Feeling Like Fall

Here it is the end of October. The heat and drought of the summer seems so far away now that the days are cooler. It rained most of last week, enough to make a dent in the rainfall deficit for the year. It still amazes me how quickly the ground soaks up the water. Normally when the fall rains start we don’t dare drive across the yard to Pauline’s. Even with several inches of rain the ground has been solid enough not to worry about miring up.

LISTENING TO A HERO. This year East Robertson High School offered Military History as an elective course. Their assistant principal and I had talked about the class, and I told him about Mr. Krantz. The school invited him to speak to a couple of classes on Tuesday. His wife, Vicki, and Mom joined us for lunch before he spoke. He had never before talked to high school students, but I believe he captivated his audience. I have heard pieces of his story, but I had never heard everything from start to finish in one sitting.  What is sad to me is that my kids will probably never hear first-hand accounts from him or other World War II vets.  By the time they’re old enough to appreciate the sacrifices and heroism the opportunity will be gone. 

TOO BAD IT WASN’T APRIL 1. My mom is one of those women who has a standing weekly appointment with the hair dresser. Every so often she’ll tell us some “interesting tip” she has read in a magazine while sitting under the hair dryer. Thursday she read that insufficient iron might contribute to thinning hair.

Now at the age of 41, I do not have a serious balding problem, but I am thinner at the crown of my head than I was 20 years ago. (Now gray hair is a whole other issue but mixed with red I just look kind of blonde now.) With this in mind, Mom called the house. Vicki happened to answer and in their conversation she mentioned this and suggested that I get some iron pills and pop one every so often.(She said a daily dose might be too much.) If you are reading this in stunned disbelief then you are having the same reaction Vicki and I did.

Knowing we really didn’t need to let this one go without getting a little mileage on it, I called Kenny (whose hair is much thinner than mine). I told him what Mom had said and suggested he do whatever he imagined with it. Well, he played it to the hilt and called Mom, groaning as if he was feeling terrible. He said to her he had heard that iron was a cure for balding and that he had licked an iron bar all day and now his stomach was hurting. He wondered if she had anything he could take for it. Mom immediately (after she and Aunt Mar had lifted him up in prayer) called us telling all about Kenny, even wondering if he had lead poisoning now, and frantic to tell me not to get any iron pills as they could make me sick. Never suspecting anything between us and Kenny, she had fallen for it hook, line and (iron) sinker. We have been laughing about this all weekend.

In the interest of trying to keep the score even, I must admit that this morning as I was getting dressed for church I absent-mindedly clipped my ID badge from work on my belt. I wore it around church for quite a while. Kenny (of all people) was the one who called my attention to it.

A GOOD LAUGH AT WORK. I have said before that I am blessed to work with the people I do, people I think of as friends. While we take our jobs seriously we don’t take ourselves that way. Our new office situation, while nice to have a place to call home, is not ideal. For example, the only route to one of the bathrooms is through my office. Because this is the only facility on that end of the building we have labeled it for both genders with a sign that reads “Knock First.”

Jeff, the biggest cut up of the crew, makes a big production of knocking when he needs to answer nature’s call. One day I was at my desk watching the show and as he opened the door I screamed to make him think someone was inside which startled him. It has become a running joke.

We have a new colleague, Nicole, who started with us right after Fall Break. Sherri was giving her the tour of the office. I happened to be in the bathroom as she was showing her where the facility was located. I could hear her approaching the door telling about knocking first and the joke Jeff and I have started, even mimicking my scream. That’s when she opened the door WITHOUT KNOCKING and I screamed from inside. The sound of them squealing and their feet scurrying away was humorous. Their faces which were still red when I came out.

FASHION SENSE. Vicki and Jenna went shopping yesterday. Vicki bought Jenna some new shoes. Showing the shoes to the rest of us when she got home she told her brothers, “These are fashion shoes.” Perplexed Nate observed, “But they don’t light up.”

Joe

R and R

We are having some of the most pleasant days now. It is very comfortable being outside. The leaves are also starting to turn.

TIME OFF. We have been on Fall Break this week and it has been so nice just to spend time at home. I started off the break attending the Middle Tennessee Men’s Conference in Springfield. It was hosted by an area church and was really good. There were over 300 attending.

We got to a few of those things we never seem to have time to get to in the normal routine. We also went to visit Aunt Helen who has recently been in the hospital with a crushed shoulder. She is now at a nursing home in Hendersonville.

DREAM FULFILLED. I reported back in July that the kids had decided to save their money for a video game system. Last week they reached their goal and we went to the store and bought a used Nintindo Game Cube along with four games including Monkey Ball and the Lego version of Star Wars. They have had the best time playing together. I came into the living room one time and the boys were standing there with controllers in hand. They were so absorbed in the action that whatever direction they moved their player on the screen they also moved their bodies that direction and even held the controller out as far as their arms could reach.

A NICE VISIT. Last year the Yerglers, my cousins that used to live in New Jersey, moved to Marietta, Georgia. On Thursday morning we packed up and headed south for a quick visit. Daryle and Ann Beth have a beautiful home. We had a great time while we were there. Ann Beth found her daughters’ old train set which won Nate over from the moment he saw it (the wooden type with the magnetic couplers). They also have a ping pong table in the basement which got a good work out.

Friday we went to Stone Mountain (just us, as was is near a tax deadline for Daryle’s accounting firm and Emily had school). Vicki and I had been to Stone Mountain before but the little amusement park was new to us. The kids enjoyed an interactive treehouse, obstacle course and barn with fun activities. We took in a science show and a train ride as well. We also took the cable car to the top of the mountain for a spectacular view of the surrounding area. That night the Yerglers joined us for a late dinner at the California Pizza Kitchen. We came home Saturday.

PROUD OF MY GIRLS. Back in the summer Sharon Robinson suggested to Vicki and Jenna that they sing a duet at church as she accompanied them on her harp. That came to be Sunday as they sang a medley of As the Deer and You Are My Hiding Place. They sang in both services and did a great job. I was a proud husband/father.

Joe

The Cygnus Chronicles Are Born

I did not mean to wait so long to write, but I’ve had something in mind for the 200th issue and my schedule has prevented my plans from coming together as quickly as I wanted. And I must confess that when I’ve had an evening at home I’ve been watching Ken Burns’ The War. At any rate, here we are with a huge milestone for me and our family newsletter.

THE CYGNUS CHRONICLES. It is hard to believe it was over four years ago when I released The Call of the Whistle. I really enjoyed working on that project and as time has gone by I have been so glad that I did it. What has been so frustrating over the years is that I’ve had several other projects like that I’d like to do, but unfortunately, the reality of making a living gets in the way of all that. All these ideas have just had to sit there and stagnate.

This summer I got the idea of shifting from the medium of film to the Internet and the Cygnus Chronicles was born. You will find the site at www.cygnuschronicles.com. At present I have taken the book form of The Call of the Whistle and made it part of this web site for all to enjoy. This content is fairly complete, but I do not consider the site to be at a mature stage yet and it will continue to evolve. I also plan to add two more sections to this site. The next one will be the Missions of the Star Duster and behind that will be stories about raising tobacco here in Robertson County (Kenny, beware -- something about seven pieces of chicken keeps coming to mind).

There will also be a semi-private part of the site devoted to our family. I have taken all the past issues of the Swann Family News and posted them here in blog form (it has an RSS feed but no means of leaving a comment as other blogs do). I also plan to keep some current pictures on the site for you to enjoy. You can find this site at www.cygnuschronicles.com/family/. Be sure to bookmark this page (or subscribe to the RSS feed) as I do not plan to link to it from the main part of the site (i.e. you’ll have to know its there to get to it).

For those of you who like email delivery don’t panic, it is not going away just yet. Sending this out in email form has held me accountable to the project for 200 newsletters now. So for now I will keep the email coming and the blog updated. Actually, as long as dial-up is our only choice for connecting to the Internet here at home updates to the blog will probably lag the email version, especially when pictures are involved. (If you are up late reading this tonight don’t check on the site until morning.)

PAULINE’S BIRTHDAY. Pauline celebrated her 75th birthday Sunday. Celebrating was extra special this year because Will, Darice and the kids came in for a quick visit. They arrived Friday and left Sunday. We partied all weekend long since Will’s and Emily’s birthdays were on Friday. We all ate way too much.

Cameron, who celebrates his 12th birthday today, is now taller than me and Vicki. I think he got a big thrill as I let him get behind the wheel of my truck and drive it around the farm. He’s off to a great start.

All the kids spent the night at our house which allowed those adults who are night owls to stay up late at Pauline’s and play Scrabble. The kids enjoyed playing together. At one point I saw them running around the corn field trying to hit each other with dirt clods. They also took in a couple of movies together.

READING. One of the neat things about first grade is learning to read. Ben is struggling with this some but he is getting there. What was neat was the other day when Ben asked Vicki to read the trivia question printed on a tube of yogurt to him. Vicki looked at it and handed it back to him say, “You read it.” It had not occurred to Ben that he could read anything outside his textbooks and his face flashed from protest to surprise as he took the package and read the question for himself.

DEALING WITH IT. Nate came to me today and showed off a picture he had drawn of our family. He informed me that he had drawn me a silly face. In mock protest I asked, “What if I don’t want a silly face?” He told me, “You’ll just have to deal with it Dad!”

On the subject of Nate I’ll have to say he is one happy kid. He is happy from the time he wakes up to the time he goes to bed. He is happy playing alone or with others. He has the gift of making you feel good. When Jenna, Ben and I leave for school/work in the mornings he stands on the porch and gives us a very enthusiastic send off. He likes to give hugs and when we hug it becomes a contest to see who can squeeze the hardest. He’s pretty strong too!

HOW’S THAT? Vicki warmed up chicken quesadillias for supper tonight. Jenna decided to have a bottle of Lipton’s Green Tea to drink. She ran up on a green pepper in her quesadillia and after test tasting it she said, “That’s hot! If I eat that I’ll have to drink all my green p.... I mean green tea.” At the point she started blushing and cracked up with her parents. He brothers, who didn’t catch this comment, looked at each other and joined in with the laughter.

Joe