Dear Friends,
If you didn’t watch the World Cup final yesterday, you missed out. Even for non-soccer(futbol) fans, it was a thing of beauty. Stressful, exciting, even without a dog in the hunt, I loved it. I’m glad Argentina won, to be honest, but it wouldn’t have bothered me if France won. Both teams played beautifully during the Cup.
*****
I am feeling relieved that there is a break coming, but I’m also reluctant to let go of the momentum the kids have been creating for themselves over the past few weeks. It’s hard because they are ready for a break, but learning is happening. I’m going to have to retrain them for a week or two to get back to where we are now.
At least it is a short week and one where fun is expected to be had. They have a Reindeer Run coming up and I’m excited to be able to step up and help the PE team out. One of the fun things you get to do as a teacher is fill in and do something different from time to time. The fourth-grade students I don’t have each day are starting to get used to seeing me around and say “Hi” and “What’s up?” a lot to me.
Due to one of the PE teachers being evaluated this week, I get to step in and help with the 4th grade run. I don’t have a clue what that means, but I will find out. I’m guessing I will just be keeping the flow of traffic going, but still. It will be fun to be outside and help out. So what if I have to give up a prep hour. I don’t care.
Prep hours are like gold, though. We all like to have a little break from our jobs and when you get a few minutes of quiet during the day to just think about whatever you need to think about, it’s a good thing. I just enjoy the quiet in my classroom. I use lunchtime for the same thing. My team seems to congregate in one of the other teacher’s classrooms, but I need that time to just be still. There is so much going on the rest of the time during the day that I need a little more quiet than my team does, I guess.
Maybe the think I don’t like them. Ha. I don’t care.
*****
I really miss skateboarding. I’ve been dreaming about it a lot. I wish I felt like my knee would hold up, but I don’t trust it anymore. It’s a huge bummer. I really loved to skateboard.
I got into it a bit later in life. I remember getting one as a young dude but never really using it much or getting the feel for it early on. Two brothers, Tom and Gary, that lived in our apartment complex taught me how to catamaran in sixth grade and we would do that on the hill near the complex.
One time I tore the hell out of my hand after panicking and had my first experience with codeine. My hand hurt so bad. Luckily my dad had a Tylenol 3 handy, and I felt better. I remember those scabs being on my fingers for something like six weeks and I still have visible scars on my ring finger and middle finger on my left hand. The one on the side of my hand finally went away recently.
That experience had me a little gun shy for a while when it came to skateboarding. I didn’t really hang with anyone who skated early in high school, so I missed out on it until I got to Camelback and met Mark. He had gotten Ben into skating, and I followed along. It wasn’t too long before we were skating in every empty swimming pool we could find. I broke my right wrist in one that was in the neighborhood and across from my friend Teresa’s apartment, but it didn’t stop me.
The broken bone did, though, teach me the value of pads and I wore them religiously afterwards.
We skated a lot and it if not for some very liberal attendance policies, I would have spent an extra year in high school thanks to skateboarding if Camelback had not bent the rules a bit for me (and others, probably). State Route 51 was going in across the middle of the city in those days and there were empty pools galore. We skated them daily.
We also hit all the different banks (short for embankments) around town that you could skate. We spent a lot of time behind Shadow Mountain High School skating “The Wave” and I learned a few tricks there. I was never a flashy skateboarder, but I could do a few things that looked cool. I could always be counted on for a spectacular fall, too. I had a lot of scars on my body from skating in the mid-to-late 80s.
I miss the camaraderie of the skateboarding world. There is something about being out there with a group of people riding around that is just fun. I’ve had several of them over the years and when I was skating on the regular with a group that is supportive and fun, I always skated a lot better and enjoyed it more. When I blew out my knee in 2010, I was skating as well as I ever had in my life. I had a ramp in the backyard, much to Rhondi’s chagrin, and was skating almost every weekend. Blowing out the knee put a huge hole in my happiness. I got rid of a lot of stress by skating hard with the fellas.
I suppose I could probably start rolling around a little bit here and there. I should start by just going around the block occasionally, I suppose. Lord knows I have enough skateboards. If they were able to talk, I’m sure they would give me a huge piece of their mind. Sensient skateboards…some day.
See you tomorrow.
I believe this was taken the day I blew out my knee by P McG.
The long board has treated me well as of late in life. It keeps me humble.