Before getting down to work...

Yesterday, while workmen were hammering, sawing, and so on, I went through an old, oversized red envelope that I had found in the attic. It contained some of my mother's papers, material related to her work as a teacher.

Among other curiosities, I found a nearly pristine calendar for 1965 from Schaller & Weber, on 2nd Avenue in Manhattan. The name is familiar, but aside from the information on the calendar - they apparently sold sausage and meat (and are still there, according to their web page) - I couldn't tell you anything about them.

There were a number of folders associated with applications for various summer programs for teachers of foreign languages, which contained all of my mother's notes and rough drafts - written in longhand - of essays on, essentially, "why I deserve to be selected for this program."

I also found a folder containing student quizzes, for pupils who were in the ninth grade at the same time as I was (but at a different school). It gave me a funny feeling to think that the people associated with the adolescent scrawls I saw on the pages before me are... well... as old as I am. There was also a folder in there, written upon by me, from my time in the 7th grade at "Joeseph Pulitzer JHS" [sic].

The crew (or some part of it) will be here in about 30 minutes to finish the job. I need to buckle down and get cracking on the stuff on my plate.

Cheers...

The work crew has left the building!

And it's about time, too!

As things turned out, the one room they actually didn't work on yesterday was my office, probably because they needed to figure out how to run ductwork through a very narrow space in the attic. When they did start work on my office this morning, they covered everything as best they could with many dropcloths (even some that we contributed to the cause), because the holes they had to saw in the ceiling for the registers had to be done from inside the room.

Dust, of course, got onto everything that wasn't covered (and likely into stuff that was covered as well, just not as much; I currently don't have the time, or the heart, to find out).

Despite it all, I managed to translate about 3,000 words today and edit two hazard reports for tomorrow. I could say the night is yet early, but I'm not going to push myself.

Cheers...

Gmail?

Izzit me, or is Gmail down right now?

Sheesh.

Cheers...