saturday morning, and a dog is in my lap, his big black eyes asking me if now's the time he can be on my lap without my kicking him off. absolutely. i love having him on my lap. he watches the cabin and rests there, while I pet him, and we both win. i've had two cups of coffee already and am considering another.

got the laundry and the dishwasher going too, but the main job is resting. work is not absolutely that hard - thursday and friday i mainly watched the same movie over and over again with different batches of seniors - but the commute is hard, i've found, even though it's only 20 miles each way, more or less. it's dangerous curvy road and trucks come by, hugging the line, or crossing it, and going too fast. new rocks appear at the edges showing that things are happening up on the mountain. the weather is uncertain - it's the dry season, but rains and winds happen. i get home, and really don't want to move.

the movie i saw, over and over again, was the life of pi. i had not heard about it before. in this movie, a boy is the lone survivor of a shipwreck, and crosses the pacific in a lifeboat with a full-grown bengal tiger. i tell the students that i think the teacher is showing them this movie because they've just had an epic struggle with a tiger themselves. five classes of seniors laugh weakly at my joke. most of them are burnt out, tired, calm, ready to get out of there. one of them is furious because of the parking situation. they graduate in about two weeks. but, they liked the movie.

to me, embrace the tiger return to mountain meant, in this case, studying filmmaking techniques of showing a tiger pacing around a little lifeboat, a tiger close to death, a tiger in all its fierceness, etc. the filmmaker also captured the wild skies of the pacific, storms and cloud formations, and the wild coast of mexico, which i remember well. the tiger, (spoiler alert) in the end, just walks into the jungle, doesn't say goodbye to him. i guess that makes them at least happy that in their case, there's a graduation ceremony. that senior class, i know them less well than the others; i've subbed for them less. they are cruising, they are almost there.

going to lubbock on friday to clean out my wife's office; hopefully i'll be home by mother's day, which will be sunday. i'm guessing there's about a van full of stuff in that office, but i don't really know, and my own issue will be to play a little music while i'm there. not sure how that will happen. wish me luck. with another trip to las cruces tomorrow, i've been traveling a bit too much, and mostly, now, just hoping to stay on the mountain for a while. when school is out, i'll get my chance.