Achy Breaky Back

My lovely ladymullet head of helmet hair made me use that title.

Today I spent another 4 hours working in my 'new' classroom. It
was a project for Team Hillbilly this time. HH was off work for a
vacation day or doctor's appointment or some such thing. I can't
keep up with him anymore. That man has more days off than a
Missouri state office worker. Like my old supervisor used to say,
"We have a day off every time it's cloudy." I think he said that
the day before our Columbus Day holiday.

HH loaded up my school junk I stored at home this summer due
to the move to the Lower Basementia classroom. He carried in
a bazillion boxes, my two new tables, my fans (the kind that
circulate the air, not the kind who cheer 'Go Hillbilly Mom!
Educate them DoNots!'), and a toolbox. He was a busy beaver,
what with all the chores I gave him. (Yes, Stewed Hamm, I only
used the 'beaver' word to get colorful search phrases to blog
about in the future).

HH set up the tables, hung some Math posters high over the
blackboard, filed away some metal on my black metal cabinet
that is persnickety about opening and closing, found some
hanging shelf holders in his magic toolbox for the bottom shelf
of my bookcase, removed a broken-off ground plug from a
live electrical outlet, and argued with #1 son about a wire.
"It's an Ethernet wire." "It's a telephone wire.It's capped off,
anyway. This one is Ethernet." The boy was right.

#1 did his own tasks. He hooked up my two computers and
got them running. He cleaned some dust bunny hairwads out
of a mouse. (I need to put him to work on our free hot tub).
He removed metal latch thingies off my wooden desk drawers
so they would not jam like the one yesterday. He carried boxes.
He went looking for my missing clock and desks. Again.

#2 son did his thing. He watched old Rugrats videos on my TV.
He's good at babysitting himself.

Once HH and #1 left, I put up my 18 capitalization, punctuation,
and parts of speech mini-posters. I put away stuff from many
boxes. I went on a clock- & desk-finding expedition. EUREKA!
I found both. It was not easy, my friends. I checked my old 3rd
floor classroom again. I checked the old room of the class that took
over my old classroom. I checked the new room of the person
whose Lower Basementia room I am taking over. H*ll, I checked
every room on the 3rd floor.

I found the clock in the last place I looked. Seriously. The very
last room on that floor contained my treasure. I had to be crafty.
The teacher was there. "I am looking for my clock." "Hey! Take
that one!" There it lay, flat on its back on a small table against
the wall. Directly above it hung the clock for that classroom.
"It just appeared. I was wondering who it belonged to."

The chairs were crafty. They would not be taken easily. The
possessor of the purloined clock offered me one desk. "No.
I already have a variety. I want the matching 10 that I had last
year." I searched high and low. And it was low that I found
them. Again, in the last place I looked. Not on 3rd floor, not
on 2nd floor, but right next door to me in the basement. In a
classroom with 32 chairs, 6 of mine were cooling their flexible
round metal feet. I know I'm not so popular as some other
teachers, desks, but why did you forsake me? Didn't you miss
your desky brothers and sisters over the long hot summer?

I set to work. Carry a desk that matched the next-door desks,
bring back one of my woodies. Carry another, bring back a
traitor. I did this six times. Those suckers are heavy. And
awkward. They're the big one-piece molded dark blue plastic
with a full-size desky surface that looks like that stuff on a
composite gym floor. Not wood. That slightly spongy beige-
colored surface. I worked up quite a sweat. But I reclaimed
all my wayward furniture. Now I have 10 matching chairs, plus
another 5 that match their kind. The room looks much better.
About as well as a room in Lower Basementia can look. I
might make Mr. Blackwell's best classroom list. I might not.

Now I have an achy breaky back. It is the lower back; the
muscles are in a spasm. I didn't damage my spine or anything
interesting. No need for faithful Cazzie to perform a quick
sacroiliacectomy over the interenets. I will hurt more tomorrow
than I do today.

Believe me when I say,
"This is going to hurt me more than it hurts you."