Lesson 688: Halfway

Hello, Readers.

Happy birthday to Eloise!

I had a milestone birthday this week.

Halfway to a hundred isn't bad at all.

The festivities started last weekend.
The fam reserved a theater so we could watch a movie.

Movie theater popcorn tasted so good!

March 3rd rolled in on a Wednesday,

making for a super exciting pandemic style birthday.

I hope this isn't an omen,

but the 5 candle broke.

After a day of Lost-esque flashbacks

I settled down for the remainder of the evening

with a book on my lap.

This was one of my gifts from my family.

This contains the full copy of the New York Times on the day I was born.

I was born during Vietnam.

When midi lengths skirts were in style

and Chock Full O'Nuts Coffee was 75 cents.

I found something extremely interesting

halfway through the publication.

In the Letters to the Editor section,

this famous pig caught my eye.

Mrs. Eloise's elementary school eye recognized the artwork.

He's from children's author/illustrator William Steig's

1969 Caldecott Award winning book,

Sylvester and the Magic Pebble.

Here is your halfway through the post history lesson--

with a few connect the dots moments for my Readers,

some following this blog for over 10 years.

I read it to Penny and Hazel and they are fast asleep.

(yes, my pit bull uses a Vera Bradley blanket).

This was one of my favorite books in the Clark School library.

I checked it out many a time in the mid 1970's,

and I checked it out again today.

It's about a family of donkeys!

Sylvester loved to go for walks outside and collect rocks.

Sylvester found a magic pebble,

shiny and red.

When he wished for things, 

they came true if he was holding the pebble in his hoof.

A wild animal startled poor Sylvester.

He was not the best in panic situations.

Sylvester could have wished for numerous solutions to his problem

had he some clarity of thought.

The panic got the best of him and instead,

he said this:

so....

Sylvester's parents were heartbroken,

but fast forward to the end...

they were reunited.

But, in the 1971 there was controversy over a drawing

in this award winning book.

It seems after Sylvester's parents called the dogs out for a fruitless search

for their son,

they went to the police.

This prompted some outrage by the police about their depiction as pigs.

William Steig himself wrote a letter to the editor 

of the New York Times in response.

It's interesting to look back on history 

from a halfway to a hundred view point.

So much has changed,

yet so much has stayed the same.

Eloise

Lesson 687: Away

 Good morning, Readers.

It is a windy February morning!

I thought I'd show you how I appear to my students.

I teach virtual enrichment on Fridays 

and I took a shot of myself to see how I appear to them

while we are away from in-person enrichment 

for a little while longer.

I missed my typical Friday night post.

I fell asleep watching this Netflix original--

Away with Hilary Swank.

It's good!

My students and I have been talking about

the successful landing of the Mars rover Perseverance

so I'm into NASA lately.

Below is the NASA released video--

the audio is very clear and it is explained well in 3 minutes.

My favorite part is 3:16 when the NASA astronauts 

burst into cheers and shouts of accomplishment.

I forgot they are distanced, too,

behind plexiglass,

fist and elbow bumping in celebration.

Touchdown Mars! CLICK HERE

We celebrated the arrival of this fat lady--

Grandma spied a 

robin out her window!`

At the beginning of the week,

this was the scene out my window!

\

We had ourselves one treacherous driveway!

The ice was thick and shiny

but it wasn't enough to turn the steady stream

of delivery drivers away.

The ice at the school was really pretty yesterday evening.

We walked the dogs for well over an hour.

They love the big snow piles.

We were waiting to pick up Sam

 from his last basketball game

of the season. 

It was away at North East.

The Pickers grape jellied us twice this week.

Sam got to see his friend Willie

who we have now named Hop Along.

His little sister cracks me up.

She has four big brothers,

as big or bigger than this kid!

While walking at the school for Sam,

I realized I forgot my camera

and missed this spectacular moon.

I'm kind of happy with the iPhone shots

because they show the evening sky pastels nicely.

I'm at peace with my forgetfulness

because I got some beauties of her 

in her full glory at night.

I got my 10,000 steps in for the day.

I got the Pacer walking app.

I was using another one that I didn't like that much.

I did all the Zombie's Run and got sick of Zombies after 8 years.

I highly recommend The Walk--and I did that one twice.

This one seems perfect.

I just completed the Grand Canyon route this week.

I'm feeling pretty lucky

writing my last blog post in my 40's decade.

I turn 50 next week

on a midweek-in-suburbia-kind-of-day-

school

bowling

housework

homework.

Seems ho-hum for a zero birthday

but I'm really looking forward to it.

I already have all that I want

I'll end with this image this week.

I think they are singing me a birthday song.

Eloise