a goodly sum

Good evening
That is such an interesting phrase. Good-even-ing as if at the end of a day all the things will be made equal if only for a few short hours. Well perhaps. per-haps. haps? how come that slipped the lexicon. Well the haps of the day are that my neck is so sore that I feel like I've had a board nailed from my head to my back preventing movement without excruciating pain. I think people become uncomfortable if you turn your whole body ackwardly towards them to talk.
I had my final class evaluation from my supervisor today. These have been going well. It has been said of me that I have all the unteachable skills that it takes to be a teacher. I think this is a high compliment but I worry about all those things I should have paid attention to in class. I am now one week away from being finished the official part of my program. The un-official part being the paperwork, portfolio etc. meh....
Tis a strange thing to think that three years ago I was emailing Eric Vanwyk asking if he might know of a place where I could rest my nog when I got to Sioux Center. January 8th I was moving into the Farmhouse.


"When it is over, I want to say: all my life
Iwas a bride married to amazement.
I was the bridegroom, taking the world into my arms.

When it is over, I don't want to wonder
if I have made of my life something particular,
and real.
I don't want to find myself sighing and
frightened,
or full of argument.

I don't want to end up simply having visited
This world."


Mary Oliver

snow etc.

this is the third attempt to post this same stupid post and it keeps being eras...

Some of you who are teachers might apprecitate this. Now if this wouldn't make you want to be a teacher there must be somthing a tidge outta square in yer head.
In 1872 these were the printed rules of conduct for teachers.

1.Teachers each day will fill lamps and clean chimneys.

2.Each teacher will bring a bucket of water and scuttle the coal for the days session.

3.Make your pens carefully. you may whittle nibs to the individual taste of pupils.

4.Men teachers may take one evening a week for courting purposs, or two evenings a week if they go to church regularly.

5.After ten hours in school the, teachers may spend the remaining time reading the Bible or other good books.

6. Women teachers who marry or engage in unseemly conduct will be dismissed.

7.Every teacher should lay aside from each pay a goodly sum of his earnings for his benefit during his declining years so that he will not become a burden to society.

8. Any teacher who smokes, uses liquer in any form, frequents pool or public halls, or gets shaved in a barber shop will give good reason to suspect his worth, intention, integrity and honesty.

9.THe teacher who performs his labor faithfully and without fault for five years will be given an increase of twenty-five cents per week in his pay, providing the Board of Education approves.


As all of you know I am the perfect candidate for such a position what with all me chimbley sweepin' skills.

fit to be tied

So I bought this great new pair of running shoes, which I guarantee will rarely be used for running. So I was sitting on the stoop of our fireplace tieing them up when I got home and my mother, interested in my new shoes, was standing by watching and talking to me. Suddenly she stops takes a closer look and bursts out laughing. Apparently the way that I tie my shoes is different then her and as she sees it, ridiculously funny. SHe actually ended up on the floor laughing soo hard. When my dad came ot see what was so funny my mom got me to tie them again for his viewing pleasure. He also laughed... I suffered emotional damage no doubt and will never tie my shoes in public and especially not on a first date. Im trying to decide which is more damaging on a first date ridiculous lace tieing or velcro shoes? hmm Einstein wore velcro. he also painted his door red so he could find his house. If I lived in suberbia I would probobly have to do that. But then I can't imagine living suburbia. maybe serbia though, holy kalishnikov that might suck aswell.

the Skinny

Its this! Im student teaching at the Langley Fine art school. It is going very well. blogging on the other hand is strenuous and difficult to do. I feel guilty about not writing so I don't. Figure that out. more skinny to come


Ok you'll just have to wait a little longer, you see Although I love you very much I have a class to attend to right now; Grade twelve Advanced placement art. Lovely bunch really, quite splendid, actually. Ta ta

In case you missed it the previous paragraph should be read with an oxfordian accent. (pronounced: Axe-sint)

oh yeah trees

So I was going to write that I worked on a sweet mansion today. We are building it over looking the Fraser river and the glen valley . It is being built by this engineer from Japan named Kimmy Ito. Absolutly gorgeous house. I will try and post some pictures. the property was planted 80 to 100 years ago with beautiful trees from all over the world, all manner of pines and sequoias and maples and magnolias. it is an amazing place to work. not to make anybody wish they were here but... I wish you were here.

trees and pool

I just returned from six games of pool with my two brothers; Asher and Gabriel. Not a single game was won by any method other than sewred black ball. wierd. ASher is back from Halifax for the month it is good to have him around. only one short now, but he has to stay south side. Not to load the interweb with incriminating news but. Just in case you didn't know, and Im not saying that I do know, but, if you go to the airport to pick up your brother at 1:30am in Vancouver and you happen to need a beer... like ya do, then I hear that if you go to the international arrivals terminal and stop at the Eliphant and Castle pub And find yourself nearly alone minus your bro and few stragglers waiting for relitives from Kualalampur. then take a beer mug from the drying rack and check the taps because at about that time they serve up a mean pint o Guiness... not that I would know, but being as there is no door or door man or bar man or maid or janitor or really anybody except kualalumpurians you might as well try. but I wouldn't know.....mmm guiness

thee undead

Reasons:
dial up internet

appologies:
sorry!

people I really like
those who care to keep checking

Main body of letter:

Johnny Cash's "American V" is keeping that hole in my soul a little more filled in these days. It seems that time is crawling by but at the same time evaporates before I have done anything with it. that wily old time. So I guess I should finish my story that I left off heading to Devils tower. Lets see... I never slept that night in my car and the next morning was misty and I got to the tower at about 7 am. Amanda remember how strange it seemed that the Volvo had that little "break Failure" sign written right on the dash, and how scay I thought it would be to see that light up. Well!! as I pulled out of the parks parking lot that light came on and my brake peddle went to the floor and I just rolled forward. Mist mountains... no brakes. nearly dirty pants. I could pump the brakes and get them to stop.. I put some fluid in and drove with shitty breaks all the way home. Yes there are big hills in the Rockies. I visited the Jeff Schutter. sweetness. and potatoe fields. oh yeah.. hey Bozmanians this girl named Erin from my church is marrying a Bozmanian named Ben. he wears black hornrimmedish glasses....D'ya know 'im? its not as if I didn't describe him well enough.. well he says he knows you.
Then I went and visited Justine in Lacombe and then drove home.
That was a long time ago.
The breaks are now fixed
THe car which is named "Henderson" is still running... well...ish

Don't bite it hurts, and look what mosquitoes get for all their biting. That is a very bad way to die. its a good thing we don't need to bite things that are way bigger than us and have opposable thumbs in order to get our food. we'd use buckets instead of caskets. yeesh, sorry about that image

shoes and socks

It is hot in case you hadn't noticed. the blueberries are ripe and dripping to the ground. There is no one else awake my jet lagged parents are sleeping on this side of a african walkabout. My brother who is nineteen which means hes really in his 20th year , as of yesterday is ... why don't they count your day of birth as your first birthday!? I have built two houses this summer. I have calouses.

someday?

the Long Way

Wednesday afternoon provided the overcast weather and car insurance and a week of hanging on at Dordt, finishing up was enough to raise the haste in my steps. i packed beginning at about three and was on the road after a pasta dinner, which my mouth wouldn't let me eat slow.
"Henderson" my "new to me" 1975 maroon Volvo 244 DL worked out its sore joints and clogged arteries becoming evermore comfortable at highway speeds; shaking out to a steady growl at either 60mph or 70mph; nuthin in between but the shivers, starting in the floor and rattling my hands on the wheel. The good Doctor and his family of Hendersons had handed over the sioux center sleepy sedan despite authentic saddness from Sabine and Rose. I am assured that their minds have eased with cappucinno's and cobblestones in their noses and eyes.
Driving into the South Dakota head wind. setting the arrow for the Black Hills sometime in the night. Near the Badlands the clouds shredded and pulled away from a moon, a shave away from fullness. and from there the wind was calm except for its rush past my window and the moon shed that extra needed light at the edge of the highway when you can't highbeam the oncoming trucks.
I drove through the quiet deserted and at this hour appropriatly named Black Hills at around 2:00 and after making my way on fumes for the better part of an hour parked in a ranch service road a short ways down from the gates of Crazy Horse Mountain. It was dark despite the moon and the street lights, and so the mount was obscured to a blue silhoette I walked up a frosty hill to see it close and then returned to my car to try and sleep.
6.4ft of man dont easily rest in 4.2ft of 75 Volvo and so after much shifting of my rump I sat back in my seat and shifted out into what was now a predawn road. The light blue brightening to gold as i pulled into the first fuel shop and gased up and headed for the Devil's tower.

pal·i·sades

pal·i·sade ( P ) Pronunciation Key (pl-sd)n.
A fence of pales forming a defense barrier or fortification.
One of the pales of such a fence.
palisades A line of lofty steep cliffs, usually along a river. tr.v. pal·i·sad·ed, pal·i·sad·ing, pal·i·sades
To equip or fortify with palisades or a palisade.

All this equiping and fortifying may seem a little strange to some but I jsut got back from a day of rest in this strange gulch of south dakota that goes by the afordefined name.

and it was good
sort of a quite hurrah after all the hooplah
It just feels good to sit in cold water after saying too many goodbyes

the end

5:12am central time

I now own a deep red 1975 Volvo 440 Sedan.
And they say great here we go again.
I believe it has the magic to get over the mountains.
I tried sleeping but after an hour and a half laying in bed I got up and began doing the things that need doing. No rest for the wicked or the procrastinator I guess maybe that is true at the end.
I move in twenty minute mood swings these days. Joy to be leaving swinging to stomach wrentching sadness over those I won't see much.
I don't like it
so much to do and I really just want to sit talk and smoke over a good beer with good people
I guess Im a Hobbit really. a freaking tall Hobbit
Ent draughts all around
Hurumph
what is the soul of a man? tell me Bruce Cockburn tell me
Dr. Tazelaar needs to know if I know, twelve hours from now.

my neck and my back

they're sore is what they are.
The fakers can't make believe about that.
The music may be a real psuedo sound but the head thrashing is the real thing.
The day was grey enough to make yesterday's tan fall of my face
I shouldn't write papers on days like this
it would be intersting to see if papers written on days like this get me poorer marks because of their blue attitude
I bought a shirt with a skull on it today, I get the errrge to burn money when the sky is ashen
Skulls are a missunderstood symbol, we all carry one around all the time and yet to see one is usually a symbol of death rather than of cranial support, holy magical creativity and safety.
cradle to the grave...
the blue jays are back screaming around in horny packs....

the very last of the last blog

I looked at myself in the mirror just now and noticed that I have a rather sizeable beard. I know it may seem only logical seeing as I havn't shaved in some time. But it struck me as quite wonderful that I have hair, blonde, red and brown that grows in force out of my lower face. what a wonderful special feature to this body that God has given me.
I had a wonderful conversation tonight with Mike Kramer, Jeff Schutter and Dena Nickoli about weddings and how they are best when they include, camping, wine and at least one slightly awkward but humorous situation involving a sauced reletive. beer, t-shirts and sauced friends are also good, and Jack maatman leaving his shoe untied at the alter. and about travelling which should be done a lot and northern lights and how good they are and about that couple that just eloped and live in North and East hall and how funny that is.
I feel often as If Dordt is a college built in a glass bottle like those ships in a bottle, it is good however that it has a strangely high number of amazong people in it. I really look forward to leaving, though I will miss these people.
I'm really looking forward to the first day this summer when I can go to work and pound a nail into a board, there is somthing so immediatly gratifying about that act. after learning as my Dad has always said that delayed gratification is always better, Dordt is certainly a good place to learn that, I will revel in the simple act of hitting a nail with a hammer..... is this what blogs are supposed to be? places to whisper out into cyber space about how much you want to hit nails?
oh well it is the last blog i'll write.... good night

The First and Very Last Blog

Between the Farmhouse and the 4th st bunker there lie many a field and with the rain they become muddy fields. It wasn't the first time I've crossed it but it was certainly the westest and one of the emost enjoyable crossings I've made. Wine and the possibility of being smote by the Lords Lightning along the way always increases the enjoyment of such a trek. No smoting happened however and Alan and I both got as far as fourth street without a problem that a little more rain couldn't wash away.
Ive been rollin the rocket soul off Pandora's music box o' wonder. a little Al Green for this old winter browned sod.

Birds that I've noticed are back in Sioux Center
Robins
Turkey Vultures
Cardinals
Baby Chickens at Bomgaars (coming very soon) Mels brilliant idea is to buy a couple and keep them for two weeks till they're about to get ugly and then give them to a kid in the park while their parent isn't watching.

funny but not good
No chickens for me this year Ive had my fill of trying to raise chickens in vermin infested sioux center