So begins Memorial Day Weekend, 2016. It wasn’t a bad day as days go once the rain finished early afternoon. And right now, Sunday and Monday look decent, so I guess the weekend will be ok. We need more rain and tomorrow we should get it. Onward and upward.
Today I had my follow-up to my neck dealio from a week ago Tuesday. If you’ll remember, I was diagnosed, after a CAT scan, with a parotid gland blockage. At the time, I was an Urgent Care patient. Today, I saw my doctor as instructed by the Urgent Care physician. I was good with that as I love chatting with my doc. He’s awesome. Great sense of humor. I found out the last time I saw him that he’s a doctor for fights in the metro. He’s a ringside doc. How cool is that? In any case, we chatted briefly, he felt my neck and recognized the mass had greatly shrunk yet there was still a little there. He said, “Just keep sucking those lemon balls for another week and you’ll be good to go!” Aye, aye, captain!
Then a rare lunch at Famous Dave’s with my buddy. Prior to meeting him for lunch and the doctor, I had a flashback event occur in the morning.
A couple of days ago, one of my former Honors English Nine students emailed me, asking me if I would be willing to do him a favor. Actually, him and his friend (partner in an assignment). They are now sophomores and apparently there is a major research paper due Tuesday. He was asking me if I’d be willing to read and edit it. I liked this kid a year ago. Great kid. Taught him all year. I also know his partner as she is the son of my friend who I was having lunch with today. So, of course, I said yes. This is where you need to understand something. I never really minded reading the papers kids wrote. I hated grading them. I hated the rubrics. I hated the parents when they thought they knew more than I had after years of experience, and years of training and workshops and what not. Kids never felt like papers received the grade they deserved. This time, however, I didn’t have to grade. I just had to edit it. Edit a NINETEEN PAGE PAPER! He hadn’t told me how long this was when he asked me to edit it. Once I said yes and he sent me the document, I realized I was in for a bit of a task. So, I got out my pen and began to leave my marks 🙂
Felt good. I was doing them a favor. They would appreciate it. A win-win. As it was, the paper was decent. I made a lot of marks dealing with word choice or punctuation or sentence structure and so on and so on. I’m sure when my former student got it, he had deja vu from a year ago when he’d receive his papers back from me. lol
Lunch was delightful, as it always is with this character. Then it was off to Von Hanson’s for some good stuff for the weekend. By the time I got home, it was already nearly 3:00. It’s what I’ve said. The days fly by in retirement. Not frantic. Just often full. A good thing.
My Brewers are having a good streak right now. They’re working on winning their fourth game in a row. Another good thing 🙂 I am one of the few who don’t believe this season is going to be quite as bad as people were expecting. They show earmarks of a formidable team. No one is going to knock out the Cubs in our division, but there is always a Wild Card. Season is nearly two months down. Many to go!
Have a great Saturday until we meet again. Get out there and let Mother Nature that rain or no rain, you’re gonna grill out!
G’night!
The View From My Room 