Coffee Klatch Friday Oct. 14th

Today is the second Friday of Vicki's (Tapestry of Life) Coffee Klatch Friday.  She gives us a few prompts to get us started.  Here are my responses.

First Question:  What  did you want to be when you grew up?

I wanted to be a pilot.  When I was about ten years old I had the opportunity to take a flight in a small airplane -- probably a n Auster (You were right Snafu, I just couldn't remember the name).  I was so excited.  I even had the chance to fly it by holding the joystick and keeping the plane's nose on the horizon.  But by the time I was ready to leave school I sort of fell into teaching.  Which is probably a good thing because I discovered I liked it, and according to my my college records I was quite good at it.

This was my exciting, big day.  I am on the left, with my brother and cousin.

Second question:  What do you love about what you do?

I once had a student in third grade who had three older brothers and sisters who were extremely bright.  Unfortunately, Rodney could not read.  I decided to try and help him and so took him out of class every day for extra reading help.  We started by getting him a book  that interested him instead of using just an ordinary reader.  We chose "Willie, the Wrong Way Whale".  Rodney loved it!  In a few weeks we were able to call his mother in and Rodney read the book to her from start to finish.  I will never forget the look on his face as he said with a deep sigh, "Oh, Mrs. Jones!  I thought I would NEVER learn to read". Teaching can be tough, but the rewards are often remarkable.

We were also asked to please share a couple of photos of where we live that show what it is like now at this time of year.

As my husband likes to say, we don't have weather, we have climate.  Sometimes I Have to remind myself what time of year it is.  But there are a couple of things that happen at this time of year around here.  Even when the weather is gorgeous we sometimes get some really heavy ocean swells.  They are caused by storms off New Zealand and the waves roll all the way to Southern California. The surfers love it!

This time of year is also wildfire season.  This is when the winds turn from the ocean and blow from the east -- the desert.  The humidity drops rapidly and the bush and chaparral become like a tinder box.  It is a dangerous and anxious time for those who live outside of town.

This photo was taken from our back yard in 2007.  It was a bad season.  Many homes were lost.

Last week we had our first winter 'storm' of the season.  Much earlier than usual.   The rain poured down and the wind blew.  We received half an inch of rain and a couple of trees blew down -- one fell on the mailman's van. Thankfully he was unhurt. The next day the weather was gorgeous again.  So typical of our winter storms, only they usually last about three days, before blowing on across the country. 

This was the rain pouring off our roof last week. It was actually quite fun since we rarely get any rain between April and October.




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