Our view today out the front window. 

Article Sneak Preview...

This is a portion of the article that I sent in to the Independent Tribune for this week. It may come out on Wednesday, but could as easily be any day...keep an eye out! Enjoy this last weekend before Christmas!


They say all hearts go home for Christmas, and mine is certainly in Kannapolis right now. Christmas has always been my favorite holiday, and I’m missing being there the most during this time of the year.

I have wonderful memories of Christmas in K-Town, the lights downtown, and the Santa that used to float in the mill lake. Those times are still magical, especially in my desperately homesick mind, and I can’t help but to try to relive them every chance I get.

Christmas always started for my brother, sister, and I on the day that school would let out early for the Kannapolis Christmas parade. My parents would park in the Aycock Elementary School parking lot, and we’d hike over the railroad tracks to “our” spot across the street from Table Supply.

The streets would fill up, the parade would start, and we would jump and peek, trying to spy Santa first. My mother would make popcorn, filling paper grocery bags, and we would stand together, bundled in blankets and laughing out loud.

Following the parade, we helped finish the last of the decorating that my father would start on the day after Thanksgiving. There were candles to put in the windows, ornaments for the trees, and my brother, sister, and I were always responsible for the downstairs tree…because that was where Santa would come.


More to come...I'll put snippets of the rest of the article up as the week wears on...

Back To School!

We were out of school again today, but we're going back tomorrow. They think the kids got overheated from the lights, and practicing too long in close quarters that some of them just got dizzy.

I spent the day in Liz's class in East Aurora. I helped chaperone a field trip to see "The Polar Express." It has to be one of the best movies I've ever seen. It was visually stunning, with great music and an awesome story. If you haven't been, go now!

We ended up getting a couple inches of the Lake Effect Snow...after 6-8 inches was forecast. They're calling for a little more tonight...we'll see. The weather is not working out the way I'd like!

Hope you all are well! - Mike

Channel 2's picture. 

Channel 7's picture. 

Channel 4's picture.  

Out of School on Wednesday...

I copied and pasted the following from the Channel 2 Website about the goings on at our school yesterday. We were out today, and don't know too much more than what was reported on the news.

-Mike



Starpoint Central School closed Wednesday for health mystery:

December 14, 2004

A medical mystery sent many students to the hospital and emergency workers scrambling into action at Starpoint Central school. 31 students became sick leading to a medical lockdown and then early dismissal.

It is a mystery why students in the 10th, 11th, and 12th grades suddenly fell ill. Officials do not suspect foul play at this point, but tests and an investigation are underway to determine the cause.

“We are not sure what caused this incident,” said Dr. Douglas Whelan, Starpoint Superintendent.

50 students were in the Starpoint auditorium practicing for a holiday choral concert when one student suddenly fell ill. That student went to the nurses office, and shortly afterwards, another student became sick. The nurse called 911. The number of sick kids quickly grew to 31. Most reported feeling dizzy or light-headed as they were taken to area hospitals.

“I’ve heard them vomiting blood. No one saw it,” said Dr. Whelan. “And I’ve also heard that the doctors at the hospital emergency rooms questioned that.”

Air inside the auditorium was circulated outside, and initial testing by haz-mat crews found no signs of carbon monoxide. The sheriffs department and the FBI are now handling the investigation.

“Our role, naturally, would be if somebody were to do something, which we have no evidence of, to follow up,” said Thomas Beilein of the Niagara County Sheriff’s Department.

“We have no reports of calls coming to the school, we know of no threats, we know of no students within the group who have had discipline problems in school,” said Dr. Whelan.

In other cases similar to this, other students have fallen ill in a sort of psychological response to seeing someone get sick. It’s not clear if that’s what happened here, but Dr. Whelan has no reason to believe any of the kids faked their illness.

“When I was there on the scene I saw students who said they were weak, dizzy, being helped into the nurses office, so I don’t have any reason to believe they were not telling the truth,” said Dr. Whelan.

An environmental testing company out of Grand Island is running tests at Starpoint. School is cancelled for Wednesday for all students, and Dr. Whelan assures parents that he will not re-open the school until everything is deemed to be safe.

I'm READY for the COLD and SNOW! (If it would only get cold and snow!) 

HI MARCIA!!!

I know you're looking...so helloooo. According to Barb, you're my first blog "groupie." Maybe we should go on tour.

It's snowing again...and we're still seeing the deer everywhere! They're calling for Lake Effect snow tomorrow. We'll see. These folks here are a bunch of "Weather Liars" and I'm getting awfully tired of their false predictions.

Hopefully, this week, I'll have some decent snow pictures to post, that show more than a half an inch.

-Mike

Nothing Says Christmas Like...

Nothing says Christmas like a big steel bolt right in the crotch.

It seems this fad of putting up giant blow up Santas, Snowmen, Reindeer, and Christmas Trees in your front yard is more than catching on. I see at least 5 or 6 dozen of them on the way home from work.

The newest member to join this club is the blow up Polar Bear.

Now obviously, these things need to be secured. I've seen them tied to trees, duct-taped to the side of the house, tied to stakes in the yard, but until the Polar Bear started to appear had I ever seen one nailed to the ground by it's hoo-ha.

It's quite obvious, even just glancing in its general direction, how the inflated beast is managing to stay on the ground; it's quite the obscene sight. You would think the manufacturer would have found a better place to attach it.

Oh, and before I forget, the poor Polar Bears do not have the winning Christmas smiles of their counterparts. Their faces have tiny little pursed lips which seem to suggest that the ground attachment procedure was not very pleasant. I can't say as I blame them...my lips would be pursed too.

Metamorphosis

When teaching children about metamorphic rocks, I always know, before I ever say the word, that some rocks are going to be more interesting than others, namely SCHIST.

Through constant questioning strategies and feigning a great deal of interest, the students try to thoughtfully provoke me into mispronouncing the word. I never have, and I never will. (Not in the classroom, anyway...)

So today, when a student COMPLETELY misspelled the word, I looked down at his paper, and redirected him to fix it. He turned purple, obviously embarrassed by his mistake, and started to erase. His neighbor, viewing the action from across the table, exclaimed: HOLY SCHIST! YOU ALMOST GOT INTO A LOT OF TROUBLE.

That child is staying after school tomorrow.


Also, one of my students informed me today that if you put the letter "B" in front of certain bad words that they are no longer bad. I told him he was incorrect if the intent was still to utter a bad word. I turned to walk away, and I heard him quietly tell his friend that the uncooperative student sitting across from him was still a Basshole.

This is only funny for me because we went through a period in my house growing up where we would put "CH" in front of the bad words...which made us laugh and not use those words. It worked well until "Chitty Chitty Bang Bang" came on TV.

He sees you when you're sleeping, he knows when you're awake...and in this house, that's not all he knows! Barbara, of course, is the creative genius behind this little restroom gem! 

Ballet...or Synchronized Seizure?

We just got home from seeing the "Nutcracker" ballet at the University of Buffalo. We sat on the third row, and were fairly close to the action.

I found that I was amazed by several things during the performance: A) The dancers standing on their tiptoes(even the babies), B)The dancers ability to wiggle their pointed feet (in unison), and C) the lack of at least some shorts or something on the male dancers.

The costumes and sets were very colorful, but the constant pointing of toes and wiggling of calf muscles was very distracting. At one point, these 5 or 6 year olds came out in full length angel costumes...right to the floor. When they stood on their tiptoes, their dresses were about two inches off of the floor, allowing a glimpse of their feet, which looked like two twirling Tic-Tacs. It was quite disconcerting.

Just watching the dancers made me want a muscle relaxer...I can only imagine the pain they must all be in, especially their pointy little devil feet. At least it was entertaining, and Red Lobster was still open afterwards. As long as Red Lobster is in the picture...I can do ballet anytime.

Dad's Picture On The Weather Channel!

My Dad's picture made the Weather Channel. If you'd like to see it on their website: CLICK HERE!

The view outside my classroom window this morning. 

Another view from this morning outside my window. 

Trees covered in snow. We only got about two inches, but it was thick, and stuck to everything! 

The view in back of the school. 

Pics of the snow... 

An acceptable day...

We finally had some discernable snow. We got about 2 inches of wet, heavy snow, and it was beautiful, especially on all of the trees coming to work this morning.

On a different note, as it started to snow last night, I walked outside because Doug and Barbara were missing. They were hiding in the front yard with a mouse that was stuck to the adhesive pad Doug had put out.

Moose, the cat who does no wrong in the eyes of those who love him, brought a mouse into the house, and set it free. I am the only one who recognizes the cat as the purposeful, instigating, seed of Satan that he is. He brought the mouse in on purpose to see what we would do. Incidentally, he never kills the animals he catches, he just plays with them...some of you will remember the baby rabbit in the shoe situation earlier in the summer. It was neither pretty, nor was the rabbit dead. Thank God the dogs, the more angelic of the animals in the house, were there to protect the rabbit, and helped it live by licking it while it hid face first in Doug's shoe. When we discovered the rabbit, it was soaked with dog spit. Maybe there are worse things than being eaten by a cat.

Any-who, back to the mouse. The super deluxe adhesive that Doug had used to capture the mouse did not kill it. I offered to put it out of its misery, but instead was given a knife and asked to save it. I'm happy to report that the mouse did, in fact, become seperated from the adhesive, but there was quite a bit of adhesive left on him when he tried to run away. (And on me...)

In your minds, picture a pirate, with a suction cup on the end of his wooden leg.

Hop-stick, hop-stick...you get the picture...the little sucker was never going to be a marathon runner, but luckily, was able to get to shelter before the cat realized he had been let go.

Daily life with the Brumpton's is becoming more and more dramatic...I really need a video camera on all the time. I could call the resulting reality show "As the Brumpton's Turn" or "One Life To Live: and I'm Living It With A British Person."

The comedy is ongoing...persistant, and unstoppable. In fact, I'm laughing right now, sort of.