Getting Dusty
If you’ve been following my facebook posts, you know we have traveled over 1500 miles to attend my step-daughter Cindy’s wedding, and that wild fires are currently threatening the home she and Dustin have made together on his family’s ranch near Horse Creek, Montana. We’ve been feeling helpless and worried sitting here in Sheridan, so today we decided to get out of town and see some of the stunning country side here.
We drove north out of Sheridan on WY 338 to the Tongue River Reservoir State Park. If you ignore the coal industry’s mining and tipples in the area, and just look at the reservoir as you approach it is stunningly beautiful up there. We parked the car at a couple of pull offs / camping areas - Rattlesnake Island and one north of the dam, along the Tongue River. This is an area of red shale, Juniper canyons and open prairies.
After walking along the Tongue River and enjoying the silence, lovely breeze, birds and butterflies, we got in the car and drove further north along the dirt road up toward 4 Mile Creek Road, out of the park into ranch country. We eventually turned back and retraced our steps back to Sheridan, but thoroughly enjoyed the solitude and beauty of the area.
When was the last time I sat outside, early in the morning, to drink my coffee? I can’t remember! This morning, anticipating the extreme heat later in the day, I sat outside gazing at the garden occasionally, drinking coffee and reading Great Expectations.
Peace!
Relaxed is firing up the grill and toasting marshmallows until 10 pm!
Herring Run Park from Eastwood Drive
Arcadia Block Party was today - I am so fortunate to live in a community where people give so much of themselves for the community, and will come out just to hang out and visit with their neighbors. Great company, good food, cutest kids in Baltimore, great live music. Glad I didn’t miss it!
WHAT IS YOUR EARLIEST HUMAN MEMORY?
…I remember looking up at three art glass windows that were glowing yellow in the sunlight.
If A is average annual enrollment, and
B is number of years beyond the first that I worked at a school, and
C is average graduating class size, and
D is the average number of faculty and staff, then
[A + B(C) + D} for each school = the total number of students, faculty and staff I interacted with in the course of my career in education… so:
MMA[1450 + 3.5(362) + 125] + ST.TSM[75 + 1(20) + 30] + CHS[900 + 1(225) + 85] + OHS[1250 + 2(312) + 125] + NTHS{900 + 5(225) + 85] = 2771 + 130 + 1210 + 1999 + 2110 = 8220 give or take a few (I hope my math friends will check my calculations - it has been a few years since I took a math class! )
I have been thinking about the transformative process of being a teacher and how all of the people I’ve interacted with over the years have contributed to the process. I was curious about the numbers, so I decided to try tallying up a total of the number of people I shared this journey with. Thank you, all the students, faculty and staff members I interacted with in the 17.5 years I spent teaching high school art.
I have been transformed!
Note to self - remember this quote:
Rest is not idleness, and to lie sometimes on the grass under trees on a summer’s day, listening to the murmur of the water, or watching the clouds float across the sky, is by no means a waste of time.
~J. Lubbock
About put your feet up
