fire and ice

I was at the library last night proctoring a test for one of my students. Yes, that's how I spent the evening of our wedding anniversary. Mag was home being both Mom and Dad and burning my favorite cast iron skillet. Yes, that's how he spent the evening of our wedding anniversary.

So anyway, yeah, I was proctoring this 4-hour test. That's just a fancy way of saying that I hung out at the library like a vagrant while my cell phone alarm went off every 25 minutes or so, so I could crack the whip on the aforementioned student, "Five minutes left, Bucko! Shake a leg!"

It could've been a productive time if I was in a productive mood, but apparently I was not. I spent most of the time reading a book (library, remember?) about a family that moved to the Alaskan bush and went all primal.

I learned that styrofoam makes for a relatively toasty outhouse seat in the middle of arctic winter.

I learned that bunnies are easy to skin while foxes are not.

I learned that one should never ever ever never ever get between a mama bear and her cubs. Or a mama moose and her... moose kids.

I learned that large bull mooses are easiest to shoot when they are distracted by hot girl mooses (meese?).

I learned that a gut pile the size of a recliner can be removed from a good sized bull moose.

I learned that people can happily survive without TV or the internet.

Would I do it? Hmmmm..... I think I'd rather just read about it. Either way, I learned some stuff that, who knows, might be useful someday. And it cooled me off just reading about it. So as I think about it now, my reading indulgence wasn't a total waste.

Hopefully, the same will be true of my skillet.