Today, I was at the elementary. I have been and will be all week. We watched Cowboy Buck and Elizabeth at an assembly. I had listened to the CDs on Monday when I subbed for the music teacher. That was A LOT of Cowboy Buck. As I walked in, with instructions to help the kids dance and sing (hoping that was not actually to be my lot), I met Elizabeth. I mentioned my Monday experience to her. She apologized. We both kind of laughed. I went on in and figured she had forgotten me. I was wrong.
There were eight or nine subs in today because of testing. A few were men, a few were women. I did not hear students call out any of their names as they walked the halls…they do that for me…something about my star qualities, I suppose.
I walked in looking for some kids to help sing and dance…I was glad to find none in need. So, I stood back and enjoyed the show, while keeping an eye on the kids…doing my job as a mature individual. The two singers got to a point where they needed student volunteers. It was funny. The kids loved it and all was well. That is until they called for some teachers. I am JUST a sub. No one should even consider me…should be the full-timers, right? Well, I was wrong. Elizabeth, forgive me for being on a first-name basis with this lady, but I don’t know her last name, called out for some teachers. There were several children attempting to volunteer their teachers…more than a few cast their eyes at me. Elizabeth called three female teachers, then looked for “a male teacher.” She looked in my direction. I slipped sideways, behind a seated male sub. She said, and pointed in my direction, “How about the music teacher?” I waved my hands and indicated I was not the music teacher. She changed her tack, “the substitute for the music teacher.” The older gentleman in front of me apparently believed she was talking to him and must have only heard the substitute part. He stood up and began to walk up to the front. I indicated that they had only called for one “volunteer” and shrugged my shoulders grateful for the old man’s denseness and deafness. Some of the kids continued to look expectantly at me, but the decision had been made and I saw no way of going up there without causing some sort of scene (confusion counts as a scene, right?). They did their little skit and all was well. A few, even the principal, expressed their disappointment that I did not get up there in front of everyone and make a fool of myself. One of the kinder teachers, the one I have subbed for several times, said she would never look at me the same. She said it with a smile. I sub again for her next week for two days, so I hope she was not too serious.
I had a good day. Cora needed gas in her car, so we went to town and refueled her car and then bought dinner, from Ki Ki’s restaurant. When we got home we ate and I began checking my emails and stuff. I found a site…ok, it’s in my favorites…it was about a particular airplane. I know, that was a big surprise, me reading about an airplane.
This particular airplane, the A-3, was used for a long time. Its original role was to deliver nuclear weapons. It later became a tanker and an electronic warfare aircraft. In its original role, though, it flew in at high speed, very low. It would pull up near the target and just before it began to turn over on its back, it would release the bomb and the bomb would loft over some 20 miles or more toward the target while the airplane completed its turn and left the area at high speed to avoid the blast. They used to practice this. In the early days, before radar bombing ranges made it possible to practice bombing without using bombs, they used concrete filled shapes and actually practiced lofting them. There was a target ship they aimed for. Other aircraft orbited the ship and watched for the splash. One day, and you can find the story here, there was no splash, they assumed it was a direct hit and congratulated the pilot. Later his mechanic found that there was a malfunction with the old analog computer. He calculated that the bomb actually landed 40 miles off target. The next day a New Jersey paper ran an article about a Meteorite that destroyed a garage and created a large crater. Hmmm.
There were eight or nine subs in today because of testing. A few were men, a few were women. I did not hear students call out any of their names as they walked the halls…they do that for me…something about my star qualities, I suppose.
I walked in looking for some kids to help sing and dance…I was glad to find none in need. So, I stood back and enjoyed the show, while keeping an eye on the kids…doing my job as a mature individual. The two singers got to a point where they needed student volunteers. It was funny. The kids loved it and all was well. That is until they called for some teachers. I am JUST a sub. No one should even consider me…should be the full-timers, right? Well, I was wrong. Elizabeth, forgive me for being on a first-name basis with this lady, but I don’t know her last name, called out for some teachers. There were several children attempting to volunteer their teachers…more than a few cast their eyes at me. Elizabeth called three female teachers, then looked for “a male teacher.” She looked in my direction. I slipped sideways, behind a seated male sub. She said, and pointed in my direction, “How about the music teacher?” I waved my hands and indicated I was not the music teacher. She changed her tack, “the substitute for the music teacher.” The older gentleman in front of me apparently believed she was talking to him and must have only heard the substitute part. He stood up and began to walk up to the front. I indicated that they had only called for one “volunteer” and shrugged my shoulders grateful for the old man’s denseness and deafness. Some of the kids continued to look expectantly at me, but the decision had been made and I saw no way of going up there without causing some sort of scene (confusion counts as a scene, right?). They did their little skit and all was well. A few, even the principal, expressed their disappointment that I did not get up there in front of everyone and make a fool of myself. One of the kinder teachers, the one I have subbed for several times, said she would never look at me the same. She said it with a smile. I sub again for her next week for two days, so I hope she was not too serious.
I had a good day. Cora needed gas in her car, so we went to town and refueled her car and then bought dinner, from Ki Ki’s restaurant. When we got home we ate and I began checking my emails and stuff. I found a site…ok, it’s in my favorites…it was about a particular airplane. I know, that was a big surprise, me reading about an airplane.
This particular airplane, the A-3, was used for a long time. Its original role was to deliver nuclear weapons. It later became a tanker and an electronic warfare aircraft. In its original role, though, it flew in at high speed, very low. It would pull up near the target and just before it began to turn over on its back, it would release the bomb and the bomb would loft over some 20 miles or more toward the target while the airplane completed its turn and left the area at high speed to avoid the blast. They used to practice this. In the early days, before radar bombing ranges made it possible to practice bombing without using bombs, they used concrete filled shapes and actually practiced lofting them. There was a target ship they aimed for. Other aircraft orbited the ship and watched for the splash. One day, and you can find the story here, there was no splash, they assumed it was a direct hit and congratulated the pilot. Later his mechanic found that there was a malfunction with the old analog computer. He calculated that the bomb actually landed 40 miles off target. The next day a New Jersey paper ran an article about a Meteorite that destroyed a garage and created a large crater. Hmmm.
Oh, I also got this...finally, from ebay. It is a North American Aviation stock certificate...they built the X-15, the XB-70, the F-86, and the P-51!
Oh, and here is a piece of advice to all people who ever have the chance to play on Survivor: NEVER, EVER, give up the idol. Erik, that was just stupid.
1 comment:
You should have danced, Jim. Think of all you missed out on after all it is teacher appreciation week and all those nice teachers needed a good laugh. Who knows you could have ended up a youtube star.
love ya
Post a Comment