Getting Things Done

I remember writing before our vacation that we had skipped June and gone straight to July. While we were gone Robertson County got quite a bit of rain, and since we've been home temperatures have been very pleasant. We've continued to get some rain, which is frustrating if you are trying to harvest wheat, but the last week has been very enjoyable.

ONE LAST VACATION REPORT. Vicki normally proofreads my newsletters, but this time she was so busy I simply read it aloud to her. Nate was sitting in the kitchen as I was doing this. When I got to the part where At one point Vicki spoke up and said, "Aren't you going to get some feedback from the kids on our vacation for the newsletter?"

I replied that we had been so busy since coming home that I hadn't had time to ask. Then, since Nate was sitting there I turned to him and asked, "Nate, what was your favorite part of our vacation?"

"Going to the Space Center!"

"And what did you like best about visiting the Space Center?"

"All of it!"

So there you have it, feedback from someone other than me.

MAKING UP FOR LOST TIME. Every time I go on vacation it seems like life throws double at me to make up for lost time. With all the rain we got while we were gone both yards looked pretty rough. Then Vicki had to get into gear with her work pretty quickly as she had scheduled a drive-in movie night for last Friday and has Centri-Kid and Vacation Bible School coming up.

We were double booked Friday evening. As I mentioned, Vicki had scheduled a movie at church, but we also had the Hancock reunion on the calendar. The reunion was held over at the Orlinda Community Center. The kids and I got over there before supper to visit -- Vicki was too busy to go -- and Mom brought Aunt Mar a little later. Unfortunately, their car had trouble on the way over there and gave out on them less than a mile from home. I was able to get them to the reunion, but they were quite late when they got there and had to leave early due to the fact that I needed to be at church for the movie.

FUN AT THE MOVIES. Vicki had a good turnout at church for her movie night. She started out with supper and games before it got dark enough to show the film. The boys and I have also built a model rocket and we shot that off a couple of times for everyone to enjoy. It is amazing how for downrange those things go even when there's no detectible breeze. One kid almost caught the rocket before it hit the ground.

SCATTERED TO THE FOUR WINDS. This week our family is scattered to the four wwinds -- well, two of the anyway. Vicki and Ben (along with over 20 others) are at Centri-Kid in Georgetown, Kentucky, and Jenna is with over 50 youth and chaperones at Mission-Fuge in New Orleans, Lousiana. Nate is not old enough to go to Centri-Kid (he will be next year) so he and I are at home.

Both camps are five days long so last weekend was all about washing clothes and packing. I took Jenna to church late Sunday night and their bus headed out a little after midnight. Then we got up early the next morning, drove to Springfield to pick up rental vans, and saw the kids off by 10:00. We get everyone back tomorrow. I've been in touch with everyone while they are away so I can report that all are doing well and having fun, but I'll save any details for the next newsletter.

ME AND MY SIDEKICK. Even though everyone is away I still have some time off from work so Nate and I have stayed busy all week. I think we've been on the road every day running errands in Nashville, Springfield, White House, Cross Plains, or Milldale. On top of all that we've painted the porch swing, set volleyball poles in concrete filled tires, bought a used mower, gotten Aunt Mar's car fixed, and fixed the tailgate on the van (the latch snapped on me leaving us no way to open the rear hatch), and purchased lumber to make a picnic table. We've gotten a lot done this week and I've thoroughly enjoyed paling around with Nate. We've also had fun playing marbles together. He's quite good.

One thing about spending time with an eight year old boy is that he's full of questions. You can be sure that I've fielded my share of them this week. The best, by far, was this one which was posed all out of the blue as we pulled up to church to run one of our many errands: "Dad, do octipusses ever run out of ink?"

That was such a good one we looked it up on the Internet, and yes, octipi can run out of ink, though I'm sure in time they make more.

By the way, I have Nate convinced that the paint shaking machine at the hardware store plays Twist and Shout while it's shaking paint.

Joe