Good Things

Last night as I was saying good night to my girl (which generally takes fifteen to twenty minutes since she tends to be a little chatty) she told me, "You're the easiest person to talk to." That made me very happy. I hope it stays that way.

Is That a Light Up Ahead?

I've got so much coming up in the next couple of weeks that is very important and that I have to just shut up about here. So maybe I'll just keep on shutting up for a little longer.

Miscellanea

Geez, you'd think I could update every once in a while, huh? The rain has stopped, for now. The forecast says thunderstorms will be moving through this afternoon.
Classes are done for this academic year. They ended with a limp thud as one student who tried to convince me he should get extra credit for showing me a paper he wrote for another class took two hours to complete the last final I gave in order to get a failing grade on it. Um, sorry dude. No, the paper doesn't count and be happy you managed to pass the class even when you bombed the final.
Despite being done with teaching for the time being, I'm still employed as bookkeeper/admin drone for my uncle and dad. My uncle will be going in for open heart surgery soon and will be away from the business for a couple of months while he recuperates, so that means another couple of months of me taking over for him while he's out. I've been working for him for over a year now. Suppose that's something I could put on a resume if I ever wanted to fold and get a real, "regular" job. I'm still working on sending out cover letters and resumes to more translation agencies because the more clients I can find to send me work, the less "free time" I'll have for the bookkeeping stuff.
Two and a half weeks until my court date! I'm trying to stay calm and not imagine that anything will get finalized for another month or two after the court date because it's all been so slow up to now. It's absolutely insane that it's taking over two years to get divorced.

Raindrops Keep Falling On My Head. They Keep Falling.

It's supposed to keep raining here for the next several days. If the bridge on Central Ave doesn't wash out we'll have gotten off lucky, I think. I'm posting some still shots to Flickr too.

Great Flood of 06?

I haven't seen so many people in downtown Dover since Apple Harvest Day.

Rain

Hawaii had their 43 days of rain earlier this year. Now it seems like maybe it's our turn here in New England. It's only been raining for about a week so far, but this weekend we have had several inches of rain fall and fall and fall. Rivers are overflowing. Some roads are impassable and washed away. School was cancelled today. And it just keeps on falling.
And in that New England-y kind of way mostly I just think, "At least it's not snow!"

My Dan Brown Story

With the release of the movie of The DaVinci Code, Dan Brown's name is all over the place. I haven't read the book or seen the movie, but I do have a Dan Brown story. I went to high school with him.
He was a year ahead of me in school and since we were both day students at the local fancy shmancy private school, we both had our home base in the library, where day students were given carrels to study at and store books. One year Dan was my proctor there, a job that involved making sure the other day students were kept relatively under control while we studied there in the evening. I remember he was almost always with his best friend Chip. They were both blonde and pretty nice, as far as high school boys go. He probably had to yell at me once or twice in his role as proctor for making too much noise in the library. He was a fac brat. His dad taught math.
So many famous authors have come out of that school; Peter Benchley, George Plimpton, Gore Vidal, John Irving. I always knew the odds were that someone there at the same time as me would end up famous. I have to admit I never especially thought it would be Dan Brown. I have no qualms with him being the one to hit it big. Another good author, who happened to be in my same graduating class, is Chang Rae Lee. I've read two of his books. They were excellent.
I haven't read Dan Brown yet because of all the hype. Maybe this summer, now that The DaVinci Code is out in paperback. Maybe I'll go down to Rye Beach and read it and Dan will walk by and I'll ask him to autograph my copy. heh.

Oxymoron of the Day

All those people driving alone in their big SUVs and minivans ( I guess "7 seat minivan" is an oxymoron too) with the NH conservation license plates. The extra $30 a year they spend for the plate probably doesn't do much to make up for the resources they waste by driving those big gas guzzlers in the first place.
I can't wait until gas goes up to $5 a gallon and all those people who moved up here and commute down to Boston in their SUVs will have to move back down there because they can't afford the commute to their jobs anymore. If this guy knows what he's talking about (and he seems to), those people are screwed.

Curses, Foiled Again

I thought I had found a way to keep the begging and clamoring of students desperately striving to get a spot in the already-full, first year Japanese class out of my hair. I got the idea to call the Registrar's Office and ask if I could have them create a waiting list for me, so if anyone dropped the class, the next person in line would automatically be added. The call went well. It seemed like it would be a possibility, but they just had to clear it with the higher authorities above me in the hierarchy.
The higher ups nixed it. I honestly just wanted to keep all the whining and begging to a minimum and to be able to send students somewhere else with it. But if the wait list were approved, then there would be an official record for demand for the class. And if there was too much demand and the admin had an official record of that, they would have a harder time justifying why no more sections were going to be created. They just want to nip it in the bud. I understand.
I'm getting better at getting the students to spare me their lobbying and just getting their names and contact info for the waiting list. I know they all really really want to study Japanese, but I can't say one's reasons are more important than another's. I can't create more sections of the class or more space in my classroom to accomodate them. It's just not within my power.
First come, first served. It's as simple as that.

Save Odiorne Point!

If you're a Seacoast NH resident, you've probably spent a few hours enjoying the state park at Odiorne Point. It's not a sandy, lay out and get a tan kind of beach like Wallis Sands, but it's a great place to go for a walk or a bike ride or to just hang out and watch the ocean. (as long as the creepy naked dude with the underwear on his head doesn't bother you.)
Anyway, it seems we may be in danger of losing that undeveloped stretch of beach at Odiorne's (as I call it) if UNH gets its way. There's a big fat $14 million dollar grant from NOAA that they will lose if they are not able to find a location for the marine laboratory soon. The people of Newcastle have already rejected UNH's initial proposal to locate the facility in their town. Now UNH is proposing to build the facility shoreside at Odiorne Point. Now it's time for the rest of us to get together and prevent them from ruining the largest undeveloped stretch of shore in New Hampshire. We only have eighteen miles of coastline. Can't we save some of it for all of us to enjoy?
Save Odiorne Point