Burnt out eyes

Too long on the computer today, updating a website and other such stuff.  And really now it's time to shut my poor red eyes, as I have an early morning dental mission ahead.

Leaf blower

Before we went to bed last night we already knew our preferred candidates had the local election in the bag.  I met one of them today, very happy with the result and looking forward to serving on the Town Board, where I'm sure she'll do a great job.

Other than that, I've been busy working on some of the projects I mentioned the other day - interesting enough to do, but not interesting to write about.

Tonight the wind has got up.  The Man, who went out running in the dark, reports that the huge pile of leaves he and I dumped at the edge of our front lawn this weekend has now rearranged itself all over the road.  Oh dear.

Election special

Election day in our area.  Although I couldn't vote for them, I've had my fingers crossed for a couple of the candidates - I hope the turnout has been good and that they get positive news tonight.  As I write, the polls are due to close in ten minutes.

Otherwise the main impact of local elections in our house today came from the kids having a half day - seemed like they'd hardly got to school before it was time for them to come home again.  The Boy spent the afternoon at a friend's birthday party.  The Girl and I used the time in part baking a cake, and also reading through more than 350 bananagrams which I'll be passing along to the supermarkets tomorrow.

Go-vember!

I've been getting posters printed and delivering lawn signs (which will go up - on private lawns only - after the local election signs come down tomorrow): the annual Black Friday Fair Trade Market is just a few weeks away.  I have work to do for that, plus follow-up on all the bananagrams, plus a couple of Friends of Five Rivers fundraising events to think about, plus...well, anyway, lots to keep me busy this month.

Yardwork and a half

The Boy had friends round this afternoon.  They disappeared into the basement and we didn't see them for three hours.  Can't say we didn't hear them, however.

The Man and I raked leaves and tidied up the backyard, before it turned dark around 5pm (our clocks have changed - booo).

The Girl returned from an overnight trip to Camp Chinchgakook at Lake George, where she'd been on a volunteer work weekend with her Girl Scout troop.  The work involved raking leaves for five hours (before someone showed up with a leaf-blower) - in light of which efforts we let her off yard duties today.

Car Eggspo

 We took Boy and Buddy to a car show.  It was in the concourse, under the Egg.  That's all, really.

Fruitful experience

I had a busy day today, talking bananas.  I'd been invited into the Middle School by my friend who teaches 6th Grade Social Studies to do some presentations on Fair Trade as part of a "Haves and Have-nots" unit.  Six classes in all, spread across the day, so that was quite a lot of talking and brainstorming and dressing kids up as bananas etc.

The students were all very attentive and responsive and generally a pleasure to teach.  At the end of each presentation they each filled out bananagrams like the ones I've been taking to the farmers' market, so now I have huge bunches of bananagrams to send to the local supermarkets - we'll have to see if it encourages any of them to start stocking Fair Trade fruit.

My teacher friend helped me out during the presentations, and I enjoyed seeing how he managed each group of students.  He absolutely loves his job, and you can tell that the kids love him and are more than willing to rise to the high expectations he has of them. Watching him at work really felt like a masterclass in good teaching practices, and I was glad to have the opportunity.