My annual end of year post... My eighth year of teaching done. I'd like to say it's been a fun, productive year, but it really has not. The environment at Calumet is, to put it lightly, positively cancerous - and there are people actively working to make things more so. It's the type of place (now) where one is judged not on what they do in their classroom (nor on how they do it) but rather on how enthusiastic he or she is about whatever it is the powers-that-be want them to be enthusiastic about...I'll leave it there lest I say too much and incriminate myself, but suffice to say I am astounded by the small-mindedness of some of those around me. That being said, however, it is time to look ahead with wonderment at the summer that lies ahead. Tonight: Patricia and I shall make our annual pilgrimage to La Pena . Tomorrow, I will begin the process of slowing-down...perhaps a double espresso (with creamer), a book of ghost stories by M.R. James (the man who made