Summer Time Blues

School's out and the break has begun.  I will be honest, this will be a long post...or maybe I'll pass out half way through and it will almost be a long post.  I'm not sure.  There have been a lot of changes lately.  I finished my job at Wapato High.  I began my summer job.  Chloe got sick.  Chloe has been having difficulties sleeping which means we have trouble sleeping.  My back is sore and I am tired.  We may go camping this weekend.  And I found some cool things in my shed.

First:  I finished my position at Wapato High School.  As I finish my first week of summer break, I am looking at my half year as a real teacher fondly.  I suppose it was a matter of breaking long held visions and rep[lacing them with reality.  I envisioned captivating my students with the awesomeness of history.  I knew that the coolness I saw there would be so pervasive that students would crave MORE!  I'd be fighting to slow them down, and keep them from reading ahead in the book.  Somehow, I had forgotten my own experiences in school and replaced them with my love of history.  

My students weren't bad.  It is often a matter of priorities.  They are setting their places in their small social network, making and breaking cliques and groups.  They are experiencing hormone surges and the excitements of youth.  How can I expect the fact that the Japanese used balloons to deliver bombs to the United States to captivate their attention for more than a few moments?

Chloe got sick last week.  I took her to the doctor on Monday and we got her some pills and some meds.  She is doing better.  She really impressed the doctor when I asked Chloe what she wanted to be when she grows up.  Chloe said, "A doctor."  The nurse that checked us in remembered Chloe from last year.  She was impressed with the change that Chloe has undergone.  She could not believe how much Chloe has grown-up.

A downside to this illness, and I am not completely sure the two are related, is that Chloe's sleeping habits have...sucked.  They suck.  They absolutely suck.  We have not had more than one night in which she has NOT awoken in the middle of the night in about three weeks.  Honestly, I think we might both eventually go off our rocker because of the NON SLEEPING!

Last night was horrible.  She awoke at 1:30am.  I put her back down, sang to her and comforted her.  At 2am she got up again.  I gave Cora a prod, since she rather ignorantly asked me to do so if Chloe got up more than once.  Well, I wish I hadn't.  The next hour and half was a nightmare of nonstop wailing.  See, Chloe goes back to sleep fairly quickly for me.  For some reason, she does not want her Mommy to leave her at night...not that I blame the kid.  Apparently, I am not necessarily the most warm soul and Chloe is happy to see me leave.  So, when Cora goes in, Chloe cries when she leaves.  And we decided to try to wait her out.  We painfully underestimated Chloe's determination.  Clearly, if she wants something, she will cry, wail, and scream about it until she is unable to do so.  We waited for 30 minutes at one point!  30 minutes of wailing.  NON STOP.

Yeah, we were both in a great frame of mind this morning.  Working on a deficit of sleep causes irritability.  Work for me this week has included moving furniture to the dump, moving exercise equipment to an empty semi-trailer and tomorrow working to help the custodians at Terrace heights get ready for the move.  My lower back, already at odds with me, has increasingly become a dissenting party to my summer employment.     This morning, it was especially vocal and exceptional in it's single-mindedness to show me my wicked ways. I took a pill as soon as I got home.  It took a while, but I am feeling a little better, if stiff.

I got home and went to get Chloe, as usual, and her grandmother showed me what Chloe (the only one of the kids awake) was doing.  Chloe was taking puzzles with as many as 11 pieces and putting them back together.  Quickly, too!  This kid likes puzzles!  Here she is doing one in the back yard this afternoon.

 Calvin, our newest family member, is melding into the family with little problem.  He is inquisitive and assertive.  It seems obvious that anything which has the audacity to be ON the floor has done Calvin a great and personal wrong.

 Here you can see him dealing punishment upon one of my hapless shoes.  Stupid things got onto the floor without permission.

I guess he is gutting this one...

 He is well on the way to becoming a companion to Chloe.  Chloe seems to think catching the kitty is a great sport.  The cat doesn't seem to mind being caught too much.

 Chloe has to see kitty at all times.  Here, right after bath Chloe is in her dinosaur towel saying goodnight to Mommy and giving some loves to Kitty. 

 We bought bikes...and have yet to get more than a few short rides on them...sigh. 

 We plan to go camping this weekend, so Chloe can go fishing for the first time.  And also, so we can get the heck out of the house.  Obviously, we need to have our camping gear on hand.  I used this afternoon and went looking.  While out there, I stumbled upon something I had not recognized years ago when i first got it. Camera gear.  My uncle passed away several years ago.  He was a photographer when he was younger.  My aunt, knowing my photography interests and background saw to it that I got some of his stuff.  I put in storage at the time, simply because I did not have time to go through it more than in a cursory way.

The things I found today are awesome!  They are numerous filters, optics, and camera accessories.  Particularly, these are for Argus C3s!!  I have two!  One of which I located today, too.

  It is interesting to see the differences in 1950s and 1960s photography and that of today.  The lenses were so much smaller then.  Lens diameters were never more than 30mm, it seems.  Today, very few are less than 52mm, with many ranging to 77mm.  The camera below is my Argus C3.

I'll leave you with a photo of a portion of my camera collection.