C'est la weekend

Have I mentioned lately that it's hot? Well, if I haven't... it's hot. If bits of the north are having an early spring, can I please, please ask for an early autumn? Preferably winter. Winter would be nice. Thank you.

Last week was a mess of frantic running around and lying on my back. It was nice in some ways though. I got myself a couple of new students and rested up somewhat.


Early morning (4am) full moon, broken by clouds. Not a good photo at all.
It was far more impressive to the eye.

Thursday was one of my early starts with a student I like. Heck, I know I have it good when I can tell a joke in class and have the student 'get' it right away and find it funny. I'm not the world's greatest joke teller. In fact, my jokes usually fizzle to a "... and the punchline is...?" Then, at the end of class, he introduced me to a colleague who wanted classes. Nice! I love that guy... really! Ok, the new student is pretty basic and I don't usually take basic students, but I think she has more English than she gives herself credit for. We'll do just fine. Thursday evenings brought storms again.

Friday was 'one of those days'. Thursday's rain continued. Friday morning, about 11am, our internet died... completely. The nice new modem was stone dead. We tried everything, then Jurgis went over to a friend to call in support. They would only get someone over here on Tuesday afternoon. Gah! I immediately freaked, as I have Skype students before then. When I stopped cursing, I entertained myself by reducing my mailbox from 1084 emails to 550 emails. Yes, I'm an email packrat =Þ And yes, I'm quite sure I'm going to be looking for some of those emails that someone is bound to refer to... just because I deleted them.

Shortly afterwards, the heavens really opened. Many parts of the city had hail. Flooding, of course, is pretty much the norm now. Right after 2pm, the power died. We amused ourselves by standing at the door, watching the rain fall.


That water was about an inch deep. We're very lucky where we are. Our house is higher than the surrounding houses, so we get off lightly when it rains. We just can't go anywhere.

The power returned after about two hours. About another hour or so after that, our modem burped and lit up. I think it just needed shock treatment... defibrillation... Stat! Usually, the modem dies after a storm. Ours resuscitated. Ok, we're special ;)

So tomorrow will be a long day. I set out for my first students at 7am. Two hours with them, then on to a new student who'll have a 2 hour class. I'll barely have enough time to get to MF for her class, after which I get home, change and go out to my last 2 hour class. It's only 7 hours of teaching, but the travel time in-between makes it a rushed day. I get home at 8:30pm. Definitely a long day. It's nice though. The day is filled with actual work.

This past week, a cousin passed away. Not someone we're in any way close to for a number of reasons. Jurgis went to the 'velorio' (viewing). The day after his death was the cremation. They do it quickly here due to the heat. The mourners and onlookers gather from about 10am, but the actual funeral and cremation is at 5pm. No one thought to tell Jurgis that. In fact, we only knew about the death because a cousin from the US called to tell us. Anyway, the 10am gathering was primarily a family gossip session. We had to chuckle. One cousin had recently 'moved' to the UK. Turns out the UK kicked him out. He was there on a less than legal basis. He spoke not a word of English either. Now that he's back, he's the local go-to for information on life in England. We were highly amused by his tales. The thing that seemed to impress him the most was kettles. "You won't believe it! They have tall kettles that you just plug into the wall and it boils the water!" Uh yes... no one uses electric kettles here. You can get them, but the electricity is just too expensive to use one.... when you can find them to buy. The cousin in question has had all his English appliances shipped to Brazil. Good luck to him. No one told him that the power here is different and each one will need a transformer.

Ack! Sunday is nearly over. I've procrastinated more than enough. I still have lessons to finish for tomorrow..... off I go again...

PS. It just occurred to me that the primary topic of my posts is the weather. I'm so exciting! *grins*