Environmentally Friendly!

I have been meaning to post this picture for a while now. Don't you love how in their efforts to keep the gardens and greenways of our neighbourhood neat, tidy, and presentable, the local government has provided these posts with a supply of plastic, non-biodegradable bags for you to put your dogs biodegradable doodoo in when you take them out for a walk! And should you be caught allowing your dog to head the call of nature and not pick the biodegradable deposit up, not put it into one of the non-biodegradable bags and not throw the non-biodegradable bag into the convenient receptacle, in order that it be taken to a landfill somewhere with kilotons of other non-biodegradable waste, they will fine you up to $200. Does anyone else see the irony in this?

Rocket Scientists?

On my little sojourn into Houston, Texas we stopped by and visited the Johnson Space Centre. This is where all NASA's expeditions out of our atmosphere are controlled from. From the early days of the Apollo missions to the current Space Shuttle Atlantis expedition to the International Space Station. It is all watched over from there.

Part of the tour took us to the training facility where they have mock ups of the shuttle and the space station for the astronauts, engineers and scientists to muck about with. The funniest thing though was the warning sticker placed on a table in the training facility. I apologise for the poor picture quality but the table was reasonably far away.

I think the sticker speaks or itself. Apparently the more obvious dangers in life are not always that obvious if you are a rocket scientist.

Priorities?

So I went out this morning to shop for a few items of clothing. The items in question were a suit, which I had heard was on sale, a new pair of running shorts and some seriously thick socks for my coming trip to Alaska. What did I come home with? A case of beer and some toilet paper! Men! Go figure!

I would like to present the following explanation though, before you throw your head back in dismay, or disbelief, or complete amusement, whichever comes first. On my trip to Houston, Texas this weekend, fortune served me a Winter’s Bourbon Cask Ale at dinner. It is an auburn coloured seasonal ale that has been brewed with dark roasted caramel malts and then aged on bourbon oak casks and whole Madagascar vanilla beans. Needles to say you have to taste it to appreciate it. It is quite possible one of the finest beers I have tasted on my travels. Hence my reason for buying some when I happened to see it in the local wine and beer store. Ok, so I went looking for it.

PS. The toilet paper purchase has no reflection on the ale. We simply needed toilet paper in our apartment!

Freezing Rain!

Living in Africa can limit your winter weather experience to some degree. Not that I am complaining at all. I love the weather patterns we have. Find me someone who grew up on the highveld and didn't love its awesome summer afternoon lightening storms and thundershowers and I will show you someone who should probably immigrate back north again. While it does get cold in SA, it rarely goes into the really low single digits and it is a severe winter that sees subzero temperatures, unless you live in Southerland or Bethlehem of course.

This rambling discourse, in case you are wondering, serves as an introduction to the reason I am at home posting this blog, and not at school enriching the lives of my students. I received a phone call at exactly 5:02 this morning, via the phone-tree, that schools have been closed for the day due to the "freezing rain" that fell during the night. Not a blizzard or heavy snow, but "freezing rain."

Now this "freezing rain" is a concept that, until this morning anyway, I had not been able to get my head around. Freezing Rain? What exactly is "Freezing Rain"? I had images in my mind of the DC/Marvel character Subzero, cruising round on his frozen surfboard shooting streams of frozen water at people and things making them freeze instantly in their tracks. I had images of droplets of rain suspended, or frozen, in midair, with people having to walk around them as they made their way in and out of buildings and cars. I had images of magical drops of rain that turned your entire car or personage into a statue the moment it hit you.

As it turns out, it is none of the above. What it actually is is the fact that it is so cold outside, that the raindrop freezes almost immediately after it makes contact with any exposed surface. When enough raindrops accumulate and freeze on any flat surface it forms a slick plane of ice that is usually not visible to the naked eye. This of course makes walking on the sidewalk a little tricky. More to the point though, is that the layer of ice that forms on the road is also invisible and potentially deadly. And with 95% of students being transported to and from school on the public school's bus service, they decided it was safer to keep the students at home for the day. Hence the reason I am here rambling on about the weather.

Personally I still prefer the “Subzero superhero” explanation, but either way I get the day off school. I took a couple of pictures this morning, without managing to fall on my arse, although I did come close a couple of times. If nothing else, nature is a superb artist!

You can't make this stuff up!

Two things;

1. I have yet to find someone who can explain to me why they call their spelling competitions here in the US, a "Spelling Bee". Not my team leader, not my principal, nor any other member of the faculty has been able to explain that to me. Hmm!

2. Upon returning to school the day after receiving a spelling guide, given to the winner and runner up, in my class Spelling Bee, the young student in question turns to me and says, "Wow, there are some interesting words in here. Some words I knew like 'magnificient' but some words, like 'megalopolis' I thought were made up words from Sponge Bob!"

You just have to love teaching on days like that!

Things that wouldn't work in SA!

Ten things that wouldn't work in SA, but are part of every day life here in the US.

1. Crossing a road in a parking lot with 98% certainty that cars will stop for you.

2. Self-checkout aisles in supermarkets.

3. Leaving your bicycle outside a convenience store without locking it up.

4. Leaving your kid's toys out on the front lawn.

5. Getting an awesome tax payout after only working for 5 months. This in addition to the fact that it takes two weeks from submission of forms to payout!

6. Leaving your cell phone somewhere and having it returned to you.

7. Being able to buy marshmallow in a jar. Its called fluff! Seriously! Apparently you put it onto a sandwich with peanut butter.

8. Leaving your coat or jacket on your seat in a sports arena while you go and buy more beer.

9. Buying tequila at a sports match. (I think I've spoken enough about this though!)

10. Calling your used car dealership "Koons!"