Fun Stations

Physical Education Lesson Plan

S: PE
T: Fun Stations
O: K: To practice and improve hand-eye coordination
1st: To practice and improve a variety of sport skills
P: Teacher explanation and demonstration

#1) Hoppity Hops – Each student will have their own hopping ball with handle. They will practice body control, balance, and jumping skills.

#2) Stilts – Each student will have their own set of plastic cup stilts. They will practice walking forward, backward, and sideways on their stilts.

#3) Playground Balls – Each student will have their own ball. Students will practice dribbling their ball like a basketball. They may try to shoot it into the basket. They may pass it to each other or up against the wall.

#4) Paddles and Balloons – Each student will have their own foam paddle/racket and their own balloon. They are to practice hitting their balloon with the paddle. They should try to keep the balloon from touching the floor.

#5) Scoops and Beanbags – Each student will have their own scoop and beanbag. They should hold the scoop in their non-dominate hand (like a baseball or softball glove) leaving their dominant hand to toss or throw with. They should practice tossing and catching.

#6) Hula Hoops – Each student will have their own hula hoop. They should practice and try to improve the skills that the teacher has taught them earlier in the year with hula hoops.

Stations 3, 4, and 5 could be done as partners if the students would like.

Another water leak at work

Another day of rain. Another day of water leaks at work.

Luckily my office is now dry. The ceiling tiles are supposed to be replaced soon.



However, an office down the hall from me was not so lucky...





That office had not had leaks in the recent past. The next two offices also had leaks today as well.

Turkey and Farmer Tag Game

Physical Education Lesson Plan

S: PE
T: Turkey and Farmer Tag Game
O: K – To teach students a new game. To exercise cardiovascular muscles.
1st – To run for exercise. To practice stopping, starting, and dodging skills.
2nd – To teach game strategies. To help student’s cardiovascular muscles build up endurance and get stronger.
P: Teacher explanation of the game. Demonstration when needed. Divide and organize students.

Four hula hoops are placed in the four corners of the gym. Ten bean bags are placed in each hula hoop. An empty container/tub (the food bowl) is placed in the center of the gym floor.

Four farmers are picked to guard the four hula hoops/feed with a foam pool noodle that has been cut into 2” x 24” pieces (very soft and safe).

The farmers are not allowed to step inside the hula hoops.

The farmer only wants the turkeys to eat at night because that will make them fatter. The turkeys are hungry now, so they are trying to steal food (bean bags) from the farmer’s feed barn. The farmer tries to hit (tag) the turkeys with the pool noodle. If a turkey gets tagged, they must go to the edge of the gym floor and do 10 “turkey” jacks (jumping jacks with wings). If they have a piece of food when they get tagged, they must return the food to the hula hoop and then go do their turkey jacks. If they can steal a piece of food and not get tagged, they should place it in the tub in the center of the gym.

Turkeys are only allowed to take one piece of food at a time.

After a turkey has stolen one piece of food from a farmer, they may not come back to that farmer again until they have stolen from the other three farmers also.

After a couple of minutes, I stop the game, pick 4 new farmers, replace the bean bags so there are 10 in each hula hoop, and start again.

Students love this game!

Stuck in the mud

For yesterday's Thanksgiving dinner, we drove my mother-in-law around the back of the house. Or so we tried. Our four-wheel-drive Subaru Impreza got stuck in the wet grass/mud. This is what it looked like in the dark after four adults pushed the car out.



The ground was so wet that the ruts filled with water by this morning...





In the back left of the last photo is the location for our new storage building. We are still in the process of preparing the area. The pile of branches and wood is from several trees - mainly dead trees - that we had to remove.

Thanksgiving

Happy Thanksgiving!

Traditions...

Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade
National Dog Show
Family
Turkey Dinner and all the fixings

Highlights from today...

Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade: Scotty McCreery lip sync FAIL

National Dog Show: New dog breed - Xoloitzcuintli (phonetic pronunciation is show-low-eats-queen-tlee)

Family...


What should not be part of the traditions is shopping...

Water leak in my office due to pipe leak

Just before entering my office this morning, I noticed a new wet spot on a ceiling tile in the hallway. Not a good sign of things to come...



Overnight, the water leak above my office got worse. Even though there were now six buckets to catch the water, parts of my desk were wet...













Further investigation today revealed that the source of the water was a pinhole leak in a pressurized steam return line. The water was intermittently spraying on the backside of the roof in the attic area making it look like it was originally a roof leak.

Water leak in my office after all-day rain

Yesterday we had a lot of rain in the Athens, Ohio area. The rain started the previous evening, continued overnight, and then throughout the day.

On arriving at work, I heard the sounds of water dripping in the ceiling area not far from a previous leak. I figured it was from the roof due to the rain. By the end of the day, several ceiling tiles were wet and water was dripping into strategically placed buckets both on a shelf and on the floor.



Directly above my office is an enclosed attic area. It is hard to see in that area as there are no lights. Using flashlights to see around, we were able to find water dripping from the roof onto some duct work.

We then checked the outside of the roof and directly above where we saw the dripping there was a damaged section of roof that had been repaired with some sealant.





I am leaving for work and will see shortly how my office is today...

Dark Chocolate: Nestle vs. Hershey's

I am a chocolate lover. No question about that.

There is no better snack then a handful of Hershey's Special Dark Mildly Sweet Chocolate Chips. But they have to be cold. I try to keep a bag at the ready in the refigerator at all times.

Recently the local Walmart was sold out so I tried Nestle Toll House All Natural Dark Chocolate Morsels as a replacement.

So how do they compare?

Nutrition Facts for a 1 tbsp serving size:

- Hershey's: 70 calories (40 calories from fat)
- Nestle: 70 calories (45 calories from fat)

- Hershey's: 4.5 g total fat
- Nestle: 5 g total fat

- Both have 3 g saturated fat
- Both have 0 g trans fat

- Hershey's: 5 mg sodium
- Nestle: 0 mg sodium

- Hershey's: 9 g total carbohydrates
- Nestle: 8 g total carbohydrates

- Both have 1 g dietary fiber

- Hershey's: 8 g sugars
- Nestle: 6 g sugars

- Both have <1 g protein

Which chocolate do I think tastes better? No comparison. The Hershey's Special Dark wins easily!

Lucky / Unlucky Number and Ball Grab

Physical Education Lesson Plan

S: PE
T: Lucky / Unlucky Number – Ball Grab
O: K: To have students practice different locomotion skills.
1st: To improve on reaction time, quickness, and agility.
P: Teacher explanation and demonstration.

Lucky / Unlucky Number

Six cones that are numbered 1 through 6 are placed in different corners/areas of the gym.

Students will be asked to skip, gallop, slide, etc. anywhere within the gym area. When the teacher says “Pick a number,” all students choose a numbered cone area and stays there. The teacher will roll a die and the students whom are staying at that number do not have to do an exercise that all other students do. For “Unlucky Number” it is reversed and if you are standing at the number rolled, you are the only students who have to do the exercise.

Ball Grab

Students will be divided into 4 teams. Each team’s students will be numbered off 1 through 6. Each team will stand on a different side of the gym.

Two balls are placed in the center of the gym.

The teacher will call off a number. The students with that number (one from each team) will run and try to grab a ball and run back to their team. The two students who did not get a ball will try to tag the students with the ball before they make it back to their team.

If a student with a ball gets tagged, they must give the ball back to the other student.

The student that makes it back to their line with a ball scores a point for their team.

The teacher will place the ball back in the middle and call another number. You could also use 4 balls and call 2 numbers.

Pipeline inspections

Since the pipeline explosion on Wednesday, there have been numerous aircraft - mainly helicopters - flying above the pipeline right-a-way.

Today there was one airplane that flew back and forth multiple times. The plane's path was both along the pipeline and also perpendicular to the pipeline.

I was able to capture the following pictures during one of the flybys.









Later in the afternoon I saw a pickup truck with the El Paso Corporation logo visit my neighbor across the road.

Natural Gas Pipeline Explosion (part 2)

Yesterday I reported on a pipeline rupture and subsequent explosion and fire that occurred a few miles away from where I live.

Several news sources have reported that the Morgan County Sheriff's Office announced this afternoon that it appears that the leak was the result of an over-pressurization or failure in the pipe or pipe weld. The explosion likely resulted from the ignition of the natural gas from a spark from debris, static electricity or nearby power transformers. The Division of State Fire Marshal and Morgan County Sheriff's Office investigation has concluded. There was no evidence of an accidental or intentional breach.

The explosion created a 30-foot-wide by 15-foot-deep crater. The blast was felt as far as 12 miles away. It was estimated that about 60 acres burned. Authorities were only able to get within about 1000 yards during the peak of the fires. Flames reported shot 200 to 300 feet in the air.

Natural Gas Pipeline Explosion

This morning there was a natural gas pipeline explosion about 6 miles to the north, northeast of where I live. The explosion and resulting fires occurred around 8:30 am. The location was just across the Athens County line in Homer Township, Morgan County, Ohio.

I was not home at the time as I was already at work in Athens. I first learned of the explosion at 9:34 am through an emergency notification service called Nixle. The service is really nice and if you haven't heard of it, I recommend that you take a look at their website to see if they have coverage in your area.

The incident was originally reported to have occurred near Robinson and Hooper Ridge Roads. Various news reports now say the explosion was near 9436 and 9500 Taylor Road. Several buildings were destroyed and one woman was taken to an area hospital.

The natural gas pipeline is owned by Tennessee Gas Pipeline. I have seen conflicting news reports on the size of the line. For example, Reuters, reported it as a 25-inch high pressure gas line. The Athens News reported it as a 36-inch gas pipeline.

Of particular interest to me is that there is a natural gas pipeline across the road from my house near the ridge top - approximately 700 feet away. If you look at the "System Map" from Tennessee Gas Pipeline, it shows what looks like one pipeline coming up through Southeast Ohio.



Topographic maps such as what is available from trails.com show several pipelines running through this part of the state. The one closest to me appears to be the one that ruptured today if you follow it northward into Morgan County.

The National Pipeline Mapping System has a public map viewer. By selecting Ohio and then Athens County, I can see that there are four Tennessee Gas pipelines within about 1 mile to the west of my house - actually two on the ridge top within 700 feet.



Those two pipelines (the two on the right) travel along together using mostly the same path into Morgan County. But there are places where they split apart briefly such as where they cross my road (Mill Creek Road).

Once in Morgan County, the pipelines split apart again for a brief while.



Based on an aerial photo of today's explosion site, it appears that it is the west branch of those two pipelines that ruptured.

It will be interesting if we ever hear what caused the leak and explosion.

Update: Thursday, November 17: The Athens Messenger reports that this was a 36-inch, carbon steel pipeline that was constructed in Southeast Ohio in 1963.

More water leaks at work

Not too far from my office is a kitchen / eating area. A small leak has appeared on one of the ceiling tiles. Water could also be heard dripping on the light fixture. This is below the 4th-floor penthouse.



It rained overnight and throughout the day. Two water leaks could be heard above the ceiling in an office down the hall from my office. One of the leaks is shown here.



The next picture shows the daytime "fix"...



The nighttime "fix" was a little more elaborate...



My thoughts are that the leaks are coming from this area of the roof. Note the black and green stains where the water tends to puddle.

Water leak in my office

On returning to work after the extended weekend (i.e., last Friday, Veterans Day, was a holiday), I found that water had leaked into my office. The ceiling tile along the wall to an adjoining office was stained and still damp.



I then checked the adjoining office and found one ceiling tile so wet that it was bowed downward in the center.



It had not rained over the weekend. When I left work for the day, the source of the water was still unknown.

Update: Tuesday, November 15: The source of the water is believed to have been from a clogged overflow pipe for an air handler in the penthouse above the offices.

The micro sign µ

I had a need to put a micro sign, i.e., µ, into a web page. I found this site to be useful.

For both the title and the paragraph entry above, I typed "& m i c r o ;" but without the spaces.

I'm back...

After a 5-year absence, I've decided to update my blog. Nothing profound with this update. Not sure exactly how I will use this or how often. But I'm back...