90

Today is the birthday Luigi Federico Menabrea born 1809 in Chambery, Savoy, France.  Menabrea was a French-born soldier and engineer who made contributions to elasticity theory and became prime-minister of Italy.

Today was also the first day of my 34th year of teaching.  At the end of this year, I will be 56 and have completed 34 years of teaching.  56 + 34 = 90.  The prime factorization of 90 is 3x3x2x5.  Ever since I started teaching older teachers talked about the rule of 90.  The magical number when a teacher's age and years of teaching add to 90.  Once this magical number is reached, a teacher whose career started prior to 1990 can retire with full benefits.  At the end of this year, I could choose to retire.  I have been playing with that thought like I played with Silly Putty when I received it as a gift as a child.  In my mind, I have stretched, bounced, and placed that thought on a newspaper comic.  I really love what I do and this past summer was one of the most carefree that I have experienced in quite so time.  The intersection of two wants.  I assume my obsession with 90 will more than likely will be tossed aside as my Silly Putty was but there are those days when I see that toy in the store.