While en route to the office this afternoon, E and I encountered a strange scene, a scene that had us rubber-necking for several yards more than was strictly necessary. There by the hospital, and almost onto the street, the scene unfolded thusly:
Three police cars in a row, with lights flashing, prevented a man in a hospital gown and carrying the fluid pole (or whatever you call them) on wheels from leaving. The man in question was tall, with fly-away white hair in small quantity, and wearing a paper gown that had outgrown his bony frame. Poor man. He looked very confused. The policemen in question were all clumped around the man and looked like they were trying to calm him down. One of the cop cars had a bike loaded onto the back.
It was odd. I suppose they could have been arresting the man for stealing a fluid pole on wheels, or for showing his butt crack to everyone in the area. But I really hope he was just lost, a bit out of it, and on his way to Sonic to get some tater tots, while the policemen were helping him back to his hospital room with the generous lie of there being a lot of tater tots waiting on his pillow for him. Though that second senario raises the question of how the man got that far out of the hospital with a fluid pole on wheels, it is still a nicer scenario than an arrest scene. I mean, the guy was dragging along a towering rod of metal with precious dripping fluid of some kind. He was harmless except for the whole butt crack thing and the possible injury to any cars that hit him. But even then, he's a far cry from a deer. I doubt any motorist would notice hitting him except the pole coming straight through the windshield.
On to happier notes, however, that do not involve little old men with fluid poles on wheels being detained by 6 police officers (he sure looked overpowering to me, better call for more backup):
The class Halloween party was a success. Three jumbo bags of candy are gone, as well as two boxes of cookies. The good news: I didn't eat all that much of it. The kids got all the good stuff during class, and there wasn't much chocolate left at the end. I do admit though, that our office and the surrounding neighborhood is a black hole for sweets of all kinds. The sweets come in; they don't come out.
They students took to groupwork fairly well, but like J's class, I think they're a bit group worked out. Next time, I'll have them solve the Gargomel problem on their own, and then their TOPIC post will be a follow up on that in class assignment.
I think I really shocked the students when I showed up with a ginormous bowl of candy, cookies, and a black witch's hat. Oh, and pumpkins. I had a special request for pumpkins. All four officemates helped me carry it down, and it took every one of us. When we got it in the room, I put on the hat, and wore it for the whole class. Students who have never paid an ounce of attention were staring at me for 80 minutes solid. I make no guess at how much they listened, per say, but they did watch.
Midterm grades are in for them all now, and there are several who need some serious help. I've had to advise some students to drop the class while they still can. It was really sad, but when the grades are that low, there isn't anything in the realm of possibility that can save them.
Oh well. Some good news to balance it out. Writing from a character's shoulder is 139% easier than writing from the general floating-in-the-middle-of-things position. I see success in the future for the novel. Everybody do a cheer!
End.
