Wednesday Highlights: Eclipse Glasses, Good Conversations, and Wonderful Books

Early in the morning, I literally had to put out a fire at work.  That's a bit melodramatic--I had to take the cigarette disposal container apart and dump water on the stinky cigar that was smoking up the doorway.  Still, it was fun to come back inside and declare, "I'm literally putting out fires here!  Who's got another problem for me to solve?"

Far more fun was the arrival of the eclipse viewing glasses.  At first, I was worried they'd been lost, since they'd been delivered on Tuesday, and no one had seen them.  Lo and behold, the package was small enough to fit in the mailbox.

They are the darkest glasses I've ever put on my face:

I thought I might wear them around school to advertise the special eclipse events we have planned, but I literally cannot see a thing with them on my face:

I ordered 60 pairs, since the Aug. 21 eclipse will happen during the day when we have students.  Since an eclipse is a slow moving event, students can share. 

I'm also keeping my eye on a shipment of mini moon pies that should arrive today.  A week before the eclipse we will have an informative event--with mini moon pies!

The afternoon was fairly quiet:  my computer got upgraded to Windows 10.  Two members of Corporate came to bring us our Scantron machine, and we spent a lot of time talking about a variety of school stuff.  It was good to catch up with them.

Last night was a whirlwind evening; it was my night to host dinner for the camp counselors who are down here to lead VBS.  I left work early, but I didn't beat the camp counselors home.  Luckily, I had done a lot of prep work on Tuesday.  They finished up in the cottage, while I put the finishing touches on dinner.

One of them walked in and said, "It smells like Heaven in here!" I'm hoping they'll remember the smell of Heaven and not the unswept floors and the dusty surfaces of my house.

I washed the dishes while the camp counselors walked to the beach--how did I think it was a good idea to have all the pasta topping options that required so many serving dishes?  After they came back, we chatted for a bit before we all went our separate ways.

I finished the night by reading.  I finished American War by Omar El Akkad.  It continued to impress me--I imagine I will continue to think about it through the rest of the summer.  It occurs to me that my summer reading has been bookmarked by scenes of torture:  American War, The Sympathizer and The Underground Railroad all contain torture that’s more graphically depicted than I’m used to. Hmmm.

Earlier in the day, I had written a few lines for a poem, but then the tech guy showed up and I could never got back to the poem.  I read a bit of Jane Hirshfield after finishing American War, and then I returned to the poem.  I like the direction it's headed.  It includes the parched petunias on my porch, the ones I hope are making a comeback, and my poinsettia at work that doesn't realize that we're in the middle of summer, not December (its leaves are making the transition from green to red again!).