Postcards from Spring Break – 2013

a warm sunny day at Bahia Honda State Park with the Atlantic in background
a warm sunny day at Bahia Honda State Park with the Atlantic in background

It has been a great day, a great week, and a great month. I just don’t know where it went. Three weeks ago, I was on a beach on a warm sunny day with the breeze in my hair. It felt like it would last forever and I guess it has. Memories of our vacation to the Keys has sustained me over the past few days – from torrential downpours to flurries in the air, it has been quite a few days.

Yesterday morning, it was raining and I went to the basement and I discovered water pouring in through a crack in the foundation. I soon realized I wouldn’t be able to keep up and woke W who jumped in to the job grudgingly, but soon embraced the task. By 5:30, I knew I had to stay home and was busy writing a quick sub plan when W’s school called the day off. An hour later, my school called off, too. So, I spent the second day of summer vacation (see a NO SNOW snow day) fighting with the water in the basement, moving furniture, bookcases, pulling up soggy carpet up and hauling it to the curb. We were lucky our water was just that, water. Other homes in the area had water coming in from the sewer (yeah, ewwwwww). We’ve known about the crack and the crap in the basement – stuff that went down to the basement with ‘someday’ in mind. Well, ‘someday’ was yesterday and I have to sort through things that need to find a new home or a new purpose. Fortunately, we did not lose anything that wouldn’t eventually have found another home. We were lucky.

On Monday, I finished a project I started before Spring Break and our trip to warmer climes. My students and a few of the faculty sent post cards from their vacation destinations and I put them on display. I asked the office staff if I could use their space and I decorated the front office wall with our postcards. When I got home Monday, I discovered a couple of postcards from a friend who thought of me on her vacation! Judging from her card, she had a great time!

a panoramic view - east to west and overseas
a panoramic view – east to west and overseas
a postcard from Yosemite National Park, courtesy Tonette! Thanks
a postcard from Yosemite National Park, courtesy Tonette! Thanks
these will be planted in the backyard, when spring actually arrives - today it is 38 and windy!
these will be planted in the backyard, when spring actually arrives – today it is 38 and windy!

Last Monday was also day 139, with 33 remaining and with this week’s storms and our two flood\rain days, we were able to whittle away only three, so Monday will come and it will be day 142, with 29 remaining. 29 days to make count in the most imaginable and unimaginable ways, those kids won’t know what hit them. We’re still reading The Giver and climate control doesn’t sound like that bad of an idea after all, but we can’t control nature, though we try.

Here are all of the postcards that arrived from Spring Break. I am looking forward to another postcard crusade over summer vacation, but that is 29 days away and I’ll cross that bridge when it come. In the meantime, I have days to plan, to make count in the most unimaginable ways. Making the Days Count, one day at a time, even when the days are a little out of order.

Have you ever experienced ‘a loss’ that was more of kick start to something you should be doing?

 

9 thoughts on “Postcards from Spring Break – 2013

  1. I still love postcards and will pick them up as mementos whenever we travel on vacation. It’s a fun idea, yet I would always be thinking about going back on vacation! Hopefully the water damage was not too bad. Maybe we’ll all have some nice Spring weather soon!

    1. Postcards are fun and beat a text or e-mail any day of the week. I am planning to add to the postcard wall over summer vacation – for staff only. It should be fun. The basement is dry(ing) and the affected carpet is at the curb. We need to come up with a plan and do a basement makeover! Right now my office is at the kitchen table!

  2. I used to love receiving postcards. What a great idea. Bahia Honda SP is on our must see list of places to visit. I’m ready to head there now! Since our return to Colorado, we’ve encountered 3 blizzards and some other crazy weather. So sorry about your basement. Stay warm and dry, summer is around the corner 🙂

    1. We first visited Bahia Honda in ’04 and had such a good time we couldn’t wait to get back. It is a beautiful beach with incredibly blue water and as a history buff I love the old bridge, have a picture of W and I on it overlooking the Atlantic. Sadly, we were pressed for time and didn’t get on it this time – next time. The basement will survive and probably be better for it. I noticed many homes in the area had soggy carpet at the curb yesterday. It could have been worse and to top it all off, we got .2″ of snow Friday night!

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