Treasa’s Neighborhood

My new job as an English Teacher for high school grades 9-12 started this past week with several days of in-service training. Yea!
Waking up at 6 am -- not so yea! but is part of the deal, soooo...
Did I ever in my wildest dreams think I would be a high school English teacher? Nope! I was figuring on science or social studies, but we take what we can get!

My students are in a charter school that services drop-out recovery. These students are going to be between ninth grade and twelfth with ages between 14 and 20. Some are students who dropped out to have a child, others are students who ,for whatever reason, dropped out because of their home situations. Still others are students who went the whole way through a regular high school, but failed the exit test and need support and guidance to finish and earn their diplomas. A few will be court ordered to attend.

I will be earning $7000 less than a first year regular ISD recruit, but that is not all. My hours will be longer by far than a regular ISD teacher too. Our school is open from 7:45 - 5:00 and on Saturday mornings for additional tutoring sessions. This all means more work for less money, but it means I can finish my certification, and help a bunch of students that really need the boost.

By accident i stumbled upon EFX3.com which is the new blog site of the old efx2 gang. So once again i close a blog and run to another blog site. You can find me at http://logis.efx3.com .

Hi all, just a little updat to let you know i am still alive but helas not blogging because of lots of work.

I hope you all are healty and enjoying life.

Best regards,

logis

Yes, it's really me. I am still alive. Just not blogging because busy with work. Miss you all, miss your stories, laughter, jokes, ... . Hope all is well.

Christmas wishes and new year greetings,

logis

Hooray, jipiiiiiiiiiiiiiii, yes yes yes, no more needles!

It looks like my back OK. To be on the safe side i still have to take my medication until sunday but that is it. No more needles that the doc sticks in my back. Muscles seems to have heard my and your prayers and lissened to it. They relaxed, not entirly but enough to be declared healty.

So with joy i will go back to work on monday. Atleast if i remember how to get out of bed at that early hour. :-)

*Does the hockey pockey*

So today another doctor visit. He pushed again my back with his fist and concluded again that my back muscles at the right are still to tense. So again he loaded a syringe with the necessary fluid to let the muscle relax. Blablablabla, stick, push, pull out. Blablablablablabla while loading a second revolver eueueueh syringe. Blablablablablabla, stick, push, pull out.

Oke doctor, hopefully we dont meet again. Helas my dear patient, we will meet again on friday for more shots for your back. Hooray doctor, i can hardly wait for you putting, again, needles in my back. Appointment made, me making the little walk to home while cursing my backmuscles for being so tense.

Now all pray with me. Dear lord in the sky, ruler of all of us. Please let your healing power flow over my back and more especially the tense muscles. Please let my back heal so that on friday no needles will be needed. Thank you my lord for the kindness you bring to this world. Amen.

My back is still bothering me. It's better then last week, much less pain. But it's still not ok. I went to the doctor again and he gave me two syringes into my back to loosen up the muscles. He also gave extra medication. This to battle the infection i probably have at the muscles of my back. Side effects of this medication is that it makes you feel very tired. Luckily i only have to take one when i go to bed so hopefully i will have a splendid walk thru dreamland.

Next wednesday i have to go back to get another pair of syringes. I am so not looking forward to it. Anyway, to make a long story short, i am another week at home much to my displeasure. I guess i can fill the time with some little works that i otherwise have to do after work but no heavy work or it might be that my back gives up again.

See you all soon, hopefully, at the healty side!

I am home for the week. Not that i have vacation. Not that i am sick, well not in the real meaning of the word. Yesterday i moved some computers at work. Everything went fine until i picked up the last computer. Something in my lower back shifted. Pain, pain, pain. Everytime i had to make a movement that involves my back (i didn't know i used my back so much) my body sent me a warning something was not right. But i did bite the bullet and ended my shift.

When i woke up this morning i saw the clouds hanging. It took me a half hour to get out of bed. Even rolling to one side was enough to know my lower back was shot. So with many problems i got to the bathroom for a quick wash. Putting my cloths on was a nightmare. Putting my socks on an enormeous task, shoes impossible.

Off i went to the doctor. Shifting for half an hour on my chair in the waiting room to find a painless pose. Then the verdict. It's probably either the beginning of a hernia or, if i am lucky something that will pop back to place after some time of rest and no lifting. Personally i hope it's the second option otherwise i will have to go back next week to get some injections to losen up my back and some x-rays to see what's really wrong. So cross your fingers and pray that next week i am jumping around like nothing has happened.

Now i am off to sit in the couch and watch tv like the doctor has told me to do. See you all around.

Vlissingen, The Netherlands, was the place where i held my little chess vacation. I stayed in a B&B that had wonderfull, friendly, hosts that would help you in anyway they could. Breakfast was to kill for, plenty of everything. Bed was maybe a bit short but very comfy. Surroundings were nice and calm, an ideal place to relax.

The chess tournament was very well organized. My chess play wasn't like i wanted it. I hadn't played for two months so i felt rusty. I am also changing my chess style from positional to more combinational. Still having problems with playing more active so things didn't always work out the way i wanted. So, ratingwise, i scored one point less then suspected. Four out of nine was my part. Learned lots so this softened the pain of the not so good result.

Start of chess games was at 18h30 so i had plenty of time during the daytime to walk in the neighborhood, closeby and far away, and enjoy the sights the city had to offer. I must say i was a bit dissapointed since the only place that was worth of staying more then an hour was the seaside, 10 to 15 minutes walk from the place i stayed. The rest was all concrete and beton, kinda what you can espect of a town that is all touristic.

Anyway, i had a splendid time in Vlissingen. Next year i will certainly compete again in the chess tournament (hopefully with a better result) so i can already say "Vlissingen, watch out, here i come!"

I dont know what is wrong but when i came back from holliday my wireless keyboard didn't work anymore. I tried everything to get it to go again but whatever i did, reinstalling the driver, new batteries, hitting it with my fist, nothing worked. It was dead, no reanimation possible.

So i had to put my laptop back on my desk so that i could use the keyboard of it instead of just using it as server. The feeling of stroking the keys of my lappie felt wonderfully good, even beter then pushing the keys of my wireless keyboard. So, for awhile i definetly will be using the keyboard of my laptop to type.

Maybe in the near future i will put my extern screen also back in it's box and use my laptop in full, every feature of it. Helas it's not a top lappie. No CD/DVD writer. No pentium 3 or 4 enginge, just a second hand pentium 2. But it works and does all what i want it to do so i may not complain to much. With the extern 500 gigabytes harddisk attached i can make use of it for a very long time.