Sunday, July 1, 2007 – Driving home from the mountains
We dropped Olivia at camp this morning.

We made up her bed, took a couple of photos and said goodbye. Wow, that wasn’t as bad as I thought it would be.

But as we were leaving, just a few steps from her cabin – her cabin in the tall, lush rhododendron and shady trees – Jay dons his sunglasses. Call me Sherlock Holmes but I knew something was up. I could hear the counselors now. “Cabin One to base. Cabin One to base. Alert, alert. We’ve got ourselves a crier. Get the tissues ready.”

Zach made it so easy for us so we were caught a tad off guard by the emotions that surfaced when leaving Olivia. Then again, maybe I was ignoring all the signs. Like, when we were playing hangman on the car ride over and her sentence was                I  W I L L  M I S S  Y O U!

Don’t get me wrong. She wasn’t trying to make us feel bad or talk herself out of going. She was just expressing herself, very healthily I might add. She was a trooper, too. She was ready for us to go so she could get on with the business of adjusting and making friends.

The ride home has been a little quiet. “What should we do tonight?” we pondered. “I dunno. What do you want to do for the 4th?” I suppose it’s good practice for when the kids are grown and gone and all we have for regular entertainment is each other. We’ll HAVE to find something else to talk about besides the kids. Now I see why people end up getting so many pets.

I think next year – assuming our kids like this whole camp business and want to attend next year – we should coordinate with our friends. It would be really great to have our friends available to hang out and play with, too, with all the kids gone to camp. I mean, what’s the point of get-togethers with our friends and their kids when we are temporarily child-free.

Jay hasn’t stopped talking about Olivia yet. I might need to set up an appointment for him tomorrow to deal with his separation issues. I think he’s flashing back to when his parents sent him away for 8 weeks each summer. I’ll try to be gentle and empathetic.

  Later that day – still driving home from the mountains

So much for Camp Mansfield in the UK this summer. Now that, as of last count, 3 terrorist attack attempts have taken place, in the name of Allah of course, the UK is at its highest terror alert possible. I’m trying to be tolerant and accepting of this religion but it seems to me there are at least 2 camps – one that doesn’t believe they are to commit suicide and murder of innocent people in the name of Allah and one that does.

Call me dense but I have a really hard time understanding how one can rationalize that it’s the will of their god to, say, drive a vehicle into a marketplace filled with men, women and children and detonate a bomb killing half of them and maiming others. And then the said bomber will be insured a place in heaven for the act. If you can explain it so I can understand, by all means, have at it. Jay says it has something to do with the vestal virgins.

TRIVIA QUIZ: What song mentions the vestal virgins? First one with the correct answer wins.

So, on the lighter side…did you read about the guy in Illinois who was setting off fireworks in his yard and was killed when he picked up an unexploded missile and peered down the tubing to see why it hadn’t gone off yet? You can guess what happened next.

That’s just stupid. Let that be a lesson unto you this 4th of July now, ya hear!

 


Comments

Big Papa

Mon, 02 Jul 2007 12:44:16

Another plan is to spend a week vacation with Big Mama then dump the kids for a few weeks. Grandkids are a parents reward for not strangling their kids. Grandkids are all the fun and not much of the responsibility. Just plain excellent. If your kids give you any grief, just buy the grandkids drum sets for Christmas.

 

Hoibe

Mon, 02 Jul 2007 19:29:58

Ahhhh Peace and quiet for a few days, , look at all the gas mileage you are saving, you are in that car a great deal , so now you can catch up with your daily chores you haven't done in a while, like sleeping late, walking the dog, or she walks you, a nice Beaksfast for a change, a good hot cup of coffe and the Paper.............Nannnnnnnnn that's not you you will still run around and do things, oh well at lest you will have some adult talk all day ...think of it this way ""If you don't do the things that are not worth doing, who will ??
enjoy the quiet........................

 

sherry

Mon, 02 Jul 2007 22:46:52

I think its whiter shade of pale.
as for camp mansfield, the rain is doing my head in more than the terrorists. I have been to the airport this weekend and to London and all I saw was rain. Wimbledon is rained out, the biggest flower show in the world is covered in mud, half the country is floating in water and we haven't had a day over 70 degress. Not that the terrorists aren't on my mind as well, I'm just looking closer to home, like outside my window.

 

Polly

Tue, 03 Jul 2007 06:32:22

Ha! Jay knew you'd be the one to answer the quiz. Well done you. You win. I'll make you a mojito when you get here. And I suggest you make it soon before the rain does you in completely. No wonder you've had such a flurry of terrorist activity. They'll all forlorn from the miserable weather.

 

Keith Reid

Tue, 03 Jul 2007 06:43:16

I was born in Welwyn Garden City, Hertfordshire, England, I am the songwriter who wrote the lyrics of every Procol Harum song that is not a cover. I am currently residing in the U.S.
---------------------------
We skipped the light fandango
turned cartwheels 'cross the floor
I was feeling kinda seasick
but the crowd called out for more
The room was humming harder
as the ceiling flew away
When we called out for another drink
the waiter brought a tray

And so it was that later
as the miller told his tale
that her face, at first just ghostly,
turned a whiter shade of pale

She said, 'There is no reason
and the truth is plain to see.'
But I wandered through my playing cards
and would not let her be
one of sixteen vestal virgins
who were leaving for the coast
and although my eyes were open
they might have just as well've been closed

 

Sherry

Tue, 03 Jul 2007 10:09:02

Hey, thanks Jay!!!

 

Hoibe

Wed, 04 Jul 2007 02:43:47

HAPPY 4TH TO EVERYONE, AND HAVE A SAFE ONE......

 

BIG MAMA

Wed, 04 Jul 2007 14:57:36

Blame it on G.W. Everyone else does!

 

Wendy

Tue, 14 Aug 2007 11:34:15

Oh wah. I knew the answer to the trivia question, but someone else beat me to it! Of course, that's probably because I'm reading this way behind the times. :D I just found your blog (and have RSSd it to my LiveJournal, so I can read it all the time now). *waves*

:)

 

Polly

Tue, 14 Aug 2007 12:16:40

Well hey there, Wendy. Thanks for chiming in, even if it's a wee bit past the post date. Never to late to comment in my blog!

As for "reading it all the time", first I'll have to get inspired to make some new entries. I feel something brewing though so hang in there.

 



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