Month: July 2005

Harry Potter Party

My daughter, Allison taught 4th grade last year. She promised the 5 students who had reached their reading goals at the end of the year that she would take them to the Harry Potter party at Hicklebees today and that they would get the new Harry Potter book as their prize for reaching their goals. Today 3 of the five were able to go. Julia, Duy and Tanya  went with Allison and me. It was lot of fun. We dressed up and there were games and prizes.  All three of them are avid readers. Duy is especially impressive. He came form Viet Nam and this was his first year of school in the United States. At the beginning of the year he could not read or write English at all. By the end of the year he  was almost at a fourth grade reading level and he reached his reading goal. All 5 kids and Allison and I are looking forward to reading the new book. I just talked to Allison. She said she is about half way through.

This was Allison’s last year teaching. She decided that although teaching has a lot of rewards it was not for her. She completed the two year Teach For America commitment and has accepted a new job that starts in August.  She will be working for Inside Track. She is hoping to be able to continue to volunteer at the school. I am very proud of what she achieved as a teacher.

Book Club

I went to my book club meeting Tuesday night. The book was A Perfect Peace by Amos Oz.  It is the story of a group of people living in a kibbutz  in the mid 60s. In particular it is about Yonaton who was born and raised on the kibbutz but has decided to leave his wife and the kibbutz, run away and start a new life.

Oz is an exceptional writer. The way he develops his characters and their complex relationships made me feel like I knew these people. It made me care about them. He also makes the environment, the weather and the kibbutz  very real. His cast of characters is quirky but you can tell that he has a soft spot in his heart for them. While reading this book it hit me that a lot of writers must not like their characters very much.

Oz has to be one of the best writers alive today and the book is top notch. Despite that, it is not a book that I would necessarily recommend. I set  myself a goal to read 50 pages a day during my vacation and I never felt the urge to go beyond my assignment for the day. In spite of the fact that it didn’t grab me it is an excellent book and I am glad I read it.

Vacation

Do you know what taconite is? I didn’t before my vacation. I always keep my eyes and ears open for interesting or surprising things that I think will make interesting blog reading. Our vacation was a wonderful  relaxing and unsurprising mid western week. At different times in my life I’ve lived in Minnesota, Illinois, Iowa and North Dakota. I have a lot of Midwestern roots. Anyway…. back to taconite. It is low grade iron ore. Direct shipped ore is 50% to 60% iron. Taconite is 20% to 30% iron and is crushed and shipped as pellets.  I learned this from a highway rest area sign  in the Black River Valley in Wisconsin  where they mine taconite.

We had a great vacation. The weather was warm and the humidity was uncharacteristically low. We took a red eye flight into Chicago on July 3. We were in the loop area by 7am and spent a few hours exploring. We went to The Art Institute of Chicago. I’m not sure I’ve ever seen so many Monets in one place. I am always  surprised by how much Monet’s use of color and light wows me. We spent a  few hours in the museum and then explored the  relatively new Millennium Park and got to  see the very cool fountains with lots of kids playing in the water. The fountains are two 50 foot high glass block towers at each end of a shallow reflecting pool. The towers are covered in flowing water and display video faces. Every so often the faces open their mouths and shoot out an extra stream of water. It is a lot of fun to watch.

After leaving Chicago we spent three nights with  my Uncle and Aunt at  their cabin on Lake Sissabagama in northern Wisconsin. There were surprisingly few bugs and we got to sit out by a fire in the front yard overlooking the lake to watch the July 4th fireworks. One day my uncle took us canoeing on Bean Brook and another day we sailed on the lake. We had a great visit. It is a wonderful place.

On Thursday we drove to Iowa, stopping along the way to search out the cemeteries containing the graves of my  Great Grandparents, Great Great Grandparents and Great Great Great Grandparents all of whom lived and are buried in south  western Wisconsin.

We spent the rest of our time in Manchester, Iowa. We stayed with Duke’s brother and his wife and  spent a lot of time visiting with Duke’s parents and doing a few odd jobs. I even got to drive the riding lawn mower to help mow the yard. One night we went to dinner in  Elkader  overlooking the  Turkey River and the keystone bridge  which is the longest of its type west of the Mississippi.

Monday we drove back to Chicago and flew home. It never ceases to amaze me how different California is from the Midwest. I really enjoyed it.