little friends

Look who is showing up outside my cube window these days. It is hard to get a clean picture of him because he is always silhouetted against the fall colors, but it is kind of nice to have him buzzing in and out for his quick snacks. It definitely adds something nice to my afternoons.

Not all of my small friends are so lucky. For example, I am not really afraid of spiders, but something kind of unfortunate happened last night. I was writing some e-mail and I noticed a smallish pale-colored spider climbing down the right side of my computer monitor. As soon as I realized he was no threat to me, I ignored him. Soon enough, he climbed across the front of my monitor from the left side to the right. Again, I let him pass.

A few minutes later, the little spider was directly in front of me stopped and oriented so that I could see his little eyes. As I examined him, he pulled in his legs to make himself look more compact. I puffed some air onto him in order to get him off of my workspace and that was the last time I saw him. Well, it was the last time I saw him alive anyway.

I have a computer mouse similar to those little optical mice in that it rests directly on the mousing surface. There is a small amount of felt-like material covering the bottom of the mouse so that it moves smoothly across the designated surface. It had been several minutes since I had seen my spider friend and I was beginning to wonder if he had crawled up my sleeve. When I lifted my arm, I saw something disturbing on the formerly smooth mouse pad.

There was what appeared to be a small slick that might have been a tiny quantity of peanut-butter. I knew immediately what I was looking at. When I picked up the mouse, there were the remains of my new friend. His delicate little legs were flat against the bottom surface of the mouse. "Idiot" I whispered as I cleaned up the mess. He didn't realize how lucky he was to have wandered into my workspace instead of the desk of someone less tolerant of his kind. But he managed to get himself killed anyway.

downpour

downpour
Originally uploaded by MauritsBurgers.com.

Wet today.

This evening after class, I had to climb up onto my roof and clear out clogged gutters. The downspouts were full of silt from the new roof we put on recently so the water was overflowing. The last time that happened, water came into the house and I had to re-paint one of the laundry room walls.

At least it wasn't too cold today and I didn't really mind doing it. Being out in the elements for a while reminds me of how cushy I have it most of the time. I knew the rain was coming... I should have checked the gutters when it was sunny last week.

(photo from flickr)

gloomy enough for you?

It must be Oregon. This time of year is rather moist and dark. I am not complaining. I could probably live someplace else if I really couldn't bear it, but I know that the pay-off in the spring is and summer is pretty nice.

Really, it might be daylight savings time that is more of a pain than the seasonal precipitation. Coming home in the rainy darkness takes a lot more time than the commute on a crisp, clear fall day or even a hot, sweaty summer evening.

classmates

I'm still going to the Chinese Consolidated Benevolent Association on Saturdays to take Chinese lessons. Most of my classmates are the children of native Chinese speakers. These kids speak English as a native language for the most part and come to class once a week to study Chinese. The classes are not terribly difficult so it isn't a huge stress. It helps me maintain my profficiency level and I do learn new characters every week.

Today, I met my friend from work and his wife. They were there looking at the new scupltures in Oldtown Chinatown. Some people are quite upset by these statues. It seems that there are a few problems - not the least of which is that they aren't particularly Chinese. Many of the elements depicted in the sculptures are, in fact, Japanese. I'm sure there is a rationale for this somewhere, but it was lost on my friend and me.

a new blog is born

Here is some bread one of my students baked for Halloween. In latin America, it is traditional I guess to make bread of the dead.

One of my students told me that she puts out beer and cigarettes and some food that her departed relatives used to enjoy. I think that is a very cool way to keep them in your memories. Celebrating the things they used to like is kind of touching. Anyway, she gave this bread to me and I thought it was cool. I particularly liked the design.

I have started a new blog I plan to use for my teaching web site. You can check in with what I am teaching my students and how things are going right here at English Lessons.