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Home > April 5: The Colour of Spring

April 5: The Colour of Spring

April 5th, 2012 at 04:27 pm

Text is This and Link is www.youtube.com/watch?v=bCMQBXu1fk8
This is safe and lovely, especially on a sunny morning. If it weren't cold and I weren't limping I'd go trippin' through daffodils and tulips. Older people can enjoy Blossom Dearie's "A Fine Spring Morning" or Donovan's "Lullaby of Spring", young'uns "Spring" by Saint Etienne or "Magical Spring" by Ride.

The spring has lifted the housing market and thawed the values. I'm feeling bold enough to mail my tax payment, and to plan my post-tax spending: car maintenance, hair colouring (I get a 'consideration' discount for a book I unloaded on my hairdresser), dental exam, needed pants, shirts and sleepwear. I also attempted sit-ups last night. My appetite is back and I'm sleeping through most of the night now. Although my hockey team has clinched its division it cannot do what the NY Rangers did and clinch its conference.

Tonight is silent film and vaudeville night, with dinner at a Cajun/Creole restaurant. Yeah!

It's National Poetry Month: I am trying to get into the spirit of it, by reading beyond Wendy Cope and the Modernists. Break the Glass by Jean Valentine won the Pulitzer Prize for poetry but I am not moved by its contents. The Dickinson and Baudelaire collections are all out on loan at my library. I'll probably go retro and take out the Coleridge collection, read Elizabeth Bishop as well, and borrow Pokemon Dad's 2009 published book of poems for the kid to read and bring to school: he can point to the photo on the back and say "I know this man!"
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Finance: this is a tight week. I'll probably have under $50 in chequing by the time the paycheque comes. Feh. VISA to pay, more Lenten donations... did I mention that I based my Lenten offerings on the performance of my hockey team, that has now won seven games in a row? Watch them slack off after Easter and give St. Louis the conference winner title.
I paid $45.19 for gas this week, our tank down to a never-before-witnessed .6 gallon of fuel. Why so low? Tax payment and budgeting for March. I overspent that month's budget by $850 as I shunted $1170 of the income to the 1040-V payment.
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My Struggles: my attempts to help my kid with his writing are ineffective, inefficient and feeble. His teacher called us into a conference to discuss my kid's handwriting difficulties. It only took oh, three workbooks of writing, a call and interview with a psychologist, a call to the school district's Speech Language Pathologist and a subsequent call from the SLP assigned to our school to bring on this conference. I do not like my school district. I do not like the school PTSA: "We're going to entreat you to contribute and then not respond to you when you offer to volunteer, okay? Because that's what makes us great, okay? I don't feel you're a team player with community spirit if you demand a response from us for niggly details like when and where to show up, okay?" I don't have to like my son's teacher but I feel I must trust his experience and approach to helping my son succeed, though my son's grades aren't any evidence that his teacher and I are doing any good. At least DS's teacher acknowledged I was aware of the problem and trying to help, and at least I was able to walk away from the meeting knowing that his teacher did not rule out the possibility of a disorder or a disability.

3 Responses to “April 5: The Colour of Spring”

  1. Jerry Says:
    1333746110

    I am really sorry about the stress for you with your kid's school district. It has to be frustrating, but I am convinced that the efforts of parents do eventually lead to dividends later. It may not be immediate, but it will count somehow. That's kind of the thing about raising these little people, there is no insurance how it will all play out, but you do the best you can anyway. YOU are the permanent fixture in this child's life, and not the teachers or admin wonks. Good luck and hang in there!
    Jerry

  2. V Says:
    1336081122

    Ramdom graphomotorily challenged comment: You've seen my penmanship. I spent the summer I was 13 staying up all night watching black and white movies and using a dip-pen to re-teach myself how to write. Clearly the combination of 13 years' worth of small motor skill development, motivation, William Powell and Myrna Loy, and a passing interest in calligraphy really can fix the problem.

    My mom (a teacher who had herself taught 3rd grade penmanship many times) tried to help me fix it from age 7-10 and that just didn't work. Later, she didn't know what I was up to that summer I spent learning to write.

    Do you have any friends who would be willing to be his pen pal? Wanting to be better at writing letters...or at least, wanting to write letters that anyone would put in the effort to read... was the biggest reason I was so motivated.

  3. PauletteGoddard Says:
    1336086111

    I have attempted to engage the lad in letter-writing. The only writing task he essays with glee is the game "Hangman".
    My friend EGB from NL and I coconspire on a Hollywood History mail art project, but not the same thing.
    I'll see if he can get an individual education plan, some 504 assistance
    Right now he has occupational therapy 2x a week.
    Oddly, it was "My Man Godfrey" that got me interested in black and white talkies. I was about nine, and electrified enough by watching "MMG" on TV to take out _Saturday Afternoon at the Bijou_ and there was no turning back.

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