Saturday, October 01, 2005
Priorities
With family in Agri-Business (you know, farming) I have had the opportunity to herd cattle. My grandparents used to herd cattle from the home place (ooh, I do sound rustic) to the pasture west of town. It was simply less trouble than trying to load them all onto trucks and drive them, so we got behind them with sticks and cattle prods, did our best to keep them on the road and herded them to the pasture that was just a few miles away.
Yesterday I had sixth graders. It's homecoming week at the school and the middle school students were all invited to the pep rally at the high school stadium. Right before the pep rally was the parade. So at about 1:30 yesterday I was leading students out of the middle school building and first to a street along the parade route and then on to the stadium. The skills I picked up on those few mini cattle drives I participated in as a youth came in quite handy, keeping those sixth graders somewhat in line during our travels keeping them under some semblance of control during the parade. I often tell students that I've only used algebra once since my last math class (calculating an amount of priming sugar in a batch of homebrew), my interests not requiring much in the way of higher mathematics, but I've found all kinds of uses for Homer's The Odyssey. My point is not to tell kids that they won't need math, but that at this point of their lives they don't know what they'll need, so they'd better absorb as much knowledge as possible while it's being given to them for free in school. Imagine if I had wanted to sit and watch TV while everyone else herded cattle. I'd have been wholly unprepared for "teaching" sixth graders.
After an exhausting day herding middle schoolers, I dropped off and helped dad a little with the building of the new deck. He had a little accident Thursday, taking of the tip of his left index finger with the table saw. But there he was yesterday doing a little more work. It was hard not to bust out laughing when he got his bandage stuck in the drill as he was attempting to attach a staircase to the new deck. He seems to be doing well all the same, my lack of compassion not withstanding.
After that it was off to Mike's for the drive to Knight's Cellar in Spearfish for a gig. I learned one important lesson last night, money comes before pride. A patron offered us $10 not to play a particular song. We agreed, he dropped hs money in the tip basket then said we could play it anyway. Make no mistake, had he insisted we not play that particular song we wouldn't have. Money is money. I never thought I could be bought off for so little....
By the time we started our last song, I realized that I had been up for 18 hours. The voice was starting to show the effects at that point, the two beers that the lovely Cassie poured me only magnifying the effect. And still it would be 3 hours before I got to bed, the tear down, dirve home and watching an episode of The Simpsons on the VCR. You gotta have your priorities.....
BOJ
Yesterday I had sixth graders. It's homecoming week at the school and the middle school students were all invited to the pep rally at the high school stadium. Right before the pep rally was the parade. So at about 1:30 yesterday I was leading students out of the middle school building and first to a street along the parade route and then on to the stadium. The skills I picked up on those few mini cattle drives I participated in as a youth came in quite handy, keeping those sixth graders somewhat in line during our travels keeping them under some semblance of control during the parade. I often tell students that I've only used algebra once since my last math class (calculating an amount of priming sugar in a batch of homebrew), my interests not requiring much in the way of higher mathematics, but I've found all kinds of uses for Homer's The Odyssey. My point is not to tell kids that they won't need math, but that at this point of their lives they don't know what they'll need, so they'd better absorb as much knowledge as possible while it's being given to them for free in school. Imagine if I had wanted to sit and watch TV while everyone else herded cattle. I'd have been wholly unprepared for "teaching" sixth graders.
After an exhausting day herding middle schoolers, I dropped off and helped dad a little with the building of the new deck. He had a little accident Thursday, taking of the tip of his left index finger with the table saw. But there he was yesterday doing a little more work. It was hard not to bust out laughing when he got his bandage stuck in the drill as he was attempting to attach a staircase to the new deck. He seems to be doing well all the same, my lack of compassion not withstanding.
After that it was off to Mike's for the drive to Knight's Cellar in Spearfish for a gig. I learned one important lesson last night, money comes before pride. A patron offered us $10 not to play a particular song. We agreed, he dropped hs money in the tip basket then said we could play it anyway. Make no mistake, had he insisted we not play that particular song we wouldn't have. Money is money. I never thought I could be bought off for so little....
By the time we started our last song, I realized that I had been up for 18 hours. The voice was starting to show the effects at that point, the two beers that the lovely Cassie poured me only magnifying the effect. And still it would be 3 hours before I got to bed, the tear down, dirve home and watching an episode of The Simpsons on the VCR. You gotta have your priorities.....
BOJ
# posted by Blind Orange Julius @ 2:00 PM 
