Hump Day! That stupid commercial with the camel is still one of my favorites; I'm kind of simple minded that way. My lessons with the kids are easy this week, i.e., have them do their laps around the blacktop to the new Justin Timberlake song, then take 10 hoppy balls out to the field and turn 'em loose. It's hard on me carrying all of them around (it's quite a sight) but even the kids who normally don't access much of what I do and try to elope will stick around for this action. Then two IEPs after work. And no, I don't get paid for all those hours after school and my official duty date sitting in meetings. Sigh.
And while I'm complaining about that, what about these private schools that send out form letters to parents of special needs kids, especially the moderate/severe ones, that promise them the moon if they'll pull them out of our public school program (which is excellent in our school district) and send them there to their school (which we have to pay for), but these said schools don't have to test, set goals, create, or maintain the IEPs. Us specialists at the school district have to do that on our own time (kiddos are brought to their home school after their private school day for their speech, adapted PE, occupational therapy, etc.). So why are these schools collecting all this money but not really servicing the kids? I'm confused. And after two or three years, the kids usually come back and are not usually any better, and very often have regressed significantly. I guess I can see it in certain districts that have a poor special education department (like the one at which my difficult grandson attends), and parents don't want to leave any stone unturned, but our district is renowned for our services. Three weeks left before school is out, and no, I don't teach summer school. Never, ever. I did twice and learned my lesson. I develop some PE lesson plans that the teachers can do if they want, burn CDs with music the kids like, and call it a day.
Garden: darn apple tree, one of those espalier types with 4 different types of apples, is in it's third year of not doing anything. I usually get one little mealy apple a year. Bah. I fertilize, I worry over it and zip, zero, bupkus. My lemon and lime trees: constant battle with leaf miners and other things that are eating the base of the lemons right after they pollinate and set. Poo. I've set traps with little boy leaf miner pheromones on them and it does attract the amorous females into the traps, where they die. And I don't feel bad; sorry not sorry. I've had less luck with the other buggy critters. Neem oil and good fertilizer is about the best I can do at this point. We're moving into our foggy season and the humidity is high and about 55-60 degrees every day until September. We'll get a few days of heat and sun cobbled together, but it's mostly foggy until about 4 p.m., then it will clear for a little bit before it moves back in. I love sun, and I'll be spending this summer up at the daughter's new home in Puyallup, WA so I'm hoping for some sun up there.