March Preparation

 Well, my devoted fans, March is quickly approaching. Actually, if you're in Australia, it's already March.  We are currently hunkered down in our house, because it's cold outside.  Here are a couple reasons I'm looking forward to March:

-Equinox. That's right, 12 hours of light again! And after that, it can only get better.

-In the middle of the month, instead of a day to celebrate how alone I am, we get to celebrate my birthday, which is infinitely more awesome. And not just because it has cake.

-No more high school basketball games that require me to make cupcakes, jello or cotton candy, and then sell aforementioned goodies.

-I get to pack up the cheer gear for the year.  I will no longer have to say: "You had better not be eating  blue Mr. Freeze's in my brand new uniforms."

-The 7th graders are I are going to Nome for NACTEC (Northwest Arctic Career and Technical Education Center.) My poor, poor 7th graders who play ball. They're going to be at school on Monday, then in Kotzebue from Tuesday to Sunday, then home Monday, In Nome for NACTEC Tuesday to Friday, home in time for the Junior High Basketball Tournament, which is Friday and Saturday. Then school on Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday, then spring break Thursday to Sunday. 13-year-olds don't need sleep, right?

-I can spent money again.

-Iditarod. Idita-golfing, Idita-craft, Idata-shopping. Okay, there is no official Idita-shopping. There are a lot of things that start with the I-did-a in front of them.  I think this year, I'll fly in on Friday morning, do everything I want, and come home Saturday night. Since I don't care to watch the basketball tournament, or hang out at the bars for a week, this plan works well for me.

I'd say something about it being warmer in March than February. (Hey, did you notice the thermometer and sun gauge on the side of this blog?) However, it got pretty warm there for a couple days, and now that March is coming, it's getting colder again. My thermometer doesn't seem to think it's as cold as some others'. It's -26 here right now, but that may be because my sensor is next to my house, in the sunlight. I heard that with wind-chill, it was getting down to -40* F in the shade.

February, 2010

Here, on the last school day of the month, I've decided to give a rundown of the month:

-For the first time, as I was walking over to the school, the sky off to the east wasn't black, or even navy blue, but an actual blue color. The view from my classroom, however, is still dark.

-Just to let us know who's really in charge, the temperature has dropped down to NEGATIVE TWENTY THREE DEGREES FAHRENHEIT. Yup, 55 degrees below freezing.

-Speaking of freezing, Financial Freeze February is almost over. So far I've done it, with the following caveats: two trips to the post office, the five dollars my mom sent me for Valentines day, six dollars at birthday parties, and one order on Amazon for birthday presents. I believe that all these things were allowed according to the original rules. I did, however, let Amy buy me Snack Shack last week, so I'll buy next time. She also picked me up cocoa and jam while she was in Anchorage, so I have to pay her back for that. Of course, I still have all my emergency money, so that's not a problem.

-I'm half-way done with my second class for my Masters. I got a 98% on my most recent paper, so that's pretty exciting.

Wait, did I just try to recap a whole month, and only find four things? Turns out I did. Sorry peeps, looks like I'm really boring.

Methods of Knowing

When I was in college, a fellow student (I'm looking at you Denise Hurlbut) would tape a color-change plastic spoon to the outside of her living room window. The spoon started out purple, but would turn pink when used in ice cream, or left out-side in a Rexburg winter.  You may wonder why someone capable of getting into, and staying in, college would feel the need to tape a spoon to the outside of her window. Well, she needed an indoor/outdoor thermometer, and these spoons were free. She knew to wear a sweatshirt, unless the spoon had changed, then it was time to pull out the coat.

Why do I tell this story, devoted reader? Well, I'll tell you:

There used to be an incinerator toilet in my bathroom. If you'd like to see Steve clean one out, go here:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fhlYNjV7kh8
Part of this toilet is the ventilation pipe, which leave the toilet, and runs up through the ceiling, taking all the smells/smoke out of the house.  I do not currently have an incinerator toilet in my house, I have a frame with a bucket. I do, however, still have the ventilation hole in my bathroom. Even when it used to have a peanut butter jar duct-taped to it, it still let in enough of the cold. On days like today, I must first leave my warm bed for my tolerable bedroom. Then I must leave my tolerable hallway for the my bathroom. There's ice forming in the bathroom. And that is how I know how much snow gear to wear on a daily basis.

Did you see there, where I made my rambling wrap back around to the first paragraph? Awesome, right?

School in Alaska

Well, I've finished paper number 3 for this class. I am now halfway done with these things. With only three more papers, and 9 weeks left, I'm feeling better about the whole thing.

This is a very special time of the year in Alaska. The horned rumor is alive and well. The best place to catch one of these is in the staff room, but classrooms, e-mails, and long distance phone calls are also a wonderful hiding place for the rumor. If you'd like to meet the rumor's fact-based cousin, there is a website to check:

http://www.alaskateacher.org/jobs/

Yup, this is the time of year when everyone in the district starts caring about who is staying, and who is running away. We're having a big turnover in the district this year, with most jobs being filled in-district, so along with the rumors, there is the gossip.

A couple years ago, when our school warranted another English teacher, the job was posted, and everyone in the district that checked it (and cared) thought I was leaving. Well, I'm still here. That job has gone through three people in the last three years. It's sort of our own Defense Against the Dark Arts job.

Another wonderful thing I found on the ATP  (that's Alaska Teacher Placement) website was this fan-freaking-tastic map:

There is a little confusion in my area, simply because the Nome School District is it's own tiny district (by land mass) inside our own district.  While it's not the biggest, I'm thinking that would be North Slope, (home of Barrow, not vampires) I'm going to say that we're probably a close second.

Here are some interesting facts from the website:

"Alaska’s approximately 500 public schools are organized within 55 school districts. These include 34 city and borough school districts and 19 Regional Educational Attendance Areas. REAAs serve students living in towns and villages in politically unorganized areas of rural Alaska. Alaska definitions of “city” and “borough” are not necessarily indicative of an urban setting, but refer to form of political organization."


"There was a time when school districts in Alaska paid teachers significantly more that other parts of the country, and offered many recruitment incentives. Those days are gone. Salaries are somewhere in the middle of the pack when adjusted for cost of living, and only in the top third in raw dollars.

District hiring incentives, such as moving allowances, roundtrip airfare for teachers and their dependents from Anchorage, free or almost free housing, and signing bonuses - all of which were frequently part of the packages teachers signed 12 - 20 years ago - simply don’t exist in today’s changed economic climate."

Okay, that's about all I've got for today. Happy Blogging.

A Quick Note

In an attempt to avoid my research paper, I have wandered over to my blog. My paper's coming fine. It's already 4 pages, and I've barely touched the outline I've made (which is still 3 pages long, even after I erased everything I've already written about.) I may have over-planned.

I have to get back to it, but in the meantime, here's a funny picture:

Hazard of Living in The Bush

Yesterday, in an attempt to get some dishes done, I started on the prep-work. In the lower 48 (or Nome, Brevig, Whales, Barrow, Fairbanks . . . okay, anywhere that's not here, camping, or a third-world country) all one has to do to prepare for dishwashing is empty out the sinks, put the stopper in, and fill them with hot water, while adding soap.

You knew it wasn't going to be that easy, didn't you? To start with, I checked the water tank in the Kuni-tuk (arctic entry) and ascertained that yes, we had enough water to wash dishes. It's a 300-gallon tank, and there are few times we don't have enough. Actually, it hasn't happened in several years.

For my second step, I checked the five gallon buckets that sit under the sink. You know that area, where everyone else puts vases and Mop 'n Glow. Our buckets were too full to do dishes. I've lived through water shortages before. Last year, we had a glycol leak at the school, and I lived off melted snow for six months. It takes a lot of energy to make enough water from snow to live on.

Since I'm lazy, I usually wait until my buckets get full. This does two things: 1)requires that I take them out before I do anything else, and 2) ensures that I do it, because Amy can't lift a five gallon bucket full of water over the railing to dump it out. There's a lot of things she can do that I can't, but she just doesn't have the upper body strength, or leverage, to do that.

On my way to the outside door, I bumped the inside door, which we usually keep open. It swung back and hit me, and I swung to stop it. Now, devoted fan, I'd like you to imagine a full bucket of water, while being swung. I only lost an inch or two off the top, and with the amount of snow we track into that entry-way, I didn't think it would be a problem. Evaporation is a helpful force in this case.

What I failed to realize at the time, but which has become EXTREMELY clear to me recently is this: the top inch of water is where the grease/oil likes to hang out. When the top inch of water is sloshed onto the floor, that grease goes with it. What started out as a quick water-emptying venture is going to now involve the Swiffer.

Until I get my current research paper done, that's the only story I've got. I'll try to bring funny back sometime after Sunday.

Masters Class

Some of you may be aware that I'm working on my Masters. After all, I have the time, money, and energy right now to get a good grasp on it. Think about all that time you spend; standing in line, waiting at restaurants and drive-throughs. Walking to your car, finding a parking spot, commuting to work, church, clubs, the grocery store, school, post office, sporting events, etc. Window shopping. Buying gas, getting my oil changed, running into town to pick up "one thing". I don't do any of that.

I partially picked Humanities as my major because of the reading list. I've always felt I should be more versed in the classics. Ladies and gentlemen, the classics are kicking my butt.

The Epic of Gilgamesh was tedious to slug through. The Bible, while inspiring, was dense. The Odyssey is long. Like LONG, even in it's tiny print in the anthology. I have 190 pages of it left to read, and a paper to write, so that's why this is going to be a short post.  Just to convince you that I'm working, I took this picture of me:

Man, that book is huge. When kids ask me what I'm reading, I tell them it's my "Read and Respond" book. They have to read for 20 minutes and have their parents sign that they read. They're pretty shocked at the length of my 1670 page anthology.