Feb.6. In an email yesterday, D. asked if, by the way, I knew that his dad's log cabin had burned down? No!, I wrote back in shock, hadn't heard a word about it. What happened? It was in the middle of January, D. wrote in the next email, and luckily no one was home at the time. The fire marshall couldn't determine a cause since nothing remained but a pile of ashes, but the woodstove was a big suspect. (I remembered how often I would get up in the middle of the night, back in the day, to tap the woodpipe to loosen any creosote build-up. I was always worried about that. Each tap would send chunks of creosote down the pipe.)I assume, over the years, K. and L. had upgraded their woodstove and pipes, along with the other modernizations, such as indoor plumbing.
After D. told me this news, I felt a surge of sentiment about that log cabin, even though I had left it decades ago. Because I had been there for its conception and construction back in those days of idealism, had watched it grow from a stack of logs cut from our own woods to a real dwelling, I have not stopped feeling an allegiance to it although I didn't realize it until yesterday. I associate it with my sons' childhoods. They had been little boys there, had opened Christmas presents, had tried to kill each other, had eaten the wild birthday cakes with multi-colored dyed frosting that I used to make for their parties. In addition, it was a one-of-a-kind, custom built house. No one will or ever could build one just like it again.
D. told me K. and L. were planning to re-build with the insurance money. The new one will be just the way they want it, unlike the way we had to build the log cabin on the cheap, and in a hurry, before winter of '76 set in and froze us all. I'm sure they're saddened by the loss, but excited at the new possibilities.
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On another note, I had another unexpected observation today. I was well-prepared, even though ANOTHER observation was the last thing I expected, and the students were all awake, engaged, and when they saw the observer, went out of their way to put on a good show, bless their hearts. Of courSe, I'm sure she'll find something wrong. Let me guess, I didn't have an "Essential Question" written on the board; that would be something like "Do murderers like MacBeth always receive retribution for their actions?" Shoot, while writing all the crap on the board this morning, from the list of state standards, to the list of activities, while trying to set up my laptop and LCD (not provided by the school; my own personal equipment) I had simply not written an Essential Question. Not that I have room on my board. We've been warned that a state-wide group is coming next Monday and will observe all teachers, and will interview teachers and students. We MUST have "Essential Questions" written on the board, along with the state standards, and students should be able to repeat for an interviewer which standard their teacher was trying to teach them. Can't you just see a student saying, "She was teaching me the standard that `students will be able to analyze British literature in its various genres and point out different literary elements as a way of interpeting the meaning.'" Yeah, right.
P. is an American Idol fanatic and gets distressed if I miss a second of it, so I must stop for now and get settled on the couch with my stack of papers and some dinner.
Today is the first day of my Year of the Rat, on the Chinese calendar. The last Year of the Rat brought MMW into S's and my life!
1 comment:
Ellie, I am moved by the log cabin loss because I can only imagine how I would feel if I'd heard that my home that my father built had burned. Hang in there with those darned observations. You're as good as the best and better than the rest.
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