Summer Fun

The Fourth of July is always bittersweet for me. On the one hand I enjoy celebrating Independence Day and all that goes with that, but on the other hand, I realize the next page on the calendar brings us back to school. Summer break is half over.

TRASH AND TREASURES
Our town has had its annual yard sale for another year. The kids and I went for the Friday morning of the event (the 24th). We didn’t buy much but enjoyed walking around and talking to neighbors. As we were leaving I spotted a teacher I work with and texted to see if she was enjoying herself. She said she was and added, “Your town is crazy!” I assured her we would return to our normal, sleepy state within a couple of days.

RUNNING
Ben has joined the cross country team at school which means a lot of running. The safest place we have for him to run around here is across the farm to Henry Road and back. One trip is about a mile and a half.

Nate hasn’t joined the team, but he has decided to take up running as well. He says he can tell a difference from when he started. He’s not stopping to walk as much and is starting to make a second trip at least to the TVA tower that is along the way.

Ben had an interesting experience while running one day. As he was heading back toward the house a black helicopter flew over and circled him twice. He was getting a bit nervous and was going to run into the trees when he got to where the big pond used to be but the chopper flew off before he got there. We asked if he thought it was a law enforcement aircraft or from TVA to inspect the power lines. He said there were no markings that he could see. Vicki asked him if he was acting suspicious. He said he didn’t think so.

WATCH YOUR HEAD
Speaking of interesting experiences, the other day I was taking the garbage out to the truck (we do not have garbage service here so I have to haul it off) when I heard a loud cracking noise in the pecan tree above my head. I was ready to bolt when a very large tree limb hit the ground some 35 feet from where I was walking. That certainly got my attention!

We’ve had a lot of storms move through in the last week or so. There have been lots of limbs, tops or trees, and even whole trees down around here. It rained so hard one night that when I got up and checked the rain gauge the next morning it had collected over five inches of water.

ISTE 2016
ISTE stands for the International Society for Technology in Education. This professional organization has been around for about a quarter century, and I was invited to go to the ISTE 2016 conference in Denver this year. I was one of four folks from Davidson Academy to attend. We left two weeks ago today (June 26) and got home that Thursday (the 30th).

I won’t go into all the details, but this was the largest conference I’ve ever been to. I was one of over 14,000 in attendance. There were all sorts of interesting workshops and presentations available. I estimated that the vendors in the exhibit hall occupied 9-10 acres of floor space. I saw and heard so much my head was swimming. Now that I’m back home, I have several ideas I’m excited about for the courses I’m scheduled to teach in the upcoming school year.

WHILE I WAS AWAY…
The dentist had told us recently Jenna and Ben needed to have their wisdom teeth removed. Their surgeries were scheduled for the week I was away. Ben had his removed on Monday, and Jenna’s came out on Wednesday. Both had done well after their surgery, and I came home to swollen cheeks and funny videos.

QUIET AROUND HERE
The boys were with our church youth group at camp last week. I wound up driving the group up to Aurora, Kentucky, in a bus last Sunday and returned to get them on Friday. We only heard from Ben one time by text. Here’s how the conversation went.

Me: Ben, y’all having fun?

Ben (2 hours later): We are.

Me: Succinct as ever.

Jenna: Anything interesting? Send us  pic of your fun times!!!!!!

Vicki (24 hours later): Hey boys! How goes it?

As it turned out they had a great time and came back telling of all sorts of fun activities such as tubing on the river, playing Gaga Ball (whatever that is), and hanging out at the rec lake where they had water slides, inflatable toys, and a zip line. It sounded like camp was a hit with them this year.

Joe