Aby gets fixed Friday morning

My cat gets fixed Friday morning. He is now in search of food since the vet said don't feed him after six p.m. Searching for food means prowling around the house knocking things over in anticipation that he uncovers something edible Every time the door opens, he now makes a run for it. I am hoping that surgery will stop this constant bolting for the front door.
This boy is desperate to find a last minute girlfriend.

my life

my life

my life

my life
My trip continued: When I was in Albuquerque busily asking how many hours to Lawton, I also was anticipating a nice lunch
in a "good" restaurant. Since I was traveling with my ten year old son who has ADHD, he frequently wins the food wars. He generally enjoys frequenting places such as Denny's or fast food, specifically Wendy's. Since I am not a fast food lover, I was
searching out a restaurant that served Mexican food. (That's what we call it here in California.) Once you get out of California, it seems that a TEX MEX phenomenon takes over. I ended up in a cute little place on the edge of what I think they call Old Town.
it was pretty good, but I was suddenly missing that California touch. As well as the Arizona bugs, perhaps someone can aqequately explain this Tex Mex thing. It's not that we don't have it here in Central Cal, it's just not that popular. As I walked into one restaurant, my son immediately went into
fit throwing status and decided he did not want to eat at what he
called a regular restaurant. I gave my best emotional speech concerning his selfish attempts at thwarting my efforts to enjoy New Mexico for at least thirty minutes. There seemed to be so much to see, but I had to get back on that freeway and travel
another ten hours or more. I was already tired, but I wanted to make it in two days. I have to say that those mesas that I had only seen before in text books are real. Those mountains really have large flat tops with steep sides. Later, driving home, I took a picture of an incredible sunset.

I was doing fine, clicking along, stopping just long enough to gas up and return to the road when it started to get dark. I was now into Texas looking for some little obscure road outside
of a little town called Memphis.

California, Arizona, New Mexico, Texas, Oaklahoma

I drove all the way to Lawton, Oaklahoma and back this summer. It's a little over 1,500 miles. I learned a lot of things by taking this drive. First of all, Arizona has a forest near Flagstaff, and it's beautiful. I live in California, and I never knew this
before. On the first day of driving I got out of the car in Lake Havasu; it was about 110 ten degrees there, thought my brain was going to fry. I was going to make it to Gallup, New Mexico on that first day and I hit the Flagstaff insect rain, comes down on your windshield so thick you can't see. Tell me all you Flagstaff people, how do you drive at night with all those little bugs falling in the summer? My son and I stopped there for the night. The motel had an indoor swimming pool, not used to those in California.

The next day I made it to Albuquerque, New Mexico. For some reason I thought I was closer to Lawton than I was. It was 1:00
p.m. and everyone I asked about how many more hours to Oaklahoma just sort of laughed at me and said about ten. I met an attorney and his wife in a restaurant there and he said I should go up to Oaklahoma City and drop down to Lawton. I called my son's wife and asked her. "Nope, stay the course ,"she said. Other wise, I was would be looking at another hour and a half of driving. What's up with all the dairy queens from Arizona to Oaklahoma? I pulled into a place in Texas and it reminded me of that movie Friday Night Lights. The town was so small ,but they had a huge football stadium.
(to be continued}

classroom

The classroom is a mess. I hope to have it fixed up before the students arrive. Right now, I feel like swimming. avoidance
syndrome, I suppose. I know all teachers on traditional tracks feeling the ambivalence of returning to the pressures of a new school year. No news from the son in Iraq yet. I sent him a package hope he receives it soon. This war is senseless. I have
trouble believing that we are bringing democracy to the Iraqi people. I don't think it is worth the lives of American soldiers, or the lives of the Iraqi people. I think any country assisting us at this point is bold to say the least. I wonder if that woman is still camped outside Bush's property.

looking for an E mail

I wrote an E mail to my son in Iraq yesterday. I have checked back here every six hours to see if he received it. So far, no comments. It is difficult not to hear from him. I need to go jog right now. I am going to brave it this morning and go into my classroom. I have to force myself to think about school.