Dad on Duty #79

For today’s blog, I’ve decided to go with an illustrated version.  I took some pictures, when I thought about it, of some of the oddly eclectic things I did today.  So I will tell the story around those photos.

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First thing this morning, we were greeted by the Georgetown High School cheerleaders and mascot, Georgie the Eagle.  They were out front, welcoming the McCoy kids to school.  It was awesome.

The kids were especially enamored with Georgie, since Bobby was standing just inside the doors a few feet away.  Double the anthropomorphic excitement for the morning!

The kids especially loved telling Bobby (me) that there was an eagle right over there.  They pretty much alternated between asking me if I was going to eat the eagle, or if the eagle was going to eat me. Importantly, not a single child asked if Georgie and I were just going to go have a beer together and watch the big game.

 

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First thing on the agenda this morning is Kindergarten’s “Alphabet Parade”, where each kid represents a letter, and they all march around the bus circle.  Hopefully, but not always, in order. Each scholar was supposed to bring an item representing his or her assigned letter; a few parents missed the memo or left the item on the kitchen counter this morning.  So teachers are scrambling to find appropriate objects. “Lets see….you need a ‘K’……hmmm…..here, carry this box of Kleenex”. And of course a few kids are absent, so the “M” standard bearer also gets to be “N”, and now we gotta find an “N” thing in the room for you to carry……

Truth is, other than the teachers, nobody cares if all the letters are there or whether the object adequately represents the letter; the kids just want to march around, and the parents just want to see their child.

As for me, I just want to be sure no vehicles or un-checked people get near the kids, and no children leak out.

By those measures, it was a success.

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Cricket season is in full swing. We are awash in crickets. Every time you open a door, more crickets come in.  At one point, I am shepherding a cricket from the hallway to an exit door. I succeed in getting him to the threshold.  Just as a 1st grade class approaches, I open the door to usher the little guy outside….and no less than a dozen crickets forge their way into the hallway.  They were waiting for me.  My little rescue case hops on out, and looks over his shoulder at me and shrugs: “sorry, dude”.

The first graders gasp and squeal.  One kid says “did you see that?!?  You let all them in!”  I pointed at the kids and told them “you saw nothing. Nothing.  We have no idea how all these crickets got in here”. My finger sweeping up and down the line of kids.  Their teacher chuckles and moves them on down the hall; I can hear her clarifying “he’s kidding….”.  I depart the scene of Cricketcopylase as fast as I can.

Our librarian, Janae Pearce, recently installed an arthropod exhibit on her desk.  It consists of a tarantula and a scorpion, provided by scholar’s families.  I scoop up one of the miscreant crickets and head to the library.

There he is.  Sam the Spider.  He’s a medium sized male; fast and aggressive.  As I approach, he moves up closer to the glass. He’s very interested.

Sorry, Jiminy.

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Today’s 4th grade science experiment is making ice cream.

Pretty great, really.

But there’s a lot of moving parts to the project, and Ms. Dreibrodt is by herself.  She asks if I can help collect ingredients from various freezers and fridges scattered around the school. Of course, that kinda stuff is one of the main reasons I’m here.

She dispatches me to get the zip locks of crushed ice, one for each student.  They are in the big, commercial freezer down in the cafeteria.  Off I go, ice chest in tow.

I get to the freezer, and haul open the very big, steel door.  You then have to pass through two layers of plastic strip barriers to actually get inside.

As I wriggle through that maze, I hear the door slam shut behind me.

Ruh-roh.

I freak out just a little bit.  Didn’t expect that.  And I’m not sure if that thing even opens from this side.

Before I can even get back to the door…in the span of about four feet….I am cold.  Really cold.

I push on the door, and it easily pops open.  Phew.

Back to collecting the ice baggies.  There they are.  I start loading them into the ice chest. I need 24…maybe 25 to be safe.

Two…five…seven…holy crap I’m cold.  Finally I get to 25 (I think….), and head out.  In total, I’m in the freezer maybe five minutes.  But it feels like forever.

I deliver the items to the classroom.  In about 30 minutes, it’s time to head back down and get the second batch.

Yay.

This time, I notice the temp reading on the door.

 

Yes, that’s MINUS 4.  Rather brisk.

I have three more of these runs to do.

I got it done, nobody the wiser.

The kids *loved* the experiment. It was a huge hit. Great job, Ms. Dreibrodt.

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A much needed pretty easy, happy day today.

Phew.

See you next week…..