Ridiculous

This is what happens when you enjoy a big cafe au lait in the morning but an afternoon espresso (and you are loath to dirty up a hand wash only espresso cup):

As I was about to take a sip, I thought 'Good thing no one can see this... I must look ridiculous!'

Our Home's Natural Thermometer

Every morning, I open the kitchen shades and look at the leaves on the rhododendron bush.

If they are tightly curled up and I have a day off, I consider lighting a fire for the day.  If not, well that's global warming for you  - Even winter in New England is getting mild enough those big old flat green leaves can just stay flat with no fear this winter day!

A Merry Solstice Fire in the works for today!

Joy of Reading

 From my earliest days of learning to read until (I am sure) my dying days, I love to read.  

My earliest memory of this is working my way through The Swiss Family Robinson with my mother.  She would read one paragraph and then I would tackle the next (I'm assuming it was a 'for kids' version of the novel, but I really don't recall).  (In response to learning the word 'mankind', I asked my mother what all the women were doing.  A feminist emerging in little Kenny even way back then!)

In 2008 I joined Goodreads (which, aside from this blog, is my only form of 'social media') and each year the site summarizes your reads that year.   Here's a quick screenshot of each year thus far:

A Home Run on the Wheel of Privilege?

Teachers talk a lot about privilege these days.  It comes up in professional development all the time.  In a recent session, one of the discussion leaders said "It's rare that anyone has privilege in all the sectors - it's a complex and mixed bag for most folks."

Afterwards, I thought, well, hmmm, I might just have a home run in luck on that there wheel:

('slim' and 'rich' may be stretches, but it all depends on your metric, right?)

In class the other day, I left my home screen projected on the board and just after my students noticed a document titled "The Chemistry of Bourbon", they saw this graphic.  So, I proceeded to tell them the story of how lucky I am to have privilege in all sectors.  After a few chuckles on the 'slim' category, some rapscallion (OL?) calls out "Good thing they don't have a sector called 'Has Hair' on there!"

 

Wedding in Corsica

1969. Corsica.  The parents getting married. 

Mom is on the arm of her father and right behind my Dad is his father.  Both grandfathers are younger than me (or about my age) in this picture.  That blows my mind!

Thanks to my bro for catching this screenshot on a digitized version of an old film we found in a box from France years ago. (another, older film of a Wedding in Algeria here)