August 21, 2014

I had a another productive day even though I nearly ran out of things to do at one point this afternoon. The first thing I did when I got to work was print out some reading books for the SPED substitute. I started doing it yesterday but only had about five minutes to work on it before I went upstairs to help the gifted teacher.

Sometime after that I went up to the third floor to install the new Odyssey link on one of the fourth grade laptop carts. That was a nice change from installing Type to Learn on a laptop cart. With the addition this year of the Public Desktop not being hidden I was able to add the link in under five minutes per computer. That is way better than the twenty- to thirty-minute minimum of installing Type to Learn.

I finished getting my MAP spreadsheets ready and I also made the blank score sheets that I use during testing to write down scores. The only things left are the sign-up sheet, which I can't make until we get our actual testing window, and then the lab schedule I make based on when teachers sign up. Or when the principal signs teachers up.

Near the end of the day the SPED substitute came down and asked if I could print off more books. They apparently went over really well and they read through all of the ones I printed off this morning. Before the end of the day I had time to print off about ten more but the goal is another forty-eight books, which is a lot.

After work I went home and grabbed a few things before heading over to my friend's mom's house. I wanted to get there before five o'clock because the cable guy was supposed to come sometime between five o'clock and seven o'clock. It wasn't too much later than five o'clock when he showed up. I wasn't entirely sure what was wrong other than the TV didn't work. He ended up having to switch out the cable box and told me it might take anywhere from three hours to have a day for the picture to actually show up. He said everything checked out but with the increased cable traffic with students being back in town the process was taking longer than usual. It ended up taking maybe thirty minutes so that was nice. It was back on before he came back to pick up the tools he forgot. Right after it came back on I turned it off though because I was watching YouTube videos.

For dinner I had the cold second half of my Chipotle burrito. I would have liked it warm but I couldn't figure out the ancient microwave. I don't even know if the thing works. I could have used the oven considering that is how I used to heat up my burritos, but I was hungry and didn't want to wait an hour before eating. I also had some roasted red pepper hummus with my chips that my friend's mom bought for me.

I almost had a visit with the new volunteer kid. We were good to go but then he got called into work. I'm going to text him tomorrow probably just to catch up on things.

After dinner I went home and got things I would need for tonight. I was told I could sleep in the bed but I don't like sleeping in beds that aren't mine, I'm not Goldilocks, so I grabbed my sleeping pad and sleeping bag. I also changed my clothes and shoes so I could take the dog for a walk when I got back. I don't actually have clothes suitable for walking. Nothing athletic really.

It was still around 100 degrees outside even though it was almost eight o'clock when we went out and I wished I had shorts. On occasion there was a nice breeze but for the most part it was stagnant and hot. I pretty much just followed the dogs lead because I figured she new what was up. The walk ended up lasting for over an hour and I think we went about two miles. I was tired and drenched by the time we made it back to the house. I don't think I am going to be as adventurous tomorrow night. I'm supposed to take her on a morning walk also and I hope I am able to move. It will be a much shorter walk. Nowhere near the high school or the zoo.

With the cable guy and the long walk tonight, I didn't get any textbook reading done. I'm ahead in one of them but I need to start another one for next week. Tomorrow night I'm going to get some reading done.

And now I am going to go to sleep. If I didn't have to write this I would have been in bed before ten o'clock because that walk took it out of me. I just hope I can get to sleep. I usually have trouble when I'm in a new place. Fingers crossed that isn't a thing tonight.