Porcupines and Bike Rides

Good evening to you and yours from a basement out here in the middle or Minnesota. I hope this finds you all feeling hearty and hale and enjoying the heck out of the waning hours of your Monday evening. It was another toasty day today, though not nearly as much as the weekend.

Today marked the official start of the school year with 6th grade day at the middle school and 9th grade day at the middle school. This is a nice way for the students to ease into a new school without the pressure of contending with all the other grades. It’s a day we can make them feel special and walk them through any of the potential worries they may have. I spent a good chunk of my time helping prep materials for our middle school teachers providing reading intervention for students this trimester. Reading intervention is a part of my job I’m still learning about, and really enjoying. As a secondary ELA teacher, the foundations of reading were never really on my radar, just skills students acquired long before they ever got to my classroom. But I’ve since learned how important it is for secondary teachers to gain an understanding of how students learn to read, as it could help identify struggles and knowledge gaps in our students in grades 6-12.

It was an excellent Labor Day weekend for House Purdy, one last hurrah before the return to school. Friday we traveled to Duluth (the second time this summer) to visit the Lake Superior Zoo. It was our first trip to this zoo, and we had a blast. One of my favorite exhibits in the zoo was the nocturnal room, which as you might gather from the name, features animals only active at night. The prehensile tail porcupine is a critter I’d never even heard of before, and was immediately fascinated by. The zoo also had a red panda named Zoozee, a pair of brown bear brothers, and a slew of other creatures. We had lunch at Culver’s before heading to Patterson State Park for a quick swim.

Saturday we took a bike ride at some nearby trails, and Sunday we picked up a Trail Gator for GRP’s bike. It was time to make the move as the poor fellow had to accordion his legs to fit into the trailer I pulled behind my bike. I got it hooked up yesterday and we took our maiden voyage around the block.

Books: I finished Fonda Lee’s Jade Legacy, the final book in her Green Bone Saga trilogy. I first heard about Lee’s books on The Writing Excuses podcast when the hosts described the first book, Jade City, as a blend of high wire martial arts action flicks and The Godfather with magic derived from jade buried on the island of Kekon. Holy smokes! This is an excellent fantasy series, chock full of everything you’d want in both epic and urban fantasy. I dug the heck out of how Lee wrapped up each of the main characters’ story arcs, bringing closure to these dynamic folks’ wants and needs. My next book is another by Fonda Lee, Untethered Sky.

I’ll close for now. Months back I put the movie Dungeons & Dragons: Honor Among Thieves on hold through the library, and it finally came in. I’m hoping to watch about a half hour tonight before turning in.

Thanks kindly for reading. Take care of yourselves and each other.

Huzzah,

-Purdy