The Start of Summer Break

I think I simply shut down when school ended this year. It wasn’t a smooth landing and I was glad to get on the ground. I’ve not been motivated to sit at the computer but it’s past time to catch up.

SCHOOL’S OUT! The kids had just two days of school left when I wrote last. Ben has now officially ended his career at East Robertson Elementary. All three kids are excited about having two months of downtime.

Jenna went home with her friend Mackenzie for a slumber party with friends on the last day of school. We laugh because every time Mackenzie invites Jenna over she asks Jenna to pack her copy of The Phantom of the Opera. This time was no different.

WEEKEND GUESTS. We enjoyed a quick visit from the Cotter family over Memorial Day weekend. They arrived two weeks ago today (the 25th) and left the following Monday morning (the 28th). They enjoyed our Florida like weather with unseasonable temps approaching 90°F. As a matter of fact, I called Dianna last Friday to tell her how much they lucked out as we were having unseasonable temps in the other extreme -- it was overcast and cool with the high barely breaking 60°F. Vicki even turned the heat on to knock the chill off the house which is really saying something when she does that.

We all enjoyed our visit with Jim, Dianna, and the boys, but I was especially glad Aunt Mar had a good visit with them. We ate supper at Aunt Mar’s both Saturday and Sunday. Sunday was extra special as the Bradley-Dee branch of the family joined us. The kids enjoyed playing in the yard with each other, the kittens, and the large plastic balls that Judy brought. We (kids large and small) also got several corn hole games in.

MEMORIAL DAY FLAGS. One Boy Scout tradition is to place flags on the graves of veterans for Memorial Day. This kids and I participated in this at the National Cemetery in Madison three years ago, but we have not been able to do so the last couple of years since I have been out of town for the 73rd Bomb Wing Reunions. (I couldn’t fit in this year’s reunion, which was held in Washington, DC, with the 313th Bomb Wing.) This year we decided to help out at some local cemeteries and since Alex and Chris are Scouts they brought their uniforms and went along with us. There was a large group of us placing flags and we covered two cemeteries in a little over an hour.

INDIANA JONES. After the Cotters left, we were trying to decide what we could do for some fun on Memorial Day. Vicki looked in the paper and saw where the Belcourt Theater in Nashville was ending it’s run of Raiders of the Lost Ark that day so we loaded up in the van and headed out. It was fun for me and Vicki to see it on the big screen again and a rare opportunity for the kids to even see it in the theater. From there we did a little shopping and ate out before coming home. It was a fun afternoon.

CAMPS. All last week the boys attended basketball camp in White House. Being boys they didn’t come home saying a whole lot about it, but I think they had a lot of fun and polished up a few skills along the way. The camp was held at White House Heritage High School which is a local rival to East Robertson. They got “Heritage Basketball” teeshirts, but I don’t think they really want to wear them out in public.

This week Nate is going to Cub Scout Twilight Camp. This is the evening version of Day Camp. This has kept our evenings pretty full even though Nate has been carpooling with other scouts from White House. He has come home every night talking about all the neat things he has done. I know he’s played a different sport each night: kick ball, flag football, soccer, and volleyball. This year’s camp focused on science and he did a lot of activities toward geology, forestry, and astronomy. He even got the once in a lifetime opportunity to see the transit of Venus across the face of the sun (the next occurrence is in 105 years). All in all, he’s had a very full week.

BOTTOMLESS PIT. Nate is our bottomless pit. I don’t know what our food bill will do when both boys are teenagers, but if Nate’s appetite is any indication, Lord help us. The other day he got up from eating breakfast, skipped putting his dishes in the sink, and headed straight for the pantry. When Vicki asked him what he was doing in there he said, “I’m looking for a snack!” Needless to say, his snack had to wait a while.

A CLEANER HOUSE. Since I’ve had a little time off and some pleasant weather to go with it I decided to clean out the red house. (This is the old building with the shed attached where we park the truck and van. It still has a hint of red paint, hence the name.) Both floors of this building had accumulated over 40 years of junk and garbage since Mom and Dad lived here and I thought it was high time to do a little cleaning. Fortunately most of it was stuff that could be recycled like scrap metal (mostly old stove pipe), cardboard, and magazines. After that there was very little to take to the dump. The worst part was all the rubble from years where the plaster had crumbled and fallen to the floor as well as stuff critters had brought in while seeking shelter.

Jenna has been a real trooper on this project as she’s helped out for practically all of it. She cut a four day job in half for me and I’m glad to get all that mess out of there.

By the way, in reference to the story about my great-grandfather’s roller skates I wrote back in September 2008 (see http://swannfamilynews.blogspot.com/2008/09/five-years-and-counting.html), I didn’t see any scars on the floor from skates. Of course, I think some of the original house was torn down long ago, but there’s no remaining evidence of skating on the existing upstairs floor. There is, however, an old loom up there which made me wonder how much cloth was made on it back in its day.

Joe