When work is at a minimum I find I savor each opportunity to the fullest. So it was yesterday with my jaunt to Weyauwega, Wisconsin, to address the closing of teachers' inservice for the Weyauwega-Fremont school district. I had a ball!Imagine my surprise when superintendent F. James Harlan walked into the cafeteria where I was busily setting up my sound system and I found that he somehow looked awfully familiar to me.
That's because I had last seen him some thirty years ago and knew him as Jim Harlan, a fellow faculty member at Delong Junior High School, Eau Claire!
In catching up, I found out that Jim had taught for a while longer after I left, then he left to becoming a securities/commodities agent in Milwaukee, a highly stressful job, he told me, where you have a telephone stuck to each ear, dealing with the big boys in New York City.
He was, in fact, an agent on September 11, 2001, and knew many of the people who lost their lives on that terrible day.
Mentally renewed and refreshed, he went back to school and got his administrator's degree and returned to education.
Excuse me while I brag -- I was at the top of my game yesterday, my timing was impeccable and the teachers were one of the best audiences I have ever worked with! It is such a joy to be doing your show and to see people doubled over in laughter and wiping tears from their eyes from laughing so hard!
Just the adrenaline alone carried me back down the highway until around Thorp when my fibromyalgia raised it's ugly head and by the time I reached Eau Claire to attend an art exhibit opening I had nothing left.
But what a great day! Many many thanks to Mr. Harlan and all the teachers for being such a gracious group. I am only hoping that I can land some more teachers' inservices for as Jim told me after the show, " they really identified with you because they could tell that you are one of them, having taught for eleven years".
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The trip to see Dr. Bob Hartman about the present condition of my knee replacement was valuable in that x-rays revealed that there is basically nothing wrong in the work that was done, very little scarring, and that I am more than likely overdoing it with the exercise regimen.
Dr. Hartman told me to back off my regimen somewhat and cut back on my visits to the therapist, but to continue to work the knee nonetheless.
The bad news is that I can expect to have some pain in the knee for the rest of my life. Hey! I was raised Catholic! I love pain. I will offer it up for the poor souls in purgatory.
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Senator Barack Obama gave the best acceptance speech I have ever heard last night! I couldn't believe it when the news talking heads said that the speech had gone on for over just an hour. It felt like five minutes. He is an in credible orator!
God bless him and keep him from harm during the following months!
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