county fair 2019!!!

we had a wonderful time yesterday at the antelope valley fair. 1st we went to a mall & james got a beautiful stacy adams fedora with quail feather -- he's had his eye on it for some time. meanwhile i wore my old straw yard hat, complete with rips & paint.
we got to the fair as it opened with desert sun high in the sky: warm warm warm! having grown up in bakingfield, i try never to concede that i'm hot bc then it can be all over for me. better to think cool thoughts, or "it's not that bad," or "could be worse," or be thankful when a little breeze kicks up.
i do love the desert air, even with its discomforts, due to the reward when that breeze does kick up, bathing the sweated skin: natural air conditioning! bedouins & all humans from civilization's cradle, where still it's hot today, know this. convenient things aren't very pleasurable for me, for some reason. i don't like the crowded beach, or new things, or expensive things if unnecessary, or conspicuous consumption, or keeping up with the joneses, name brands, etc. never have, never will. james is pretty much of the same mind, tho not as eccentric as i am on this matter!
anyways, we did so much in short time! this fair is close to edwards AFB & has rich aviation/space heritage, so there were replicas of space vehicles & world war planes & history room with pancho barnes & military flyboy heroes, among them the guy who played the drill sergeant in many movies, the one james really likes who apparently was a local son. 20 mule team, mojave desert rocks, geodes, quilts, artwork, vegetables & fruits, 4h goat show, petting zoo, exotic animals, colorful rides, dancing hiphop kids, fair food, happy people, families, children: you gotta love the fair.
we agreed we prefer fairs to amusement parks, which tend to be overpriced (therefore exclusive or encouraging the vulnerable to become indebted) & completely commercialized. the apex of this, of course, is disneyland, which no longer abides "walt's dream," as james has said, although it remains  house of the wonderful haunted mansion, which we really love. truly, i don't care to ever go again & think it obscene that people on budgets will spend so much hard-earned money to get the park fastpass. yesterday in the desert getting gas, we saw a disheveled woman with a fastpass bumper sticker on her broken-down car. i know disneyland is a happily-ever-after fantasy for many, but its marketing brainwashes too, too many to live way beyond their means, & i guess that's what the american dream has become & its just another example of corporate takeover of the american mind
... sigh...
the best parts of the fair for me were having shaved ice with james while people-watching; seeing the dashing mariachi troupe, their first song so beautiful & poignant, my tears flew; the exotic animals such as tortoise, bobcat, serval, binturong (or bear cat, like the rufus thomas song!)... and a young tiger, breathtakingly beautiful, supple with muscle! many of the animals already had gone home, since our trip occurred late in the fair, but still we saw goats, rabbits, llamas, & two of the most beautiful cows i've ever seen. they gave off such an aura of peace & gentleness, i realized unless they are served to me in someone's home or i am starving, i should no longer eat them.
well, back to schoolwork & housekeeping. we have such a good life these days. may yours be, as well.

funny & fun

scuzzin tushi sent us this meme:

 i remember when i was an undergrad in one of the few interesting classes (it was quite eggheadish), the concept of "meme" was kind of hard to grasp - a discrete unit of meaning, by that pre-internet-era definition, but more than that & kind of nebulous to get. now it's big, a huge concept in popular parlance with different meaning... i suppose this is the kind of change that occurs as one gets older & older... school is going really well though challenging bc i have the school's only combo class & had to move my classroom so didn't get time to prep completely for the school yr. must remember the 5th graders are at different developmental stage than 6th as i communicate with them -- smaller, more innocent, more concrete thinkers. yes, my 5th graders are a smart bunch of little pups, & the 6th are pretty cool, too. everyone is doing well relative to their past, even the few

super-challenging students. and my friend corey is doing outstandingly well as principal: her prodigious intelligence & skill, frittered away in past, i believe by mere serious health issues, teaching, serving as our principal when our "real" one was a total bum, getting two masters' at once, & being a mother & wife (i hope you see i'm being ironic), are now synthesized toward the greater purpose of ship-shaping a little school. her immense  leadership skills have exploded in powerful bloom. i told her i'd call her patton, but that's too militaristic, but she definitely is a great one, could lead a battalion, i think, is "in the trenches." i am hopeful & happy for this year, for the children & for us all professionally.

this pic is of a chifferobe i dragged home from the neighbor's yard. it was a mess, covered with paint, glue, dirt, and masking tape & had loose drawers & hinges & other parts as well as no mirrors. i was so pleased to restore it in one feverishly obsessed day. james said it was the nicest present he'd ever gotten, & of course keeps quoting to kill a mockingbird... (btw, read the book natural born heroes by christopher mcdonnell...what a book!!! i give it 5 stars plus!!!)... we're going for pizza now, so sayonara.

he was wearing shorts

mama took these pix in the antelope valley near a pretty tho low pond filled with giant coy, geese, & iridescent turquoise & orange dragonflies. we were joking around under aging trees that afforded an amazing canopy spread. in 52 years on earth, this is the 1st time i've noticed that my brown face blushes, but here you have it! i guess james would be the one to make that happen!  he was wearing shorts on that hot day, so with quick editing his attire in these pix now looks a little like jodhpurs. i left one james knee & white sock peeking out to thrill his fans... :)
i get a few more days of vacation bc they just waxed my new classroom floor, so that's more time to work on this house & i hope read a little & maybe do some cooking (tho the ninja blender makes "fixing a meal" instantaneous!)... recently on a jog at the central coast i saw up close an adolescent gray fox & later a young mule deer right in our vacation home back yard; the other day, james was the only one brave enough to approach a wolf at the wolf sanctuary. he knelt down & coaxed, "come here, sweetheart," & the immense, majestic creature approached, dropped gigantic white paw on james's shoulder, & slurped his face as everyone stood by gasping (having been too chicken to go near the lupine, named takoda)... outside this window is squirrel, chipmunk, quail, blue jay, sparrows or finches or some kind of tiny bird, & i'm sure much, much more animal life, & the weather is blessedly cool after penny's & my hot, hilly, but beautiful run at the high school earlier.
all is well, as you can see, & may it be with you.

four days and counting!! & blazing bakingfield pix

my favorite human

these may be the last four days of vacation!!! last year the roof of the school was retiled... then at open house in june, i noticed buckets collecting leaks, but in my sometimes-airhead way, didn't think anything more... turns out the construction company did a crappy job & the SD sued them or something & over summer the roof's being redone & this time they are removing ASBESTOS!!! i asked corey if that means we're all gonna die from asbestos poisoning & she said, "probably." but that also has meant none of us have been able to get in to work at school. monday MIGHT be the day i can return... and move my classroom. arrrrgggghhhh!!! i've been blessed as a teacher all these 22 years & never've had to move til now. arrrrrgggghhhh!! oh well; it'll be best for the kids, our school, so i need to do it.
our family vacation was wonderful, though i was sick for most of it & yesterday got many blood tests to see why i'm remaining sick now 8 days later!! stupid weak immune system!!! (i read a little book while vacationing, & did you know simon AKA sabato, sam, etc rodia of my favorite folk art/architecture monument, watts tower -- book subject --, was 4'10"? a midget!!! wow!!! he also was cranky & stubborn &, when the trains moved & thousands of ppl no longer daily were viewing & noticing & talking about his work, he up & moved. ha! another crazy, selfish genius, in other words, sounds like!) in other uninteresting news... from fb...
I've had my phone for almost 5 years. The camera by this time has been reduced to nearly nothing, as you can see from the quality of these photos, but the lighting adequately reflects the heat in Bakersfield! I think it's time for me to switch over to the really nice phone I was given by James's friend Ben!... there must be five hundred pictures in the phone waiting to be uploaded, though. Talk about a golden problemo! Jny (and James)

wilting in the heat

darling james & (critical comment deleted)