West End Party and Street Fair

I got to this fair around 11:30am and stayed for two hours. It was gusty and hot. My goal was to take photographs of a variety of people, young and old, man and woman, teen and baby, doing and wearing a variety of things. I wanted a composite of the person in town.

My first reaction was that there was much more of a religious theme to this year's street fair. There were many churches with their tents out, several organizations giving out free bibles. I didn't see as much of a western theme as last year with reenactors walking around talking to visitors. There didn't seem to be as much of a crowd, too.

Weather was warm and windy, and vendors had to often stand holding down the tent frame. There were a few food vendors, and the usual military organization with their grizzled veterans (who often make for the best photographs), and a few local musicians providing for free entertainment.

But I didn't see the amount of teenagers this time. Maybe it had something to do with the school's prom being today as well and they were getting ready. I talked with a few people like Suzette, a local ceramic artist who admits she is low income and has neither computer nor internet in her one-room trailer in town. Her art is good enough to sell to a larger audience if only she could get recognition for her work. I told her about the Cochise College computer lab, but she would need to have someone show her how to use basic functions.

I walked up and down the closed-off street to take photos of passers-by. I wanted variety, and sometimes I was scanning through my lens looking at people as I stood off to the side. Some of the vendors started recognizing me. Some school kids recognized me, too. The longer I work in town, the less chances I have of being incognita!

Some things were around from last year: the rock lady who lets kids and adults alike take free rocks off her table, the giant desert tortoise was on display, and so was the Lizard Lady. There were a few vendors for children but overall the excitement this year seemed a little toned down: not as much art, music, food. I didn't even see as many dogs there this year!

I was home by 2pm as the gusts began to strengthen. I drank beer and had a late dinner, chatted with Kevin who was a few beers past buzzed, and left again at 6:30pm to take evening shots of the street fair. But to my surprise the street was empty! The tents had all been broken down and the visitors had all left in the 4.5 hours I was gone. Was this year's fair only scheduled for the day? Or had bad winds cut the fair short? The online calendar listed 10pm as the closing time, with vendors shutting down by 6pm. I wonder why it was cut short this year? Lack of funds?

As I returned home the fires from Mexico were leaving a long brown streak across the sky. I could smell fire.

Another hazy day

It was hot and dry today, so hot I hated gardening so I stayed inside. By the afternoon the haze got darker. Kevin said it was coming from west of us in Mexico. This must be the new Bull Fire that is burning in Mexico.

We have US Forest Service helping put out this fire.

http://www.nogalesinternational.com/articles/2011/04/28/news/breaking_news/doc4db9fb60dcf83231434249.txt

Counter-surfing canine criminals

We had a very quiet Easter weekend. I spent most of it, it seems, in front of the computer studying for another Spanish language exam Sunday. I didn't get much else done other than my breaks in the garden. I didn't even go on a hike.

Kevin did his usual Sunday activity: he cooked all day, making meals to last him the rest of the work week. Kevin's a good cook. He made his chicken burrito mix, his famous meatless lasagna ("It could use some spinach!" said I) and all the fixings. With that were also eight Italian sausages, tasty and spicy sausages that go well alone or in a marinara sauce. He usually has three dogs watching him nearby hoping for treats to fall from heaven.

We probably should break the dogs of that habit.

He took a break from cooking to check on his laundry (yes, he does that himself, too). The Italian sausages were cooling off on the stove top. All eight of them.

He couldn't have been gone from his duty position for long, though. While I was going over the Spanish Present Perfect in my little office he came back to the kitchen with one loud expletive. All three dogs simultanously bolted from the kitchen area, with Sadie and Sammy up front with the more guilty looks; Sara wasn't too far behind wobbling fast to keep in step with the other two.

One of them had reached up to the stove top to get to those tasty Italian sausages. All eight of them were gone. All that remained were two soggy paper plates that were now lying on the kitchen floor. There was no other evidence left at the crime scene.

"OUT! ALL OF YOU, OUT!" said Kevin in his command voice. The dogs remained outside for the rest of the day. Later on that afternoon I completed my daily powerwalk by myself, the first time I had done that since early 2005.

None of the dogs dared to bark the rest of the day. They knew they were on Kevin's shitlist. They didn't even come near the back porch window, nor did they dare show themselves until way past sun down when I was alone in my office going over Spanish Past Particles and Kevin was long asleep in bed.

At midnight they finally were allowed back inside, but quickly scammered to the bedroom where "Dad" was because they knew that I'm the more strict of the two. Seriously. When I yell "SCOOT!", even the stray cats outside run away. The dogs weren't a bother the rest of the night, and this morning Sadie didn't even whimper and moan for her 4am food. She still walks around with her ears against her head and her tail between her legs.

All is forgiven now, but for the rest of the week none of the dogs will get any of their beloved chicken jerky strips. That I promised Kevin.

Growing fires, raging storms

What a strange day it was. This afternoon at lunch I talked to one of my favorite history teachers at the high school. She told me that another favorite teacher of mine's cancer has returned. This time it is liver cancer; a few years ago he was treated for colon cancer. Allegedly the cancer was caught early and doctors are predicting success, but he is retiring after the end of this school year. I hadn't seen him in a while and only today was told he's on sick leave for a month while he goes through chemotherapy.

I had both of them as references for a full-time teaching job at the school.

That news bummbed me out the rest of the day and other news just piled on top of it. After my online biology exam I checked my Facebook page to see several of my Texas friends talking about their wildfires, from raging fires around Fort Davis, Forth Worth, Austin, Houston. Mark even said he may evacuate his east Texas home since he lives in the pigmy pine forest.

A check on a "Texas wild fires" revealed several fires over 100,000 acres with low containment in some of the prettiest parts of the state. Homes are in danger and so is livestock. I don't ever remember the fires in Texas being this bad.

And one of my more local contacts mentioned a road closure off Highway 83, which I learned later was a fire burning in the Ciernegas grasslands northeast of Sonoita which has burned 600 acres and is not contained. I could see that fire's smoke as I turned east on Hereford Road and looked back to my Northwest as the setting sun cast a brownish-red hue over the horizon.

When I got home at 6:40pm Kevin was already asleep so I had no one to talk to. Sometimes he wakes up and we chat a bit, but tonight he was snoring and when he is snoring he is best kept asleep. I did my usuaL: I got something to eat and got online to read the latest news, only to discover that my favorite fast-food restaurant in Tucson, Chuy's, was found falsifying tax returns and knowingly hiring illegals (and paying them off the books), after a tip from its Lake Havasu location. Kevin and I ate at that place a few years ago and the waiter told us then that she didn't know how to write a special request for the cook in Spanish so I ended up not ordering it. That Chuy's hires illegals isn't that much of a surprise. Everytime I've gone to one to eat there the waiters are all perky white college kids, but the hard-working cooks are Spanish-speaking Mexicans who one can see laboring through the open kitchen. All restaurants in town except for the independently-owned one off Kolb Road are closed until the investigation is complete.

I passed my AEPA exam...

On 19 March I took the Arizona Educator's Proficiency Assessment, or AEPA, for English. Last night the results were published online. I passed. This exam now makes me highly certified to teach English in Arizona. It was not an easy exam and there were parts of that exam that had me baffled.

I am relieved. For a month I wondered if I had passed. Now that the results have been published, though, I'm not as ecstatic as I had hoped. Maybe because I know my test-taking days are far from over. The required classes I need at Cochise College are not offered this fall. I need just one more class in both the history and English department to complete my declared major required courses. I have to take British Literature II and History of Western Civilization III (and a few math classes) to have all my double major courses done.

So what shall I do? Wait it out another year or drop any plans of majoring in both? Even just pursuing a History or just and English degree isn't easy because the classes aren't offered when I can take them. I could take courses at Pima Community College instead, which is my first option. I've given up on Cochise College. I would need to take the courses either online or in the evenings; taking them during the day means I couldn't work during the day.

Now it's time to get my resume together and apply for jobs in the area. There's a teacher's fair in May I will attend. A school nearby is also still announcing an opening for an English teacher. It also needs a history teacher but I'm not taking that exam until the fall.

I wonder at times if my studying days will ever end. Later on today I'm signing up for three courses this fall: American Literature I, History of Mexico I and II (each an eight-week course) and Spanish 201. Cochise College has a habit of cancelling courses if not at least five people apply for a course. They dropped the History of Mexico course last year due to lack of interested students. Maybe this year there are enough wanting to take this course.

I have a lot planned. I intend to study math over the summer, read up on as much Modern History as I can, and to read, read, read.

The future of Arizona public education doesn't look all that promising. Governor Brewer has made drastic slashes in funding for K-12 AND for state universities and colleges. Tuition at the University of Arizona is going up 22% this fall. How can the average family afford a good education for its children?

I am tired. I am tired of always having something to study for. I am tired of having to read subjects or books that are required rather than what are interest-related. I'm tired of always having to draft up papers or do research. I enjoy learning but the stress of doing well sometimes wears thin. Yet I know that always studying for something is what good teachers do. I hope in the end this is not all in vain.

Wild weather

I have been worried about our drought here but West and North Texas, Oklahoma and parts of Arkansas are suffering much worse. Ranchers in these areas are losing their cattle to fast-moving fires started by lightning across a gated plain that offers little resistance. Homes and livelihoods are vanishing.

Meanwhile, a massive fire in the Mexican state of Coahuila is engulfing that part of Mexico, an area dominated by rugged wooded canons and dry vegetation. Mexican President Calderon, instead of using his own resources, is asking US and Canada for help. (I'm not sure if he is asking or demanding). The US has lent out at least two fire-fighting air tanker C-130s but I think we could use that very thing over parts of burning Texas. A squadron of 30 AirForce reservists from Peterson AFB in Colorado is also aiding Mexican officials. The fires amount to over 245,000 burning acres 60 miles from Texas.

The largest wildfire in Arizona history has been the human-caused June 2002 Rodeo Chediski Fire that ended up burning 730 square miles (467200 acres) and costing the state over $1 billion dollars to fight. Around 500 homes were destroyed and at one point 30,000 people were evacuated in the Apache-Sitgeaves National Forest area.

We are getting the hazy smoke from those fires; our sunsets toward Sonora are browner than usual. And during the day the visibility isn't as good as normal. People closer to these fires, however, must surely be suffering more.

And meanwhile, Texas is asking for federal assistance to help pay for their fires. With our deficit growing by the day, I can't see it shrinking any time soon with all these states asking for help after a natural disaster strikes. Texas is one of those states that will not be too thankful for the help as long as a Democrat is in the White House.

A Supercell of a tornado storm swept across the South on Saturday before ravishing North Carolina. One tornado touched down in Raleigh, NC, not too far from where a half sister of mine lives. Luckily she and her hubby were spared, but her neighborhood is shaken up. The death toll, originally set at 17, is rising. This morning I saw 45 dead across the South, with 22 dead in NC. North Carolina is not used to having 66 tornadoes in one day!

All these fires, earthquakes, tornadoes and floods across the US seem to be stronger, longer and deadlier than ever before. I'm watching the 3- and 4-level earthquakes around the Hawthorne,NV area. Two years ago Reno had a 5-level earthquake and a big one is still predicted to hit there, just like the US Geological Survey is predicting a massive one in the New Madrid fault line along the Mississippi River, with Memphis taking the brunt of the damage because that city has an antiquated infrastructure.

And here I am worried about the potential of raging wildfires, with our increased winds and single-digit humidity. Maybe we don't have it so bad after all.


http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/ap/tx/7524963.html
http://www.ntn24news.com/latinamericanews/41211-battling-wildfires-mexico
http://www.csmonitor.com/USA/2011/0418/Why-North-Carolina-far-from-Tornado-Alley-took-brunt-of-big-outbreak

Close call

And it would have been all my fault, due to negligence.

I had been in the office. The dove had been out of its cage since yesterday afternoon, sitting on my closet door staring down at me. Today, though, he looked interested in his black sunflower seeds that I had placed in his food dish with the cage door propped open., to lure him back into his cage.

The cat was in the backyard but he wanted in so I let him in, not realizing that the office door was open. I stepped into the garden, then back inside to shred some papers. I couldn't have been gone for long when I returned to the office to see Pache on the floor with dove feathers in its mouth. The dove was nowhere, and I screamed bloody murder. My legs felt faint and I felt sick and had to leave to calm down, but returned to the murder scene to fess up and locate the dove's lifeless body.

This was not how I imagined it to end. I had even been looking at the dove's grown-in feathers, how even they now looked across his chest except for that repeated wing injury at the bend of his right wing that seems to reopen every few days.

I grabbed Pache and put him in the garage until the murderscene was cleaned up.

But when I returned to the office I realized there was no blood anywhere. The feathers that were on the ground were feathers that the dove had lost over the last few days--stress perhaps--and not new ones. Had the cat attacked the bird there would have been much more feathers.

So I figured he was hiding behind a box and would come out on his own when he felt safe.

An hour later he did waddle out, but quickly flew up and then out of the office. The back porch was open. This was his first flight outside the office.

He had chosen his own flight to freedom. He had had enough of the cat.

But again I was wrong. He was perched up on my Schrank in a corner looking down on me. When I tried to get him down from there, he flew straight toward the porch window, now closed, and hit himself against the glass. Twice. Poor guy was now on the floor and I was able to scoop him up. After gently talking to him, and briefly taking him outside to show him his soon-to-receive freedom, I placed him back in the cage.

I've decided he is ready to fly away now. The life in a dark office is not the life for him. He needs to be in the sun with birds like him. I'll let his wound heal before I let him go, and I'll miss the little guy. I've gotten rather fond of him although he remains aloof toward me.

I see a penis, ohmygod a penis! Eeeuuu!

This is what my second hour science class sounded like this morning as we watched part of a fascinating BBC documentary about human and animal relationsips, “Lifesense.”

I had no idea that a human penis would sneak in this documentary. The teacher I was filling in for gave me no warning that an otherwise fascinating documentary showing close-ups of blood-sucking bed bugs, ticks, fleas and tapeworms would also show 90-seconds of darkened frontal male nudity in the form of an Indian Jain monk walking naked down an Indian village road. He was walking slowly, while scaring off poisonous centipedes eager to bite his naked, skinny feet with a long whisking broom. He was replicating an ancient Indian tradition that has its beginnings in ancient Indian religions.

I was totally mortified. I had fears of fundamental Christian parents calling the school and complaining about eight graders being exposed to pornography. Funny, how so many parents don’t seem interested in their child’s education unless there’s a penis involved.

And it doesn’t matter that one could hardly see this little—and it was!—penis. Never mind that the photography was from a distant angle. I looked up briefly at the screen and only saw dark-on-dark. There was no detail, no close-up and nothing offensive about it. I could barely discern an outline of a penis-testicles package. With a fleeting glance it looked more like the monk was wearing Speedos made in Thailand.

Except that whatever was possibly dangling as the naked monk walked toward the camera was a human penis.

The girls screamed, the boys laughed and I tried frantically to fast-forward the clip until we got to the part about the meat-eating turtles of India.

The girls and boys quickly calmed down when more exciting parts of the documentary came on the screen: Buddhist monks sitting yoga-style in India with rats crawling all over them. Rats have some of the largest testicles of any living mammal, when one figures in the size of the testicles to the rest of the rat’s body. I mean, we’re talking about a mammal whose testicles drag on the ground, they are so huge.

The rest of the hour went smoothly. Soon the girls forgot about the penis and got grossed out about the blood-sucking ticks, bedbugs and head lice.

By the second hour I knew that it was best to fast-forward through the scene. The only problem was I was a little clumsy with the DVD player's knobs. As the naked monk appeared on the screen my first reaction was to stand in front of the screen to physically block out the nudity, much to the laughter of the more vocal students. A few comedic facial gestures and Chaplinesque movements made for, I'm sure, great entertainment.

Third hour went better. The kids, however, didn’t forget. Word spread across school campus during lunch that “Ms G” was showing a penis in science class. If there are three effective modes of communication in school, it’s telephone, telegram and tell-a-kid. I’m sure kids’ cellphones were busy during lunch calling parents of the shocking news.

“Are we going to see a penis?” asked me one grinning boy after lunch as he entered the classroom. I felt like slapping him.

“No,” I replied curtly. I had perfected my fast-forwarding skills on the player by now.

I had gotten so good at fast-forwarding through the offensive part of the documentary that my sixth hour students didn’t even notice the mild censorship. These kids were more interested flirting with each other in the back of the room than paying attention to naked monks or blood-sucking insects. Threatening to break up the chatty crowd did the trick, although there was one boy who thought it was cool to stand up and show off his low-hanging pants, revealing stripped boxer shorts as he barely could walk back to his assigned seat.

He gave me a mean look letting me know I disrespected him and that I was going to pay for this. He sat down at this seat but for the rest of the hour he glared at me.

He was, shall I say, being a dick.

Bisbee

Kevin and I spent Saturday morning in Bisbee. We went there for a rainwater harvest demo, but once we got to town we discovered that it was scheduled for the following Saturday. He looked miffed. Now what? We walked around Old Town, up to the Ironman statue and back down until the Used Book store opened at 11am, just to spend some time there and not make the trip a total waste. It was forecasted to be a hot day and the morning temperatures in Bisbee were already very warm. Kevin quietly walked around the Main street; I followed behind him taking photos of posters and other unusual things but we kept to ourselves. He gets quiet when he's annoyed with me.

On the return trip back to the truck I stopped briefly at the old library to look at historic photographs. Bisbee suffered three devastating floods in 1896, 1906 and 1908, a year in which they also had a town fire. The library is in the old post office building. The wooden floors creak and it smells of old books in there, but it's a place I could spend an entire day going over old documents and photographs.

Bisbee is known for its gay bars and in fact the #1 post this blog has is a trip report about Bisbee. It's not surprise that the town has a Gay Pride festival coming this June.

I found a used copy of Paul Johnson's "History of the American People" for $5. It's a book I've had on my to-own list. Kevin bought himself a used paperback.

We were back home by noon, though. Kevin felt the day was wasted since his goal was the rainwater harvesting. He spent the rest of the day washing clothes and dehydrating more meat, but he didn't leave the house the rest of the day.