4:00 PM - Today was an awesome day. I was unsure how it was going to go. It's only my third day of solo and only eighth overall at this school, but I'm quickly getting my "sea legs" like Lieutenant Dan would say in Forrest Gump. Today's lesson was all about GDP and the national debt and how budget deficits/surpluses happen. Also related it to them because in NYS, they just passed the Bigger Better Bottle Law which now taxes bottled water. Only the second state in the country to put a deposit on water bottles. Should be good considering NYS has 3 billion dollar deficit and this law is supposed to bring in about 115 million dollars in revenue. I think the kids got the most out of the pictures I showed in Germany in 1923-24 and Hungary in the 1940s, which were two of the worst cases of hyperinflation in the world! In Germany, for example, people literally burned money because the money burned longer and was more cost effective than buying the more expensive wood to burn. In Hungary in the 40s, the inflation rate hit the highest inflation rate ever recorded in modern history, hitting 41.9 quintillion percent. To put that into perspective 41.9 quintillion looks roughtly like 41,900,000,000,000,000,000 % Prices doubled every 15 hours!! It truly left them astounded. Oh and I drew on the board. Used a see-saw analogy with expenditures/deficit on one side and revenues/surplus on the other to show how you want to maintain a balanced budget but its rarely possible. Taught all four periods today, the AIS Global studies class, and the 7th/8th grade study hall where a couple of them still call me Mr. Grizzly or Grizzly Adams. Haha. Made my day. :).
Biked 1:02:30 on the wind trainer in the garage. Did about 20 miles. Felt good. Harry came out and was complaining that something smelled. I said it was the cows next door or one of the dogs going about their business on the lawn. He left and afterward, as I was cleaning up the bike and windtrainer.. I found that I had actually burned a hole in the strip of carpet I put the wind trainer on! It had a kink in it that raised a ripple up and I guess my tire was rubbing on it the whole time! HAHAH. Awesome!
Total Time: 1:02:30 Total Distance: 20 miles | 
