There's quite a bit to catch up on, since we've been away for so much of July and August, and I'm afraid that most of my thoughts for the past few days have been in "to-do" list style rather than in any kind of exposition or narrative. The good news, however, is that "to-dos" are getting big checkmarks beside them and the lists are getting shorter.
-The yard doesn't need to be mowed, but the weeds do. I don't think the grass grew at all over the two-ish weeks that we were gone, but there are big shoots of plantain and prickles and Queen-Anne's-lace that have shot up all over the yard. The view from the library (where I'm sitting right now) is actually rather nice right now, since all of the hibiscuses are in bloom. But I need to mow, and James is going to keep on reminding me about it until it happens.
-Speaking of James, we've done lots of deliberate preparation for homeschool Kindergarten over the last few weeks. I say this as much for my own reminding as an explanation--Kindergarten doesn't need to be a big deal academically. In school he'd mostly be learning how to stand in lines and take turns with toys this year. It will be good for him to do some more directed reading and counting practice, but his formal schooling success does not hang on this year. For his part, he's resisting any and all mentions of "starting Kindergarten" in a few weeks. If we mention piano lessons or buying school supplies or making activity plans he buries his face in his hands and declares that he's "never going to Kindergarten." He acted like this a lot last year in the weeks leading up to his birthday, which apparently terrified him. (He was a much happier and more relaxed little child on November 22nd.) Right now we've decided not to mention it in front of him--when Kindergarten starts it isn't really going to change his life very much. He already spends lots of time reading each day, we'll just have a little bit more say in which books he gets out of the library. My hope is that he'll hardly notice when "the school year" officially begins. It's on his mind, though. Last night he (George) told J--"James doesn't need to go to Kindergarten...he already knows everything." (I think I heard my Mom laughing all the way from Albion.)
-I've been going back and doing some reading in old journals recently. This time two years ago we were looking at houses, and on this day we tried to look at a bank foreclosure that sits one street up and kitty corner from the houses we ended up with. We weren't able to get inside, because either the realtor had the wrong passcode or the electronic lock was malfunctioning. I don't think we would have wanted the property anyway. There were contractors coming in and out of the place for nearly a year after we bought our house, and when it finally sold it looked MUCH nicer...but I think there was more work to be done there than we'd even guessed. Last year J's parents were up staying with us, and we were in the midst of a renovation week. Her father was cutting bathroom tiles with a wet saw rental, and I was refinishing the iron railings on our front steps. We put in our new library light fixture that night, and apparently even had time to go to a Red Wings game. August 19th is going to be considerably less exciting this year than either of the two years prior, and that's fine with us.
-I think most people knew this already, but it has to be safe by now to announce that I'm going to be an adjunct faculty member at SUNY Fredonia this year. The estimated drive time is 1 h 51 m each way...it will be a lot of driving. But I only need to do it once a week, and I'll be glad to get my name in at such a well-respected school. I finished re-writing my studio syllabus yesterday, and have started to get messages from students. It is a little fun to take part in the back-to-school excitement again. (Maybe I should read some of their messages to James.)
-The first orchestra concert back after the summer off is always a little shocking. You don't realize until you're sitting in your chair in the back row quite how loud you play in the context of a full brass section until you're back there again. I've stayed in shape and kept up a practice routine throughout the summer, but it's been nice to stay away from "full-blast mode." It's nice when the first show of the year is something like "Joshua Bell playing the Beethoven violin concerto" or "Renee Fleming singing some Strauss songs." This year it's going to be an afternoon rehearsal and evening concert of "The Music of John Williams." I love playing John Williams...but this could be kind of painful.
-I restacked the firewood we keep for bonfires behind the garage. It's been nothing but a disorderly heap for about a month. James was racing his toy cars on it and dropped one behind. Apparently he's strong enough to move quite a bit of wood on his own, because he'd pulled firewood all over the back yard before finding the missing toy. (And then, of course, he left the mess.) Working with a big stack of wood (well, kind of big) in the backyard in late August reminded me vividly of the big delivery of stove-wood my parents would get every year. It would be fort-making season for a few days while we scrambled around on it and used it as a big playground, and then there would be a "stacking day" when the basement bilko doors would be opened and Dad would instruct us on carrying the pile down and stacking it for the winter. Being the oldest, I always had to make sure that I carried more pieces per load than anyone else. It seemed like a big job at the time, and more than anything else it indicated the coming change of seasons.
-Currently reading The Metaphysical Club--an examination of the ideas of Oliver Wendell Holmes, Jr., William James, Charles Peirce, and John Dewey.
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