Mercy! Mercy! That Dang Nabed PERCY!

One Cog off the Wheel

One cog off the reel…

This was one of those days where I couldn’t catch a break to save my butt. Sometimes when I watch a football game I see that happen to one team or the other. I like to see a game where the turnovers, breaks and penalties split down the middle and the players decide the game by their overall performance.

The fact is that today I didn’t do well on getting my Speedometer to work. To begin with I started with a wire that had continuous power intending to put a switch into the circuit to make it switched power. When I tested the wire with my test light it shone exceptionally bright but I decided to use it anyway. I think this might have been a mistake because I kept blowing fuses all day with the power that emanated from that little orange wire.

Tomorrow I intend to run a line from the battery into a power strip and see if that makes a difference. Everything was hooked up according to the instructions and still I kept blowing fuses from one to three to ten amp. Maybe the wire I used was tied into the alternator circuit and upon starting up carried more amperage than usual. Anyway I kept blowing fuses…I suppose there could also be a short somewhere in the circuit. Imagine wasting a whole day on a Speedometer…duh!

My Labrador retriever is breaking wind tonight and the smell is noxious. The doodle must like the smell because she has been laying next to Chloe all evening. Linda says the only thing more disgusting than a dog is a man. I wonder where she comes up with all these absurd notions?

Three of my six students have posted their outlines. Being able to see an outline before they start writing has been a great idea. I can tell by the outline if the drama is going to work or not. I can also tell who has read the handout materials and who didn’t. Some of my best writers are often the biggest culprits. Then I have to tell them that I don’t think their outline is working so good and is careening towards the cliff. Inexperienced writers, who have a modicum of talent ,are the most fragile and I try hard to be sensitive while trying to get them onto a path that has an outside chance at success. Several in the past became indignant and dropped the course and I take these failures as evidence I might not be the greatest of teachers. Then again I try and be positive but one can only go so far before raising false hopes that lead to dashed expectations.

If I see a student, regardless of how talented, going astray I have an obligation to point it out even though I know it will be difficult to deal with. If I can get a student to emerge with a half decent outline chances are they will wind up with a half decent play. So, I set the standard high on the Comprehensive Outline and hope when the smoke clears, I still have a few occupied seats in the classroom.

Not getting the speedo installed really bugs me and no doubt I’ll have some sort of bad dream tonight related to it. There is a part of me that likes to inflict pain on myself when I dream at night. All the bad things I have done get recycled periodically when I slumber and often I wake up in a sweat saying “Awh, Shucks!” to myself.