A realization at Rubio's

My Tuesday night class, which focuses on inclusive educational practices and special education, has a student population composed of all the master's students in my program. This means that, possibly for the first time in the program, those of us getting our single-subject credential (and M.Ed.) are taking classes with those getting their multiple-subject credential (and M.Ed.) and the students getting their M.A. in ASL-English bilingual instruction (most of whom are deaf).

As I was waiting for my fish tacos to be made ($1 Tuesdays are the best), I noticed two of the deaf students signing to each other while standing in line. One got our her cell phone, one of those nice ones with the qwerty keyboards, and quickly typed up a message. Once they got to the cash register, she showed her phone to the cashier, who was able to take their order without a hassle.

I was really struck by the how much easier technology must make day to day interactions for those who sign. Perhaps more so than ever before, the world revolves around written conversation. People prefer to e-mail or text than to talk on the phone, so who cares if someone can't hear? (R and his family preferentially speak to each other over AIM, though lately Skype has been more popular in order to see the baby.) Obviously, I'm not speaking from experience here and in no way belittling deafness, but it does seem like things are getting better for those who are deaf. The world is online, and online is a world of text and images.

Here's hoping my plants make it through the day

Current temperature at my house: 87°F
Forcasted high: 95 °F

I thought it seemed awfully warm this weekend! Luckily, they say it will be getting cooler starting tomorrow. In other exciting climate news, one of the canyons by my house was on fire yesterday again.

The Growing Challenge #9: Harsh lessons

In the time since I repotted, things have not been going so hot in my garden. Well, in truth, it's been too hot, which is probably why everything is dying. The fact that all the animals seem to remember my delicious garden from last year and are visiting earlier means that anything that hasn't died from the heat gets eaten. Radishes? All gone. Peppers? Withered. A couple of the tomatoes I started from seed survived, but only in the shadier places in the garden.

If I were going to be staying in San Diego, this would be a valuable lesson for me, but since I'm not I'll just share it with you all with the hope that it will help out someone else.

The lesson:
Start seeds early. Really early. You want them to be large enough to plant by February or so, when our tiny rainy winter ends. By the time April rolls around, it's pretty hot if you're not living right on the coast, so you want the plants to be big enough so that they can tolerate the heat.

I wound up picking up some (larger) plants while I was at Target today, because I still want to grow something, even if I didn't grow it from seed. Hopefully these ones will do a little better than my smaller plants did. I'm also thinking of planting some radishes along the margins of some of my planters. Assuming they're not eaten, they should be ready to harvest before the tomatoes and peppers get too big.

Funniest response yet

The reply cards have started to trickle in. I don't think the one I got today was meant to be humorous, but it struck me as freaking hilarious.

Bless you two -- Hope and pray you do better than your mother and [uncle].

Ah, family. You've got to love 'em.

Little bag of bones

My poor little kitty has been withering away. At first I thought it was all in my head, but as time went by we started to be able to clearly feel her spine. I tried tempting her with different foods, treats, and other goodies, but to no avail. She's meow hungrily whenever it looked like we were heading to the kitchen, but would give up after a bite or two.

I've spent the last two afternoons at the vet. As it turns out, my little kitty lost about a third of her body weight. She went from 11.6 pounds to 7.6. Poor baby! As it turns out, when cats stop eating (for whatever reason, perhaps due to an illness) it starts to mess with their liver, which in turn keeps them from eating. A vicious cycle, but I'm glad its not anything serious (though I do wish we had figured that out prior to all the expensive tests).

In any case, I've now got to keep her fed and hydrated until her appetite returns. I now know how to:

• give pills
• force feed
• administer subcutaneous fluids

I've become quite the medic. Luckily, I've got a pretty compliant patient. The subcutaneous fluids are pretty hilarious, though, as they form a big liquid bulge by the cat's elbow. It's squishy!