Lesson 327: Storms

Batten down the hatches, Readers.

Fall storms are upon us.

With hurricanes in the Atlantic and Pacific coming at us this week,

the US getting ready!

Eloise likes storms.

There is something about the power of nature I enjoy.

Grandma and Kenyan both had simultaneous heart attacks reading the sentence above.

They are tied, dead even for the Severe Weather Chicken Award.

Judging the skies over the Erie area tonight,

I thought we'd get a rain out for Friday night football.

We escaped the predicted rain and 20 degree temperature drop.

Eloise's favorite fall passtime carried on as usual.

Under stormy skies my Huskies played hard against the Bison of LeBoeuf tonight.

Darn it all!  Try as we might, we didn't come out the victors this time.

Bison stud Austin Combs was a little too much for us.

That's okay though,

because Eloise has possession of his football.

This football has been one of Eloise's unsolved mysteries for a good five or six years.  I found this football in the park behind my house all those years ago.  I tried to find Austin to return his orphaned pigskin, but I could never find him.  Lo and behold, the boy came into Husky territory tonight and trounced my team. I'm curious to know what he was doing in my back yard, five fingers worth of years ago.

I have your football, Austin.  You can come to the Lamp Post any time for it.  A sweet little boy named Sam will hand deliver it to you when you pull in my driveway.  Beware.  My Husky bites.

I guess I should first mention Sam doesn't take to losing well.

Here is Sam last Sunday, reviewing the playback of Penn State's loss the day before.

Sam bid farewell to the baseball diamond last weekend.

He and his teammates played his last game of fall ball for the year.

Thanks, Coaches!

We'll see you in the spring.

My girls,

they've been busy decorating the Lamp Post for fall.

The paint on their fingernails is a bit harder to remove than their Essie version.

The winery across the street, Six Mile Cellars has had a continuous stream of traffic.

No, my mother was not on this trolley.

She just walks over.

The hubby has been doing some yard work.

He grooms the lawn of the Lamp Post so nicely!

Once in awhile he slips some lawn decor past me.

Eloise's Book Picks of the Month:

A children's book--but great for anyone:
Wonder Struck by Brian Selznick.

It is actually a picture book.  Don't let the size of the book fool you.

My students and I are reading this one together.

It is a parallel story--two stories are going on simultaneously, 50 years apart.

We are trying to figure out how they connect.

Awesome read.

For adults, I recommend 

If I could write,

I mean REALLY write,

I'd write just like this.

It's non fiction, and not just about running.

Chin's descriptions are perfectly worded.

Everyone needs to have a Timmy in their life.

Timmy had a gift few possessed.  He always found a way to the essence of things, to extract from day-to-day living, the little pleasures that warmed your heart and touched your soul.

Everyone needs a friend like this:

...an individual I could trust with my trust.  A person with candor who would tell it to me the way he saw it.  One with a sense of adventure, verve, who took life by the horns.  Someone with genuine eyes.

In truth, I'd long for a description of me, written like this:

In public, Cambria was very proper in her mannerisms--grammatically abiding, never swore, was seldom drawn into gossip--and people had a hard time breaking the ice with her.  She was stringent with her reveal, and gave away very little about herself.  Mostly, she preferred to linger on surface topics before divulging anything personal...almost as a rite of initiation one had to endure to get a peek into her private world.  

When, I haven't had my nose in a book,

Eloise has been out on her Roadside Find Bike,

photographing nature

during the prettiest time of the year.

I've also been having some fun with the Team Adrenaline Puncher.

By a twist of fate, Eloise has possession.

It's been endless fun.

I've also started my next challenge.

This one will take a little longer than 58 days.

Eloise is learning MATH!

I signed up for a free Khan Academy account.

Khan's slogan is

Eloise agrees.

I've joined the movement.

You can do anything you set your mind to.

Right now, my mind is set on two things:

1.  Winning the 58 Day Wellness Challenge

and

2.  Figuring out math

My plate project for the 58 Day Wellness Challenge is working well.

I realized I have some very bad habits I need to break.

As for the math--I signed up for the most difficult course--

The World of Math.

Eloise is proud to report I've mastered addition and subtraction with 5's and 20's.

Just 892 skills to go.

The cool part is that you get rewards when you finish levels.

You earn badges along your journey.

Currently I'm at the Meteorite level.

The Khan site charts your progress and encourages you along the way.

As you can see, I'm Just Getting Started.

There is lots of math in store for Eloise.

I'm hoping to earn these rewards this weekend:

I'm all for good habits and a dose of inspiration.

I'm a shoe in for Persistence.

I cannot wait to earn my Awesome Streak.

The tens subtraction tripped me up though.

The Khan Academy doesn't only offer free math tutorials and courses.

I found this awesome course on Java Script and Animation.

I am going to begin this one very soon.

In fact, there is so much available to learn at my fingertips,

I signed up for several courses, 

some a little more challenging than others.

I'm about to take the Learning Community by storm.
That's because,

Take the world by storm this weekend, Readers! If you are reading this blog, then you have the potential to do just that.  Take a look around Khan Academy and learn something new!  

This week's photo video is set to an amazing song.  It isn't well known, so please give it a listen.  It is titled Thunder and performed by Nuttin' But Stringz--a musical group that combines rap, hip hop, and stringed instruments.  They placed third on America's Got Talent several years ago, and I've followed them ever since.  Amazing talent.  A perfect song, for this perfectly stormy blog.

Weather your storms this weekend readers.  Learn to bend a little with the wind.  Trust me.  You won't break.

ELOISE