I came to school last week to find this sign on the door of the media center.
It is a tribute to Bobby Bowden, retiring head coach of FSU and an icon in our fair city for most of my life. If you have heard the man speak, you have probably heard him say the word above.
You will be missed, Bobby!
Several years ago, a cousin gave each of our sons a WWI bayonet that had belonged to his uncle. We also have two pictures of him; this one was taken in 1923.
I’m not sure when B started using one of the bayonets to open and close the ceiling vents in the guest room and the office. The little levers can be stubborn, and the steel bayonet is just the ticket for the stretch and the push needed to operate the vent.
We keep the vents closed when the rooms are not being used.
This is one way we have found to take a stab at cutting our utility bills.
8^)
We decorated our Christmas tree last night and put on this little mailbox ornament that is adorned with two cardinals and an envelope.
This salamander turned up in our little goldfish pond a while back. I had never seen one like this.
What looks like its muffin, is actually a goldfish food pellet.
Since we still occasionally have critters get stuck in the pond and drown, we were a little anxious about this cool little guy. So when the salamander was still in the pond the following morning, B scooped it out with the net.
He put it in the leaf litter beside the pond. Now, if it wanted to go back in the pond, it easily could. If it was stuck in the pond, it has been rescued. We did not see it again.
I emailed our local IFAS office for help confirming the identification. He wrote that it is a marbled salamander, Ambystoma opacum . He said that they are sexually dimorphic: the females have grey or silver markings, while the males have white. Well, our jury is out on this call. It seems to be rather silver in the water pictures and white in the net. Fall is their mating time and the eggs are laid in still water. The goldfish would likely have eaten the eggs anyway. They are mole salamanders so I guess those long toes come in handy (so to speak) for digging. This last shot was just rather amusing to me. It was floating in the water. The toes are so fanned and, I swear, it was smiling for the camera.
A young black man opened my classroom door on Monday and called my name before stepping inside. My kindergartners were at P.E. and I was alone, wading through my school email. I immediately recognized the face if not the six foot (plus) body of my former kindergartner, Z. I wasn't expecting him. We had not seen each other in over seven years, but when he grinned, I knew it was Z.
Z. is the third of five children and the first I taught, before following up with the younger two in other years. I remember him as such a sweet child and that sweetness was still very apparent today as he hugged me. He said he wanted to come and see me. He said he is working on his GED at a local high school and is now eighteen. He hopes to attend the community college for two years and then go to college somewhere.
We found someone with a camera to take our picture.
His mother and younger sister were waiting in the car in the parking lot. I walked out with him to see them. I hugged his mama and clasped hands with his sister through the windows. His mama told me in detail things I had long forgotten that I had done to help her family. As I thought about them over the afternoon, some of those memories did return. She said, "You'll never know how much you meant to our family."
And she'll never know how her words (and her children) touched my heart.
Some readers will be of an age to remember when motels had vibrating beds that guests could feed quarters and get their nose to itch---or at least that was always my reaction when I was a little girl and thought it such a novelty. (I had to jump on my bed to make it move.)
This is what came to mind when I took this picture of a green anole on top of the goldfish pond air pump. There was a second anole on the concrete. Hmmmmm.
“Come on up, honey! You don’t even have to put quarters in this one.”
I have been admiring someone’s hay bale handiwork for a while now and have just gotten around to stopping by and taking a picture.
Have to wonder about the bridal veil and diamond ring.
