January 6 (Friday) 12:20 pm
Perhaps I shall be able to resume my nearly-daily practice of updating my journal. First -- a short update.
I moved to Willow Oak II on July 7, and have been there since. Willow Oak II is a gorgeous 13 acres, but to
this day I have not yet acquired utilities. Naturally, without electricity I do not have internet access from
home. Even without electricity or water I still manage to arrive to work every morning freshly showered,
and wearing clean clothes! I shall in time relate to the reader how I have come to live in a "Cabin in the
Wilderness," without any of the seemingly necessary amenities required to live one's daily life; but not now.
I have decided to transfer from one school district to another, and more about that later, also. I begin my
new job on Monday. I shall continue to teach everyone's favorite subject (algebra), and am excited about
the opportunity.
January 13 (Friday) 7:52 am
I cannot swear to it, but the temperature had to dip near 20 degrees (F) last night, and I could certainly feel
it in the cabin. The dogs and cats were all huddled together against the cold, and none of them seemed to
be too concerned about my comfort -- only theirs. They all tried to pile as high on me as possible, so in the
end I managed to stay comfortable enough to sleep.
The five-brick burner I have only manages to work effectively on one brick, so I estimate that the
temperature inside the cabin is about 10 degrees warmer than that outside.
Today is an inservice day for teachers: 1/2 day with no students. Monday is a holiday: Martin Luther King,
Jr. birthday. One week down, and the kids responded well to a new teacher. These kids have been
through three teachers for the same class this year, and the courses involved all have a year-end,
state-mandated exit exam, and it is my responsibility to get them ready. No matter that I only have one
semester with them (about 15 weeks actually), it is up to me to get them ready.
I thrive on such challenges, though. We live in a world where people wilt in the face of any kind of
challenge to the norm. For me life is at its finest when faced with almost insurmountable obstacles. For me
this job is certainly going to be a challenge, but I volunteered for it, and I look forward to the work.
January 22 (Sunday) 8:14 am
We are apparently experiencing a nice "La Nina" event in the Pacific, which brings warmer, drier conditions
to the southern United States -- a condition that suits me just fine right now. Today is the mean coldest day
of the year in the northern hemisphere, but today's highs are projected to be in the 70's.
Two weeks down on the new job, and so far, so good. I now teach two courses over five classes. At the
previous school I taught three courses over six classes, so the work day is a bit easier. The two courses
that I teach each have a state-mandated, standardized exit exam attached to them, so the pressure to get
those students ready for that test is elevated -- even more so since those students have not had a bona
fide teacher since their regular teacher quit back in early November. I have to get 9th grade students
ready to take a test that normally covers 34 weeks, and I only have about 16 weeks to do so! But this is the
kind of challenge for which I live.
Ah, challenges! Since July 7th, I've lived in the middle of a cow pasture with no water or electricity, in a
town where I am new and know practically no one. But I am not complaining: my father being a Baptist
pastor, our family naturally moved around a lot as I was growing up; so I am accustomed to having to adjust.
Talking about the middle of a cow pasture: this place is gorgeous -- beautiful sometimes beyond
description. Even though I have a few very large and very stately oak trees surrounding my cabin, fully 12
acres of the place hasn't a tree or bush on it, so that I enjoy the view of a very large sky. The sunsets in
this part of the country are beyond compare, and on any normal day I can see far and wide, the great sky
that hovers over us all.
In addition, nights are an experience of another kind! It is uncanny that nearly every night that I spend a
few minutes outside, looking up I can count on seeing a meteorite or two. One late evening this summer, I
witnessed two meteorites approach simultaneously at an angle of what appeared to be 90 degrees to each
other! I am surprised at that, since meteorites are usually the remnants of some larger abject that was
revolving about the sun, and if that larger object disintegrated, it would be expected that the remnants
would all be travelling in the same direction.
Dogs and cats are all doing well. Pete goes out at night with the dogs, when they go out to do their
"business." Tiger and Boots prefer to stay indoors on cold nights, and both cats will find their niche among
the bigger dogs, who contort themselves so as not to disturb the cats!
January 28 (Saturday) 7:33 am
A lot of work to do, and only a few hours available. Without either electricity or internet access from home I
have to go where I can find it and get done on the computer what I can. These days, lots of what we do for
the classroom must be done on the computer. I am limited each day to access even from school so time is
at a premium. Nevertheless, I shall continue as often as I can to update my journal.
The weather continues to be favorable. The La Nina effect we are having out of the Pacific is keeping the
temperatures at a relatively high level so that nights are not as cold and days are warmer. But there is rain,
and lots of it. Several times this winter I have had to park by the road, which is about 1200 feet from my
cabin, and walk. The walking part is not inconvenient, but when I have 50 lb bags of dog food or water or
groceries or books, the walk is certainly not convenient. The acreage on which I live is adjacent to the
Ouachita River, and when it rains it floods. I simply cannot drive my truck from the road to the cabin. I have
had to park by the road for three consecutive nights now. I am hoping that when I arrive home today I shall
be able to drive on up to the cabin. The dogs are about out of water, and the few pools of water inside the
fenced in area left over from the last recent rain have about dried up.
I shall leave here and mosey over to the library where I shall have internet access until noon, and then they
shut down. The rest of the weekend I shall be without internet unless I want to sit in McD's. the problem
with McD's is that there are no electrical outlets, so I am limited to only a couple of hours.