Wednesday afternoon I took my class to Madison Park, where there are a lot of different trees. They were labeled with numbers, but there was no key to what each number represented. We figured out a few of them, but it was really cold. I kept the students there an hour and we got the heck out. The next day I got the key at Park District Headquarters. Next time we’ll be prepared. I went to book club Wednesday night, and we had a good discussion. I had another friend ask me to help with his web page.
Thursday after my classes I went to Lori’s to help her with her web page. We got through some basics. She’ll be up and running soon. Meanwhile, Wanaree’s web site is looking great. Check out jade-orchid.com.
Friday was meeting day. First was School of Education, which is gearing up for the accreditation visit. I found out mainly that I had to make a poster presentation for the Program Showcase. I also learned that we just got a 24″ poster printer. This will be fun! We left Savannah the key to the truck, as she had no school that day, but needed to run an errand. It was the first time we let her drive on her own. 
This is really what my gas gage read when I got back into Canton Friday afternoon.
Friday night was homecoming at Canton R-V High School. Our boys and girls teams both won their games, in come-from-behind efforts. They were exciting. I took lots of pictures of cheerleaders, many of which I have posted on Facebook. Here are a few:
Pyramid thingy. Whuh?
Air Jenna.
Saturday I met three of my students out at Lowell’s for the Great Backyard Bird Count. We sat inside looking out the sliding glass doors at the feeders. Lowell and I cannot remember a time when we’ve seen fewer birds, especially in winter. Geez! After an hour we took a walk. We saw quite a few more, including robins and bluebirds. I dismissed the students, and Lowell and I went to Ewing for lunch. Upon our return, we loaded the truck with firewood.
On the way to Lowell’s I pulled over and shot this red-tailed hawk.
Sunday Stacey was in class all day. Savannah went and got Dustin, and they both helped me unload the firewood. We watched a movie and hung around the house.
Monday I had no classes. Actually, the entire family had the day off. I took the ashes down to the brush dump and came back with a truckload of wood. I unloaded those and went back for more. Someone had taken down a huge old maple tree, and there were big slabs of wood lying about. Most were 4-5 foot diameter trunk logs that were completely intractable. There were a couple I was able to get into the back of the truck, at risk of life and limb. After I got them home, I chainsawed the long stuff while Stacey and Savannah stacked. Stacey operated the splitter for the first time, and reduced the big slab to two reasonable chunks. Stacey and I went down to the fire department in the afternoon. She put on all her gear and I photographed her with the new camera.
The firefighter/chaplain and her favorite truck. There were a lot of ring-billed gulls wheeling around the river. I took advantage of the opportunity to practice photographing BIFs (birds in flight).
Lowell came over and took us out to dinner in celebration of my tenure and promotion. It was yummy. Upon returning home I had an email indicating some of my images were accepted into the North Central Insect Photo Salon.
Mating stick insects.
Wandering glider.
Swift setwing.
showmejoe 