Yes, sometimes I even surprise myself with my cleverness. Literary genius? Definitely not. Obviously this week’s title is a play on the famous phrase from William Shakespeare’s tragedy Julius Caesar. The big question remains however, is where does the other part come from? Well, you’ll just have to keep reading!

It has been yet another busy week, and my exhaustion has not dissipated; rather, I can say that it has become magnified. Is it Christmas break yet? I would certainly not wish away the fall for the respite that the holidays offer, but things are a tad bit crazy right now. Between work and football, I feel like I can’t stop my head from spinning.

My classes have certainly been going well and I am definitely back into the swing of things. It is almost like I never left. It sometimes amazes me how after 14 years in the classroom things have become second nature to me. It is also weird that I don’t think of myself as veteran, experienced teacher, but I am. Young at heart? I think a lot of it has to do with the passion I have for teaching and for history. I hope some of it rubs off!

Now speaking of history, work is progressing on the planned 2014 excursion to Europe. Last week I had an interest meeting which attracted 12-13 kids; I’m sure there were many who did not know about it despite my multiple announcements. The plan is to travel with our sister school St. Ignatius and hopefully we have enough kids to fill a bus. We haven’t yet decided on an itinerary, but that will be taken care of this week. Probably France, Belgium and the Netherlands…sounds like an awesome adventure!

Stone of remembrance, Bretteville-sur-Laize Canadian War Cemetery, Cintheaux, France.

So, what are these dawgs and bandits you speak of Dave? I’ve used it in the title, so it must be something of significance. Well, it is actually. Since 1999 I have coached high school football, and for the past 10 years of that time I have been the head coach of our school’s junior team (JV for any American readers). I currently coach the linebacking corps, as well as serving as the defensive coordinator. In our 3-5-4 defensive scheme (3 down linemen, 5 linebackers and 4 defensive backs), the outside linebackers are called dawgs and the left/right inside ‘backers are called bandits. Linebackers are the heart of this blitzing defence, thus the need to unleash them! We play our first scrimmage on Thursday, so we’ll see how things pan out.

I’m currently getting a double dose of coaching, as I’m taking on a pretty substantial role with the boys Tyke football program. They were direly short of coaches, so I volunteered my services and experience to teach these 5, 6 and 7 year olds. It is certainly a challenge! We have not set any teams yet, so it is mainly just fundamentals for now. Introducing offensive and defensive schemes to them should be quite the interesting endeavour.

Needless to say that with all of these things going on, that any railway work has been put on the back-burner. I’m just too tired to concentrate on such things as writing. I’m hoping to get back to my Leeblain article at some point in the future. Leeblain however is on my mind. Even though I’m very busy with other things, I’m still working on the historic preservation at the site of this ghost town. I’ll probably have more news to report in the next few weeks.

I did spend some time working on some railway related stuff on Saturday. I’m still planning to head to Minnesota to visit the Paulson Mine in a few weeks. In preparation for that trip, I decided to do a bit of research. Despite several explorations, particularly this spring, I have been unable to clearly determine the exact route the railway took near the mine. My attempts this spring were frustrated by the new forest growth, so I’m hoping that with the dropped foliage I will be more successful.

To aid in my quest, I pulled out a historic map that was included in U.S. Grant’s geological survey of the area. Using the data on the map, I tried to plot some likely locations for the railway. For now I am optimistic as to what I’ll find. They say success is built on failure, and I’ve failed a lot in this regard. Maybe my luck will change this time…I guess I’ll find out soon enough.

Paulson Mine area, Minnesota.

Anyway, I better get rolling. As usual, there will be more to say next week. Until then…