Making a list—Ever make a list for the store and end up forgetting the list itself? I never stick to just the things on my list either. Sam Walton was a genius!
Thinking in the shower--Why is it your best ideas come to you when you can’t write them down? I need a water-proof white board in my shower!
Why is it when we walk into a room and sometimes forget what it was we were going to get or do and then when we go sit back down we immediately remember? Now I just touch my behind with my finger to trigger my memory!
Do animals understand what we’re saying or is it just the tone of our voice we use to communicate with them? I know my dogs know what “going outside” or “hungry” means because of their reaction.
Other shorts …
Ever wonder why do our noses run and our feet smell?
Why is abbreviation such a long word?
What was the best thing before sliced bread?
Why are there interstate highways in Hawaii?
Can it be cloudy and foggy at the same time?
What is another word for thesaurus?
Can you get cornered in a round room?
Why is it that its good to score under par in golf but its bad to be under par in anything else?
We all do it. Don’t say you don’t! Sometimes, more of us are worse about it than others. I’ve done it a couple of times already this week, including writing this week’s blog! Okay, okay, what am I talking about? It’s putting off until tomorrow what you can do or get done today. Procrastinating! The “P” word, the “Big P,” “P-Daddy! King P” No matter what you call it, we ALL do it!
Why do we do put those things off? Is it because we dread them so badly? Or maybe we think we know we have time later? Yet many times after finishing some of the things we’ve put off, we often laugh about afterwards and wonder why we waited so long. Right? And then we say things like, “Boy, next time I’m not going to wait so long to do that.” or “Wow that took longer than I though it would! I should start on it earlier next time.”
Is procrastination a hereditary “disease or something embedded deep in our human nature? Did I get it from one or both of my parents? My youngest daughter, Andi, is also a big procrastinator. She must get it from me! Maybe it is a learned behavior. M wife Debbie calls us two P’s in a pod! She said she is going to get Andi and I shirts with the letter P printed on them.
Over the years, though, I have been pretty bad about procrastinating. I put off college and promotions until towards the end of my AF career, paperwork which have a quick turnaround, “honey-do” lists—I’m sure the list is endless (I’ll check with Deb!) I’m bad about waiting until the last minute doing a lot of things: renewing my driver’s license and license plates, writing papers for school, doing next week’s lesson plans, or mowing the grass or raking the leaves. Those things…they can wait! I’ve got more important things to do like useless surfing on the Internet, going to the mall, watching that ballgame on TV, going out to eat, and taking afternoon naps!
I think when it comes to projects around the house that maybe I am less proactive. Wonder why that is? Is it maybe because there are more distractions? Here it is, the next to last week of July, and I still haven’t done all of the projects and things I wanted to get done around the house this summer: clean out the rest of the garage, move things into the new storage shed, paint the house, finish double bolting and staining the deck, and move the wood pile. I’ll just wait until the few days right before school starts to begin all of that! Are there really more important priorities?!
I seem to be more of a procrastinator at home rather than at school. I have been over to my school some this summer, preparing for the beginning of the school year, getting my classroom ready, running off copies of paperwork for parents for Open House, and working putting my math presentations on the SmartBoard. I have even done my planning for every subject for the first five weeks of school.on the computer. I’ll admit, I’m getting better about being proactive about many things although I’m not sure why? I think sometimes being too proactive makes me eventually fall back into that rut, “P-rut” I mean!
There's only about 49 days left until college football starts in Knoxville. There's also nothing like hearing 108,000 people cheering & yelling all at the same time in one of the nation's largest stadiums. Tennessee's new head coach, Lane Kiffin, has brought new life to the Vols who've had a couple of disappointing seasons the last few years. Coach Kiffin has also done a pretty decent job in the recruiting department, which will hopefully make us competitive in the SEC (Southeastern Conference), especially against rivals Florida and Alabama. It would have been nice to have landed the top quaterback recruit (Chase Rettig) in the nation but he decided to go to Boston College. We haven't had a great player behind center since Peyton Manning (and Tee Martin, who led us to the National Championship in 1998). Incidentally, that was also the first year the BCS (Bowl Championship Series) was introduced also. (Note: I think the BCS has failed horribly in determining a "true" national champion--some sort of playoff system needs to take its place.) Top players in other positions, though, will hopefully strengthen the team as a whole. Tennessee fans are excited and definitely can't wait to see the "Big Orange" kickoff against Western Kentucky on September 5th. That's plenty of time to get football snacks ready and the TV moved out on the patio--Go Vols!
Well, my son Daniel finally set up the webcam Deb and I sent him around Valentine's Day. Since he lives in Albuquerque (stationed at Kirtland AFB) and we can't see each other as often as we'd like, we thought it would be neat to talk with him through Skype Video. Although we talk often on the phone, tonight was the first time we have seen his face since he came to visit for Christmas back in 2005. However, his future stepson Dylan (and his mowhawk), was the star of the call--What a ham! After working out some of the bugs and tweaking a few things, we were finally able to talk to Daniel, Lindsey, and Dylan. It was almost like being in the same room with them. Pretty cool technology! I use Skype in my classroom and have talked with many different classrooms around the world. It's a great way to enhance lessons for any subject and the great thing about it is it's so easy and, it's free! Here's an author/illustrator my class had the chance to converse and draw with!
Last night, my wife and I packed up the CRV with chairs, pizza, other snacks and a cooler and went out to the local drive-in theater. “Ice Age 3” & “The Proposal” were showing on the big screen. I’m not a real big fan of sitting through two whole movies in one evening, much less away from the comfort of my couch! Since it was one of Debbie’s last days of vacation from work, I decided to brave the humidity and mosquitoes. You have to get there pretty early to get a good spot since cars begin lining up about 7:00 (It doesn’t get dark until about 9:30!) So we backed the car in, opened up the hatchback and set up our big lawn chairs and table. With the ability to hold more than 300 cars, there were maybe 50 cars already parked before us. The majority of kids were up on the hill by the screen playing and meeting one another. Couples were walking around, teenagers were laying on blankets, and some people had even brought their dogs with them. It's a very inexpensive and great family atmosphere.
I even had a couple of students come running over to visit after spotting me.
When it finally got dark, the first movie began as we sprayed on bug repellent and tuned in the radio to hear the movie. The never-ending concession line had begun to diminish a bit so Deb decided to run a get some popcorn. While she was gone like what seemed forever (due to a dying popcorn machine), I was left alone for a moment to take in the darkness around me. What a beautiful evening it was, such a clear night and I guess since there were no street lights around, you could see hundreds of stars in the sky above. It was nice to take it that peaceful moment and forget about everything for a little bit. Before we knew it the second movie was over and everyone was packing up their cars and heading home into the early morning. When we climbed into our car, it was 1:30 a.m.!
My cousin, Barry Floyd, owns and runs a drive-in theater in Middle Tennessee:
Not that I’m trying to “one up” the girls in Hawaii, but I too lived on an island once! LOL! For two years, my family and I lived out in the middle of the Atlantic Ocean. Located about 700 hundred miles west of Portugal is a chain of islands called the Azores. We lived on Terceira island, the third largest of the nine in the archipelago. Formed from many years of volcanic activity, the island has lots of culture, scattered with small fishing towns and many vineyards.
Only 15 miles long by 20 miles wide, Terceira is home to the U.S.’s Lajes Field and the Portuguese’s Air Base No. 4. Originally formed in the 1950s, the base basically serves as a “big gas station” in the ocean for planes transiting between the U.S. and Europe. It was a huge staging area for many different kinds of aircraft during Desert Shield/Desert Storm (you couldn’t even see the runway for all of the planes!). Our firing range was located down inside of an inactive volcano! Whenever four-wheel drive vehicles were unavailable, sometimes we would have to hike down in there with our weapons and ammunition.
The weather there was pretty awesome, having about 6 to 7 months of beautiful, summertime weather. As the plane descended out of the clouds when first we first arrived, I remember the stewardess saying, “For those of you getting off in Lajes, you’ve just landed in ‘softball heaven!’” (Due to the nice weather, softball has a very extended season!) Winters there had quite a bit of rain and high winds, sometimes reaching up to 120 miles per hour! School for the kids would be canceled if winds reached 90 m.p.h. or higher.While stationed there, the rock band Extreme played an outdoor concert. The guitar player, Nuno Bettencourt, is originally from the island’s city of Praia.
Being on such a small island, we missed some of the conveniences of the states—fast food and shopping malls. Eventually though, we got used to the slow, easy-going European lifestyle. All in all, living on Terceirawas quite a memorable experience that my whole family enjoyed. We sure would love to go back and visit the Azores again one day!
As a kid growing up, summer was my favorite time of the year. Little League baseball, grilling out and watermelon, getting to stay up late, swimming at the pool, and spending the night at friends’ houses are some of the things which remind me of those childhood summers.
However, one distinct thing which reminds me of summer is actually a high-pitched sound of an insect—the sound of the cicada. A most unusual creature, the cicada is only found in the U.S., mostly east of the Mississippi River, from the Great Lakes to the Gulf of Mexico. The male’s mating sounds, among the loudest produced by any insect, can range up to 120 decibels, which is louder than a jackhammer.
As kids, we never saw a cicada actually emerge from the ground or even from its shell, but it was never hard to find their dried, empty shells attached to the trunks of the huge trees along the sidewalks of Clinton Street. Since moving back to Tennessee after living in various parts of the world, it was nice to again hear the sound of what others might consider annoying.
Many days now removed from my childhood, more and more I “catch myself” reverting back to different things which “take me back” to when I was a kid: baseball cards, old books, pictures, and other items found in antique stores, the warm breeze of an old attic fan, and ....those buzzing sounds of the cicada, “Rrrrrrrreeeeeeeeeeeerrrrrrr!” “Rrrrrrrreeeeeeeeeeeerrrrrrr!”
Here is the closest sound I could find to cicadas located in East Tennessee:
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