Easter 2024

 

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Have a wonderful Easter, everyone!

Names

 When I was out for my walk this afternoon, after baking the lemon cake that we are having tomorrow, I ran into a lovely woman, the daughter of a widowed woman in the village. We had a nice chat, she also does supply teaching, but not at any of the schools I go to. 

After I continued on my walk, I wracked my brain trying to remember her name. I went letter by letter through the alphabet, and never did come up with it. 

It drives me nuts when I can’t remember a name and trust me when I tell you that I have thousands of names stored in my head and it is often that I have to spend a bit of time recalling them. I’m now in my thirty- third ( fourth?) year of teaching ( albeit not full time any more) and with a class of approximately 25 students, that’s 825 names at the very least . Of course I would know students from other classes, or their siblings, let alone their parents’ names or grandparents. Let’s add in various staff members, some you know for years, others who come and go quickly. 

Of course, I’ve had occasions where someone says hi to me while I’m out shopping and I realize he or she is a previous student ( from twenty odd years ago) and they change of course. Sometimes I know their name right away, and other times I ask for a little reminder.

But getting back to my walk and the thoughts that run through my head, I got thinking how names can be popular for a while and then you won’t hear of anyone with that name at all. Being around small children for all these years, I’ve really noticed the name trends.

I’m 57 years old and some girl names when I was young were Jeannie, Linda, Heather, Tracey, Sharon, Wanda, Kristine, Colleen, Carolyn, Lisa, Sherry, or Angie. None of those names are popular now, at least where I’m from. 

Boy names go through trends. Husband and I used to joke about cowboy names beings a thing a while back : Cody, Dylan, Maverick, Wyatt…

Lately there has been an onslaught of what I refer to as the “on” names for boys: Bryson, Carson, Tyson, Jaydon, Jordan, Jackson, Brandon, Kaden, Landon, Trenton…

For a while there were also boys named after hockey players, both first and last names being inspirational. 

Creative spelling of names has also become a thing. I always feel a little sorry for the child, knowing they will forever be spelling their name out loud to people when filling out forms or signing up for things.

There are the traditional names that still stand the test of time but you don’t hear them a lot. I knew one William, a couple of Johns, quite a few Emmas ( that was my grandmother’s name). 

Have you known any youngsters with your name? Is your name quite unique or one of many? Any “creative “ names popping up in your families? Do you also have a little difficulty recalling someone’s name after not seeing them for a while? Share in the comments if you wish.

Joys of Home "Ownership"

 We finally have hot water (and the heat ensuing with our portions of in-floor heat as well), but it was a rocky road to get there. Husband decided to call in the experts, a local heating and plumbing company. This involved a visit, a diagnosis, an ordering of a part, waiting for the part, another visit, a rediagnosis involving an additional part, waiting two more days for that part, a third visit, then.... a strong smell of propane in the house - on a Friday - yes, after closing, after hours. We all know what that means. 

Husband phoned the company back, found out they close early on a Friday, called their emergency after hours number and a different guy came back, discovered that first guy had not done a proper job (MASSIVE EYE ROLL AND SWEARING ON MY PART, BUT NOT DIRECTLY AT THE GUY) and the job was fixed properly. We were assured by second guy that we would not be charged the $350 after hours fee (I'll believe that when I see it). 

This all, of course, has occurred during our third winter or false spring or whatever you want to call the latest drop in temperature and snowfall. Coincidentally, we have been having issues with the downstairs bathroom toilet, at the same time. Husband, fearless as ever, has literally dismantled the toilet and snaked it and checked all kinds of things and treated it for "organic iron" build up which we do have with our water... alas the problems, despite his efforts, have continued, to the point where we were up until well past 1:00 a.m. with son trying to figure out this problem, taking apart things in the basement and well, you don't need all the details. 

I think this was a "the leg bone's connected to the hip bone" situation. It's too much of a coincidence that we should have both of these problems at the same time and for them not to be related. So today, fearless husband is trying to determine if there is an ice damn somewhere in the system. This even involves checking into the septic system. The man saves us hundreds, if not thousands, of dollars by tackling things himself. However I wouldn't mind if we were independently wealthy and could just hire someone to do it for us (however, that didn't work out so well with the propane fired hot water heater, did it?)

Thank goodness for the addition that we built onto this old house years ago, so we can still use the bathroom over there, but we are currently not using ANY water on the "old" side of the house for specific reasons. Oh well, at least I got a couple of loads of laundry in yesterday and had a shower. 

I am weary. I am despising the issues that have caused so many inconveniences and days (weeks) of waiting. And I'm not even the one getting down and dirty trying to work it all out. 

On the upside, it will be 13 degrees C tomorrow, so that's something to look forward to!!

Back Again

 It's been a while since I've posted. We were away again for a couple of weeks. Since I am such a homebody, I am very happy to be back in my own home, in my own bed, with my own stuff around me. I'd make a poor world traveler. 

We had some Spring. Now we have some Winter. This too shall pass. 

We have a defunct water heater (propane) and husband is waiting on a part which could only be obtained through american amazon. It will have taken six days to arrive. I have been boiling water on the stove to wash dishes. We do cold water laundry (no big deal). We do have a small electric hot water heater to provide hot water to a third bathroom in an addition of our house, so we can take short showers. 

The ironic thing about this is, the place we were staying in on part of our trip didn't have hot water either and I was boiling water on a stove to do dishes. While I was there, I felt very "third worldish" and now that I'm home doing the same thing, I feel very "pioneerish". I'll be very happy to have things fixed. 

I do not have much to contribute. I'm watching the new episodes of Somebody Feed Phil on Netfix and the season 13 episodes of Vera on Britbox, via Prime video. I just picked up some books at the library - a Janet Evanovich (#28) and some James Patterson (the most recent Alex Cross ones). I haven't been teaching due to being away and this past week has been March Break, so no school. 

I'm patiently awaiting real Spring. Happy St. Patrick's Day. I am having corned beef and cabbage tonight.