Moving out of my school

The Albuquerque Public School district only offers art and music to elementary school students every other year.  The way this is accomplished in most of the 87 elementary schools is an art teacher serves the entire school population for a year, then moves out of the Fine Arts room or portable, and a music teacher moves in the next year.  As long as I teach elementary music for APS, I'll move to a new school each year.  If I'm lucky, I may get to rotate between 2 schools and get to know teachers, staff and families in those two schools.  But some folks move to a new place every year.  Staffing decisions are based on multiple factors.  It's like a complicated jigsaw puzzle!

One of the nice things about working for APS Fine Arts is that we have an equipment budget that allows us to acquire Orff instruments, drums, and other instruments and resources that we need to do a great job.  But all that "stuff" has to have a place to go!  Most teachers try to store their inventories at their schools for the summer, but when that is not possible, inventories have to be moved to a storage facility (trailer, or portable) at Fine Arts.  We won't get our next school assignments until summer is almost over, so we can't just move to our new schools right away.  There is a budget for hiring movers, so at least no one has to make 20 trips with their personal car, carrying everything alone. 
Here's my room with stuff on Day 1 last August:

And here's my inventory all packed up on Day 178:

I scheduled the movers for the second-to-last day of school.  They arrived on time and were very friendly and efficient.   They put most of my boxes and tubs onto these carts, shrink wrapped them, and then secured the carts in the truck.  Some stuff they put into a giant rolling box.  My Smart Board was secured last.

 I drove up to Fine Arts and got the key to the right portable, then made sure my shelves were still open and shifted a few large items that were blocking the aisles.  They arrived and started unloading the truck.

 I took the precaution of borrowing shelf space from some of my "neighbors" who were able to keep their inventories at their schools.

 Everything just barely fit!

When I get my school assignment for next year, I call my principal, arrange for a moving day, and this process starts all over again!  Crazy system.

Music in the Plaza

Last night Stephen and I went out to dinner then to the Old Town Plaza to hear the Cuban salsa band En-Joy.  The conga drummer is the night custodian at my school this year.  He was kind enough to teach me some drum patterns so we could play together for the school's International Day, and he helped the fourth graders with their drum circle piece for the talent show and with their Capoeira performances.  The band was great, and we loved watching the dancers!

And here we are playing for International Day at school.  I'm working as hard as I can! 

Stephen's first road course race

One of Stephen's goals for the Albuquerque adventure was to buy a fast car, make it faster, and run at the local road course.  He bought a '73 Camaro that he has been working on, and he has run a few laps at the open track days.  He joined the Southwest Motorsports club, took their driver training (and instructor training) and started thinking about running some actual races.  Unfortunately, the Camaro had some engine problems and it wasn't ready for this first race weekend of the season.  But Stephen did some work on another club member's car, and in exchange he very generously offered to let Stephen run his "extra" race car! 

Stephen told me that his race was at 2:30, so I planned to arrive at the track at 2.  When I left the house it was sunny and 77 degrees.  But as I travelled West on I-40, I could see black clouds and lighting ahead, just about where I thought the race track might be located.  Sure enough, I arrived just as it started raining, and Stephen yelled to me from the car that they were running early, the camera was in the truck, and I should go to the control tower.  I didn't quite get that last part between the engine noise and the gathering storm.  I made my way to the truck but the wind was whipping up quite a sand storm and I could barely see.  I grabbed the camera and fought my way to the grandstand where I took cover under the metal bleachers, trying not to touch anything that might be a lightning rod.  Before too long, a driver came along and told me to run up to the control tower and get inside for safety, which I did.  Stephen arrived shortly after, his race having been postponed so the track workers could get out of the storm.  Fortunately these New Mexico storms, while intense, are short-lived and the race got underway before the club ran out of track time.

Stormy skies.

Waiting out the storm in the control tower.

The guys waiting for the track to dry.

Securing the harness.

Hooking up the Hans device.

Steering wheel is on.  Window net is up.

Ready to race!

Some of the competition.

Coming around to take the green flag!

Inside the control tower.

Stephen on the straightaway.

There's a little smoke coming from those tires!

A few spectators.

Stephen had so much fun!

After the race.

Post-race analysis with the winner (and owner of the car Stephen borrowed).

The race was 20 minutes long.  The cars pretty much ran in the order they started, with the intervals becoming longer between pairs of cars as the race went on.  The winning car and second place car raced pretty close the whole time.  After that a Porche and a Panoz ran together.  Another Porche and Stephen in the borrowed Miata raced each other behind them, and there was one other car trailing the field.  Stephen's goal for the race was to race clean and not have any problems.  He did that, and had a blast!

Vacation the Osterhout Way

We Osterhouts are not sit-by-the-pool vacationers.  When we do vacation, we need a vacation to recover from our vacation!  My family's recent visit to Abq was no exception.

Arriving on a Tuesday, my folks and brother had a few days to amuse themselves while Stephen and I worked.  They went to the Unser racing museum, took a walk in the Bosque and visited the nature center there, and went to Santa Fe where they toured the Plaza.

 

On Friday night, I had a gig at the Mine Shaft Tavern in Madrid.  Stephen and David and Mom and Dad had dinner and then stayed for the first set.  This was my first gig with Trisha O'Keefe and the Open Road, and it was a blast! 

 Saturday was the 50th Anniversary balloon ride, which is documented in the previous post.  We went out to dinner at El Pinto with my Mom's cousin Marge and her husband Terry to extend the celebration.

On Sunday the weather turned colder and we had a little rain in Abq.  Stephen drove us up to Los Alamos where we visited the Historical Museum and the Bradbury Science Museum.  We saw some snow up in the mountains, and drove through a few flurries on the trip back.

 On Monday Stephen went to work but I had taken a personal day (my only one, which I saved up for the whole school year for this occasion!) to take the family to ride the Sandia Peak Tramway.  On the drive up to the base of the tram, we could see that low clouds covered the top of the mountain.  The sign at the ticket counter said "Visibility at the peak is 0."  We bundled up anticipating wind and temperatures in the low 30's. 

It was snowy but not nearly as windy as we had feared, and we were not at all uncomfortable as we explored the area at the peak. This was the extent of the "view," however.  It was really interesting to go up under such different weather conditions than I had experienced before.  But now my family has to go again when it's clear and sunny.

 Heading down, we emerged from the cloud very suddenly and saw this!

After our tram ride, we had lunch at my house and I got to go for a walk with my Mom.  Later, we again met Marge and Terry for a lovely dinner at Sadie's.  Do you think we packed enough fun into six short days?