Estuary burning!

Last night, as we watched from our balcony, a huge fire raged in the estuary. We have had no rain and the temps are 99 to 100 every day, so a fire was not unexpected. The palm trees were going up like flaming torches and the sky was full of smoke. Our neighbor Greg stopped over after it had been raging for an hour and asked us if we had called the fire department. I said I could not believe the fire department in town could have missed such a blaze although we did not hear any sirens. He went back to his condo and called them, telling us later no one had called it in. It raged on into the darkness along the beach and about nine p.m. the fire began to move across the estuary towards us. The fire was red hot in the night sky, beautiful but rather scary especially when it started to move away from the beach and towards us. About ten p.m. it died out completely and I felt safe going to bed. We had seen a brief fire in the estuary last May that was short lived and contained to a small area. This time it was a huge area. I guess they just have to let the fire burn not being able to get the fire trucks into a swamp. I don't really know and will have to get more information about this from someone who knows. We are having a little birthday party for Greg tonight here at the condo and our friend Mel is coming and Mel knows everything so I will ask him about it.

I took the day off today so we could go to the beach but we are here waiting for the air con repair guys. Yes, it broke down again. What can on really expect from a $50 repair bill after all? We have been waiting for two days for them to show up. We know all about Mexican time by now of course. You must learn that when they say they will be out on a certain day and time they do not really mean it. They just do not want to make you unhappy telling you the truth: they have no idea when they will actually come. However, we do seem to be acclimating to the heat better, this has been good training for a classroom without air.

My boss Rosie gave me curriculum materials yesterday I can use to begin writing my curriculum. Harry pointed out that this is the perfect situation for me because when a school gives me the curriculum I have to use I always hate it, never use it and develop my own from pieces I find that suit my students needs better. It is more work but much more satisfying and meaningful. The Internet is such a good source nowadays for materials and my dear friend Linda is sending Libertad her collection of tutoring materials, so with all this stuff, I should be ok. I met a guy yesterday at school who teaches an hour of math everyday and I am thinking maybe I could teach fewer hours each day. I still love teaching but the whole day everyday thing is extremely draining at my age. I figure I will just put it out there into the universe and see what happens!! (I don't know how I suddenly started using italics but I can't seem to go back into regular print) Probably a sign I should stop writing.