Monday, December 14, 2015

Pinecone


7 comments:

  1. Huzzah for Howard!

    The pine cone reminds me of a Christmas craft project in first grade; the teacher brought in various pine cones she collected; each of us got to choose, paint and decorate one. There was a blue spruce in the front yard of a house near ours that I thought was pretty, so I painted mine a pale blue. Small glass bead ornaments between the "leaves" and a finial of gold ones held up with wire completed it. My mother always brought it out for Christmas, but what became of it I know not; presumably someone threw it away. I should have liked to have it, but that's water under the bridge. That first (we moved away during Easter Vacation) first-grade class is a warm memory for me, and that was my only memento of it. Oh, well.


    This gives a faint idea of how the Democratic Party regularly snubs our area. [Click] This has been, and could be, a swing area for California, but all the party officials care about is our money--which they take and spend elsewhere.

    --Alan

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    1. Not that the Democratic Party officials and major candidates actually spend much time asking us for money--they don't have time as they fly over between Los Angeles and San Francisco. And they continue to see to it that our votes are gerrymandered.

      --Alan

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    2. Alan, as you clearly remember what your First Grade pine cone looked like, why not make a replica so that you can think of it and remember it every year in style? I think that would be really sweet. I too moved during First Grade. In my first school I was in a classroom which had first and second grade together. I must have been a smart kid because I was always more interested in what the second graders were doing than what we first graders were doing. My second school was an old school with a new wing. I was first placed in a class the old part of the school, but after awhile they had me do an IQ test and moved me to the new wing. I guess that was the more advanced class, but I was just settling in to the new place, and it really was hard on me to get moved yet again in the same year. Also, I did not like the look and feel of the new room (light gray and kind of cold feeling), preferring the architecture of the old room and it's beige-gold tones. Funny how I remember it so well. Straight A's that year nonetheless. Even so...

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    3. Not so strange to remember such details, listener; the first year of school, be it kindergarten or first grade, is a very special one. As for attempting a replica of my first-grade pinecone project, I would know it was merely a fake, and would not feel good about it, I think. The teacher had a big supply of little glass beads of all sorts which I could not replicate, either. Thanks for the suggestion, though. After tenth grade we moved again, and I attended 11th grade at a school with a seemingly very un-bright or at least un-accomplished student body; In History I was automatically placed into the slowest class; the teacher quickly realized I did not belong there, and sent me to study by myself in the library. I often wonder if the social problems I had that year are the reason I failed to understand second year Algebra, which dogged me all the way through college and university, and affect my life to this day. Then again, if I had understood, many of the things I value so highly in my life might well not have come to be.

      --Alan

      P.S.: On a brighter note, I had another satisfied customer today; I was called by the People in a preliminary hearing today, and the prosecutor went out of his way to repeatedly tell me in the hallway how helpful I had been. Very nice indeed. (It was a homicide from two years and a half ago, only now having its preliminary hearing--egregious, but for various reasons such things sometimes happen.)

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  2. Moderate and rain.

    Glad about your dad's pen. Hugs!

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    1. 54F with sunshine and low clouds today! I got almost all the rest of my errands done in town, while the going was easy. Colder temps sliding in by Wednesday. Maybe a touch of snow on Friday. Hope hope!

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    2. Thanks, puddle.

      Alan

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