Data Recovered. Now What?

Written on 2-27-15
   
    Belinda just got on the treadmill.  Wow!  It’s late for her to be working out, around 6:13.  I am so impressed and proud.  We are starting a new 12 week BFL/workout cycle, so this is the first week we have stopped eating like idiots throughout the week and have worked out each day, too.  For me, it was Lent that got me going again.  That and the fact that since we are heading towards retirement, we are setting the stage for our new life.
    In other news, we received our recovered data from the soaked laptop in the mail yesterday on a 500 GB external hard drive.  I copied the folder that had all of our old data from that drive over to this new laptop, and now I’m stuck.  What do I do now?  I really should go through all of it and throw away what is not important or useful anymore.  What do I do after that, though?  How should I back up our important stuff from here on out to ensure that nothing like that ever happens again?  I really don’t want to pay for extra iCloud storage.  I also don’t want to think or worry about our information being backed up either.  So, I want it to be free and automatic.       There has to be a way.  Going through all that old stuff will take hours and hours and hours.  If I wasn’t teaching, I would do it this weekend, but I have hours and hours and hours of work to do for school this weekend, especially because we are between months.  In my classroom, that means moving the desks, changing calendars, and putting out new books.  It also means getting ready for report card assessments, and I always have my lesson plans and my newsletter to complete.  A teacher’s work is never done.  Although this year, Belinda’s and my teacher work really will be done.  Whoa!

We Stay Home and New HV Membership Fees

2-27-15   

    Belinda and I are home on a Friday night.  The plan was to leave for Las Cruces right after school today, but with major snowstorms statewide, we chose to stay safely at home.  We are sad, of course, because we won’t get to see our children, but we are thinking we will go next weekend instead.  The Edgertons are going next weekend, so we can have all eight of us together again, and that will be fun! 
    We always joke that our bedtime on a Friday is around 8:40, especially after a week at school.  Today was a snowy day, and despite over 100 school closings or delays across the state of New Mexico, we still had school in li’l ol’ Aztec.  Actually, it was a beautiful day and not so bad at school at all.  I think I might stay up until 9:00 (wink, wink).  I felt a real sense of joy and peace giving the spelling practice we did today while looking out our southern-facing window.  The trees were dusted/coated with snow, and the numerous flakes that were coming down were like tiny white feathers.  Gorgeous.
    In golf news, I spoke with Josh, city manager here in Aztec, yesterday after school.  He was at the golf course.  The phone number has remained the same with this takeover.  He had just played nine holes, and he said he was seven under.  I said, “Seven under?”
    He said it again, so I repeated my question, and then he realized what he was saying.  I told him he should be playing professional golf if he was seven under.  He really was seven over.  Anyway, I asked about memberships, and I was thrilled to discover that I will get a government employee discount.  I will only need to pay $250 for my membership!  That is a fantastic deal, and it’s less than half of what I was paying before. 
    Not everyone is as thrilled about it as I am, though.  C.J. is miffed, and I can’t blame him.  Josh justifies it by saying that other golf courses offer similar discounts to entice people to play, and it is true that recreational golf is in a steady decline.

Live Life to the Fullest; Be Impactful

    Pricela joined me at mass for Ash Wednesday, and it was great to have someone come along.  It was packed!  She and I helped bring over folding chairs from the parish hall, and we lined the center aisle with chairs all along the right side.  People were sitting on the sides, too, and we even had some sitting up on the altar. For Ash Wednesday to not be a holy day of obligation, I am always amazed at how many feel “obligated” to attend.  I believe it’s because all are welcome and all are allowed to receive ashes.  It was a beautiful ceremony, and I learned some more about Pricela.
    She had two close friends die well before their time, both in car accidents, and their deaths have had a huge impact on her life.  They lived life to the fullest, she said, and she wanted her life to be as impactful as theirs were, even though they lived a short time (they died in their twenties). 
    As I write this, I am thinking this was a message for both of us.  For me, I learned again from Pricela’s story and experience that life is precious.  Nobody knows when death will come, so make the most of life.  For Pricela, she had the ashes spread across her forehead, and she heard, “Remember that you come from ashes, and to ashes you shall return.”  It’s not that we needed to hear these messages, but it reaffirmed what we are both doing now, with my being a teacher and she a participant with Up With People.

We Put Up Some Up With People People

Written on 2-21-15.

    We are up at the cabin home. Surprise!  I say surprise because I am writing, and this is one of the few places where I make the time to write.  The reason for this trip is the Up With People program.  Let me explain. 
    Belinda saw an e-mail a few weeks ago asking for families to host participants in their homes.  We thought it was a fantastic idea, so we turned in the proper paperwork.  Fast forward to today, and we are currently hosting Pricela (pronounced Priscilla) from Tucson, and Sally from Belgium.  We have one day called Host Day, today, where we can take our ladies wherever and do whatever, so the cabin home was the perfect ticket.  I just finished serving up eggs and veggies, and they are contentedly eating. 
    Pricela is 26 years old.  Sally is 19.  Pricela is thoughtful and passionate, wise beyond her years.  Sally is exuberant and bright, a funny storyteller with a fantastic, slight Flemish accent.  They are both extremely polite, helpful, hardworking, and just plain fun to hang with.  We are honored to have them visiting with us, and we are happy to offer our home since we are empty nesting now.
    In order to meet them for the first time at San Juan College, the program set up “fairy tale codes.”  Our code was “the golden goose,” so Belinda and I bought two pastel yellow craft eggs from Hobby Lobby to help them find us.  On one egg, we wrote, “Welcome to our empty nest.”  On the other, we wrote, “Welcome li’l gosling.”  They found us immediately, and after hugs and introductions, we were on our way.
    Honestly, we haven’t gotten to see them much.  I make eggs and grilled veggies for them every morning before 7:00.  Sally comes out earlier and eats the eggs, but not the veggies.  Pricela comes out later, makes some coffee and moves really quickly, but she barely makes it out the door on time juggling all of her stuff in hand.  I am impressed with how rapidly she can eat her breakfast, make a coffee, clean up, and be on her way, but I have always been a slow mover in the mornings, so I am easily impressed with something like that.  Belinda takes them over to Ginny Jones’s house, and then we don’t see them again until dinnertime.  One night, they were asked to stay until 8:00 or 8:30, so we didn’t see them until 9:00. Another night, Belinda took them to Navajo Prep for a cultural type fair, so they did not get home until later.  We are staying up later than we normally would visiting, but it’s sooooo worth it.  It’s as if we have literally invited the world into our home, albeit a small part of our world, and it has brightened our lives.  Hopefully, we have brightened their lives as well.