Well, I guess the nothing of a Pandemic has made me miss writing! Gosh so much has changed since I last posted...and so much is the same.
I'm a dang school teacher, fully credentialed as of this year! Something I never wanted to be but... hey, there's health insurance and a pension. I love the kids but I've been so disillusioned about how little of teaching is about the kids! It's a business that rarely accounts of the kids involved.
I had been teaching a behavior based program... which I loved but...I had a principal that was a "box-checker." Behavior programs do not check boxes... we are soooo outside the box! I spent an entire year teaching with my back to a student. We had a whole checklist of what that student had to do to earn my attention. If attention was paid for the wrong things...we were off and running toward a very bad day! I loved working that program...save for the crazy boss. I had to leave the district to get away from her.
Loved the next job (High school algebra! Ha! I haven't used algebra in 37 years and why the state of California makes us torture special needs kids with it...UGH!) ...until Covid sent all teacher specialists back to the classroom, bumping newbies like me.
So, I'm jobless and awaiting a re-entry interview at my old district. I'm honestly so exhausted from the last four years, I really don't mind the lack of work.
My goodness... I started working on a credential in July 2016 not understanding that I would be a classroom teacher by late August! (Thought I could do that and just sub.) 10 days into my new job, Mom's house flooded with 38" of water. Spent the year flying back and forth dealing with FEMA and contractors all while trying to get Mom to leave the house so the work could be done. (She won that argument!) So much craziness at work...constant meetings about my students, data tracking and reports to be written. I took NO time off, working every holiday. Worked all summer on salary points.
Fall of 2017 brought crazy fires. One side of the mountains would catch on fire and I would pack a car with clothes, dog food, hard drives and vital papers and drop it off on the opposite mountain. Weeks later, the other mountain was on fire! Lather, rinse repeat. The morning the Creek Fire took off, even though it was close to me, the smoke was at my school. Of course, my school was the only one that didn't close! By midday, I was getting texts that I need to get home and get Macy Blue. It was a harrowing drive home with fires breaking out and taking multiple back roads to get into our valley. The next morning, my school still open, I took surface streets as the freeway was jammed. I noticed police blocking the way back toward home. I stopped and asked what was up... I could leave but I could not come home! NO WAY was I leaving Macy Blue in that fire ridden valley when I couldn't get home to her!
Creek Fire as seen from space.
And after the fires, you know it, came the flood! I got home on January 9th to 10" of mud surrounding my house and in my pool!
It took months of shoveling to get all the mud out!
June brought coyote drama. Macy Blue and I were hiking the dark side. We had just emerged from the swimming spot when I heard Macy growl...totally out of the norm. Ten feet away, she was on her hind legs in an embrace with a small coyote. He must have noticed her limp and took her for an easy target. She was NOT! Plus, her momma is part rottweiler... I screamed so loud, I terrified them both! The coyote took off and Macy ran to me. I thought she was fine but took her in anyway... it was a severe bite! My poor baby!
Fall was more craziness, dealing with Mom's dementia. January, I was part of the one of the largest teacher strikes in history. It poured rain the whole time we were on strike. In the end, I feel special education lost out...our numbers actually INCREASED.
And then came February. Macy Blue had been on a weird eating streak for months. I kept wondering if she had pica! She ate most of a letter. She ate beads... glass ones. She passed those. But in early February, she ate most of two different dish towels. And here's where I was stupid: When I lived in my previous house, I was friends with a hair dresser and her rottweiler. He loved to get his lips on any towel she had used to do hair! Seriously, this dog would eat and entire towel. When he would pass it, she would don gloves and pull! DON'T DO THIS! Rags can get impacted.
Macy had a helluva week...overnight at the hospital, radio active beads confirmed nothing was moving. Day at her vets. I would have to pick her up when the overnight place closed at 7 am, drive her home so I could get to work by 7:40. I would leave her in my dog car and the bestie would drive her to the vet at 8:15. Back and forth for days...finally, my vet operated, found the rags and I was SO hopeful (and broke! $4K+). I took her for what I hoped would be her last overnight, begging her to live. Just after midnight on Valentine's Day, she crashed. I knew she could take no more. Her limp exhausted her and her heart murmur...it was too much! I told them to leave her in peace.
The last photo of Macy Blue.
And that brings me to the ray of sunshine at the top of this blog. Maizy... The first time I kept the M name a dog arrived here with. It just fit her and it was so weird. I really wanted to name Macy Maizy...but there were a number of bloggers with that name. So Macy it was... and Blue because she was so sad. Maizy's family wanted to name her Macy because the mom loved to shop there but she made them change it. And I kept thinking of the dream I had of Mabel...where she left me a pot of gold.
Maizy was rehomed. She was such a high energy pup, I wondered what the hell I was going to do with her. But big hikes have tamed her! She often hikes right by my side. She is the happiest, smartest little thing ever! She reminds me of Mabel... capable of understanding conversations and reasoning... but without the arguments and disagreements! I'm over the moon with her! Middle name: True (short for Truelove - but that would embarrass her so please don't mention it!)
Day nine - Maizy True giving me a run for my money!
My job at the high school was really demanding... I had a huge case load (26!) and saw 80 students throughout the day. But Maizy was kinda thrilled with lockdown. Long walks twice a day and Mom always at home.
Not sure what's next... but I have a great pup by my side!
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4 comments:
It's good to hear from you. There sure has been a lot going on in your life since your last post. I'm so sorry to hear about Macy Blue but it looks like Maizy has helped to fill that void. Good luck with whatever comes your way next for work and life. We would love to hear more about you and Maizy's adventures.
And here WE thought we had a bad 2020 that is still haunting us. We have thought of you often and are so glad you have posted. RIP, dear Macy Blue - we know what a treasure she was for you. Hearty welcomes to Maizy. We hope you can keep blogging and keep us up to date on life.
Woos - Lightning, Misty, and Timber
Wow, we just went back to see your last post - two years - we hadn't realized it was that long. Big welcomes back.
Woos - Lightning, Misty, and Timber and Mom
My father was suffering increasingly from dementia as he neared his death (he died in 1994 in this very house with Peggy and me at his side), but it was harder to know what was what in him because he had been insane his whole life long. I still miss him terribly and even dream about him. I wish I had been a better son, but then he was such an angry and delusional man that I can't blame myself too much. My saintly wife did better with him than I and so it was that he said about her to everyone who would listen, "Peggy is more of a daughter to me than my own daughter," and she certainly was that because his own daughter not only did nothing to help him, she became angry at Peggy and me for helping him because our help delayed his death, and she was eager to have the estate settled. Now that she's dying (of lung cancer from fifty-plus years of smoking), I want to be there for her, but I'm stymied by how she treated him, Peggy, and me, during the last years of his life.
Would it be accurate to say that you want to help your mother but are blocked by the fact that she lives a long way away and still has legal control of her life? If Louisiana is anything like Mississippi, it wouldn't be hard for you to take over her affairs, but if she is as independent as my father was, doing so might destroy your relationship with her right when she needs help the most.
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