The Sound of Silence

IN SERVICE DAY: Back when I was in elementary school (a long time ago in a galaxy far far away), there used to be "teacher inservice" days. It was a day when the teachers were at school - usually undergoing some kind of special training or prepping for report cards or conferences - but the students weren't on campus. These "in service" days almost always fell on a Friday or a Monday.

Well, today wound up being MPA's first "teacher inservice" day (and yes, "inservice" was one word). Christian took the kids to a post-funeral reception (one of his longtime friend's father died). Me, I stayed behind, trying to recover from a weird double whammy hybrid of what I think was a poisonous spider bite and some other kind of bug (the virus type).

Boy, was it quiet 'round here. I tried sitting down for awhile and even turned The Price is Right on but it went off pretty quickly. All the ads for mobility devices and prescription drugs and life insurance were bringing me further down.

I decided that it would be a good day to repot our rapidly growing peas and beans. A few minutes into the project, potting soil seemed to cover the entire kitchen, and I was thinking it was a crappy idea. (Seriously, why the hell did I do that inside? Stupid, stupid, stupid.)

So I repotted the veggies and then cleaned the kitchen. And the bathroom. And the other bathroom. And the couch (shampoo, the works). And I dusted and dusted and dusted. I even did some drywall and grout touch ups. It definitely was an "in service" day.

A funny aside - once, I had to stop by school on an inservice day to pick something up. I was in middle school. It was kinda freaky being there with no other kids around, and the hallways were deserted, not a teacher in sight. Of course, once I got to the school's courtyard, I found out why. The teachers were all out there, having a squirt gun fight.

ABSOLUTELY FASCINATING: While reading the Web site of Michelle Garcia Winner this afternoon (a speech/language expert who is doing ground breaking work regarding helping people for whom social thinking doesn't come naturally), I found a link to a video of a presentation given by Temple Grandin. It's called "The World Needs all Kinds of Minds."

Grandin was diagnosed with autism as a child. But she's hardly handicapped. Rather, she's a uniquely gifted woman. An expert on animal behavior, Grandin is renowned for designing humane handling systems for cattle processing facilities. (A movie based on Grandin's life was recently aired on HBO.)

The video from TED (a non profit devoted to "Ideas Worth Spreading") is of Grandin speaking at a conference. It's definitely worth a watch and listen. There's much to be learned from the amazing mind of Temple Grandin.