Things Are Looking Up

After leaving the gym last night I took a little side trip through the subdivision to the west of me. It's a rather up scale area that's been around for a while with lots of big trees. I had heard that it was hit pretty hard in the storm the other day and sure enough, it had been. Mother Nature doesn't seem to care whether you live in the double wide or the big spread, apparently. I ran into one of my former students with a tree service and made arrangements to get my downed tree taken care of. So that's a good thing. I also received a couple of comments on the blog and some phone calls of concern and support. That's another good thing. I was also able to ride my bicycle a little the last few days with out chest pains. That's a real good thing.

I had a couple of acupuncture treatments last week and it seems to be helping. I couldn't tell anything after the first one but after the treatment on Thursday, I woke up Friday morning feeling like a million bucks. Part of it might have been the fact that it was the last day of school but regardless, I felt pretty darn good. I over did it a little Sunday maybe. I used a bow saw to cut up some of the big branches that had fallen in the yard and that made me a little sore but I still was able to go for a short bike ride Monday morning with no pain. I'm going back for two more sessions this week. I'm not sure if this is a fluke, a short term, or long term solution. As long as I can start riding my bicycle again, I'll be a happy camper.

I received a couple of comments lately from other "shop" teachers - one teaching at the high school level, the other at the college level. I've received a couple of other comments in the past from other teachers, I remember one from North Carolina teaching machine shop specifically. From what I've seen, all of us have a lot of things in common. First of all, We're all makers of things. We all like things with wheels - cars, bikes, planes, trains - we might like some things more than others but basically gearheads. We're all pretty opinionated but you would expect that from people who are passionate about what they do.

Where am I going with all of this, you might ask? Not sure. We no longer have professional development time at my school any more. In fact, they ran a couple of people off this year who I had never even spoken to even though they had been there a year. I used to be able to get together with the other shop guys in my co-op once a year but that too is long gone. Other than eating lunch and gabbin' a little after school with a few of the guys in my department, I basically teach in isolation. That's not good. Not good at all. Is there some type of "shop" teacher forum or does someone have a blog that's linked up to a bunch of other guys and gals doing the same type of thing that I do? I've stumbled across a few good education links but I'd really like to know more about what people are doing and how they're dealing with all the legislative happenings across the country. Any input would be greatly appreciated.

The best thing going this morning is the fact that my colleague, running buddy and good friend is leaving my school and pursuing his PhD. We have done a lot together over the last twelve years and I'm going to miss him. He was always a good sounding board and commiserator. Several of us went out for lunch on Friday and I was thinking the rest of us were like POWs in the old war movies. We were all cheering because Kevin made it through the wire. In bocca al lupo, Kevin.