How would I even begin...

I don't know how I might explain what has happened over the past year or so, but I will try to convey some thoughts.

This past year has been, I think, the most trying and confusing time that me and my family have been through. The last time I posted, I was a high school chemistry and astronomy teacher at our local school in Ashland, KY. It is a good school and has about 1000 students. Much bigger than any other school I have taught in. However, I did well and enjoyed it for the most part. As with any job, it had it's problems, but I had a great job and I knew it, although it was a ton of work. I also taught AP Chemistry. That is a very rigorous curriculum; I fell asleep most nights of the week while studying chem, making notes, working out problems, making sure I understood concepts, and planning chem labs. It was exhausting. I love chemistry, but it was very taxing.

So, when someone told me that the prison across the river (in Ohio, about 20 minutes away) was hiring and paying about $10,000 more dollars a year, I was interested. I was even more interested when I learned that I could not take any "homework" or school materials INTO the prison, and I also was never allowed to take any work OUT of the prison. That only meant one thing: my evenings would be free. There was no overtime, and I worked about 40 or so hours a week. I thought, "It doesn't matter what goes on during the day, I can deal with it if I know I have no work to do at home!" How wrong I was.

I don't want to publish for all electronic eternity some of the things that I saw, know, heard, and experienced, but the short of it is that I found out what I can deal with in life and what I can't. I have always been the type of person that never wanted to find something that I just could not do. Now, there are plenty of things that I am not physically able to do. And certianly there are things that I do not have the talent for. But I mean, if there is something that I can do, but it is just hard, then I will do it if I have to. In the prison, I think I found my limit. I stayed there for 5 months and decided to quit. That was another thing that was so difficult: quitting. I have never quit a job without somewhere else to go. But I did this time. My family was suffering tremendously because I was so stressed and upset and could not seem to come to terms with going back every day. There were plenty of nights of fitful sleep, and sleeplessness, because I so deeply dreaded going back there each morning.

When I hired into that place, people told me that no one on the outside will believe you or understand you when you try to tell them about this place. They were so right. Unless I sat with someone face to face, I don't think there is anyway to convey the kind of misery that surrounds that place. Most of the prison workers simply say, "I work in hell".

So, I quit. I wasn't sure what to do then. I applied for many, many jobs and didn't get any. I enrolled in an EMT class; something I always wanted to do. I also applied to join the Louisville, KY, fire department. That was a great thing because it kept me motivated to run and work out and lose weight. I lost 40 pounds during the spring and early summer. I passed my civil service written test in February, and then passed my PAT (physical agility test) in April. It was maybe the hardest physical test I have ever taken. I was told a few times that the Louisville PAT is one of the hardest of all the fire departments in the country. I know firefighters that have done the firefighter challenge and they say that is a walk in the park compared to Louisville.

I will have to catch up on more details later. Time to go for a ride and out to dinner with the fam.

-Crazy-A

Signs of the times...

I have been reading a lot on CNN and MSNBC about how to tell if the economy is getting poor by how many big rigs you see on the road. They also talk about watching cargo trains, like in Elkhart, IN, to give a clue to the economy.

Well, in my hometown of Tawas, MI, we have another way of doing it. My dad used to work in an open pit gypsum mine in Tawas. There are actually three gypsum mines in the local area, but I believe the National Gypsum Mine is the only one still in operation. Anyway, I was talking to my brother-in-law, who works at the mine, (and also used to work with my dad), and he told me how many boats they are scheduled to load this year.

So, let me give you a short background. Tawas, MI, is right on L. Huron. There is a gypsum loading dock, (we all called the "port", because it is one... ), right there that the big lake freighters would come in and get loaded with gypsum. They would take it to the Chicago area, Cleveland... I don't know all the places they would go, but some of the boats, like the Sam Laud, would hold 40,000 ton of gypsum. Another common boat that came into port was the Buffalo. The picture here is the Buffalo being loaded at the Tawas Dock. So, when I was a kid growing up, we would always drive down to the port when dad was loading a boat so we could see those big freighters. It was awesome.

Anyway, when my dad was alive and loading boats, like in the 80's and 90's, the National Mine would load anywhere from 30 to 40 boats a year with gypsum. This was all shipped to places to make building material, mostly sheetrock, or dry wall, whatever you may call it.

The sign of the time is: this year they are scheduled to load anywhere from 4 to maybe 8 total.

It is much easier than counting semi's on the highway.

Hot days are comin', I think...

Well, I suppose I am feeling a lot better this weekend.

I guess I got a good dose of life and friends and that's about what it took.

A wonderful friend from my college days got ahold of me about a month or two ago and it was great to catch up. Then, about 3 weeks ago I drove up to the Hillsboro, OH, are and visited him and his family. He is starting a dairy farm and has a great little place. Then, this weekend, our whole family went up there and spent a couple nights. I drove the kids (as well as my mom) around in their big tractor, a 150 HP Deutz-Allis.

The picture isn't "thier" tractor, but it is exactly the same, and theirs looks just about as good. It was lots of fun.

Then me and Troy (my friend) had to unload a wagonload of hay and put it up in his barn. That was great fun, too. I did a lot of that work when I was a teenager and early 20's, and I miss it. The kids had a wonderful time with their dog, Floppy, a Basset-Beagle named for obvious reasons. And Nathan and Alia took off exploring all through thier unplowed fields. They were having a wonderful time petting the cows and running as far as they could stand without worrying about cars or people or anything. I was wonderful to see.

And Nathan decided that he loves running. He ran more on Saturday than he has all year put together. Which is great because there was a time when we were very concerned that he had breathing or chest problems. Every time he would run a few yards he would complain about chest pains. But I think he ran about 2 or 3 miles total on Saturday and there was not any problems at all. His new saying was like this:

Nathan: "Are we going back up to the barn?"
Dad: "Yes"
Nathan: "Are you walking all the way there?"
Dad: "Yes"
Nathan: "Well, I'll be running."

Then we'd be going to the pond or something... "Well, I'll be running." He is so funny.

Then today at home I got a lot of work done. Mowed my grass (again... 3rd time this year already). It was 92 degrees. Then I busted up the rest of the sod for my garden area. I was using a shovel, but then I found my sister's maddox, or pick-axe, or whatever you want to call it. So, I spent about an hour and broke all that up. Then went for a run... didn't wanna run too far with the bad heat and me not being used to it yet, so I ran a couple miles, ssssllloooowwwww. -ly.

THEN, went out and bought some petunias for my flower boxes on my front porch. Then, just put in some laundry and chilled out till Shannon brought home Papa Johns.. which was a great supper after a great day.

So, we'll see if I can keep up on this blog better nowadays. I think I am over the funk of being here and not up North... not completely, mind you... but feeling better about things. It has not been an easy adjustment, but with good weekends like this with good friends, things might start lookin' up.

Snow Daze

OK... so I have had the best week since I have moved here...

it's simple... just get a couple inches of snow, and some ice, and lots of power outages, declare a state of emergency, and...

viola!

5 days off of school!!!

Yea... that's BY FAR a record for me... the most I have ever had was 2, but this is Friday, and it is my 5th day off...

life is tough here in the Southland.

ROFL!!!

a bit better

Well, things aren't so bad now... I guess I just had to adjust.

Christmas was good; kids had a wonderful time. Christmas break was excellent. I went to Tawas for a couple days. Saw some good friends and spent some time with a cousin I haven't seen in years... nice to see him. Shannon and the kids stayed here, her dad is still not doing good.

I asked my students today if it ever gets cold here or if it ever snows here. Living in the Big Snow Country for so many years has really made me expect snow more than I thought. It has been 60 during the day and 60 during the night for a couple days now... one day was supposed to hit 70, but it didn't. I slept with my windows open again!

Back to school today... not very exciting, but a man has to work, at least until I can find a way out of it.

Hope everyone is doing great... my love to all who love.

PS, got a fish tank. I love it and the kids think it is the best thing since square butter.

AWESOME!

Got to talk to my long lost friend tonight... what a blessing! I didn't expect to hear from him; I was on skype and he happened to log on and we finally got to talk. Man, what an encouragement it was for me... it was like a blast of fresh air to hear the voice of my true friend.

Don't shave... don't cut your hair... looks great.

Nuff said...