Oh No!!

This photo was originally posted in January of our evil twins Elvira and Ellen. They have both grown but the sisters still have almost identical color. In the past we were always confused as to which cat we were looking at. Finally there was a difference in that Ellen grew one white whisker. Tonight Ellen hopped up in my lap and I noticed that she had lost her white whisker! Now we are back to the drawing board as far as identification. The white patches on their chests have now become the same and without Ellen's white whisker they are practically identical twins. The only way to know who is who is for the wife to pick one up. For some reason Ellen does not like her and will squeal and squirm. Elvira just lies in her arms and looks sappy. It is deja vu all over again. When they were kittens we used to constantly mix up photos of them.

Orchid

I have always loved growing orchids. Here is my Dendrobium pegasus that just started blooming. For those of you who know orchids this is a hybrid that is about 25% Dendrobium genes and 75% Phalaenopsis genes. It is a pretty orchid with a spray of flowers that last about a month. It is not as showy as BLC orchids but the blooms are delicate and they stay around much longer than the traditional "Easter corsage" orchid flowers. This particular orchid plant of mine is about 7 years old.

Maria Sanchez Lake

My wife, acting as the city chemist, has been investigating several fish kills in a local lake in St. Augustine. They probably are the result of fertilizer/pesticide runoff from numerous houses that surround the lake. The city workers have been trying to flush the area by carefully adjusting water flow through the gate leading to the lake. At the same time this has let in a few rare visitors. They saw a manatee recently. Today the new sighting was this green sea turtle. Here is a shot of it.

Tropical Storm Fay

We are still here though a little soggy at the moment. Fay has dumped around 8 inches of rain on us so far with another couple of inches predicted before it exits the scene. The house is fine but the yard is a lake. Ditches are overflowing everywhere and some roads are flooded. I will probably have to wade through several inches of water to get to the car so I can go to work Monday. It is the first day for the students here so staying home is not an option for me. Backstroke, anyone?

All Sorts Of Things

A lot has been happening this week on different fronts so instead of a theme post I am just going to throw all of these thoughts together.

1) School preplanning is in full swing. Along with the usual mix of meetings I have been putting supplies away and trying to get everything ready for the kids' first day Friday.

2) Good news about the supplies! It looks like almost all of my order was approved and came in. I was really worried about not having necessary lab supplies this year due to the budget cuts but everything is ok for now.

3) Bad news. Class sizes are large and still growing. Where are all og these kids coming from???

4) Humorous news. At least one or two of the administrators must be reading this blog since a rumor has been circulating that I am going to retire in the middle of the year. They probably got this idea from an earlier post of mine. Rest assured that I intend on staying the full year. It would not be fair to the school or students to leave like that. The future? Well, let's just say that I will look at things at the end of this school year and decide then about teaching beyond that point. If I am still having fun it might be a possibility. This is going to be sad news for one of the other science teachers here who has already stated her desire to take over my Anatomy classes and room. I feel a little like a mortally wounded robbery victim whose body is being stripped by robbers while they are still alive. As far as my retiring from teaching, the undertaker will have to wait a little longer.

5) I am going to make a real effort to be more positive about teaching this year, not to take things so seriously in education, and to have more fun teaching. I will laugh at the silly things instead of letting them eat at me. I am also going to smile more and try to help the other teachers here.

6) Very sad news. The wife came home yesterday in tears, She called her parents who live in another state. When she talked to her dad, who has Alzheimer's, he did not know he had a daughter and didn't recognize her at all.

7) I am going to adopt out our cat Elvira. The little vixen keeps raiding the cat food cabinet and stealing treats out of it. I have tried blocking the door with heavy objects but she always finds a way to get in. If it keeps up I will probably have to put a lock on the cabinet.

That's all for now. Sorry for the scattered nature of this post.

6)

Alpha Cat

Here is our Princess, AKA Alpha Cat, grooming herself in a series of nice shots taken in sequence. Can you tell she is just a little spoiled?

Guilty Pleasures: Return of the Living Dead

This horror spoof was made in 1985.Directed by Dan O'Bannon, it starred Clu Gulager, James Karen, and Don Calfa among others. George Romero and John Russo made the modern dead zombie genre one of the most popular in the world of horror movies with their original "Night of the Living Dead". This creation of Russo was an irreverent sendup of their original work that is one of my 5 favorite movies of all time. While it pays homage to Romero it goes way over the top in both gore and dark humor. One of my favorite lines is when Wilson chops up a corpse and then wants his embalmer friend to cremate the bagged remains. When pressed on what was in the bag, Wilson paused and then in a hushed voice proclaimed "Rabid Weasels!" The whole movie has this tongue-in-cheek attitude. The punk rock music fits the movie perfectly.

Before you get the DVD, be warned that it is not for children. There is nudity, language, and enough gore to put the Texas Chainsaw films to shame. Still, the acting is brilliant and the warped sense of humor will appeal to anyone who loves that type of thing. I get it out and watch it at least a couple of times per year and can not recommend it enough! It has often been imitated but never equaled in its brilliance. Yes, it is a guilty pleasure but one that I never get tired of seeing.

Patton

I am sitting here watching the movie "Patton" and it triggered memories of a lot of stories my dad told me about his experiences during World War 2. He trained with the 12th Cavalry at Fort Bliss, Texas. In 1942 he was sent to New York for training as a radio operator. After that he was assigned to Patton's 3rd Army and sent overseas. He was a scout for the 16th Mechanized Cavalry Group the last part of the war. They were the first troops to enter Germany. Dad was wounded twice, once by machine gun fire in the legs and once by being blown out of a halftrack when it hit a mine. His job was to scout advanced positions and radio back reports.

Dad saw Patton several times and was not impressed. He thought Patton was an egotistical prima donna who sent a lot of good men out as cannon fodder. One day after the battle of Trier his group was roused early by a colonel and forced to line up. The colonel said "Something has happened last night and the general wants a quick resolution to it. Who stole the general's cognac?" It seems that someone entered the supply tent and absconded with a case of Patton's finest stolen cognac. The men were dirty and very tired after the battle. When they heard this pronouncement they fell to the ground rolling with hysterical laughter. Sergeants were running around yelling and kicking at the laughing soldiers. By the way, dad said that the cognac was excellent!

Dad made it to the level of technical sergeant. The military offered him a chance to attend officer candidate school but he detested the military discipline and did not want to make a career of it. The only reminders of this time that I have are a German bone handled dress dagger, an old Belgium pistol, his dog tags, and a plaque the military sent him. While he was proud he got through this experience it left a lot of mental scars. Patton may have been a great strategist but according to dad he only cared about his own career. "Old Blood and Guts" had little regard for individual soldiers.

The Personalities Of Ellen and Elvira

It has been a fascinating 7 months since we adopted the terrible twosome, Ellen and Elvira. They started out as so identical in appearance and behavior we could rarely tell them apart. Now with time Ellen has a white whisker that helps us to physically distinguish them. We really don't need that. though, because of their radically different personalities that have developed over time. Here is Ellen:

She is playful but a little bit shy. Ellen is a Daddy's girl and constantly follows me around squeaking to be petted.

And then there is her sister Elvira:

Elvira is an alpha cat in training. She raids the food shelves looking for treats, tossing everything out on the floor. Elvira is the adventuresome sister, leaping up on the refrigerator and on top of the cabinets. Our little Mistress Of The Dark has an almost spooky intelligence. You can see it in her eyes when she cocks her head and stares at you intently. This may be the brightest cat we have ever had. She is at least as intelligent as our former alpha cat Tommy and he was very bright. As you can guess, Elvira is a handful but extremely entertaining to watch.

It is really fascinating how animal personalities can develop so differently when raised in the same environment.

Where Our County Is Going With Education

We are not unique here in education. This year we are facing the worst monetary crisis we have ever had in Florida. A combination of finance reductions at the state level and overextending in starting new schools in our county means that 25% of our funding has evaporated.

I won't try to second guess the decisions of our state and local administrators. Hindsight is a wonderful thing but it won't help solve the current crisis. Besides, my area of expertise is not administration or politics. I am a teacher and I am very worried that I am not going to have the supplies this year to adequately train the future scientists and doctors I will be given charge of. What can I do to replace fundamental labs and dissections that they must have in order to get a full education in Biology and Anatomy? Many of these kids will be going into medicine and research. They deserve the best experience in my classes I can offer them and I am deeply fearful that I will be forced to cut so many corners that they will not be adequately trained or inspired. Books are great as a staple but the heart and soul of the biological sciences is laboratory work. It is not cheap and there are no good substitutes. I do not want to be placed in the position of just sitting there asking them to memorize material. That is not science and it is not teaching. Some things can not be adjusted for and this is one of them. In a couple of weeks I go back to teaching and then I will see how bad it will really be. I wish I could be more upbeat and positive about this but to me it just feels like the death of good science teaching. I pray I am wrong.

I'm In The News!

Contact Dermatitis

I will spare you the rather gruesome photo of it. Two weeks ago I switched to another antiperspirant. It is one I have used in the past but within a few minutes of putting it on I had an extremely violent skin reaction to it. Though I immediately cleaned it off the damage had been done. Both underarms turned scarlet and began blistering. It looked like a burn. After that began daily cycles of scalding and then peeling. I tried all of the over-the-counter treatments recommended to no avail. Today I went to my dermatologist for it. He took one look at it and said "Wow!" so I knew it was pretty bad. He gave me steroid pills and the strongest steroid cream they make. One treatment so far and the color has already faded quite a bit. Now it is itching like mad but I think this is just the skin beginning to heal. It is peculiar how strongly my immune system attacked in response to the deodorant. I am just relieved that the new treatment is beginning to clear this up. I did not relish starting a new year of teaching with this.