Welcome Luke Abel

As I was driving to San Jose (see next blog post), Nicole and Greg were at the hospital preparing for a c-section delivery.  Luke Abel was born at about 12:45 pm March 9.  8 lbs 1 oz, 18.5 inches.

 

This is Dick's first grandchild.  I'm sure he can't wait to get back from Kauai.

Group ride

There are 3 components in the Project Ride Smart program: classroom instruction, handling drills on the playground, and a group ride in the neighborhood. This afternoon, Mellissa from North Natomas Transportation Management Association and Dan who is starting a bicycle safety program in San Juan School District led an inservice for those of us hoping to participate or the a group ride.

L-R: Mellissa, Alexis, Brad

The ratio is 2 adults to 8 students.  Many times the adults will be one LCI and one parent volunteer.


L-R: Monica, Tim, Dan, Matthew

Always willing to portray the role of annoying student: Scarlet.  Teased in the LCI training class for only riding in the spandex "uniform", Jeff and Scarlet today dressed more like the clients we will serve.

L-R: Jeff, Scarlet

L-R: Matthew, Doug

Bicycling class: lesson 2

 

The lead LCIs for this school are Pollyanna with over 3 years experience and Doug who was part of my LCI training group.

 

 More great examples of student learning:

The team prepares for the next part of today's lesson: the concept of right-of-way at intersections.

As I presented a part of this lesson, I noticed a young man come in, observe, and then whisper to a colleague.  Later, I learned he asked, "I think I know her. What's her name?"  Arlete, they told him. "What's her last name?"  Since we go by first names, no one was sure of my last name. "I think she was my 6th grade teacher."

Yes! David Ansbro was a sixth grade student of mine at Westside School long long ago.  He is now a PE teacher in Natomas School District, a former high school math teacher, now doing what he's always wanted to do in education. How cool is that!

That was my highlight of the day, but for the 5th graders it was the melon drop.  Notice the small watermelon strapped into the bike helmet.  First the un-helmeted melon is dropped from the ledge onto the black-plastic drop cloth, it cracks and the "brain" juices escape.  The helmeted watermelon, however, is dropped with only a small bruise to its watermelon forehead.  Moral of the story: Always wear your bike helmet!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Dick goes to Kauai

This morning at 4 (ugh) I drove Dick to Oakland for a flight to Lihue. It was time to check on the boat. In my bleary-eyed state, it never occurred to me to take an appropriate picture, so why the following?  Ever since we moved back into the G St house, Dick has taken complete charge of all the shopping and meal preparation.  I've enjoyed this respite from cooking and haven't given it too much thought (except maybe when I've had to eat lentils for too many days in a row or encountered vegetables of odd shapes, textures, and tastes).  But as Dick prepared to leave for two weeks, he worried how I would survive without him.  Example: he likes to make coffee with this thing:

 

What I've learned is NEVER swallow the last mouthful in the cup or be prepared for a bunch of icky coffee grounds.  I wasn't about to make coffee using his preferred method.  Solution: Dick bought me a small coffeemaker and prepared 14 filters with the correct coffee measurement all nicely stacked in a MacGyver-ized recycled plastic milk container. 

Thank you, sweetie.  My goal for the next two weeks is to enjoy every single cup of coffee, eat NO lentils, avoid vegetables as often as possible ... and miss you a great deal.

Family this week

March 3: The red rose bushes planted between the white ones never performed as expected on the west side of Justin's property, so today it was time to replant for the last time.  All white tall bush roses called Iceberg. 

The exact measuring for placement (twice-checked), digging, and planting was Justin's responsibility; Jennifer got to the the post-planting watering.

Well ... maybe a little extra watering by Justin, just to make sure every plant was happy.

March 5: Dick and I went to visit Mom.  I turned on the laptop and shared the latest pictures in a full-screen slideshow.  She  was amazed.

Mom is always surprised by how picture-taking works today.  There are so many pictures taken and not all of them are good. 

She kept saying, "And if you don't like one of the pictures, you can just put another one on top of it."  Yup, that how it works, sort of.

At the zoo

Car seat buckling-up challenge requiring two heads and four hands.

Sacramento Zoo:

 

Petting the hedgehog. Two fingers only, please. 

River otters:

Kellen was the map reader and tour guide.  Therefore we crisscrossed the zoo a few times and ended up not seeing everything.  Guess we'll have to go back.

The giraffe managed to lick Kellen's hand on his way to eating the leaf.  Hand sanitizer was available afterwards.

The map reader prepares for the next move.  Odin loved eating the apple, but chewed only the fleshy part, managing to retain all the peels in his mouth through many bites.  So, several times Grandma had to offer to take the the glob of uneaten to the trash.

On the way home, McDonald's of course.  Kellen was very anxious to try Fishy McBites and really liked them.

 

At the end of the day, two happy grandsons, two exhausted grandparents.

First teaching day as an LCIT

LCIT = League Cycling Instructor in Training.  Not quite there yet. Today I observed the very experienced Pollyanna along with LCIT Doug (from my recent training classes) introduce the program to two fifth-grade classrooms at Natomas Park Elementary.  The banner behind me was put up by NNTMA = North Natomas Transportation Management Association.  I think that's who will be my actual employer.  Eventually.