Back to Action (Written 6/6/6)

There are two reasons I'm writing this entry today instead of sometime later in the week.

1) I wanted to have some kind of entry on this once in a lifetime date. I won't see another triple 6 date in this lifetime, it's so special – and so ominous.

2) Term 2 of school began on Monday, and it has felt like a rollercoaster ride (and it's only Tuesday).

 

As I said, school came back on Monday – so thankfully, I had one day to fully recover from the bike trip to Savaii. On Sunday, I sat around and did absolutely nothing and it was great. My body was recovering well, but my mind was racing all over the place because there just feels like there's a lot to do in this one week (mainly in terms of school items).

 

The first thing that's both a blessing and feels like a curse is the fact that last week we received a shipment of 30 computers that my principal ordered from New Zealand. They're not top of the line by any means but we don't need top of the line, we just need functional. The computers we got were all Dells with a Pent 2 chip inside – so they work and they're cheap to replace. So the blessing is the fact that we got the computers and we can finally get all 3 computer labs up and running this term. The curse is that my principal wants all 3 labs running by next week. Which is kind of pushing it a bit since the third lab lacks a lot of windows and if I start putting computers in there they're going to be exposed to the elements, insects will get in and before I know it half the shipment has died in less then 3 months. Also the third lab lacked enough tables to set the computers up on – and when it comes to computers, I'm a proponent of doing it right the first time (because correcting it the second and third time gets very annoying and time consuming). So when school started on Monday, I had 30 CPUs and 30 monitors just sitting in the second computer lab waiting for something to be done to improve the 3 ^rd lab before I placed the new machines in there.

 

Monday came and the teachers got the good news that instead of doing six periods a day, we're now going to seven periods a day (with me going to an eighth period and now not getting out of school until about 3pm). Couldn't tell if they were happy about that or not. So as my body started to feel just a tad bit better, the glass fixers my principal had hired finally arrived and wanted to start working on the glass in the second lab – which was fine, but it meant that we now only have one functional lab. That had a chain reaction for the Year 9-11 kids because it meant that they would not have a computer class until the second lab is working again (which could be this week or next week). I also have two standardized tests that I have to prepare my year 12 and 13 kids for and administer by this Friday. On top of that I've got to find time to fix a volunteer's computer and find a spare computer part. Throw in there for good measure a new group fiafia and you can see it's going to be one of those weeks. At some point I've also got to find time to breath and get my mind on something other than computers.

 

And for those of you wondering, my wounds from my fall are healing up pretty well now that our PCMO put me on some antibiotics and my body is able to focus on the healing process instead of having to push itself to the limit. My shoulder is still sore, but that may be a strain or pulled muscle there. I lived to tell about Savaii, hopefully I'll live to tell about the first week of the second term. We'll see.