Ciao... Y'all,I realize it has been six months (or more) since I had something to say. Perhaps that reflects on the incredible sameness of our lives or more likely the fact that I'm lazy and a procrastinator. At any rate, Renae and I have kept on 'keeping on' with rather uneventful (at our age may be uneventful is good?) routines.
Renae still works at FSU student financial services and I will once again start another semester of supervising teacher interns. By the way, it seems mentally more difficult to have nothing to do during the summer than actually going to work. I used to tell the kids in my classes that if they said they were bored that meant they weren't focusing on the task at hand or they weren't smart enough to find something constructive to do. Although, the summer is the time I have to devote more time to exercise, eating better, reading some books, fishing, playing some golf, playing with the grandkids at the community pool and traveling. OK, forget the ...'doing work' comment.
Renae and I did go camping with Steve and Gerry Martin near Sarasota back in March. We had a fabulous time shooting the breeze, a little fishing, checking out the local restaurants, stopping by perhaps the biggest Flea-market in Florida, fixing camping fare and consuming a few beers and bottles of vino. But you folks may already know that if the Eagle(Steve) submitted his semi-annual update.Renae and I flew to Portland, OR in June to visit our son Kip and his wife Becky. We did some sightseeing, a couple of wine tastings, traveled along the Columbia River by car, played some golf and just relished the wonderfully cool weather. Oregon is a beautiful place in the summer. Kip and Becky are trying to start a family but are finding a rough go of it. They may end up going invitro. After they told us we all sat around and cried a bit.( It seems like the older I get, the weepier I get.)
The first week of August we traveled with our daughter and granddaughters to Waynesboro,Virginia to visit my mother, brother and sister.Although my mom stays with my sister Kris, she has a cabin just off the Blueridge Parkway so we all stayed there for a couple of days. There is no electricity and the generator wasn't working so we were basically camping in the woods. About twice a day we would have to drive to a nearby pond, fill several five gallon pails with water then slosh back up the mountain just to be able to flush the toilet. Those of us who could stand the cold water took baths in the pond's spillway. But it was all worth it to be with family in a place we all love.
May you all be well and happy.
Jack M.
