Evening in September, at the base of Cucamonga Peak

I'm eating dinner outside, with a blue sky above me and a gray sky just north, above and behind Cucamonga Peak. Maybe it's the thunder shower I've been hearing is coming in. The setting sun highlights the peaks and shadows the valleys of the mountain while adding pink to the gray of the cloud over it.

Bela, at 5 months the youngest and ever the provocateur, is grabbing Sadie's leg, then Jimmy's ear, and then there is a pile of fur and legs and teeth as these three tussle. Up they jump and begin a race around the yard where the chaser can suddenly become the chasee. Bela is only 14 pounds but has inordinately long legs and a feisty attitude which allows her to keep up with older, bigger, and heaver dogs.

The leaves of my neighbor's tall row of aspen trees shake and rustle in a light breeze. Two hummingbirds flit through, then fly high into the sky, down again, and zoom off. I can hear the sound of children at play in the cul-de-sac just below me. The scrub jay comes to get his peanuts, returning until they are all gone. When I came out earlier he was sitting on the unopened peanut bag on the picnic table. I had bought it earlier and was distracted by something else and forgot to put out peanuts for him. But he spotted the bag.

The dogs played, the birds flew, I ate a lovely dinner, and the clouds moved to the east. The sun set.

The Border Fence

Thought for the Day

Aug. 30, 2009 – sent to all my fellow teachers:

This was the Thought for Today on the Word.a.day emailed to me.

Thought it apropos for teachers and emailed to my peers.

A THOUGHT FOR TODAY:

What you cannot enforce, do not command.

-Sophocles, dramatist (495?-406 BCE)

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I got a few responses, such as “Amen”, or “I really like this,

thank you.”

Following is an email conversation between myself and

someone who I would say is our most political thinker,

“Tom”.

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T - Eerily suggestive of our border policy.

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V - Interesting connection. With the border policy I have to say that

my attention is focused on the environmental

damage the fence has done, destroying habitat and animal corridors.

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T - What kind of animals? Not the human kind?

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V - No, not human corridors. I'm not worried about the demise of

human beings. In fact, I'm worried about the proliferation of

homo sapiens.

Bag Lady

One of my favorite stories to tell on myself is of the time during the summer when I was shopping at Ralph's. I was wearing my yard work clothes, clean but stained, and not carrying a purse. I almost never do, since working as a gardener and water treatment plant operator developed the habit of carrying keys and money in my pockets. On my way out of the store I had my purchases in a plastic bag, reused of course, and as usual, stopped at the trash can to check for bottles or cans. As I was reaching in for the bottle on top I heard a voice behind me say, "Do you need this?" I turned around to see a young man, 20 or so, with a 20 dollar bill held in an extended hand. How could he know that I have a job, a car, a house, a pension plan, CD's and IRA's, and discretionary income. I didn't want to discourage the impulse. The next time he feels it the person he offers money to may truly need it. So I just said, "No, thank you. I'm fine." "Are you sure?" he asked. I reassured him that I was. But how kind of him.

Oct. 2008

Who Goes There

Visiting with my brother, his wife, and my nephew and niece, over Christmas break we were talking about places where we’ve lived. My nephew has lived in several interesting places in Oakland and environs. One of them was a pump house. He talked about the fact that they could have live bands there because they weren’t in a residential area. My brother asked if any one had ever crashed these parties. Once, my nephew said. After one of the songs was over he just asked the guys to leave, and they did, no problems.

I said, “I crashed a party.”

“When?” my niece asked.

“A year ago last summer.” They all broke out laughing. I hadn’t looked for that response but then saw immediately that they were expecting this to have occurred in my youth, not as a then 57 year old woman. I had to tell the story. At first my brother seemed a little disapproving but as the story progressed he ended up laughing out loud.

I had gone to the Getty Museum with my teaching partner, and her youngest son, just out of 7th grade. When I got home it was about 9 PM. I fed the cats and was just hanging out in the front yard with them, enjoying the cool of the evening. Just north of me, behind the houses on the other side of the street, runs a flood control channel. Beyond that is another housing tract, with larger homes and 3 car garages. As I sat outside I could hear live music drifting down from one of those homes. The music sounded good. It came to me that I should go check it out. If I had been in my usual summer work-in-the-yard attire I wouldn’t have considered it. But I was still wearing my visit-to-the-Getty clothes. So I got in the car and headed north to the street up above the channel. I drove slowly down the street, with my window down. When I saw all the cars and heard the music I knew I found the party. I parked behind a chartered bus and sat for a minute asking myself, “Am I really going to do this?” What the heck.

The gates were open that lead down the driveway to the garage. In front of the garage were two tables piled high with gifts. The silver and gold wrapping lead me to believe that this was a wedding reception. I walked down the side of the garage, following the music. The band was set up in a grass area just behind the garage and the dance floor and tables were behind the house.

Just as I got there the band stopped playing. Four people, one of them the mother of the bride (I could just tell who she was, and saw later that I was correct), had taken over the mic and were trying to sing, “You’re just too good to be true, can’t take my eyes off of you…” They were having a hard time, stopping and starting again. The crowd was getting a little restless. I was near the little stage and I walked a little closer and told the mother, “You need to start higher” and demonstrated. She grabbed my arm and said, “Come on, we need your help.” So I joined them and we sang the song through, successfully, getting a good round of applause at the conclusion. And I got a hug from the mom.

The band started playing shortly after that and I danced. And danced. And danced. When the inevitable video camera came around I just was careful to turn my back to it. I left about 11:30.

I didn’t eat any of the food, or drink any of the drinks, and I did help them sing their song, and lots of people came over to dance with me, so I think it was a positive experience for all.

It would be interesting to hear the questions later when they view their videos. “Who is that dancing? That was the woman who sang with Mom, wasn’t it? Was she a friend of yours? Whose friend was she?”

I will probably never crash a wedding party again, the perfect circumstances being unlikely, but I’m glad I was…”The Mysterious Wedding Party Crasher”, just once.

(But I'm not ruling out birthday parties...)

Recalled Dec. 2008, from a summer party, 2008

Kids, Wasps, and Learning Something New

First thing Monday morning several students notice the wasp nest inside it's container. Why the wasp nest they want to know. So that we can watch the wasps emerge I explain. How did I get the nest they want to know. So I explain.

The wasp container is on the back counter and during the day the kids report to me that two wasps have emerged. The last class of the day is my garden class elective. We couldn't go outside Monday because the fires, in the east and the west, have adversely affected the air quality. So the kids do homework, work on puzzles, or help me with recycling the bottles and cans that had been turned in to me that day. A student, Christian, who is in my homeroom in the morning and also in the gardening class, has been keeping an eye on the wasp nest all day. He's asked me earlier about the wiggling larvae inside the uncovered chambers. They have a black dot in the middle and look like an odd, small eye as they move. I told him that I thought they wouldn't become adult wasps because I thought that they needed adult wasps to build the white covering over the top of the chamber. But Christian called me over to share his observation. We watched as the larvae built its own covering to the chamber, starting on the outside edge of the chamber and working around and around towards the center to build its little dome. By the end of the 5o minute period the opening was completely covered.

One of the other students watching this asked if I knew that the nest was paper. Sure, I knew. And I was glad he did, too. I have a container filled with old wasp nests and I pulled one out so we could look at it. There is a microscope right there on the back counter and Christian wondered if we could look at the white material under it. Of course! He carefully pulled some off the top of the old nest and put it on a slide and then a slide cover over it. It was great. The edges were frayed and you could see its fiber structure. The day before I had shown my science classes an old National Geographic video called "The Invisible World", explaining and showing the inventions that has allowed humans to see beyond the limits of our unaided eyes. One of the views we had was of intertwined white strands. As the camera pulled out I asked the students what they thought it was. No one guessed and they were all surprised when the final shot revealed someone writing on a piece of paper. Paper, paper wasps, and a handy microscope. I love all of the connections being made by a curious student.

When I opened a drawer beneath the counter, looking for the slide for Christian, the students near me could see my insect collection, in a variety of small containers. One of the students, Jordan, was delighted to see them. He said he does that, too. And his parents say he's crazy. "What do you want to do with all those dead insects?" he said his mother asks. I told him that if he's crazy I must be, too. We were both pleased with out common interest.

Tuesday morning cars left outside had a thin veil of ash and soot from the fires. So the gardening class had to stay inside again. Again the students found various activities to occupy their time. They're a good group of kids. If we have to stay in Wednesday I will bring out seed packets that I have and we'll take a look at how to read them; when to plant, how deep to put the seeds in, how far apart, what thinning means, and so on. But during the indoor time today Jordan took the opportunity to tell me that he has a wasp nest at home and would like to take it down. I told him the procedure that I use, but asked first if he had talked to his mother about it. He said he'd told her about the nest at school and she was fine with him asking me about this. I really like this young man. He's interested, polite, friendly, bright. And I have a picture now of his home life. His parents may call him crazy for having an insect collection but they allow, maybe even encourage, this interest. This has got to be one of the reasons he's such a fine person.

I was thinking about retiring last year as the school district was offering an incentive package to encourage teachers who have worked 15 years or more to retire. It would help the district in this time of economic woes. I decided not to, for a variety of reasons. And Tuesday I experienced two of those reasons. One, because when I teach I also learn. After all these years of collecting wasp nests I learned how the larvae chamber is covered. And two, it can be a real delight to get to know young people.