The hay total was 642 bales. Not the biggest year yet, but not the smallest, either, and it is enough to winter the horses. I was assigned to the barn, rather than the field (I prefer the field, but I didn't make a fuss). Sunday we had a much bigger crew, but it was hotter than Saturday, hazy and kind of hard to breathe from the Canadian wildfire smoke that drifted south. The wind has changed now, but the report is that the haze may return later this week.

Here's the Tuesday Too #20 (once done I must return to grading essays...this week's topics: character education and Dewey's theories on learning).

1.) Yes conflicting theories abound, what do you think dreams (nightly adventures) mean, or do you subscribe to a particular theorist and why?

Sometimes I'll have a spell where I remember lots of dreams, and at other times there are long stretches where I don't remember a thing. During the times where I remember them, I tend to think about dreaming more, what it may mean, etc. Sometimes it is obvious, I have been thinking about certain things, and they pop up in my dreams. Other times it is more complicated. But I have always been fond of thinking of dreams, especially when they are fun adventures and not too upsetting or scary, as "my other life." (It will be very interesting to read jf's thesis.)


2.) When you are confronted by a homeless person asking for change, how do you respond? How does it make you feel? If you've never been in this situation, imagine it, and calculate your response.

For years, I always gave money when asked - figuring, if the person is asking, they must really need it, and who cares for what. Then one bright sunny day, at about lunchtime, I was across the street from work, strolling along while daydreaming, and I was assaulted by an (apparently) homeless person. He hadn't said a word to me first, he just stared at me with what I can still remember clearly as extremely red eyes, and grabbed me. It happened so fast, and I managed to get away that day (relatively) unharmed, but for years afterwards I felt a fear whenever I was approached. I was troubled by my behavior, but I didn't want to be at risk, either, so I started to donate to food pantries and shelters, thinking that if a desperate person needed food, they should go there, and when on the street I kept very alert. Rather than refusing to give money, I instead did my best to avoid any sort of encounters. Now the fear has (mostly) subsided, or at least I don't think about it too much, and I have reverted back to my old ways (although I continue to donate to the food banks), but since my worklife is so much different now, it is only on rare occasions that I am walking alone in a place where I might be asked for money.


3.) Do you feel you have been short changed in any way by destiny/fate/god? If so, how?

Absolutely not, I feel very lucky, fortunate, blessed, thankful, etc.