Day Ten, March 26, 2020

Day 10, March 26, 2020

I started the morning by making a perfect fire. A perfect fire has just the right three logs perched in a nice triangle, with good airflow between the base logs, the right amount of paper rolled up to get things started, and a little bit of luck. When everything aligns, you can light it up, open the vent, and step away until everything catches, then you close the vent and bask in the glory of a job well done. This was such a morning. 

Years ago, I had a friend Robert Smith, who was a writer and an avid outdoorsman. When he was in college, at some Ivy League school, he quit his senior year to go and become a lumberjack up north, and then chronicled that adventure in a memoir. Even into his eighties he was adamant about only cooking over a wood fire and would split the wood himself before throwing it into the grill. He too, was a connoisseur of the perfect fire. I can still hear him cursing at the logs that wouldn't stand on end on his chopping stump.

To accentuate how exceptional a morning it was, I not only got a warm egg from the coop, but it was also a three-fer morning... three eggs in one swoop. I was especially thankful to the girls for that bounty.

On the topic of... maybe you've been cooped up too long, I looked out the window and thought I saw a terrier at the end of my driveway... but it was only a blob of melting snow. Still, it was fun to think a lone terrier was out there for a moment.

At lunch, I was going to walk to the post office to mail a package to a friend, but then I discovered the post office closed for lunch at 12:30, and I only had 10 minutes, so I drove instead and substituted my walk for a quick jaunt down to the stream. I followed the deer tracks, or the deer tracks followed my usual footpath, and I saw some raccoon tracks. Down by the stream I saw my first spring flowers, and that seemed to buoy my spirits. 

At the end of the day, we went on a walk with Franklin in Montague Center. He got to say hello to his doggie friends Papi and Smokey. It was nice to get out of my chair and move around. I've made the decision to try to end the day at 5 PM as much as possible. It has been really easy to just keep going to all hours and my body seems to be rebelling at that.

I guess I'll keep it short today. I treated myself to my first cup of coffee since the pandemic started. I ground up some Dean's Beans and used a pour over filter and used real half and half. It felt like a precious treat. 

Have a wonderful evening and take care,

Leo

Today's Online Teaching Tips

OBS Studio is a free and open source software for video recording and live streaming. Great for Facebook Live or other kinds of live streams, or also a simple recorder for basic pre-recorded videos, particularly if you want to use external microphones, cameras, etc.

The University of Arizona's Center for Middle Eastern Studies has a Curriculum Internationalization Resources for Community College Educators page with lots of fantastic resources that are easy to find in drop down menus by discipline (World Languages, History, Anthropology, etc.). A cool find in any time, but particularly now as we look to find interesting ways to put material online. 

This is for students younger than community college students (usually), but for 13-17 year olds who want to join a group to talk about solidarity and the social economies, Dr. Caroline Shenaz Hossein from York University has set up Community Economies for Kids Everywhere.

The Mass Cultural Council shared these tips on staying connected online, including virtual tours of museums and sharing project ideas.