Ok, so it wasn't named when it was raining on us, but now it is-Tropical Storm Kyle. After college choir last night, and talking with some of the staff, I have a better understanding now of how it's actually affected us. Apparently because of all the storms and rains, the city/municpality reservoir is full of silt, and has to be processed differently before being dispersed to homes, etc. This process takes a lot more time, so the city is only turning water on from 2AM to 8ish. Problem with that is that we don't find out that the city has been turning the water off until we are close to the bottom of our reserve tanks. Last night we only had 1200 gallons in the tanks for the college kids to shower, etc. since we had used so much water for the bathrooms at the school. Hopefully over night we were able to get some water in the tanks so we'll be able to have school. The weekend should be a little better because there won't be the huge water consumption of the 600 school kids to deal with-just the college which I think is somewhere around 35-36 people. Last night we had carryout food and plastic utensils from the cafeteria so that there wouldn't be any dishes to wash. Right now we're just trying to conserve water to make it through the day-remind me not to walk past the bathrooms unless I have to......
Also, on Wednesday, the governor canceled sales tax for the day supposedly to help storm victims (who wouldn't get aid money that soon anyway) who are rebuilding/recovering from the storm. I don't know how much rebuilding is done since structures are more built to withstand winds etc (everything is concrete....ok, almost everything), probably just more flood recovery. It's not just the storm victims taking advantage of the no sales tax-people are rushing to buy computers, plasma tvs, and other large items. And, the governor extended the tax holiday until Saturday. I'm dreading a needed trip to Walmart-the parking lots and aisles will be packed!!
Friday, September 26, 2008
Thursday, September 25, 2008
Not too much to say today, I think, but since I'm trying to make a habit of writing more often, I'll at least say something. Today went pretty well-my composing students are slowly but surely getting the idea of how to do dictation, although I did let them out 15 minutes early because I had it in my head that this was the class that gets out at 10 after the hour. Oops! I did have one funny incident where I was trying to return Diego to his classroom after his piano lesson (this first grader is not trusted in the halls by himself) and we couldn't find his class. We even went outside, but apparently the class was walking in an area where we couldn't see them. One of the other teachers told me where the class was, so I just kept Diego with me while we waited for the class to come back. He began to get worried about his teacher. He told me he missed her, and he was convinced that someone had come along to steal her. I tried to assure him that the teacher was ok, and he said to me "Ok teacher, I'll trust you." A few minutes later he was worried again, I tried to reassure him again, and he said, "I'll try to believe you." I don't think I've ever seen a student quite so happy to see his teacher as Diego was when we finally found his class.
I play for college choir tonight, so I'm still at school pretty late. They sing Sunday morning in church, so I'm sure that's what we'll work on, as well as some of the music for the FBFI conference.
Tomorrow we have our second volleyball game, and hopefully the uniforms will be here in time to have the girls try them on and check to make sure they fit.
I play for college choir tonight, so I'm still at school pretty late. They sing Sunday morning in church, so I'm sure that's what we'll work on, as well as some of the music for the FBFI conference.
Tomorrow we have our second volleyball game, and hopefully the uniforms will be here in time to have the girls try them on and check to make sure they fit.
Wednesday, September 24, 2008
Happenings
I can't believe it's been so long since I've written........or maybe I can believe it. I spent all summer at home (which should be no excuse, but I spent most of my computer time on Facebook) and since I've been back I've been super busy.
So, for a quick run down of what's going on, here ya go.
I'm teaching 4th grade music, 6th grade music, 7th grade composing, 8th grade guitar, High school girls PE, piano lessons, playing for HS, church and college choir, scheduling all the church music (which is a challenge since we lost several people this year who were very involved in the music program) and next semester will add music appreciation.
Honestly, I was not looking forward to teaching high school, but the Lord has really been doing a work in our teens, and it has been exciting to see the changes in hearts and lives since this school year has started. Several of them went to camp this summer, and were really impacted by what they heard and learned, and they have not just been talking about the decisions they've made, but we're all seeing the evidence. Very exciting!
So, it's been busy, but I'm enjoying things. I'm teaching more middle school this year, which definitely brings its challenges, but they're also a lot more fun, even when they give me way too much information, which is pretty often. =)
I'm sure there's other things to write, but right now the headache is obscuring them, so I'll save them for later after I leave you with this quote (ok, it's more of a story than a quote):
Jasmine had been gone from school for a few days, and when she came back, on the way to PE she was telling me that she didn't think she could do all the running, that her strength ran out at three laps, that she was gonna fall over and die, etc, etc. Since we really had only been doing 2 laps around the bball court (which we started while she was gone) I wasn't quite sure what she was talking about. Turns out the other girls told her that we ran 12 laps every class.......and she believed them!! I was definitely amused, and I'm still not sure why she believed them.
And for those who are wondering, no, I haven't drowned from all the rain we've been getting. Basically the set of storms that's projected to become a tropical depression and eventually be named Kyle has been forming over our heads this weekend. The governor's trying to get the south of PR (that received 24" of rain in 24 hours) to be declared in a state of emergency so they can get federal funding. In the south (I'm in the north) apparently many houses and businessess were affected, as well as the plantain and coffee crops. All we've gotten on this end of things is a bunch of rain.
And one more thing that I almost forgot-last Sunday I (along with some friends) narrowly, or not so narrowly according to some counts, escaped being hit TWICE by lightning. We headed to Walmart after church, because my campus daughter needed to pick up some money being sent to her by money gram. As we left the church, it started to rain a little, but with in a couple of minutes, we found an area where it had stopped raining. Eventually we ran into rain again, and as we sat a a stop light, we began to see lightning, and instantaneously hear the thunder along with it. One of them struck extremely close, and I thought it hit the traffic light in front of us. I found out later from the girls in the car with me, that they actually saw sparks from my car. How I could miss the car being hit by lightning I'm not sure, but they were quite sure they saw sparks in the area where the antenna connects to the car. Not 30 seconds later, the electrical pole next to the traffic light behind us was hit by lightning, and this time, all the traffic lights went out, and a cloud of orange smoke rose from the pole that was hit. We got to Walmart as quickly as possible after that, and after I had dropped the girls off and found a parking space, I was walking through the parking lot (which at some points had ankle deep water) to get inside when another bolt of lightning struck close and loud enough that it set off several car alarms in the parking lot. And believe it or not, when we left Walmart, the sun was shining, the sky was almost clear, and it was getting hot!
So, for a quick run down of what's going on, here ya go.
I'm teaching 4th grade music, 6th grade music, 7th grade composing, 8th grade guitar, High school girls PE, piano lessons, playing for HS, church and college choir, scheduling all the church music (which is a challenge since we lost several people this year who were very involved in the music program) and next semester will add music appreciation.
Honestly, I was not looking forward to teaching high school, but the Lord has really been doing a work in our teens, and it has been exciting to see the changes in hearts and lives since this school year has started. Several of them went to camp this summer, and were really impacted by what they heard and learned, and they have not just been talking about the decisions they've made, but we're all seeing the evidence. Very exciting!
So, it's been busy, but I'm enjoying things. I'm teaching more middle school this year, which definitely brings its challenges, but they're also a lot more fun, even when they give me way too much information, which is pretty often. =)
I'm sure there's other things to write, but right now the headache is obscuring them, so I'll save them for later after I leave you with this quote (ok, it's more of a story than a quote):
Jasmine had been gone from school for a few days, and when she came back, on the way to PE she was telling me that she didn't think she could do all the running, that her strength ran out at three laps, that she was gonna fall over and die, etc, etc. Since we really had only been doing 2 laps around the bball court (which we started while she was gone) I wasn't quite sure what she was talking about. Turns out the other girls told her that we ran 12 laps every class.......and she believed them!! I was definitely amused, and I'm still not sure why she believed them.
And for those who are wondering, no, I haven't drowned from all the rain we've been getting. Basically the set of storms that's projected to become a tropical depression and eventually be named Kyle has been forming over our heads this weekend. The governor's trying to get the south of PR (that received 24" of rain in 24 hours) to be declared in a state of emergency so they can get federal funding. In the south (I'm in the north) apparently many houses and businessess were affected, as well as the plantain and coffee crops. All we've gotten on this end of things is a bunch of rain.
And one more thing that I almost forgot-last Sunday I (along with some friends) narrowly, or not so narrowly according to some counts, escaped being hit TWICE by lightning. We headed to Walmart after church, because my campus daughter needed to pick up some money being sent to her by money gram. As we left the church, it started to rain a little, but with in a couple of minutes, we found an area where it had stopped raining. Eventually we ran into rain again, and as we sat a a stop light, we began to see lightning, and instantaneously hear the thunder along with it. One of them struck extremely close, and I thought it hit the traffic light in front of us. I found out later from the girls in the car with me, that they actually saw sparks from my car. How I could miss the car being hit by lightning I'm not sure, but they were quite sure they saw sparks in the area where the antenna connects to the car. Not 30 seconds later, the electrical pole next to the traffic light behind us was hit by lightning, and this time, all the traffic lights went out, and a cloud of orange smoke rose from the pole that was hit. We got to Walmart as quickly as possible after that, and after I had dropped the girls off and found a parking space, I was walking through the parking lot (which at some points had ankle deep water) to get inside when another bolt of lightning struck close and loud enough that it set off several car alarms in the parking lot. And believe it or not, when we left Walmart, the sun was shining, the sky was almost clear, and it was getting hot!
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