Closing it down

I'm movin' up in the world! The division accepted my request for a transfer to a middle school the week before last. That's not the real reason for my posting this evening, though. The local laminator is a little messed up, and now everyone's smelling the nastiness of burning plastic. That contraption and I do not co-exist well in the workplace, but changing it and maintaining it is one of my duties. I don't know when someone last cleared the gunk from the heat rollers on that thing, but I suspect all that gunk probably jammed up one of its sensors. This particular model usually takes 15 mins. to heat up, only it was over 25 mins. today and it continued to heat up. Then came the (ugggh) stench of burning plastic as smoke (or steam -- the jury is still out) started wafting up from the heat rollers. This happened the other day as well, but now the plastic is all messed up on the rollers. This laminator is offline!
I got in touch with the local service company, and man, is the price for the guy just walking through the door steep! I know laminators ain't cheap, but WOW! And then it's additional for the parts. Almost as nauseating as the stench of burning plastic. So that was my day today. After some conferring, it was decided that the service guy needed to come through the door and have a look at the mess. He'll be in next week. I'm relieved, to be sure. I did not want my parting act to have the flavour of 'burn in...' That phrase went through my head over the last couple of days whenever I thought about that miserable laminator. Things will be (hopefully) taken care of before I make my switch.
I am going to miss those kids (and the staff as well). But I've got a whole bunch of new kids to look forward to. I guess that's about all for now. I'm reading Hegel and trying to make sense of it. Now it's time for the weekend. BYE.

Strange feeling

One publishing house I've come to respect is Shambhala. If not for this group, so many great teachings and documents would have never reached the West. I have several books from this publishing house already, and know there are many more that I have yet to read. What I like about Shambhala is that they do not dumb down the material. They are trying to make the teachings available to everyone, but they do warn if this or that is too difficult for the beginner down this path. Reading books published by this group brings a smile to my face and a delight to my spirit, so when I come across something from them in the library, I eagerly seize upon it and get reading. My most recent discovery is the Diamond Heart series, and I've started with the 4th book in the series. I also have the 2nd book in the series in waiting, and will get to it as soon as possible.
This book, I'll admit, troubled me for a while. It screams 'California' and 'New Age' in my head, and I usually avoid 'New Age-y' stuff like the plague. The music works out all right, for the most part, but the books I have come across relating to 'New Age' usually annoy me after a while. They talk in enigmas and circles, and they give me a headache. Books on Buddhist teachings give me occasional headaches, but I come away eventually feeling good. Books I have branded as 'Californian' give me a headache and a feeling of 'get this book away from me'. This feeling came over me as I read 'Indestructible innocence' (4th book in the series), but I'm going to keep reading it. I'm not a glutton for punishment, and I do have a reason to get through to the end of this book.
It's turning out to be well-trod ground, which I do not have a problem with. What is well-trod for some is the road n'er travelled by others. Those who wish to start on the path but would rather avoid the Buddhist terms and use terms they can better understand would find this book (can't speak for the series yet) to be a good choice. I don't like New Age because it occasionally gets bogged down in convolution and the 'hippy-dippy', but this book is trying hard to avoid such detours. I'm going to see this journey through just in case I come across something yet undiscovered. Anyway, that's what's going on in my life. BYE.