObamaCare because there would be government 'death panels' in charge of the end of life, was saying it was more important to get back to work by Easter, less than three weeks away, despite the experiences of Italy and China, despite what their medical experts are saying. Hobby Lobby and Liberty University, bastions of pro-life sentiment, are open despite the certainty th...

#ThisTooShallPass Last week, while working from home, I met a neighbor, a middle school student. She lives on the next street over but is a neighbor in the sense that her property adjoins our yard along the rear fence. This morning while out for my walk I came upon some of her sidewalk art. Here it is pictured. Not seen is the caption: #ThisTooShallPass. Meeting neighbors, whether virtually or at a distance, has been a thing for me since, first, we've moved into a new house and second, it creates connections. On that same walk I met the last adjacent neighbor, also along the rear fence: Dennis. I'm thinking back to a short story I read in school. In this story aliens manipulate neighbors to turn on each other. The end result is the world is conquered. But this pandemic is more like those stories you read about neighbors reaching out (without the actual physical reach) to each other after a tornado or flood. Sure we're scared. Who wouldn't be frightened by ...

Last week I discussed the idea of routine and also the idea of some physical exercise. I'm going to be 63 shortly. My style of physical exercise is different than that of a pre-teen. Cardio is important to me, but so is strength and resistance training and finally stretching. This morning, after dealing with my manly needs I put out the trash and started walking. The sun was low on the horizon as I walked into the eastern horizon. The temperature was about 30 F or -1 C. The distance to the Broomfield baseball diamonds is about a half-mile or so, with another quarter mile to reach Route 287, known as 120th around here. Then a turn to the west to get the coffee. The strip mall near Main Street and Route 287 has an Arc (new hours), an Asian seafood market and more types of Oriental food than I can count. Maybe six? That's good to know. Someday this will come to an end and we'll resume lives somewhat like that we left behind. There's a game store catty-corner from t...

“Every hand we don’t shake must become a phone call we make... Every inch and every foot of distance we put between ourselves and another must become a thought about how we could help that other should the need arise.” --  Rev. Kristin Kaulbach Miles We cannot gather together physically, but "every place can be a synagogue,” --  Rabbi David Ingber You are not alone.