420 Summit

Two summers

We dropped Amanda (or Pooh, or RnBMandy, or Manders, or whatever the hell she is calling herself these days) off at camp yesterday. A wonderful camp that we are all very happy — thank-you Christine — she fell into.

The downside: my baby girl looked so very small next to that big building.

Then we have Nicholas — who doesn’t call himself anything other than grouchy — who should be hanging himself from cliffs in Yosemite as I write this. But he’s not.

He managed to break his arm three days before summer vacation started. Effectively ruling out Outward Bound, and pretty much anything else, for the rest of the summer. So, he gets to spend the summer at home and at the doctors, playing video games and watching his sister pack.

I think I’d be grouchy too.

38 days ago

Vacating

61 days ago

Rolling, rolling, rolling...

As long as I’m pissing everyone off, I may as well add that every single bridge in the entire United States did not suddenly get worse the day a single bridge broke in Minnesota.

They have been junk for a long time and infrastructure improvements are not on anybodies (except a few contractors and their union buddies) list. It isn’t sexy enough — we have a country to protect from terrorists — and we have limited resources.

However, it might be worth noting, that more people died as a result of a single bridge collapse than have died as a result of domestic terrorism in the last seven years. Our roads, electrical grids and hospitals are falling apart while we throw billions of dollars into the wind pretending to fix the same problems in another country.

It’s your money, what do you want to do with it?

380 days ago

Huh... what happened?

I have no idea where the summer went. I’m sitting here watching back-to-school commercials and I haven’t even picked what school the kids are going to. The children are all transitioning so it’s a great time to get them in better schools — except I haven’t a clue where those schools might be. I’d love to discuss it with them but I don’t see very much of the little darlings.

Between Florida and various relatives I figure I’ve had about six days with them since school let out. I know that I haven’t seen much of them because I miss them and that doesn’t happen often.

The Bazoomi and the memorial service is over. We made it.

The Bazoomi rocked and the memorial service was brutal. Pretty much what I expected and while it was hard I’m left with an overwhelming feeling of gratitude to the dozens of people who pulled together for my family. They made music, they cried with us and laughed at our silly stories. They oohed and ahhed at our fireworks and forced food on us when we needed it.

Thank-you. I love you guys.

This weekend, it’s me and the boy. My kids are still gone and my mother and J. are flying to the west coast for a bit of vacation. So, I find myself in charge of a particularly active sixteen-year old and the football team that lives in the garage. I’m a little nervous — the fellows pulled out the furniture and pressure washed the floor of their drug den clubhouse. I think they have some plans.

386 days ago