Inaugural Bike Ride - 2012

      I promise you I won't bore you with photos every Sunday but this week marks the beginning of my biking season for 2012.  I am a recreational bicyclist (and a commuter bicyclist when it works) and the best time for riding is early on a Sunday morning.  For one thing, early morning is the most calm and, I think, the most beautiful time of the day.  I always travel with my camera and I cannot get my fill of eye candy on my ride.  There is also very little traffic at that hour and, since most of my riding is on narrow country roads, the less auto traffic the better.   So, for fun and games, I am going to show you a bit about my late winter ride this morning and then I will revisit from time to time until the season closes on Thanksgiving weekend.  

     I hit the road shortly after 6:00 when the sun was just making his presence known.  If I head out High School Road, I will get spectacular views of dawn at the Laguna de Santa Rosa.

     High School Road ends at Occidental Road and then the view changes to late winter vineyards.  The mustard is blooming but the vines are still spindly.  It won't be long before they begin to bud.

      Daffodils poke up along the road and along the edges of the fields.  I even spotted one poppy plant in bloom already.

    Our town does have whimsey.  These guys are big and they welcome you to one of the local wineries.

     Occidental Road will take you to a bike path which has more vineyards, more mustard, isolated ponds, sweetly beautiful birds and, oh, an occasional kitty to stop and greet.

      Apples used to be the agricultural crop of choice in Western Sonoma County and there are still some apple orchards in between the vineyards.  The apple trees will start to blossom in March and there may still be blossoms on the trees when the annual Apple Blossom Parade and Festival happens in late April (depends on the rain or lack of same).

      The narrow roads I take allow me to breathe in the cool air and  bring my thoughts entirely into the present.  I often like to finish the ride by coming down through town to see what's new in the windows. Copperfield's is our local bookstore and, yes, I do enjoy hanging out there.  I've watched it grow from tiny, to somewhat bigger with a little cafe, to losing the cafe but adding a used bookstore, to, most recently, losing the used book store portion.  That is disappointing on many levels but it is what is.  The town really supports the independent book seller but with Amazon and other on line and big box stores offering cheaper prices, it is not easy to be independent.

      Yesterday, in my walkabout post, I included the photo on the left below.  This morning, I made it a point to go by Copperfield's and take a photo of the wall in its entirety.  If you lay down on the sidewalk and look up, like yesterday, you get the view on the left.  If you stand astride your bike across the street, you can see where the buildings join.

       At People's Music, you can take music lessons and  buy sheet music and instruments.  Check out the drum that was in the window today!

      The post office building was built during the Great Depression and has a cool mural from the WPA days inside.  Sometime I will capture that image for you but not today.  If you get hungry while at the post office, you can do across to the converted old gas station which is now The Grateful Bagel.  

Yummy.

     Ives Park is the oldest park in town.  I have seen it renovated several times so this is not the same play equipment on which my kids played.  But it's in the same place.  The baseball field is in use almost all year round - Little League, Bobby Sox, and adult leagues.  I wonder how the palm tree got here?  There are actually several palm trees in the downtown section.  I imagine they made their way here from SoCal, perhaps in the 1930's .   Park Side School is essentially across the street from Ives Park.  Again, it was constructed in the 1930's (very art deco in style) but has seen updating and renovation over the years.

      Finally, after about two and a half hours of glorious riding, I ride up the driveway, store the bike in the garage and go in to enjoy a hot shower (my fingers were pretty cold), an excellent bowl of oatmeal with blueberries and almonds, and the Sunday paper.  That oak tree in the back is well over two hundred years old and will leaf out impressively sometime during the next four or five weeks.  It is majestic.  

     Sundays are not as wonderful as Saturdays but they sure beat Mondays at anything.

IEP's

       In the educational world, there are things called IEP's.  An IEP is an Individual Educational Plan.  Students  who have some obstacle to learning can qualify for an IEP.  The qualification process typically begins when a teacher, counselor, parent, or even student begins to question a student's ability to learn.  Data about the student's  background, physical, mental, social, and emotional development and academic growth are gathered.  Generally, this information is brought to a formal meeting which includes the student's teachers, parents, any educational support personnel that might be involved, and, depending on the age of the student, the student as well.  At this initial meeting, a plan is made for the student's continued growth and a decision is made regarding assessment for special ed services.

      Assessment for special ed always includes an academic evaluation and might also include a psycho-social evaluation, a speech and articulation evaluation, a auditory and visual evaluation, and other assessments as needed.  Once the assessments are completed, the planning group reconvenes and makes a decision regarding special ed services and / or other kinds of support for the student.  Students can receive special ed services for a variety of concerns including auditory, linguistic, or spacial processing issues, fine or gross motor issues, psycho-social issues, and lots of other concerns.

     Recently, I began thinking about how all people deserve IEP's.  No one learns exactly like another person and we could all use an IEP to help us get through life.  For some people, that IEP might include academic services but others might have other kinds of special needs.  If they had a meeting like the aforementioned IEP meeting for me, there would not have been academic concerns - not as a child and not as an adult.  As a kid, I daydreamed a lot. I STILL daydream a lot  (when I am not running like crazy to get things done).  Although I was always accepted by other kids at school, I preferred to play alone or with one or two other kids at school. I still prefer solitude to much socializing.  I preferred quiet to noisy and I STILL prefer quiet to noisy.  I always wanted to be outside as a kid and I am still energized by being outside, preferably in the sunshine. As a kid, I struggled with not being "good enough" and, yes, I still struggle with that one too.  I don't know that any of these things get in the way of my learning but they can get in the way of my comfort.


     So what would my Individual Educational Plan look like?  Somewhere in the plan would be written an accommodation for my need for silence.  I would be allowed to wear ear plugs or go to a quiet place whenever the world got too loud.  There would also be an accommodation for my need for isolation.  Every day, I would have a guaranteed block of solitude.  In fact, I would have two or three of those blocks of time.  Additionally, as long as I was employed full time, I would also have at least a full day of alone time on the weekend.  My IEP would need to include an accommodation allowing me time to be outside.  If the sun is shining, I would be allowed to be outside, no matter what.  Perhaps a semi annual trip to the tropics should be included in my IEP.   I would also have access to physical and massage therapists on a regular basis so that those parts of my body that are starting to malfunction can be attended to.  And sleep:  there would need to be an accommodation for naps.  They are essential to my recharging.  I always get up early to have some solitude but I pay the price in a lack of sleep.  Naps are the perfect solution.

      I need to keep thinking about this IEP.  Perhaps I can even pay attention to my own recommendations.

     What would your IEP look like?



  ****  The beautiful girl in the photo is the wonderful and spectacularly talented Ms.  Isabel Grace Seekatz.     xoxoxxoxooxxo to her :) Love, Auntie JT