Not long after the big speech, I was as good as assigned to the bus lot. I had been heading there, actually, on Don Ricardo Day and it was acknowledged when I was introduced. The Board was in the middle of a hiring/position freeze but hey, what is site management for besides circumventing edicts?

One afternoon I was out on the bus yard surrounded by the crisp meringue beasts. A block away a Metrolink train's throbbing V12 engine announced the relentless march of the commute, and closer to home in a similar trade several buses rolled by on their way from the daily carriage or to dismissals and basketball games. A mechanic's drill whirred a wheel bolt into place by the garage and nearly overhead a small plane sighed into its final careful drop into Van Nuys Airport.

Such excitement in my latest work place! And I was far from the turmoil of students. After leaving another crazy elementary school in 1978 I was not always at my best for a while, sadly. But in growing after each change, now I was at my latest stage as I reflected:

It's not as flashy as machinery or television or cinema, but when a teacher sees the breakthrough of a child getting into a sentence, solving a math problem after some hesitation, it's a quiet burst which rises far over combustion and material on material.

There did not have to be a wait for testimonial occasion to deliver this speech. The sentiments have been expressed to much approval since then, and here they are now as I offer them to a most dear friend and regular reader as she teaches during this writing.