It is early Sunday morning and it is still dark out. It is quiet and I am sad, Ivy is not at my feet or curled up on her pad in the kitchen or whimpering because she wants to play and I want to work. She is in Ohio at the kennel where Olivia and momma are staying with grandma and grandpa – I know she is wondering if we left her, again. It has been busy and I have a fuller appreciation of the workings of the house, kids, and a dog. Granted, the week has been complicated by VBS and several doctor appointments, but nonetheless, keeping all of the plates spinning requires quite an effort and even more concentration.
Olivia and momma (Beth) are in Ohio to be with her parents. Beth went over last Monday to be with her parents during her mother’s surgery. The surgery was Friday, it went well, and she is recovering nicely. Beth plans to stay through next the middle of this week – though that could change – and then head home. Meanwhile, William and I leave this morning, in less a couple of hours, for scout summer camp. We are both very excited and personally, I have been looking forward to it since school ended. With William and I leaving – Olivia needed to be with momma and we climbed in the car Friday afternoon and drove to Ohio and then back Saturday morning. It feels like the Indianapolis 500, all over again.
With William as my co-pilot and Olivia and Ivy together in the back seat, we took off late Friday afternoon. Traffic was heavy and the weather was gray and gloomy with occasional sprinkles. I have driven the route to grandma’s house countless times over the years and it never gets tiring. There is a lot to see driving across northern Indiana and down western Ohio to Versailles -if you are looking. There are fields of growing grain, old barns, small towns, and signs – lots of ‘em.
William acted as my co-pilot and free-lanced as my photojournalist. He snapped photos Friday night as we drove to grandma’s house and on the way back Saturday. We stopped and took our time with pictures Saturday and I even stopped and turned around for a few. If we had had more time, we would have made the five and a half hour trip an eight or nine our trip instead of the six hours we really took. I have been playing with new ideas to use multiple images I found a plug-in that will work with the blog. I created the slide show below with images that William shot on our trip – I hope you enjoy. I am planning to use it to add to the blog when we are at summer camp and beyond.
As I did last year, I’ll be blogging from camp. It was a lot of fun and I had several ‘editors’ to assist me – I am bummed two of them won’t be with us this year, they will be missed. However, I am sure I’ll have help with thoughts, ideas, and pictures. I am full of ideas how about how to make the blog jump out and speak to the reader. You can look back at last year’s posts.
Like any piece of writing I have written, I can always find a mistake or place where I was not as clear as I thought at the time. It was true of papers I wrote in school and it is especially true with blog posts – my eyes read what my brain tells it to, or what it thought it wrote, or what it thought my fingers typed and I sometimes they are not the same. When I re-read a post, I find myself asking, ‘what was I thinking?’
After William and I got home yesterday afternoon, we busied ourselves with jobs. He mowed the grass, packed his bags, while I folded clothes, packed my bags and together we loaded the car. I think we have everything we need and probably more. Finally, I climbed into bed with a new book – Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins. I finished Percy Jackson and the Lightning Thief early yesterday morning and I enjoyed it. My summer of young adult literature is underway! William decided that he wanted to read so he got his book and started reading. He asked a couple of questions about my book and we talked and before I knew it I was nodding off and my eyes were shut.
It will be a fun week at Tesomas and it will be over before I know it or before thirty scouts know it. So, I had better jump up, jump in, and seize this day. Today is gonna be a great day – even if it takes seven hours to reach Tesomas – it’ll be awesome. Making the Days Count, one day at a time.
Hey Clay!
I hope you will again be writing about all the Tesomas adventures of the week! I enjoyed reading about them in the past — and I didn’t even have a scout there that year!
Yes – I have been looking for camp and it is here. I will be writing and trying to update daily. Thanks for following along!