Sunday, May 26, 2013

summer? is here!

Yesterday was FREEZING cold! What happened to summer? I am glad they have revised the name of 'global warming' to 'climate change' because this is not warm. Of course, I am worried about the summer storms and excessive heat once the summer really does kick in, but something at least in the 60s would have been nice for yesterday. I hope today and tomorrow will be better!

So, again, I have neglected the blog.  Nothing out of the ordinarily mundane has taken place: the usual, job interviews, high school graduations, weddings and trips to exotic locales.  This weekend, as we settle into the summer season, we look to the future as empty-nesters! It is indeed true that B has managed to make it through high school !!!

Graduation was Thursday night, and up to the last second, I worried.  His pre-calc grade, which was sitting just below an 80 all year, had not been updated with the final exam score, and he had proclaimed it to be six pages of problems the likes of which he'd never seen.  A truly low grade could have been catastrophic, and to fail the last class of the last marking period of the last year as his first failure would have been a real kick in the gut.  But strangely, the grade never made it to the portal. So we don't know why this happened, but there was in fact a diploma inside the case, so I guess we breathe deep and move on. My guess is that so many did so poorly that the final in that class is not being counted; when this happens it has to be a reflection of teaching and not of learning. But why not just curve? Perhaps we will never know!

Summer will consist of working nights at a local tavern/restaurant that struggles to keep customers coming in.  B enjoys working there and it is somewhat low stress due to the lower level of patron activity.  They managed to have a fairly steady flow all spring, but I'm concerned with summer, when most locals prefer a meal by the water. This is a slow season for inland restaurants anyway.  We have learned that it's time to have wisdom teeth out, and of course there will also be the MRI and the follow-up visit, and a mole removal as recommended by the dermatologist.  Two vacations, and the next thing we know it will be the end of this summer which has not yet begun. Why does time go by so quickly?

M will not be home until July, and I have made her an appointment to battle the stubborn warts again on July 1.  I discovered that a horrible looking 'cut' on my foot was actually a wart, and when I went to the podiatrist, his treatment, while barbaric and painful, was effective in just one session.  So I am sending her to try that out.  The problem? She is supposed to start work on July 4, and may be expected to be able to walk or run at that point. So I hope her pain will be less than mine was, and also that this will finally be the answer to her battles with these warts. And she also is due to have the wisdom teeth out soon.

For now, she is wrapping up her time on co-op, and also working Sundays teaching children to swim for a higher hourly rate than she gets either working at the school OR risking her life guarding others at the beach. I wonder often if they will offer her a position working at their summer camp (which in July moves to her university's pool) and what she would do if they did.  We have to pay for the apartment anyway, so she has the option to stay if she wants to.  But I know she loves the summers at the beach and the apartment surely can get cramped and hot after ten months of living there. And at the end of August, we have to go back up there and help her move to another apartment.

And in other news, we are just back from a lovely wedding in New Orleans, a city whose charm and character I had not imagined to be quite as it was! It was an experience for all of us, punctuated by the travels fraught with challenge on the way home.  But we all made it, and now it's back to the daily grind.  Kevin's brother arrives today from California, so we'll take him to visit B at work.  He's here for the week, but the rest of us will be working as usual.  I've been really busy at work, organizing lots of travel to many meetings which cause me to suffer frequent heart jolts when I think that I have accidentally booked someone on the wrong flight, or sent them to the wrong university for a meeting, or even simply neglected to order a car to pick them up at the airport. These visits will conclude by the end of the last week in June, so I hope to breathe a little more steadily at that point!

Otherwise, we look forward to summer. The pool was opened on Thursday, so maybe one day it will be warm enough to dip a toe in.  Kevin believes himself to have the makings of a triathlete, so he has been working on that, and I've just been trying to find the time and motivation to take the dogs on a two mile walk each day.  I learned that my hip pain was actually coming from a bulging disc (although I have not had X-rays or followed up with massage or physical therapy - who has the time?) and have modified my activities with reasonable success, so I'm hoping to be able to increase my activity soon as well.  But for now - it's off to the beach as soon as weather allows!


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