Merry Christmas to All!

I’m sitting on our couch as I write this enjoying the sight of our Christmas tree standing in the corner across from me. The house is quiet, all I hear is the clock ticking and the wind chimes outside. A fire in the fireplace would round this out nicely, but I don’t trust the flue to be safe. This is one of my favorite times when most of the busyness is behind us allowing us to coast into the holiday and celebrate with those we love.

I have mentioned before that Vicki rejoined the Chorale at the Willow Oak Center for the Arts in Springfield. They had been practicing selections from Handel’s “Messiah” for several weeks in preparation for their concert back on the 2nd. Mom and I went and were met there by Jenna and three of her friends from school. (The boys were at a birthday party for a friend.) The Chorale did really well and it was a great way to shift gears from Thanksgiving to Christmas.

Jenna has been home from school for over a week now, and she hasn’t sat still very much. Her schedule has been loaded with working at Historic Perk, baby sitting, and making pies and other goodies to sell for her next mission trip. It’s been a pleasure to have her home, but we rarely see her.

The boys took their last mid-term exams on Tuesday. They both seemed confident with their performance on the exams and looking at their first semester report cards they have reason to be pleased.

I had an enjoyable semester. I laugh when I call myself the only shop teacher in the history of the school. I ran a STEM project in my classes where we made and raced pinewood derby cars. Our race was on the 7th and I’ve never seen a bunch of 8th graders more excited about anything that they were with that project. All 54 cars ran well, but of course there can only be one speed winner. I also had some very pretty designs. One car looked indistinguishable from a Wii remote. A couple of other cars were really cute Angry Birds (and we learned that gluing feathers on, while a nice decorative touch, does nothing for speed).

We hosted a Christmas party for Ben two Saturday’s ago (the 9th). He invited several friends from school over. They all got here around 6:00. We fed them supper and they had fun playing Jack Box Games and then exchanging gifts by playing Dirty Santa. The girls all left around 10:00, but the boys spent the night and slept in late the next morning. Ben even made them pancakes before sending them on their way.

Basketball season is in full swing for us now and we are enjoying a 4-2 record so far. We got a rough start in that our season started later than all other schools for some reason and we opened against Goodpasture, probably the toughest team we’ll ever face.

Vicki and I are very grateful that Ben is not playing on the JV team any more. That made for some very long evenings sitting on bleachers last year. His skill and this last growth spurt has earned him a place in the starting lineup as our team’s center. I will admit I took secret pleasure when we played East Robertson the other night and our emcee introduced Ben to the crowd saying, “And at center a junior from Cross Plains, Tennessee, Benton Swannnnnnnn.!” (We won that game, but East made us earn it. Ben and I had fun on the way home speculating how things might have been if we had never moved to DA and he had been playing for East.)

Ben is not a high scoring player. We have several accurate three point shooters so a lot of the strategy is to get the ball out to them. Ben does play a really solid defensive game with several blocks and rebounds to his credit. What’s also fun is to watch as this team is learning to function as a unit. We’re starting to catch where two players will make quick eye contact, seem to know what each other is thinking, and move into action. We see Ben set a lot of picks that way.

While I’m on the subject of sports I want to back up and mention that the Cross Country team had their banquet back on the 1st. Coach Toney recognized Nate as the most improved male runner this year. Not too bad for a kid that had to be talked into participating in the summer conditioning back in June.

We didn’t get to see Star Wars: The Last Jedi until yesterday as that was the first opportunity we had when all our schedules lined up. I will say that we all felt it was probably the best Star Wars movie we’ve seen. After that we took care of the last of our Christmas shopping. Vicki made the final grocery run today and this evening we go to Kenny and Lori’s annual Christmas Eve Eve party.

So, as we head into Christmas Eve, Christmas Day, and the final week of the year I hope you have a very Merry Christmas.

Joe

Thanksgiving

I hope those of you reading this have had a wonderful Thanksgiving. We have so much for which to be thankful. This time I have several family tales to tell, and I am truly grateful to be able to share them. So, here we go!

SUNDAY SCHOOL CLASS PARTY
It all started several weeks ago with me texting Vicki a link about the soon to be released movie Murder on the Orient Express and following that with, “Want to go out on a date?” This plan morphed into a Sunday School class outing a week ago Friday night (the 17th) which was really fun.

We all decided to meet at Sam’s Sports Grill at the Indian Lake shopping center in Hendersonville at 5:30, have dinner together, and then walk over to the theater to see the show. The problem was, this was the night the Christmas tree in the center of the plaza was going to be lit so parking was not easy. Still, the nine of us arrived at the appointed time and enjoyed our meal together. Then we walked over to the theater to buy our tickets. The problem was, one of the high schools in the area had assigned the book to read and the students could go see the movie for extra credit. The show was sold out.

Not to be outdone, Vicki got on her phone and bought tickets to the same movie over at the theater in Gallatin. The 15 minute trip to Gallatin wasn’t the issue so much as waiting in line to pick up our tickets when we got there (they don’t have a kiosk for this purpose) and we wound up getting seated (separately, of course) just as the movie started. We all enjoyed the show, though I think Vicki has gained legendary status for her driving.

LES MISERABLES
Some time ago we saw where Les Mis was coming to TPAC so we bought tickets. In a Facebook comment conversation Jenna found out Kenny and Lori were thinking about going so when she went to buy our tickets she picked up and additional seven for them. Our tickets were for the Sunday evening performance. We (the five of us) ate at a good little pizza place just down the street from the Maxwell House Hotel.

I will say the production was very well done and we all enjoyed the evening immensely. My only problem was that I knew nothing about the story going in. The only association I had with the story going in was the iconic picture of the little girl (Cossette) you see on Les Mis posters. I was very thankful when intermission came and I could say, “Would someone please tell me what’s going on here?” Jenna came to my rescue and I was able to enjoy the second act even more!

BEN’S VANITY
Getting out the door to see Les Mis wasn’t without a little drama. Ben and Nate both have identical school jackets that they got for running cross country, and Nate couldn’t find his when it was time to leave. He was understandably miffed because he clearly remembered wearing it to church and in the flag football game that followed and hanging it up on the hook in the back hall when he got home just a couple hours earlier. He wound up going upstairs and getting Ben’s old jacket from last year. Of course, he was grumbling about this as we got on the road and he was accusing everybody of moving it.

It was the next evening when Ben finally confessed to hiding Nate’s jacket. He knew he wanted to wear his school jacket, correctly predicted that Nate would want to wear his as well, and hid Nate’s jacket because he didn’t want Nate to match him. If those are the worst squabbles we ever have in our family I won’t complain. I’m still chuckling because the plan backfired when Nate wore Ben’s old jacket and matched him anyway.

COOLING PROBLEMS
Vicki and Jenna went grocery shopping for Thanksgiving Monday evening. It was when they got home and we were putting the groceries away that we noticed something amiss: the ice cream in the freezer drawer was soupy. As we felt other things in the drawer we could tell the unit was not cooling as it should so we moved everything from there to the freezer out in the shop.

Some refrigerators have separate cooling for the freezer and the fridge sides. This is not the case for our unit and it was evident the next morning that our fridge was not cooling either. I went to the used appliance store in Springfield hoping to find something dirt cheap to get us through until ours could be repaired, but they only had three units in stock for much more than I wanted to pay. I was leaving town when Vicki called and said she found someone in White House who had posted on Facebook that they had an old fridge they wanted to get rid of for free. So now we have a dusty old unit in the shop that saved about half our food from going bad.

Wednesday morning the appliance repair guy came by to look at our fridge, but the problem was beyond his ability to fix. He recommended someone else and estimated the repair would cost $600-$800. At this point Vicki and I decided to see if there were any early Black Friday sales we could take advantage of. We spent the whole afternoon shopping around half of Nashville and wound up buying a fridge at the Sears Appliance Outlet for a little over $800.

We stopped in White House on the way home to buy food to replace what had spoiled that we would need for Thanksgiving dinner. I was waiting for Vicki to come out of Walmart when Mom called to let me know she had fallen. I called the kids and told them to go help her.

A NEAR MISS
Mom had been getting her supper together when she lost her balance and fell. It must have been a controlled fall because nothing is broken, though it happened so fast she doesn’t remember much about it. The kids found her on the floor in the kitchen in front of the microwave. She was not complaining of pain so the kids got her up.

By the time we got there from White House Mom was sporting a small knot a couple of inches above her left ear and had several bandages on her right forearm where she was bleeding because her skin is so thin. She demonstrated that she is able to walk as she normally does so I am thankful we did not spend Thanksgiving in the hospital with her.

Since then she has not complained of being sore and has been healing as nicely as someone who bruises easily can heal.

I SHOULD HAVE SPENT THE $81
To get back to the fridge saga, I should have spent the $81 and let Sears deliver and install the new fridge next week. You’d think installing a new fridge should be as simple as hooking up the water line and plugging it in. This is not the case in a house built in 1908.

Our back door is too narrow for either fridge. We had thought we could simply remove the door handles and get the old fridge out and the new fridge in by the front door. No, we had to take the doors and hinges off the fridges to go that route. (The old story that this house is a bad buy because you can’t get a casket out the front door kept coming to mind.) This is no easy thing when the ice maker and dispenser is built into the fridge door. It took the five of us about four hours to make all this happen and we went to bed at 11:30 with the old fridge still in pieces on our front porch. Our new fridge is dispensing water and ice, but I think something in the waterline is restricting pressure because the ice cubes are small and the water flow is little better than a trickle.

IN SUMMARY
In spite of all these challenges we have had a wonderful Thanksgiving break. The weather has been clear and nice so the boys and I were able to chop all the leaves in both yards and store the mower away for the winter. Our Thanksgiving meal was very nice and we were able to have our traditional menu minus the sweet potato casserole and homemade desserts. We are still working on leftovers. And now the majority of our Christmas decorations are up and we are ready to celebrate the Advent season.

Joe

Falling Leaves

I really enjoy seeing the trees display their fall colors. I was wondering if we would have much color this year. Our trees usually peak the week before Halloween. This year they are about two weeks late. Be that as it may, our landscape has been transformed from green to a mix of yellow, orange, red, and brown and leaves are beginning to carpet the yard. I’m glad the clean up isn’t ongoing like mowing throughout the summer.

Speaking of being late, we didn’t have our first real frost until last week. Some days there’s a nip in the air. Others are still warm, which is why the trees have been late to turn.

October was a busy month for us. The boys’ last cross country meet were the regionals two Thursdays ago (the 26th). Nate finished his season by setting a new personal record of 21:54. Ben ran on a sprained ankle and finished the course with a time of 20:41. Ben had one day break and then basketball practice started up the following Monday. This will keep him busy after school through February at least. Their first game is next month.

On the social side of things Ben went to the high school dance back on the 21st. This was where he sprained his ankle. He met up with his friends for dinner in Nashville before the big event. When the dance was over they headed over to one friend’s house that is very close to school and danced some more. After that he went to spend the night with one of his buddies. Nate is more like his father in this regard and decided to skip out on the event.

The next Saturday Vicki, the boys, and I went to see the DA Theater Department’s performance of Peter and the Starcatcher. I have enjoyed all of the productions I’ve seen our school perform, but I think I enjoyed this best. The kids did a great job with the play, but I have also had enough of them in class or worked with them on tech support issues that I knew most of the students. That made it very fun for me to watch this time.

That same night Jenna and several of her friends from school went to Adams to see Spirit. Their play was outside and it was a cold night for an outdoor performance. They all stopped by the house for supper before heading to Adams.

I think Jenna is having a good semester at school. I know she stays busy. She’s always got a couple of papers that she’s working on for class when we talk to her. I know religion majors have to write a lot. She told Vicki that she was comparing assignments with a friend who is an English major and her friend was astounded at how much more Jenna has to write.

Mom is doing well. We sold her car last week. This was a hard decision for her, but the fact was it was never being used and we were facing some expensive repairs just to keep it running to sit in the garage. Now, at least, we can pull the van into the garage when we pick her up or drop her off. This shortens the distance to the house and will keep her out of the winter weather as it gets colder.

This is out of chronological order, but I think the highlight of the month was getting away over our fall break which was October 6-10. Don and Penny were kind enough to let us use their lake house again. We all needed some time to get away and rest and this fit the bill. There’s nothing really exciting to report about our trip. We visited a couple of antique malls and ate out several times. The rest of the time we just enjoyed each other by playing games and watching movies.

At any rate, that summarizes the last five weeks for us. It’s hard to believe that we have one more full week of classes before Thanksgiving break. Then we are on the downhill run to the end of the year.

Joe

The End of Summer

Swann Family News (swannfamilynews.blogspot.com)
The End of Summer
Sunday, October 1, 2017
Number 552

It’s been a while since I wrote last so I thought it was time to send out an update, though there’s not much to report. We are approaching the end of the first grading period at school and it’s been fairly routine around the house since school got under way. Actually, we all seem to revolve around the house in our own circles. The boys and I go to school early and get home after cross country training. They’ve also been picking pumpkins for Steve on the weekends. In the evenings they have homework and I have lessons that I should be planning. Vicki goes to work and does her thing in the evenings as well. And we don’t see much of Jenna because she is away at college.

Speaking of cross country, we’ve watched as the boys have run better and better over the season. I was with the boys at a meet on Tuesday where Nate beat his personal record by a minute and thirty-five seconds! That boy has no more baby fat now (his doctor was a bit concerned about his drop in weight until we told him how much Nate is running now).

We were at another meet in Nashville weekend before last and decided to make a family day out of it. Jenna met us at the used book store and then we went out to the Korea House restaurant for lunch. This meant that the boys had to bring a change of clothes and change in the van. While this was happening underwear was mentioned and Ben began explaining to us that their running shorts have built-in underwear (like swimming trunks). This made Vicki ask, “Nate, you don’t have your bare butt on my van seat back there do you?”

There was a long pause. Then with a smile in his voice he replied, “Not any more!”

We had thought that fall came early this year but were sadly mistaken. It got cool after the storm that was Harvey blew through. We even turned on the heat for a few nights. Then a couple of weeks ago things started to warm up and get humid again. The days have felt like July and August. At least the nights have been a bit cooler. The worst part is that the rains from Harvey and Irma hatched all the mosquitoes and we’ve hardly been able to step out in the yard without being eaten alive. It has begun to cool off again. Hopefully we’ve seen the last of the hot weather for a while.

This swing from cool to hot weather did a number on me and Vicki. I came down with a cold or sinus infection early last week, but got over it quickly. Vicki got sick after that, and she took longer to shake it and feel human again. We’re all back to good health now.

You know, I began writing about our family 14 years ago last month. A lot has changed as our kids have grown. As I indicated above, Jenna is away at school. The boys are beginning to step out into their own lives as well. It is as it should be. While we interact every day there are fewer anecdotal stories or cute things said than there used to be. Empty nesting is still several years away, but we see it clearly on the horizon now.

My ramblings may be less frequent and less interesting than they used to be, but that’s okay. I am glad the boys have this time right now. With Nate not yet driving they get to spend a lot of time together which offers Nate more social opportunities than he might otherwise have. They have a lot going on that brings them together. We just wonder how the intermediate step will play out when Ben is away at college. You see, both boys enjoy their upstairs bedroom, but both of them like to have the other up there. Used to be that Ben would call for Nate to come upstairs where he was ready to retire for the evening. Now it goes both ways. The other night Ben was downstairs studying and we heard Nate ask him when he was going to go through a major adjustment. Nate is going to be one lonely boy here at home in a couple of years.

Joe

Rachel

This edition of our family news is not fun or lighthearted because there has been a death in the family, a type of death that I have never had to process before. If this is not something you want to read right now I recommend stopping here.

Early last Monday morning as I was preparing for the day I received this text from Kenny: “Morgan went into labor around 11:00 but the baby no longer has a heartbeat. We are preparing for a sad time. Please pray for Morgan and Jimmy.”

I felt like I had received a knock out punch from Muhammad Ali. As far as I know, there were never any health concerns with the baby who, after the gender reveal party back in the spring, was named Rachel Elizabeth Ring.

I’ve seen a lot of death in my lifetime. Looking back on my childhood, I visited the funeral home and attended funerals a lot for someone whose family is not in the business. If you only consider my relatives who live locally, I was born a full generation behind most of my first cousins (consequently, my children are about a half generation out of sync with our family) so my grandparents, aunts, and uncles were all much older than those of my classmates in school. It was only natural that funerals would be a part of my life.

This never really struck me until I got to college and I was going to funerals often enough that my friends started to take notice. I remember one roommate asking if I was going to have any family left by the time I graduated. As we talked I learned that he had only attended one funeral in his life and he was so young he barely remembered it. He asked me questions about funeral customs as if he were from a foreign country learning about the practices of a different culture. Keep in mind this fellow, like me, was born and raised in Middle Tennessee. As other conversations happened I discovered many of my friends had only lost one or two loved ones in their lives. I had, by my early 20s, lost count of how many times I had served as a pall bearer.

I have seen many people I love pass away too early due to some sort of ailment—Dad had heart disease; Uncle George, Aunt Helen, and Robert Hancock all had cancer; Mr. Kenneth (Rachel’s great grandfather) had kidney failure which lead to a staph infection—but I am glad to say that as tragic as that is I’ve not lost anyone due to an accident, military service, etc. Most have simply been old and their bodies were worn out. This is different, even different from when Ethan lost his battle with brain cancer before his 10th birthday.

I wish I could eulogize Rachel. I wish she had gotten the chance for us to get to hold her and love her and watch her grow up. That opportunity was not meant to be, and I really don’t know what to do with that. I stood there in the cemetery watching as Rachel’s grandfathers performed the honor of being her pall bearers. One thing grabbed hold of me and has not let me go.

Her casket was so small.

Caskets shouldn’t be that small.

I have always noticed headstones with a lamb on top or with dates too close together when walking through an old cemetery. Now I know just a little something of how that feels.

I went back to the cemetery Saturday night after closing Mom’s curtains. In all the searing pain I am confident of this: Rachel is in the presence of the King, basking in the radiance of our Creator. We have His word that all with be restored because death will not win. And if Rachel has hooked up with Mr. Kenneth, Uncle George, and my dad there is no telling what sort of mischief they’ve already gotten her into.

Please pray for Morgan, Jimmy, and their families.

Joe

Some Clouds with a 100% Chance of Eclipse

Today the long awaited, much anticipated total solar eclipse blocked out the sun across the continental United States. We were fortunate not just to live within the path of totality, but for the centerline of that path to pass about a mile north of our house. The only traveling we had to do was go over to Mom’s house so that we could help her outside to enjoy this once in a lifetime event.

People can say what they want to about the random chance that the earth, moon, and sun being so perfectly positioned so that this event even happens. For me, the words of this Jewish blessing more aptly fits the bill. “Blessed are You, LORD our God, King of the universe, who makes the works of creation.”

I remember there being some excitement about the total eclipse of February 26, 1979, but it was so far north of here that there wasn’t a lot for us to see. And to be honest, I’m probably confusing that event a bit with the eclipse on May 30, 1984, (just five days after my high school graduation) which was closer to here, but being annular was less impressive. What I really recall is that sometime about midday the sky got kinda dim. We’ve had five eclipses in this part of the world since then, but none of them impressive enough to bring life to a stop until now. Someone at church mentioned seeing an old 1979 newscast on YouTube where CBS News anchor Walter Cronkite mentioned then that the next eclipse to happen for us would be this one, some 38 years in the future. I looked it up. Sort of strange to hear him say that from this point in history.

This eclipse is remarkable for us in that it almost perfectly bisects our country making it one of the easiest eclipses for North Americans to travel to see in decades. The moon’s shadow began to fall on the earth’s surface this morning out in the Pacific Ocean south of the Aleutian Islands, made landfall in Oregon around 10:18 PDT, reached the greatest totality at Hopkinsville, Kentucky, at 1:26 CDT, proceeded to South Carolina where it headed out to the Atlantic at 2:48 EDT, and finally disappeared before getting to the western coast of Africa. The path of totality for this eclipse was about 70 miles wide and the shadow crossed the continent in about 90 minutes. We enjoyed 2 minutes and 40 seconds of totality here (the maximum possible duration of totality if conditions are right is over 7 minutes).

The hype started building around here about a year ago, reaching a fever pitch as this summer has progressed. I have been excited (so much so that I had trouble going to sleep last night). We’ve heard everything from eye safety (which is very important) to phenomena to look for (I learned a lot here) to what to expect with all the tourists and their demands on our local infrastructure (some of these predictions sounded near apocalyptic). I think it was wise that our schools (not just DA, but all the local school systems) decided to cancel classes today. I was not looking forward to the drive home from work had we not closed our doors for the event. I am glad to report that I have not heard much in the way of “end of the world” talk, but I have been dismayed by the bad science out there as well as the abundance of counterfeit eclipse glasses. I’ll stop now before I get on a tirade.

I guess about the biggest concern for me once the eclipse hit my radar for planning ahead was the weather forecast. This summer started out wet, got really dry and hot, and has recently been wet again. Over a week ago the extended forecast had thunderstorm and partly cloudy icons on this date, but as time wore on that was updated to reflect a greater than 50% likelihood of clear skies. That was a relief. The predicted high was in the upper 80s, but during the eclipse we observed the temperature drop from 86° to 77° (official weather reporting stations reported 5° drops).

As I mentioned in the previous edition sent out last night, Will, Zachary, and Emily drove in to see the eclipse. Cameron has returned to school and Darice had other plans. They decided to avoid the traffic on Interstates 81 and 40 and came here through Kentucky.

Today’s event started for us just a few minutes before noon. I was amazed at how quickly the moon moved across the face of the sun. I had loaded everything up ahead of time. We ate a quick lunch and headed over to Mom’s and set up in her yard. The funny thing was that we were trying to rush Mom out the door to get her situated in time to enjoy the eclipse and she kept insisting on fussing with her hair and lipstick.

By 1:00 the sunlight was eerily dim and growing darker fast, and the temperature began to get noticeably cooler where it had been hot and muggy. We were not around any animals, but the sound of the insects changed to those chirps associated with nighttime.

I took several pictures of the eclipse with the pinhole projector I had made, but as totality approached I just closed the camera app deciding to follow the advice I had been hearing to make sure and enjoy the moment.

We had some white sheets spread out on the ground to try and see the shadow bands we’d been hearing about. I guess conditions were not ideal because what we saw was very faint.

At 1:27 the app on my phone was counting down to totality. We watched through our glasses as the last sliver of sun disappeared behind the moon. The next 160 seconds seemed to fly by as we sat transfixed with our eclipse glasses off enjoying the spectacle in the sky. Where the sun was supposed to be was a black hole as if someone had carefully cut it from a picture, and the the sun’s corona made the most spectacular halo around that hole. The sky was a strange twilight. Venus was visible toward the west but it wasn’t dark enough to pick out any other planets or stars. And all around the horizon, literally every direction you looked, was the prettiest glow similar to the afterglow of a sunset.

It wasn’t long before my phone announced that we had reached maximum totality, the mid-point of the eclipse. A little over a minute later it began the countdown to put glasses back on. All too soon the sun began to peek out from behind the other side of the moon and everything returned to normal as quickly as it had gone to special. By 3:00 the whole thing was over.

I must say that was the most beautiful natural phenomenon I have ever seen in my life.

Back at home we tuned in to the local news to see what others had experienced. The folks in Nashville had more clouds overhead than we did here. The sun was completely obscured by cloud cover for all of totality for everyone who was at the Adventure Science Center. One local TV station also showed the heavy traffic already heading home on I-65 between the White House and Cross Plains exits. That prompted us to get on Google Maps where it was easy to trace the eclipse path from all the red lines marking traffic congestion on the major roads from coast to coast.

I don’t know how many people enjoyed the eclipse from Cross Plains, but Kilgore Park was full as was our church parking lot. I talked to one guy in the church parking lot from Ohio who had spent the night in his “Dodge lodge” (he had a Dodge minivan) and had his telescope set up. A look at the guest register poster on the back door showed that Alabama, Florida, Kentucky, Illinois, Indiana, Michigan, New York, Pennsylvania, and Wisconsin as well as Japan and Spain were represented along with Ohio. We saw license plates from these states and others when we cruised through the park.

As I said above, we enjoyed the good fortune of living right in the path of this stellar event. That won’t happen here again for another 450 years, but there is the potential for me to see two more total eclipses in my lifetime should God allow me the opportunity to enjoy them. Both of these will be within easy driving distance. We are certainly discussing it. The next is in less than seven years from now on April 8, 2024, and the best one after that will be on August 12, 2045, the day before my 79th birthday.

So, in honor of the late Walter Cronkite, I’ll wrap this up by saying, “And that’s the way it is Monday, August 21, 2017.”

Joe

Playing Catch Up

Here we are in late August. Some days are really hot, others have been more pleasant, and there has been more rain in the mix. The farmers are cutting tobacco and many barns are starting to belch out smoke now as tobacco is cured. It smells like home.

Being August, Ben celebrated his 17th birthday on the 3rd and is now driving with an unrestricted license. I hit my 51st birthday a week ago today.

RIDING THE ROLLER COASTER
When I wrote last, which was five weeks ago, I mentioned that getting past the Fourth of July always feels cresting the big hill in a roller coaster and beginning the downhill run to the start of school. Well, that’s exactly how it feels right now. I’m glad to have the first full week of school behind us. Maybe the dust will start to settle a bit now as we find the routine. I’m sure that when Labor Day gets here I will wonder what happened to August.

The boys have hit the ground sprinting with their classes. Ben has a very challenging schedule this year with dual enrollment US History, AP English, AP Physics I, and Pre Calculus Honors—all advanced/college level courses. This is rounded out with Art and New Testament (which will be replaced with Economics in the spring). Nate’s high school career is rolling with Old Testament (to be replaced with Theater in the spring), AP Human Geography, Honors Geometry, Honors Biology, Spanish I, and Honors English. These boys have a lot of homework.

I am not driving the bus this year. I was asked to take on the responsibilities of Director of Technology Integration at school which will require that I be able to be at school outside of the school day, so that put an end to my regular bus driving gig.

CROSS COUNTRY
While I’m on the subject of school, the boys have been training for cross country all summer. They’ve steadily increased their practice distance to six miles. Yesterday they ran their first meet of the season at Macon County High School in Lafayette, Tennessee. Ben finished with a time of 21:54 and Nate followed with 24:13. Ben was voted by his teammates to be the male team captain.

HAITI
I have mentioned several times over the summer that Jenna was preparing to return to Haiti on another mission trip. Her team left a month ago today (Thursday, July 20) and returned on Friday of the following week (July 28). The main goals of this trip were to spend time with the kids at the orphanage, offer a dental clinic, and do a few other small projects such a paint a house for a widow in the area. They had a very successful trip in terms of what all they got to do. They had a great visit with the orphans, did some meaningful work in the community, and helped a lot of people suffering with dental problems.

Haitian law stipulates that kids must leave an orphanage once they reach 16 years of age. We have several boys who are due to age out in a couple of months and the statistics of what happens when they appear on the streets are not good so this has been a concern. A dream has been to build a transition home to keep them off the streets while providing them a way to continue their education and begin some sort of career. We needed $14,000 to make this happen. Well, a group of teens who were part of this last mission trip with Jenna bonded with those boys and were so moved that when they came home were instrumental in raising the needed funds in about a week’s time. There is much more to this amazing story than I am including here. Suffice it to say, God moved in amazing ways among his people.

TRAVELING
As hectic as the last five weeks have been around here, there has also been a lot of travel. I reported last time that the Cotters came to see us the first weekend of July. They left here and did a big, two week tour of theme parks in Ohio, Chicago, and St. Louis. They stopped back by on their way home while Jenna was in Haiti. Life may be a roller coaster right now, but they did a roller coaster tour to may anyone envious.

A few weeks later Vicki and Jenna took advantage of a Southwest Airlines deal and made a quick trip to Florida. They flew out early on August 9 and returned home on the 12th. Their tickets took them to Orlando where they rented a car and drove to Madeira Beach near Tampa. Since they didn’t want to fool with sunscreen they got up early each morning to spend time at the beach. Then they went back to nap, eat, go shopping, etc. returning to the beach later to enjoy the sunset. They caught up with all the Cotters in Orlando for a meal before heading home.

While the girls were at the beach the boys went on the back to school retreat at Camp Widjiwagan on Percy Priest Lake. They had a great time spending time with old friends and meeting kids who are new to school. This left me home alone for a few days, which was okay. I had plenty to do at work. Mom and I went out to eat one night. And that Saturday (August 12) I worked the Fairest of the Fair. Participation in this event has really declined over the last few years.

ODDS AND ENDS
I feel like I’m jumping all over the map since I am not presenting everything in chronological order. Forgive me if this has been confusing, but in writing it seemed to make more sense to organize my thoughts by topic. Now I find myself with a few leftovers.

Back on Saturday, July 22, while Jenna was in Haiti and right after the Cotters got on the road for home, the boys and I headed to Adams for the Threshermen’s Show. Now we expect this event to be hot and humid because it’s July in Tennessee, but this year was among the hottest that I remember. We had a good time in spite of this, but the boys had so much homework from their summer reading that we didn’t stay as long as we normally do. While we were there Vicki met up with some old high school friends in Bowling Green.

The next weekend Mom and I went to the Denning reunion after church. I don’t know too many people on this end of my family so I just enjoy a good pot luck meal. Among the cousins we saw there was Josephine who is a four years older than mom. Josephine, better known as Jo Walker-Meador, was the executive director of the Country Music Association from 1962 until 1991. She passed away Friday.

Last Sunday Vicki, Jenna, and I played hooky from Mt. Carmel and visited Grace Church of the Nazarene, the church Jenna attends when she is in college. We had heard her speak a lot about it so we decided to check it out. Vicki and I both said that if we were new to town and looking for a church they would get a return visit from us. This is also where Jenna has her church nursery job.

WRAPPING UP
So, that’s the Reader’s Digest version of the last five weeks of our lives. Today Will, Zachary, and Emily drove in from Virginia to see the eclipse tomorrow. Zachary brought is virtual reality rig and we are enjoying watching Ben fight imaginary enemies on the headset. We can see what he sees on the TV, but it’s still fun to watch him “shadow box” in the middle of the floor with nothing around him.

Joe

Comings and Goings

Once we get past the Fourth of July I always feel like we are on the downhill slide to the start of school, and like riding a roller coaster, the trip down is faster paced than the trip up.

It’s still wet in Middle Tennessee. I see water standing in fields when it shouldn’t be this time of year. It’s also hot.

WEEKEND GETAWAY
We’ve had a lot of excitement since I wrote last. The boys went with a small group from church to Student Life camp in Gulf Shores, Alabama. They said more about this trip when they got home than usual so they must have had fun. They left Thursday, June 22, and returned on the 26th.

While they were away Vicki and I took a weekend trip to Crossville, Tennessee. It was a nice, slow weekend up in the Cumberland Plateau. We did a little antique shopping, visited their flea market, saw the musical Smoke on the Mountain at the Cumberland County Playhouse, took in the car show that was going on downtown, and went hiking at Cummins Falls State Park near Cookeville. This was the first time that we had been away alone since April 2002 when Vicki and I left Jenna and Ben with Pauline in Camden and went to Cadiz, Kentucky, and Land Between the Lakes.

Jenna stayed home while we were gone. She had some friends from Trevecca to visit as well as her high school buddy, Maegan. She also worked a lot.

LOCAL THEATER
The Hendersonville Performing Arts Company put on a wonderful production of Jesus Christ Superstar and we saw it on July 1. It starred Coach Sorrel from school as Jesus and he did a fantastic job. One of my bus riders also had a part in the play and she really showed her talent too.

INDEPENDENCE DAY
We had our annual Kilgore Remembrance ceremony on the Fourth of July. This time I asked one of my students to perform the national anthem. She chose to sing it a cappella and did a wonderful job. I think she added a lot to the ceremony.

For our historical program I asked Rita Read to talk about the beginnings of the Cross Plains Heritage Commission and the experience of writing the book Across the Plains on the history of Cross Plains back in 1986. We also announced that the book is available for reprint as a print on demand book. If you are interested in purchasing a copy you can order one at the link below.

http://www.lulu.com/shop/rita-a-read/across-the-plains/paperback/product-23215587.html

COUSINS
The Cotters came to visit last weekend. They arrived last Thursday (the 6th) and left early Sunday morning. While they were here, we enjoyed a meal at the Catfish House, visiting, playing games, and doing a few things around Springfield like antique shopping and visiting Historic Perk. Dianna and I split off from the rest to visit the Archives and do a little family history research.

FRANK THE CAR
Jenna now has a car to replace the Murano. It’s a 2005 Impala that she has named Frank. Hopefully this car will serve her through college.

VISITING THE BIG D
Last year I went to Miami for a conference put on by RenWeb, the company that provides our student data services at work. This year the conference was located in Dallas. Like last year, Dr. Chaney invited me along with him and Mrs. Chaney. We left Tuesday and returned on Friday.

Dr. Chaney and I were in training sessions all day, but we did enjoy one evening together. Tuesday the three of us dined at the Flora Street Cafe and then walked across the street to see the musical Finding Neverland. Wednesday evening I caught the trolley up to West Village where I met Jason, Sarah, and their adorable daughter Katie at Grimaldi’s Pizza for supper. Thursday evening the Chaneys had other plans so I walked over to the site of JFKs assassination and toured the Sixth Floor Museum which is well done. After walking around the area where the assassination happened I headed back, stopping in at Sonny Bryan’s Smokehouse for dinner.

It was fun to be away and it is good to be home.

RUNNING FOR HAITI
Yesterday our church hosted the annual “I Haiti My Christmas Sweater 5K.” Jenna baked over 15 dozen cookies and set up a booth to sell those and iced coffee as a personal fund raiser. We all got there early to set up for the event. The boys also ran. Ben came in 14th overall with a time of 25:24 and Nate clocked in behind him at 26:01 placing 16th of at least 220 runners/walkers.

Joe

Quiet Summer Days

I remember Uncle Paul telling me once that they always began to thresh wheat on June 20, my dad’s birthday. Of course, in that day the wheat had been cut and shocked separately, and he was talking about threshing with a steam engine. Still, that crossed my mind today when I came home and saw the Pinsons threshing the wheat on Mom’s farm with their combine. By the way, Dad would be a centenarian if he were alive today.

Speaking of anniversaries, if Dad were alive today, he and Mom would celebrate their 59th anniversary tomorrow. Vicki and I celebrated our 23rd anniversary on Sunday.

It’s been rather quiet around the Swann house over the last three weeks. We’ve enjoyed having Jenna home, though she’s been very busy with her two part-time jobs, the psychology course she is taking online, and helping organize and prepare for the mission trip to Haiti next month.

The boys have been busy with their summer training for cross country. So far they are up to running four miles a day and that will continue to increase over the following weeks. Ben has also had summer conditioning for basketball and two basketball camps over the last few weeks, but that’s done until basketball practice resumes in the fall.

I don’t think I mentioned this last time, but the transmission went out in Jenna’s car a few weeks ago. Since it was going to cost more to fix the car than the car itself was worth, we decided to put it up for sale on Facebook Marketplace. We were up front about the condition of the car and we still had it sold within a few hours of posting it. We found a deal on an Impala for her that some friends of ours have for sale. We just haven’t been able to complete the sale yet because that car has a new instrument panel and is waiting for the odometer to be reset to show the correct mileage.

We usually borrow Mom’s car for emergencies like this, but the transmission is out on that one too. It has been interesting to try to get five people all the different directions we need to go with only three vehicles. And to beat all, the water pump went out on Ben’s Jeep yesterday. That, at least, got fixed before the day was out.

I’m still going in to work as I am a twelve month employee at school, though my schedule is lighter. I’ve also been able to get a lot of little jobs done around the house that have literally been waiting on me to get to them for a few years. It feels good to get those things off my to do list and I hope I knock out a few more before school resumes in August.

Joe

Travelogue

We’ve graduated the class of 2017 and sent the rest of the students home for the summer. Ben was bored within hours of his last class, pacing the floor, wondering what to do with himself. Anyone need to hire a teenage boy?

I supposed Kenny could put him and Nate to work. We had a storm with high winds blow through yesterday afternoon. When it was all over they discovered one tree had fallen across their driveway out to the road and another had blown down across the driveway from their house to Mrs. Connie’s house. They couldn’t go out either exit. Too bad he doesn’t heat with firewood any more. He’ll have plenty.

UPDATE ON MOM
Mom has continued to do well over the last few weeks. She made it back to church last Sunday and again today as well as last Wednesday evening. She’s also made it to Mrs. Jean’s for her hair appointment the last two weeks so life is returning to normal for her a bit.

WASHINGTON, DC
I really should have written this up last time, but I didn’t. Nate, along with the vast majority of the eighth grade at school, went on a school trip to Washington, DC. They flew out from Nashville early on Wednesday, April 26, and returned late that Friday.

They flew in and out of Baltimore so the first day of the trip they visited the Naval Academy and took in a baseball game where the Orioles defeated Tampa Bay 5-4. Thursday they went to DC where they visited all the major monuments, Arlington, and other historic sites. Nate caught up with Andrew Swann who is a junior at George Washington University at some point on this day. Friday they went back to DC to see more sites and visit the Smithsonian before heading back to the airport and home.

I had a marvelous opportunity to see a lot of our nation’s capital when I was a summer missionary there in 1989, but if you are going to make a quick trip I think a class trip like this would be a lot of fun. I’m glad Nate got the chance to go.

A VISIT TO VIRGINIA
Vicki and Jenna made a weekend trip to see the Jones family right after I wrote last. They left home on Friday, May 5, and came back that Tuesday.

Vicki and Jenna wound up helping the Jones family move. You see, the apartment they have been renting while their house is under construction is a basement level unit. The upstairs neighbors are a family with several small children. So when a neighboring, upstairs unit became available they jumped at the chance to get out from under all the noise. To be fair, Vicki and Jenna had a heads up with the chance to back out before their visit. But hey, that’s what family is for.

Vicki did say that even though the driving distance to Waynesboro is about 200 miles farther than Athens, she’d rather drive to Virginia than deal with all the traffic in Chattanooga and Atlanta. I remember that whole trip through East Tennessee and up the Shenandoah Valley is very scenic and I’m looking forward to driving it again.

ROLLER COASTER FUN
Vicki and the kids used to make a trip to a nearby amusement park each year after school was out, and they decided to do it again this year. This time they went to King’s Island in Cincinnati. Their original intentions were to leave super early last Thursday, but when they saw the forecast was for storms there they left around 9:30. They had hoped to get a little time in the park that evening, but the storms were lingering in the area so they ate out and took in a movie and went to their hotel. Friday turned out to be a beautiful day and they enjoyed their time riding the rides. They still have one day on their passes that can be used anytime in the next six months so they’ll probably do the water park when they return.

So it seems everyone has gotten to go somewhere except me. This is fine. I’ve been to DC, my time to visit Virginia will come, and I’m not a big roller coaster rider. It was nice to have a little quiet around the house and get a few things done.

Joe

May The Fourth Be With You

I generally don’t mind a rainy day. Some of my favorite memories from childhood involve a rainy day. However, enough is enough! Rain, rain, go away. Come again some other day.

BACK PAIN
Last time I wrote I mentioned that Mom was experiencing some back pain. Well, we had no idea what lay ahead for her. She didn’t go to church the next day and her pain continued to get worse each day. By that Tuesday (the 25th) Vicki and I knew something had to be done.

Sadly, one of Mom’s high school classmates, Mrs. Peggy Fletcher, passed away on March 25. Mrs. Peggy’s health had really deteriorated the last couple of years and her family had found an excellent person as a live-in aide. Vicki and I contacted Ms. Linda and she’s been staying with Mom since Wednesday of last week (the 26th).

At any rate, we’ve had to really step up Mom’s pain medication. She’s had an MRI that revealed a crushed L1 vertebrae and will see a specialist later this week to see if she is a candidate for any sort of treatment beyond pain management.

Whatever lies ahead, we are so happy to have Ms. Linda helping Mom out.

EYE SURGERY
Several years ago I discovered that I have glaucoma. I am currently taking two eye drops to keep my eye pressure down, yet my eyes haven’t completely cooperated. When I was in for my last checkup the doctor laid out some additional treatment options. One was an outpatient procedure, laser trabeculoplasty, where tiny holes are burned in my eye to help bleed off the pressure. My right eye was done last Thursday.

When I went back for a post op check Tuesday my eye pressure was down, but still not where my doctor would like for it to be. Hopefully, after a few weeks of adjustment, the story will be better.

THE FRESHMAN YEAR IS OVER!
Jenna took her last exam yesterday, and with that, finished up her freshman year. As good of a year as it has been, I think she is glad to have everything behind her and a little time off. She is going to take one course online this summer as well as work at Historic Perk and help coordinate the summer mission trip to Haiti. She’s going to be one busy girl!

MAY THE FORCE BE WITH YOU
Forty years ago this month Star Wars premiered and science fiction became cool—at least it seemed for the kids at my school. No one at my school seemed the slightest bit interested when I mentioned any of the science fiction shows I liked to watch on TV so I felt all alone in my interest. But everyone was into Star Wars! Who wouldn’t be? You’ve got blasters, light sabers, cool ships, and an array of aliens and droids. It was so easy to have light saber fights with tobacco sticks.

I remember me, Mom, and Aunt Mar piling into the car and going to the other side of Nashville to see the movie as none of the theaters on our side of town had it yet. As I recall it wasn’t widely released because the initial prediction was that the film wouldn’t do well, but as the summer wore on the movie listings in the paper would say, “Held over (X) weeks!” as we watched the flick become a cultural icon. And now we are awaiting the release of the ninth film in the franchise in December, not to mention all the other Star Wars related media, games, toys, etc. that pervade our culture. It’s hard for the ten year old boy inside of me to believe it’s been forty years since Luke used the Force to blow up the Death Star.

TREND SETTERS
So back in January or February Ben ordered a fidget spinner for Nate for his birthday. It’s a little toy with a ball bearing in the center of three arms (some models have only two). To play with it, you hold the bearing between your thumb and finger and give it a spin. There’s plenty of pictures and videos online if my description isn’t adequate.

To get to the point, I had never seen one of these before, now half the kids at school are playing with fidget spinners. They started appearing after Nate took his to school. I’m sure the fad would have caught on one way or another, but at DA Nate was the trendsetter for this one.

Joe

Spring Has Sprung!

Spring is here. I was living in denial for a couple of weeks because I knew once I cranked the mower it’s an almost weekly chore for seven months, however, the clover, dandelions, and onions growing in my yard are hard to ignore. Of course, the rain has put off my mowing quite a bit, but that comes at a price because the grass is tall and thick when I can get to it.

SURGERY
Ben had surgery last Friday to repair a hernia. He is recovering nicely and hasn’t missed any school (we were out last Friday and Monday for Easter).

We discovered Ben had a slight hernia a few months ago. The doctor said it needed to be fixed but was not urgent so we decided to schedule it after basketball season was over.

Funny thing about Ben is that he’s hardly told anyone. He only told his best friend as they were leaving to go home after school last Thursday, and I think he’s only mentioned it to a few friends since to let them know why he couldn’t participate in anything too physical for now. That apple didn’t fall too far from the tree.

TREE DOWN
Spring, of course, brings storms. We’ve been fortunate not to have too many bad ones this year, but I drove through a rough one coming home in the bus back on the 27th. The good thing was that all my passengers had been delivered and I was driving from Cross Plains home when I ran into the worst of it.

By the time I got home Donna Henry, the lady who comes to help mom some, was calling me to tell me that mom had a tree down. With all the trees in Mom’s yard we’ve been very fortunate not to ever have any significant roof damage, though we did have a limb knock out Mom’s bedroom window one time. Our luck held once again, however, the tree did take out the power and phone lines. Brad Keith came over quickly and cut the tree up so that we could use the driveway.

Mom wound up spending the night with us. The next morning the electrician was there early to repair the riser where the overhead electrical service comes into the house. This had been bent over about 60°. It wasn’t too much later that CEMC came out and restored power. I think AT&T replaced the phone line the next day, though Brad had reconnected it before they got there. We have a neighbor who wants the tree for firewood so once he cuts that up and carts it off the only thing left will be a hole in the ground where the tree once stood.

BACK PAIN
Exactly two weeks later (on the 10th) Mom fell in her bedroom. We didn’t think anything was broken at first, but by last weekend her back was really beginning to bother her. Turns out she has a fractured L1 vertebrae. We are still looking into the extent of the damage.

SOME FUN THINGS
We have been able to do a few fun things in the mix with surgery, back pain, and storm damage. Last weekend on Friday evening we went to First United Methodist Springfield to see their Easter musical which was really good. The next day we were invited to Jimmy and Morgan’s gender reveal party for their baby, and the ultrasound shows they are expecting a little girl. She is to be named Rachel Elizabeth when she arrives in late August. That evening we went to see the Davidson Academy Theatre Department’s production of The Addams Family Musical which was fantastic. And Vicki and Jenna have crossed an item from their bucket list when they went to TPAC to see the opera Carmen the other week.

As I mentioned above, we had a four day weekend last weekend with Easter, however, the middle school lock-in was that Thursday night (the 13th) so Nate went to that. He stayed up all night and when I brought him home the next morning he went straight to be and slept for ten hours (while Ben was in surgery).

We had a good Easter at church this year. Afterwards we had dinner over at Mom’s house. Jenna had brought a friend, Kristen, home who lives in her dorm and could not make it to her home for Easter. Kristen runs cross country and track for Trevecca. I think Ben was impressed that she runs 40 miles a week to keep in shape. She told us some of the guys on the team will run as much as 70 miles a week.

Monday was Jenna’s 19th birthday so we celebrated with another fancy meal over at Mom’s house before she left to go back to school. Hard to believe this is the last year all our kids will be teenagers.

RACING TO THE FINISH
One thing about this time of year is that you get on the back side of spring break and realize just how little time you have left until summer. We will be moving Jenna home next weekend, though she’ll have a few exams after that. Hard to believe her first year of college is almost over.

Jenna is going to stay at home and work this summer. She’s landed a job at the Historic Perk, a new coffee shop in Springfield. She’s also going to be working some to organize a summer mission trip to Haiti.

The boys and I have a bit longer to go to school, but the end is looming for us as well. These summers seem to roll around a little faster each year. Be that as it may, we’ve got to get there first.

OVERHEARD
Now that spring break is over there’s plenty of homework to occupy the boys’ time, however, we still know when they are taking a break from their studies with a video game. That’s when we hear them cheer or groan about something good or bad that happened. I’ll have to say my favorite expression comes from Ben. When something bad happens we hear, “Oh, my goodness!” If it was really bad it changes to, “Oh, my goodness gracious!” The good thing is that’s about the worst language I’ve ever heard out of that boy.

Occasionally Jenna goes upstairs and plays a video game with the boys. Jenna was home last night because she had to work in Springfield. Just this morning after Jenna had left for work we heard Ben yell, “Hey, Jenna…oh, I forgot she was gone.”

Joe

Our March Madness

I’m not sure whether to say March roared in like a lion or not. Back on the 1st we had a line of thunderstorms move through. They were severe enough that many schools and school systems, including Davidson Academy and Robertson County, delayed school for two hours. Those systems that started on time regretted this decision because many kids were at bus stops while tornado sirens were wailing. Some places had pretty severe wind damage. By the time we drove in to school the skies were clearing for a beautiful day.

Since then March has been pretty mild. We’ve had a few storms, even some snow a couple of Saturdays ago on the 11th which began at daybreak and had melted away by lunchtime. But overall it’s been a fairly pleasant month. This has tricked a lot of trees into blooming and budding a little before they normally do.

SPRING BREAKS
One thing March brings with it is spring break. Unfortunately, Jenna’s break did not coincide with mine and the boys’, but it worked out. Jenna’s break was the first week of the month (March 6-10) and she spent her time off here at home. From my perspective it was just like her senior year last year. She was asleep when we left for school and working on homework when we got home in the afternoon. I don’t know how much homework she got done, but she did work on some scholarship applications for next year.

The boys and I got our spring break last week. We actually got a one day extension added to our break as our headmaster decided to close school a day early (Friday, the 17th) since we haven’t had any snow days this year.

We spent the first half of our break at Don and Penny’s lake house, the same place where we got away two years ago. We had planned to leave immediately after getting home from school on the 17th, but with the extra day off we could drive up there at a more leisurely pace. We came home last Tuesday. The only bad thing about the whole trip was that an hour after leaving I discovered that I had left behind my backpack with laptop inside.

This entire trip was all about enjoying a quiet break. Vicki and Jenna did some grocery shopping the night we got there, we went out to eat at Barkley Lodge and antique shopping in Cadiz on Sunday, and then out to eat again Monday evening at Ralph’s Harborview Bar and Grill just down the road at Moors Resort and Marina (this is on our repeat list). The rest of the time we just stayed in. We played board games and cards, we watched some movies, and we ate. All in all, it was a great time to get away and recharge. Oh, and Jenna essentially got an extra break as she met us in Clarksville as we drove up there and then skipped her Monday and Tuesday classes.

Thank you again, Don and Penny, for sharing your lake house with us. It’s not going to be easy to roll out of bed in time to get the bus on the road by 6:35 in the morning, but at least I feel like I can tackle the next eight weeks of classes between now and summer.

LYE SOAP
One day that was especially fun earlier this month happened on Tuesday the 7th. That’s when I brought my 8th graders up to church for a field trip. I decided that one cool project for my STEAM class would be to make lye soap. Lana Osborne makes lye soap (http://lanasherbalsoaps.com/) and she was kind enough to help me out here. It all started with a conversation at church and them me going to her house back on Martin Luther King Day (January 16th) to help her make a batch of soap.

We spent a couple of weeks in class leading up to our field trip learning about soap, the chemistry behind it, and how to make it. One the day of the trip Mrs. Lana met us at church and made two batches on soap with my two classes. A couple of other teachers volunteered to come along to do some other activities with the kids as well. When all the soap was made, the kitchen was cleaned up, and everyone had eaten their sack lunches we then wen’t over to Will Ed and Lana’s to pet her goats. There were several newborn goats which were a bigger hit with the kids than the soap. All in all it was a very fun day.

CRACKED GLASS
The folks at Jack Morris Auto Glass Repair love us this month. One morning before spring break Ben and Nate were driving in to school when a vehicle in front of them kicked up a rock. This put a good sized hole on the passenger’s side of the windshield. Ben said he saw it happen, but in all the traffic with so little time to react there wasn’t much he could do. I can see that. As it turned out, the repair was done that afternoon in our driveway. The guy said it was the largest hole he had ever filled. Had it been any bigger or on the driver’s side he would have replaced the glass.

This past Friday I sent the boys over to do some clean up work in Mom’s yard. They were loading tree limbs in the bed of my truck when Nate tossed a limb a little too far forward and shattered the back glass. It stayed in the opening because of the protective film car windows have, but it was shattered. That one had to be taken to the shop for repair since there was rain coming and we wanted it done that day.

A LAST HURRAH
We enjoyed one last outing on our spring break last night. We all went to Hendersonville where we met Jenna for supper at Jumbo & Delicious. This has become my new favorite for a hamburger. The only problem is the burgers are so large you really need to starve yourself before eating there.

After supper we enjoyed the Hendersonville Performing Arts Company’s production of Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat where Ben’s basketball coach, Steven Sorrell, is currently starring as Joseph. (We enjoyed Coach Sorrell last year as Bert in Mary Poppins.) It was a great evening. If you live locally this would be a fun thing to do as it will be running for the next couple of weekends.

VIDEO GAME HEAVEN
Our boys are now the proud owners of a Nintendo Switch. This is the new console to succeed the Wii U. This game system wasn’t ready for the holiday season, but at Christmas the boys asked if we’d by okay if they bought it in March when it came out. We said it was okay so since then they’ve been saving for it, dreaming about it, and talking about it. They bought a game for it ahead of time. They did everything except preorder it. And three weeks ago when the Switch hit the shelves there were none to be had.

These poor guys have lived in disappointment ever since. They’ve called stores to see it the device was in stock. Found out when new shipments were expected to arrive only to be too late to buy one. They’ve handled it well, but still, they’ve been disappointed. Then yesterday they went to Springfield for Ben’s office cleaning job and stopped by Walmart afterwards to buy a few necessities. Swinging through the electronics area they couldn’t believe their eyes. One, lone Switch was in the display case and no one seemed to be around to claim it. Two happy boys came home yesterday and have enjoyed the end of their spring break. It’s nice when dream are realized, even if a little late.

Joe

The Groundhog Lied

Well, here it is, thee weeks into February. Back on the 2nd that old groundhog saw his shadow which means six more weeks of winter. I’m still looking for the first six weeks of winter to happen. This teacher needs a few snow days. The sad reality is that he’s not going to get them. I’m ready for all the snowman decor in the house to come down. How long is it to spring break?

BASKETBALL
The Bears have had a good season this year and we’ve had a lot of fun watching them play. The regular season is over and we placed fourth in the district tournament. I’m still confused as to how this works, but the top four got to go on to the regional tournament so Wednesday night the Bears traveled to Knoxville only to lose to Knox-Webb.

Ben has come a long way with his skills since the season opened in November. The one thing I look forward to next year is that Ben will only play in the varsity games. I think I’ve said this before, but those bleachers get mighty hard sitting through three games. Of course, now he’s wondering what he’s going to do with himself until cross country training starts up this summer. His friends are trying to get him to play soccer. He really wishes there was a boys’ volleyball team.

LET’S DANCE
A few weeks ago Nate went to the middle school dance. We encouraged him to go last year, but he sat it out. I think he realized he missed a lot then and was determined not to let that pass him by again. Vicki and I dropped him off at school and then went out to eat and see a movie (Passengers) to enjoy our own evening.

All the parents were invited to watch all the kids dance to the first song before leaving and arrived in time to see them dance to the last couple of songs. I don’t know what other deejays do, but this fellow had all the kids doing group dances for the most part. Nate was staying on the fringes of the crowd when we left so we were curious to see what he was doing at the end.

When we first got there we were scanning the moving mass of kids. Failing to spot our son, Vicki wondered aloud to me if he had had a good time. About that moment I found him and said, “Well, if the tall kid in glasses who is jumping up and down in the middle of a wad of kids over there is any indication, I’d say yes.” When the party was over and all the decorations were torn down he was full of happy news from the evening.

FABULOUS FOURTEEN
Nate had a birthday last Tuesday. Hard to believe that boy is 14 and looking me at my eye level when we stand next to each other. We asked Nate what he wanted to do for his birthday and he said he just wanted to have a dinner with his family. So, Saturday night we, including Jenna who came in for the weekend, took the meal he requested, potato soup with Red Lobster rolls, over to Mom’s house and celebrated. We also enjoyed chocolate cake and ended the evening with a game of Spades.

THE SOUND OF MUSIC
Jenna also came in for the weekend because we had tickets to see The Sound of Music at TPAC. We went out to eat just a few block away from the theater and then walked back to enjoy the show which was phenomenal. All too soon we were dropping Jenna off at her dorm and heading home.

BILL CHATMAN
Mr. Bill Chatman has passed away. He was 79. I have mentioned Mr. Bill in passing several times over the years of these writings, usually in reference to what he was doing on the farm whether plowing, planting, working in tobacco, or the like. Indeed, he tended the crops on Uncle Paul’s farm for 54 years and on Mom’s farm for about as long.

Mr. Bill, like Mr. Carl, whom I wrote about back in July, was one of the men I worked with on the farm when I was growing up. He is part of that small fraternity of wonderful men God placed in my life in the absence of my own father that set a high standard by modeling manhood before me. I will always treasure his patience with me, the example he lived before me, and the advice he gave me. So much of what he would say would guide me in fathering my own children. I don’t know that he would have expressed it this way, but he made me realize that I needed to raise my kids with the end in mind.

If you enjoy reading the Swann Family News you can thank Mr. Bill for it’s existence. I had kept a daily log for some time, but after Jenna came along and life got more demanding that dropped off. One day I ran into him at the shop and in our conversation, completely unaware of my journal, he mentioned a journal he had kept for years and how some nights he, Mrs. Anna, and their boys just enjoyed going back and reading what they had done years ago.

I didn’t see Mr. Bill as much after heading off to college and pursuing a career in education, but I still ran into him on occasion as he was working in one of the fields near the house, repairing some broken piece of farm equipment at the shop across from Uncle Paul’s house, or at Mom’s after work as he was stopping by to drop off a check from one of the crops. Mr. Bill loved people and enjoyed connecting with everyone he met.

DEALING WITH FEELINGS
I have found it very hard to write up this edition for a couple of reasons, so much so that I put it off for at least a week. First of all, with the passing of Mr. Bill half the men in that small fraternity I mentioned above are gone. I’m 50 now so that comes as no surprise for me, but it still hurts, not so much because I’m only three decades behind them, but because I’m losing those who showed me the way.

Another reason I have struggled is that Mr. Bill, for me, has been one of the best ambassadors for racial relations I have ever known. For those of you who are not part of this community, Mr. Bill was African American.

I always found Mr. Bill so positive about life no matter if the weather wasn’t cooperating for the crops, or it was dealing with the hardships of life like the loss of his son (Randy passed away eight years ago and was the first loss for my graduating class.), or talking about how he grew up, very poor and raised by his grandmother. I would listen in horrified fascination as he would recall his teenage years and dating Mrs. Anna in the days of segregation. He graduated from Bransford High School in Springfield which was the only high school for black students in Robertson and Cheatham Counties. He would simply sum up those times by saying, “That’s just the way things was.” He could have harbored resentment, yet in the midst of all this I always saw him to be kind and gracious to everyone he met.

You see, this was all in the mix of feelings I had as Vicki and I gathered with Mr. Bill’s family and friends at Friendship Baptist Church last Wednesday. Just the day before the math department at our school had scheduled a school wide field trip to see Hidden Figures. This is an excellent movie and the timing for me couldn’t have been more poignant as I recalled many of Mr. Bill’s tales while the story unfolded on the screen. And all this happened for me against the backdrop of a national conversation that reveals not just extreme polarization but rifts developing within the fabric of our great nation which have become even more apparent since November even among the students who sit in my classroom.

There are many things I took to heart as I watched Bill Chatman, Carl Swann, and all the rest live out their lives before me. I hope that kindness and graciousness for others, no matter who they are or how they treat me, is a characteristic I live out well.

Joe

Reflecting on Dad

As of today I have outlived my dad.

Several years ago I stumbled across a website that would calculate the time between two dates. Wondering when I would outlive my father I plugged in the dates and found out today is the day.

Dad passed away on December 2, 1967, as a result of his third heart attack. The episode actually happened around September 20 of that year. I’ve heard various accounts of what happened, but I do know he had stopped by the field across the road from our house where they were harvesting corn to see how things were going when he began to feel bad. He was taken home and then to the Baptist Hospital in Nashville where he spent several weeks. He came home for Thanksgiving but returned to the hospital in Springfield where he passed away.

I’ve often wondered if he knew his death was near and what crossed his mind as he thought about his life. He and mom had only been married nine years, and I had just celebrated my first birthday that summer. Did he think much about the things he would never get to experience, or did he feel too bad to ponder it much?

That being what it is, I am so thankful I have gotten to be part of my kids’ lives. It is such a pleasure to watch as they grow up. At the risk of tooting my own horn, I think they’re turning out pretty well.

At any rate, I’ve known this day was coming for quite some time. In all honesty, it has been hard for me to deal with it the closer I got to this day. By the grace of God I’ve made it here, and I appreciate every day He gives me.

Joe

Easing into the New Year

I was taken aback the other day when I wrote the date and realized we are almost three weeks into the new year. It has been such a quiet transition from Christmas break back to the normal routine that I really hadn’t thought about how much time is flying by.

Classes resumed for the boys and I two weeks ago today (the 4th). Jenna got a week longer at home. The dorms reopened last week so she went back Tuesday (the 10th) in time for classes the next day.

It has really been an uneventful beginning to the second semester for all of us. My course load is basically the same, though my Intro to Programming class is over and I’m teaching Web Development and Design in its place. I also have the other half of the 8th grade (including Nate) in my STEAM classes this semester. The boys’ schedules are essentially the same. I know Jenna is taking 17 hours this semester—she had 18 last semester—but I haven’t seen her schedule. I do know she was not excited about having 8:00 classes every morning this time.

Basketball season is still going strong. Ben’s team has played a wide variety of opponents; some easy, some hard. We’ve had more away games recently, some of them being far enough away that we couldn’t get there in time to watch Ben play. What I have enjoyed is watching him develop over the course of the season. We are seeing more confidence emerge in his performance which is good. It’s also been nice to see how he handles himself when a situation requires good sportsmanship. He’s made us very proud.

Vicki has joined a new choir in Springfield. This one is with the Willow Oak Center for Arts and Learning. The Chorale is open to folks from 7th grade through adulthood, and they are preparing to present an evening of Frank Sinatra era songs sometime this spring. I’m sure I’ll report more on that when the time comes, but for now Vicki is going to choir practice every Thursday evening.

I made Nate’s day an hour or so ago. He was standing next to Vicki last night and it looked like he was taller than her. Well, when I measured him earlier he is just a quarter inch shy of 6’. He at least has Vicki tied and will catch up with me in less than an inch of growth. It’ll be interesting to see which boy will be taller when all the growing is done. Ben has already passed 6’ 4”, but then he’s two and a half years older than Nate. Hard to believe the two big, lanky fellas living upstairs were once the cute little boys running around the house on little riding toys and playing with Thomas the Tank Engine trains.

Outside of all that things have been fairly quiet. We’ve eaten over at Mom’s several times and enjoyed playing Spades with her. The other night the four of us played the game of Life on our kitchen table. And we all enjoyed the latest season of Sherlock which aired the last three Sunday evenings. Nothing really exciting to write about, but treasured time with the people I love that I wouldn’t trade for anything.

Joe