Mr. C.’s Random Thoughts

Kathryn went to the football game on Friday night. She got to take her picture with the CHS cheerleaders. I think I’d better start saving up for cheerleading uniforms now!

Hurricane Rita is coming for Texas and I have several people in Houston that we’re hoping will be okay. Heather aunt and uncle, Suzie and Marc, have decided to stay in The Woodlands and wait out the storm. I don’t think they have to worry about flooding but they do have to worry about high winds and loss of electricity and phone service. Suzie said that both lanes of I-45 (close to their house) were northbound but everything was incredibly slow moving.

Jasawn and Michael (Michaeleen’s daughter and her boyfriend) tried to make it to Victoria and then up to Austin but eventually had to turn around and go back into Houston. They’re waiting for all lanes to be turned into northbound traffic and see if it flows more quickly. Hopefully they’ll be able to get out of town tomorrow.

We (and by we, I mean the extended family–Heather’s grandparents, uncle, aunt, and Mischelle’s parents) still haven’t heard if Heather’s dad and his family made it back stateside from their Caribbean cruise. Friendswood is under a mandatory evacuation order. It drives me crazy that they haven’t thought to pick up a phone and contact at least one person in the family who could pass the word that they’re OK.

I drove up to Amarillo this afternoon after school and the Amber Alert sign on I-27 was turned on and was directing hurricane evacuees to the Civic Center 11 miles away. In Amarillo, 11 miles can go pretty quickly–probably 8-10 minutes. Michael and Jasawn got about 11 miles before they turned around–they left their apartments before I got to work and hadn’t turned around until after I left work. I know it’s got to be scary (or at least incredibly frustrating) for them. They have only lived in Houston for three weeks or so, soaking up all of the horror stories coming out of New Orleans, Mississippi, and Alabama. And the next thing you know, these life-long Panhandle kids are stuck in one of the most powerful hurricanes in recorded history! I just hope that they’re far enough inland that they won’t have to worry about flooding.

In other non-hurricane-related news, I was named the Kiwanis Club of Canyon Palo Duro’s “Rookie of the Year” this morning! Actually, I was supposed to find out last week at the Kiwanis banquet but I wasn’t able to go. So they presented me a plaque this morning…I was pretty surprised–I think it’s been about 12 years since I received a plaque for anything! They did it to recognize me for the work I’ve done with the CHS Key Club. I don’t feel like I’ve done a whole lot but I’m not one to look a gift plaque in the mouth!

Do you guys remember the Eurthymics? They were a band in the 80’s and one of their big hits was “Here Comes the Rain Again.” Yeah, well, here comes the rain again and her name is Rita. Except this time the hurricane is forecast to hit Texas. Galveston is prepared to institute mandatory evacuations and we know people as far north as The Woodlands are preparing to get the heck out of Dodge. We talked with Heather’s aunt Suzie, who lives in The Woodlands and they are preparing to head north…maybe to Dallas and maybe all the way up here, depending on when their kids’ school lets out. She said she’s been through one hurricane and that’s all she’s planning on!

Even though I don’t want them to have to evacuate, part of me hopes that they actually get to come up here. We usually only get to see them at Christmas, when they make their annual trip up to the Panhandle. Heather really enjoys getting to see them…they really are great. Actually, that whole side of her family is great, except of course for her father and his second family. Who, coincidentally, are on a cruise in the Caribbean. In the middle of hurricane season and the middle of the school year, with two school-age children and (get this!) a four-month-old baby. Nice thought, huh? Even though I know it’s not right, I have an extremely hard time being charitable when it comes to them. It is just incomprehensible how a father can just pretend that his daughter doesn’t exist…especially when she thought they were at one time close. I think that’s just how he lives his life, “What’s most convenient for me right at this moment? Yeah, that’s what I’ll go with!” The thing that kills me and makes me admire Heather all the more is that she is still loyal to her father, even though he isn’t loyal to her. There is still a picture of him hanging in our living room along side the portraits of parents that act like they give a damn about us. Ever been in a situation where you know exactly what you’d like to say but you can’t because it’s not your battle? Then you know how I feel every time I hear anything about him.

Last night was Open House at our school. Every year my reaction to Open House is the same: I really did not want to go but once I was there everything was fine. The parents that came to my room were all incredibly pleasant and I enjoyed getting to talk to them. I think the reason I don’t like Open House is because it always ends up feeling like you’ve spent three full days non-stop at the school.

Cool site of the day: Google Earth. If you’ve never checked this out, you need to. The picture to the left is our house. Why’s it so fuzzy, you ask? Well, the picture was taken from a gazillion miles away. Okay, maybe not a gazillion miles, but it was taken from space. Google Earth allows you to zoom in on locations and has a cool 3-D interface. Check it out whenever you get a chance. I downloaded it in the aftermath of Katrina and was able to do before-and-after comparisons of New Orleans and the Superdome. Heather wasn’t as impressed as I was. She did manage a comment on how it had mesmorized me for hours on end!

Well, I hope Rita is not the monster storm the media is making her out to be. But after Katrina, our country just can’t afford to hope for the best. If Rita does hit Texas like Katrina hit Louisiana, Mississippi, and Alabama, I wonder if we will be able to handle it better. I heard an interview on the radio today with the Galveston County director of emergency preparedness (I can’t remember if that was his official title but it was something along that line) and it sounded like they had made changes because of what they had seen in New Orleans. The one that sticks out in my mind is that they were allowing evacuees to bring their pets, rather than forcing people to choose between getting to safety and making sure their pets were OK. Let’s hope we learn more than that from Katrina.

We ate dinner tonight with Heather’s mom and her husband and with Heather’s grandparents. We had a pretty good time. Kathryn did pretty good–we were at the restaurant for about 1 1/2 hours and no meltdowns! She was pretty impressed with the french fries…she said they were almost as good as McDonald’s (high praise from a 2-year-old!).

Why is it that service is always impeccable until you are there with someone who will send food back to the kitchen, gripe because the salad has cucumbers, wonder why it’s so cold, etc., etc., etc.? However, tonight we specifically told the waitress “No pink in the meat” and when we got our order, 3 of the 4 prime rib dishes were (wait for it…wait for it…wait for it…) PINK! So the waitress asked if they wanted the prime rib seasoned and seared (thus cooking the pink out) or if they wanted the prime rib soaked in au jus (thus changing the color of the pink but not really cooking it out). Wanna guess which option we went with?

Here’s to having ONE DAY WITHOUT HIVES! Of course, I felt under the weather all day long. The best way I can describe it is “mini-flu.” I actually got home, took an Advil and a Tylenol, and slept for 1 1/2 hours. And anyone that has lived with a 2 year old knows that that is an indication that something is not right! I woke up and Heather and Kathryn had eaten dinner and taken a bath and I had slept through it all.

I also found out a student saw me at one of my lowest points. I found out he works at the veterinary clinic that we took our dog to and he was actually there went I took Jack in to have him put to sleep. That was during the first week of school and I hadn’t learned all of my students’ faces yet. It is very weird knowing that a student saw me in such a vulnerable spot. All I could really say was, “That day totally sucked.” Yes, I have a college degree and that was as articulate as I could get.

We also found out that our good friends had to put one of their twin girls in the hospital because she had a pretty bad case of the croup. I also visited a student that was in the hospital this afternoon. It is stuff that this that truly makes me thankful that I am healthy (raging hives notwithstanding) and so is my family.

No deep thoughts tonight…just wanted to share my small victory. Maybe tomorrow I can post “Two Days.”

G’Night!
mrc

Well, I went to the doctor today and got the results of the food allergy tests that were run. And the results were (yes, you guessed it) inconclusive . Which is frustrating to me and probably to the district’s insurance administrators as well since it’s $200 down the hole. Yes, I am the reason for the upward spiral of healthcare costs in the good ol’ U. S. of A.! The only food that came back positive was whole eggs. And even its result was borderline. So it’s ix-nay on the scrambled eggs at breakfast and we’ll see if that makes any difference.

I talked to my mom this evening and she said that my dad broke out in horrible rashes on his hands when she was pregnant with me and my brother. Could it be that Culbert men are allergic to progesterone? More likely it’s a stress reaction, much like an anxiety-induced asthma attack. That’s sounds better than “I might be allergic to my pregnant wife!”

Dr. Irwin wrote me a 12-month prescription for Singulair, thus avoiding any further “can you fax me in a prescription” debacles (don’t get me started–I don’t have the time and you don’t have the patience to listen to that particular rant-and-rave session). So this brings my current antihistamine regimen to Singulair, Clarinex, and Zantac–with Zyrtec and Claritin having fallen to the side since they can no longer get the job done. I am getting to the point that I am a walking pharmacy. Here’s to better living through chemistry. He also suggested that I try a product called Ambrotose. It is supposedly to help intercellular communication (???) and he’s had other urticarial patients that have had good results with it. He is also on it and I guess he is confident that it’s OK. So we’ll give it a try and see what happens.

I told a couple of people at work that I think high-speed Internet access may not be the best thing when you’re waiting for lab results to come back (especially if you have to wait for them a couple weeks or so). There is just too much opportunity to let your mind explore the worst case scenario. And guess what? The worst case scenario has a picture gallery just to keep your anxiety on a razor’s edge. Enjoy!

In other news…next week is the last week of the six weeks. I can’t believe that five weeks of school have already come and gone. And, like many other teachers, I had a “Oh Crap! Look how much grading I have to do!” moment yesterday. So I’ve been trying to get caught up so I’m not up against a hard deadline next week. I have one class left and then I’ll totally be caught up.

The Key Club that I advise is closing in on 30 paid-in-full members. I’m hoping that we can break 40 or maybe even 50. Beyond that, I think that the group becomes so big that it is unwieldy and coordination becomes a pain. There are also a lot of members that aren’t really dedicated to the goals of the group and it becomes counterproductive. We have a meeting tomorrow where we’ll kick off our fundraising campaign. I’m going to have to stress that the more that we sell in the fall, the less they’ll have to pay when we travel later in the year. Let me make a correction–the less they’ll have to pay when they travel later in the year. I probably won’t do any traveling with them as the spring will also be when our baby is due.

My students have also been a pleasant surprise this year. Thus far (and I don’t want to jinx myself), they have all been pretty decent. Pretty low-key, take-care-of-business sort of kids–which are an absolute delight. Last year, I didn’t have even one class that was like that and it really had worn on my nerves by the end of the year. So it’s been nice…not that last year was horrible but there are definitely groups of kids that fit a teacher’s personality better. Some teachers might find my kids this year to be a little too sedate but they are just fine with me.

Random thought (even for me):
Is it frustrating to anyone else but to pay $60 for digital cable and there is still nothing good on TV?!? Honestly, when you’re watching “Battle Sweet Onion” on Iron Chef America because there’s nothing better on you have to wonder if cable is all it’s cracked up to be.

I really hope the challenger wins…that Bobby Flay is just a hemorrhoid on the butt of Food Network, in my humble opinion.

I meet with Dr. Irwin tomorrow to discuss the results from my RAST test (2 weeks ago, give or take). I hate waiting for an appointment like this…it just gives my mind time to go to the worst-case scenario.

And take it from me, having unlimited information via the Internet sometimes isn’t a healthy thing. It could be that I have “idiopathic” urticaria (i.e., we don’t know what the heck is causing it), thyroid disease, or lymphoma. And don’t get me started on picture galleries. Some of them are familiar but a lot of them are truly scary. So I guess some itchy hives aren’t so bad. It’s just frustrating that the old meds are no longer working.

The logical part of my mind keeps telling me that if something were reallywrong, they would have insisted I come in immediately. But that other part of my brain is off Googling “hives,” “urticaria,” “antihistamine,” etc., etc., etc.

I noticed that one of the medicines used to treat chronic urticaria is a combination h1/h2 antagonist. It’s primarily used as an antidepressant…wonder if that’s what I need?

Today Heather and I got our first glimpse at our new baby. We had our first appointment with Dr. John David, Heather’s OB-GYN, for our second pregnancy. It certainly wasn’t as nerve-wracking this time. Our biggest concern was that we were having twins, but as it turns out we shouldn’t have worried. He said everything looked good and that he would see us again in four weeks.

The coolest thing is that he upgraded his sonogram machine to one that can do 4-D scanning. You can actually see the baby instead of saying “that grey blog of static is the head, I think.” Of course, the upgrade in the sonogram machine might also explain the upgrade in Dr. David’s fee in the last two years!

It is a surreal feeling knowing that we’re going to have another baby. It seems like we’re just now used to it being three of us instead of just Heather and me. But I suppose that we’ll just “monitor-and-adjust” (sorry, the teacher in me just couldn’t help pulling out overused jargon).

My kids have been in class without me for two days. I hope that things are still OK when I get back to class. I got to thinking about it and I’ve already missed four days of school this year: 2 days of inservice, 1 sick day (dang chronic urticaria!), and today. I just don’t sweat being gone like I used to. My kids are much more low-key than the group that I had last year, which makes the day go a lot easier. Of course, we aren’t even through with the first six weeks yet so maybe I shouldn’t count my chickens before they’re hatched.

Today on the news President Bush said that he “accepted responsibility” for the shortcomings of the federal government in responding to the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina. I really think it won’t be the Iraq War, the high price of gas, or the economy that keeps the Republicans out of the White House in 2008. It’ll be Katrina–even if the sorry state of emergency response wasn’t entirely (or even mostly) the fault of the federal government. I don’t know about the Louisiana governor, but Mayor Ray Nagin really just sticks in my craw. When asked if he could have done anything different, he responded, “I could have screamed louder.” But he didn’t say anything about implementing the disaster response plans that were already in place, which is primarily the responsibility of local and state governments, for everything I’ve heard.

One of the things that I think I’ve really done right as a father is keep a journal for Kathryn. I started it when we found out we were pregnant with her. It’s not an every-day-I-must-write-something sort of journal but more like a when-I-think-about-it sort of thing. I try and record things that I think she’ll wonder about when she’s an adult and maybe thinking about starting a family of her own. I’ve started a second journal for the new baby. One thing I’m struggling with is what to put in Kathryn’s journal and what to put in the new baby’s journal. Sometimes there’s some overlap and I find myself wanting to go back and re-read Kathryn’s journal to see if there’s anything I want to put in the new baby’s journal. One of the things I know will go in the new baby’s journal is a listing of the Culberts back to before we immigrated from County Donegal, Ireland. One of the cool things is that I am a part of a line of Culberts with the name “James.” There’s been at least one “James Culbert” in every generation all the way back to our immigration from Ireland. The funny thing about that name is that it seems like every other person in our family has it but no one uses it. My name is James Lance and I go by Lance (thanks to my maternal grandmother, who gave me my middle name). My uncle James Kenneth Culbert, goes by Doc. My grandfather James Cooper Culbert, went by Dutch. Right now we are thinking that if we have a boy, we will name him James Duncan Culbert. Heather wants to call him (if it’s a boy) James but I think I like Duncan better.

Can I say how much I hate having chronic urticaria? It is such a pain. Well, actually it’s much more like the intense itching of a mosquito bite. But a mosquito bite that is the size of a silver dollar–or more like $15-20 worth of silver dollars if I’m having a bad day! Personally, I think I have the dermal equivalent of asthma. Right now I am on Zantac (who knew it was an antihistamine–I thought it was just for people with ulcers!), Clarinex (an h1 antagonist), and Singulair (usually used for treating asthma). Or at least I was on Singulair until the samples ran out and I forgot to call the doctor to get him to fax a prescription to my pharmacy. The meds have been keeping the hives (the real world term for “urticaria”) down during the day but they have been wearing off about 22 hours after I take them. For the last couple of days I have gotten big hives on the inside of my bicep. Very hot and itchy! Benadryl cream usually knocks it down but I don’t want to have to resort to carrying around a tube of the stuff in my pocket at all times. I have an appointment with Dr. Irwin day after tomorrow to discuss the results of the RAST allergy test that I had run a couple of weeks ago (the blood was drawn on the day that Hurricane Katrina made landfall on the Gulf Coast). I predict it’ll go one of two way: (1) I’m allergic to everything and will have to go on a full tofu diet with no artificial anything, or (2) the test will be totally inconclusive and we’ll have to continue playing with meds to control the symptoms.

I’m really hoping that there isn’t a mental component to the disease and the hives that I’ve been experiencing aren’t due to stress. Beginning of the school year, a slight terror of possible twins, having to put our dog to sleep, living with a two-year old…who could be stressed out?!?

There are events which are seared into the collective consciousness. For my parents’ generation, they knew exactly where they were when President Kennedy was assassinated. For people like me, coming of age in the 1980’s, we remember exactly where we were when the space shuttle Challenger exploded during takeoff. I was walking to the gym and our teacher told us. I thought she was making a very bad joke.

But now we all share another memory. On September 11, 2001, terrorists hijacked four airplanes. One of them was flown into the World Trade Center’s North Tower. Less than half an hour later, a second plane slammed into the WTC’s South Tower. About 45 minutes later, a third plane dropped from the sky into the side of the Pentagon. Finally, the final hijacked plane crashed into a wooded area in Pennsylvania–its hijackers thwarted by passengers who were willing to die to keep the hijackers from completing their objective.

September 11, 2001 started off as just another day teaching computer classes at Canyon HS for me. My first thought when I heard that a plane had flown into the World Trade Center was that it must have been an air traffic control error. We all had similar thoughts but we all soon realized that we were wrong and that our country was under attack. Our generation now had something in common with the Greatest Generation, who suffered the Japanese attack at Pearl Harbor, which launched America into World War II. All lessons were put on hold that day. We just sat around television screens, consuming ABC News and CNN in mass quantities. I remember with particular horror as the second plane slammed into the World Trade Center and then later as both towers fell. Things on that day felt incredibly surreal–which I have found to be the case when you are truly in the midst of history in the making.

Four years later, we are still a nation at war. We have overthrown the Taliban of Afghanistan, as they harbored and trained the terrorists that attacked us and encouraged the radical brand of Islam which was the driving force behind the attacks on our country. We have also overthrown the Iraqi government of Sadaam Hussein in a preemptive strike against his stockpiles of weapons of mass destruction. We have yet to find those weapons of mass destruction, although I am inclined to believe that the Iraqi government had the foresight to move, hide, or destroy that weaponry (probably in that order).

When the attacks occurred, I didn’t know that I would eventually have former students both in Afghanistan and Iraq. It is a peculiar feeling knowing that students I taught are making incredible sacrifices to keep our country safe. It is also strange to find the country in the midst of a strengthening antiware movement, which is something I have always associated with hippies and the 70’s. I think what is different about the new antiwar movement is that the soldiers themselves aren’t villified but criticism is certainly heaped upon the administration. I suppose it will be up history to decide whether or not that criticism is justified.

Above all, this anniversary is a time to remember those that our country lost and to hope the lessons of that day have not be learned in vain.

I thought I would try this whole blog thing a second time after reading Bobby Ross, Jr.’s blog, which was linked to on the Christian Chronicle’s website. It is a good time to do so because there is so much going on in the world and in my personal life.

My daughter Kathryn turned two years old at the end of June. Looking back at my first post, it’s hard to believe that she is this old. Heather and I introduced her to the joys of the football season. She has begun her third year of daycare (next year she’ll start pre-school–which seems absolutely impossible to me). I know every proud parent says this, but she really is smart and beautiful, to boot! After Sunday school this morning, my wife told me that her teachers thought she was ready to move up. They thought she might be getting bored. So we’re going to try the next class up. The picture to the left was taken this year on Friday, July 15.

We also have exciting news–we are expecting our second child sometime around April 15. It is almost surreal that we are starting down this road again. Kathryn is doing her part to help–we are going through potty-training right now and I don’t think that we’ll have two children in diapers at the same time! Our first appointment with Dr. David (Heather’s OB-GYN) is in two days. We are both slightly nervous about it. Judi (my mother-in-law) has almost convinced Heather that we’re having twins since Heather’s body is changing so much faster than it did when she was pregnant with Kathryn. Personally, I think Heather’s body just remembers what it had to go through and has decided “better sooner than later.” So we’re eagerly awaiting that first sonogram and only seeing one peanut instead of two. Of course, if we are having twins, then we’ll just deal with it. But realistically, the odds are somewhat against it.

We’ve had a sad event in our lives in the last month, too. We had to put our dog Jack to sleep. It was astonishing how hard this was to do–it was probably the hardest decision that we’ve had to make since we got married. Our veterinarian, Dr. Ballinger, told us that he was either born with weak kidneys or possibly had gotten into a tiny amount of antifreeze before we got him from the shelter three years ago. He made the decision easier when he told me that he had a dog die from the same condition (renal failure) but that he waited too long to put her sleep. I held Jack as they injected the solution into a catheter. It was so quick–Dr. Ballinger hadn’t even finished emptying the syringe when Jack’s head laid to the side and he died. The house seems a lot more empty since then–I am just now getting to the point that I don’t expect to see Jack when I walk in the house or look in the backyard. I think I would like to get another dog, but I think Heather is hesitant, so we’ll probably wait.

Our nation is going through an incredibly difficult time as the Gulf Coast region struggles with the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina. New Orleans has been evacuated for the most part, with evacuees (don’t call them refugees) all over the country. Texas has received a lot of the evacuees and Amarillo even has some evacuees in its Civic Center. There are a lot of questions about the government’s response to this disaster. People where left stranded in the Superdome and the New Orleans Convention Center. It has come out that the Red Cross had relief supplies in the immediate area but was prevented from delivering them. Michael Brown, the director of FEMA, has been removed from hurricane recovery efforts and recalled to Washington. Whether he truly at fault or just a convenient scapegoat has yet to be determined. I’m inclined to think it’s a little bit of both. On a local level, the Kiwanis Club that I am a member of and the Key Club I advise gathered over $5,500 for the American Red Cross. I was really humbled by the way that people gave to the cause.

Here’s hoping I do a better job of keeping up with my blog than I’ve done in the last year!

-Mr. C.