Spring Break Ending, Spring Break Beginning

This is one of the annoyances about having the Boychick attend school.
My spring break is ending on Sunday, and his is beginning on Saturday.
This means that we can share exactly two days of Spring Break. And they are the weekend days that we would share anyway.
Now you would think that the schools and the university could coordinate these things.
Ah, vain wish! Bureaucracies at any level are incapable of effective communication.
They are even less capable at making common-sensical decisions.

Oh, alright. It is a minor annoyance. After all, we weren't planning on going to Arizona anyway. At least, not as a family. I always do the bulk of my spring cleaning over my spring break.

(This week I spent most of my time in the kitchen, either on a ladder or on my knees, peering into hard-to-reach cabinets. And congratulating myself on throwing out giving away all of those strange and extraneous kitchen gagets last year.
(Note: In the interest of full disclosure I must say that the Engineering Geek and I DO NOT agree about the extraneous nature of those kitchen oddities. One of us is also deluded about what really happened to them).

Anyway, one of us is going to Arizona. The Boychick is going with his scout troop for a jamboree (or is it camporee?--in the girl scouts we just called them trips) in Arizona that will include the chance to do archery at a top-notch range. Today, on the way to Taekwondo, we stopped at Ye Olde Archery Shoppe (not its real name) to get some gold-tip arrows and a bow-case for the Boychick's compound bow. He is also taking the Recurve, but the troop has invested in arrows for that.

Today, when I went to tutor a student in Algebra II (we had a wonderful time playing with imaginary numbers), the Boychick's Special Education case manager asked me for tips that she could give another parent on how to successfully keep a kiddo from frying his brain on the computer 24/7. At first I said that I didn't have any; the Boychick has a variety of interests. And then I realized that that is the trick. While some of his peers at school will spend spring break huddled over glowing screens in dark rooms, pale from lack of sunshine, the Boychick will be in Arizona, helping research Siguaro Cacti, shooting at the archery range, and taking in a Cardinals game. He isn't even taking his I-Pod.

Not bad for an Aspie.

The only thing he says he will miss is the Guild.
It's over at Pimentel, anyway. But that's another story.

Father's Day: Off to BSA Camp Dobbins

Ah, Father's Day. That really nice summer Sunday when Dads everywhere can hardly wait to get up at the crack of dawn to bring their boys to camp.

Not exactly Hallmark is it? But it is what many dads do.



Here is N. posing with the Engineering Geek in his new Father's Day issue T-shirt.

N. picked out the T-shirt.
He is looking disgruntled because I approached with a camera in hand, and proposed a pose.
N.'s comment: "Mothers! They're positively annoying with cameras." (I think he meant embarrassing).

The T-Shirt lists the 10 most common phrases out of the mouths of dads everywhere when something breaks.

(Note the form of the word--breaks. As if it did so spontaneously).


Men Loading the Vehicle: It is never called a "truck" or "car" or, G-d-forbid, "SUV" in the context of loading for an expidition. It is always and forever in these cases a "vehicle.'

N. cheered up somewhat. Guys like loading vehicles. (And he didn't notice me and the camera). They get to show off some physical muscle by heaving heavy articles of camping gear in an improbable pile in the back of a pick-up. They also get to display their ingenuity by walking around importantly with a clip-board, checking off the essential items, and by arguing over the best way to distribute the load for logistical purposes. (As in, "Hey, put that in last, Will, we'll need it right away when we get there!").



The dads got in some action with vehicle loading, too.
After all, it was Father's Day.
They got to deploy the tarp over the random-looking-but-carefully arranged pile of stuff in the pick-up bed.

Here the Engineering Geek performs the ancient Boy Scout art of knot tying.

At this point, the actual Scouts were engaging in the requisite high-jinks, the rolling bear-cub behavior that always spontaneously happens five minutes before they have to climb into cars and tr...er, excuse me, I mean 'vehicles' for the seven hour drive to camp. (BSA camps seem to always be located at least seven hours away from wherever the troop assembles. This allows for at least two mandatory sugar and junk-food stops to increase adult driving pleasure).


About two minutes before the boys needed to squeeze themselves into the ca...um, vehicles, the troop camp coordinator, Duke Buster (isn't that the perfect name for a BSA troop camp coordinator?)--anyway, Duke lined the scouts up for a list of last minute instructions.

There were instructions about getting to merit badge classes, dressing for dinner--they wear their uniforms in the mess hall--flag ceremonies, and helping old scout masters across the camp grounds (just kidding). The last few instructions were the most important:

• Remember, Scouts who spend all of their pocket cash on the first day are very hungry on the drive home
• Wear sun-screen
• Have FUN!

And they were off!

Packed into SAV's (Scout Assault Vehicles) around the most important stuff--the gear. Settling in for the long drive. Chattering excitedly about the relative merits of the various badges each boy had chosen...

Suddenly the parking lot was very quiet.
The Engineering Geek said, somewhat forlornly, "Sure is quiet around here."

"Yeah, too quiet." I answered.

We stopped at the store.
We met the Chem Geek Princess and her boyfriend for Father's Day Breakfast at Wecks. I went on to teach three reading classes.

The Engineering Geek went home to practice the fatherly art of sipping coffee on the porch with his newspaper.

It sure is quiet around here this week.

Too quiet.

Returns and Departures

After a very quiet week, I picked N. up in town after his week at Boy Scout Camp in Texas.



The camp was in the Big Bend area, not far from Fort Davis. My boy came home tired and dirty and hot...it was regularly 109 degrees F down there. And very happy about his successful week.

He completed these merit badges while at camp:

• Horsemanship


• Riflery


• Archery


• Swimming

For horsemanship, he had to learn the parts of the horse, the names of the tack, how to groom the horse, muck the stall, feed the horse, and care for and put on the tack, as well as riding. He had to get up at 5 AM and muck and feed before eating his own breakfast. What a great lesson in responsibility for other living things! In swimming he learned water safety, as well as getting advanced instruction in free-style (crawl), backstroke, sidestroke, and breaststroke. For riflery and archery, he had to demonstrate care of the weapon, and safety, as well as marksmanship. He had written tests to complete for each badge, before he rode, got in the water, or used the weapons. He learned that if he was to complete all four badges, he had to use his free time for practicing the skills he was learning. What a great learning experience. And he had great fun and came home with a great sense of accomplishment.

N. will be home all day today and tomorrow, and then he will be flying to Chicago on Tuesday for a three-week visit with my parents, sisters and their children. He is really looking forward to spending a lot of time having fun with his cousins!

And that led me to a frantic search today for his birth certificate! We need to get him a state ID so that he can negotiate the airports and get through security by himself.

And you know how it is...I knew right where all of the legal documents were--in the old house! I ventured into the cave of Bruce's office. Because I knew the documets were in the file cabinet in Bruce's office. No dice. I looked again. Still not there. I found a copy ofour marriage certificate stuck in a very interesting set of documents...but that's a different story.

Then I asked MLC:

Me: "Didn't I give you your birth certificate when you applied for your passport?"

MLC: "Yep. You got it right out of the file cabinet and handed it to me."

Me: "Which file cabinet?"

MLC: "It was about "yea" high (she gestured) and white. You went right to it."

Me: "Where was the file cabinet? Was it in this house?"

MLC: "Yep. You went right to it and handed it to me."

So I went out to the garage. Our garage should park three cars. Our two cars are parked outdoors while all three bays are full of boxes, half-opened containers with the contents leaking out, empty boxes, and the flotsam and jetsam of the move. The one we made last year.

Ahem! Embararrasing, isn't it?

So I went out to the garage--well shod in case I step on a lizard--and climbed over the Christmas lights the previous owner left on the house that we took down because we don't use them; the ones that were deposited between the refrigerator and the stack of astronomy stuff boxes. The file cabinet was next to N.'s old desk, and a stack of boxes of yet-to-be-unpacked books was square in front of the drawers. I moved those boxes, after first clearing away some of the other stuff sitting there to make room--and opened the top drawer of the file cabinet.

EMPTY!

I frantically moved the box in front of the bottom drawer.

EMPTY!

MLC, opening the garage door: "By the way, Mom, you took the file to put it somewhere safe and accessible."

Me: "WONDERFUL! I wonder where THAT would be?"

MLC: "Try your office."

Hmmm. I cleaned my office before Pesach. I looked in the obvious place--the small file box near my desk. I found:

• The expired warranty on my 5-year old Focus


• Pay stubs from my teaching job at Rio Rancho High dated 2000.


• Blank greeting cards for all occasions.


• NO BIRTH CERTIFICATE!

OY! Vey iz mir!

I looked in every notebook on my bookshelf. No dice.

I checked in the desk in the kitchen. Nope.

Then I opened the closet in my office. I had put several boxes of photos and mementos on the shelf. So I got the step-ladder. And brought down the first box. It was full of photographs. I pulled out a few: Counter-clockwise from bottom left: MLC taken 20 years ago, one of N. and his friend Jon-Jon, from 1998. A photo of MLC and N taken in 1995. And one of our cat, Binky, when he could fit into the palm of your hand, taken back in 2002. NO BIRTH CERTIFICATE.

I went through another box that contained my high school diploma, and among other such stuff, my ex's high school diploma. No file!

Finally, I pulled down a box labeled: Hebrew Teaching. And textbooks and my notes for teaching were on top. Then I found files of papers such as "The Lonely Man of Faith" by Soleveitchik. I found copies of Rosh Chodesh Services and Women's Seder Services I had written in the 1990's. And then, toward the bottom, I found my legal papers. Below that were the papers for the purchase of my first house in 1999. And, at the very bottom, a file labeled in red sharpie: IMPORTANT! RE-FILE AT ONCE! THIS MEANS YOU-E! Love, E.

You guessed it. It contains my birth certificate, the children's birth certificates, our original marriage certificate, and all of the other seldom-used-but-very-important-when-needed documents of life.

Later, as Bruce and I were eating some lunch, N. wandered in.

"Did you find it?" he asked.

"N., I am not sure you were actually born," I teased him.

He stuck his tongue out at me. "Where was it?" he asked.

Smart aleck!

O.K. maybe I should follow my own, capitalized, exclaimation-pointed, written -n-red instructions with love to myself.

Bruce is out in the garage now--tidying up a bit. Ya gotta love that guy!

And it's nice to find all-but-forgotten pictures.

I guess I know what I can occupy my lonely days with while N. is in Illinois.

The papers? I've got them somewhere safe and accessible until I need them tomorrow.

Field Trip Friday

Yesterday two big events were on the agenda.

First, the National Weather Service ABQ office held it's annual open house for weather spotters. We have maintained a NWS issued precipitation meter and we are weather spotter station 53 for their "CityNet" program--although we are now outside the city. They have added several other spotters in the East Mountains--soon they will have to change the name to "CountyNet."

So, despite looming paper and presentation deadlines, Bruce, N. and I hopped into Henry for a trip to the NWS.

Here you see N. standing in front of the antique computer that launches weather balloons twice a day, at 4 AM and 4 PM (Zero and 1200 Zulu). (Bruce has a cute way of stepping in with sandwich in hand when I snapped a shot. I lost a few because all you could see was the sandwich).

It is an antique, but it still works--so far.

It is telling that the NWS is one government agency that citizens get services from every day, and important ones at that, and yet they have severe budgetary restrictions going back to Ronald Reagan's presidency. It took them 20 years and countless lives lost in weather emergencies befure they got Doppler Radar in place. The TV stations had them long before the NWS! (They did not say this at NWS--they are good civil servants--but I read it elsewhere).

Here is N. at the forcast desk.

There are several stations at the NWS. There is the Aviation Desk, the Forcast Desk, the Long-Term Outlook Desk (which does 7 day forcasting) and then there is a communications center for talking to the weather spotters. If we get serious rain, wind, hail, snow or see a tornado, we call it in. We also call in temperatures and barometric pressures twice a day. With our terrain, they need this information to forcast winds more accurately. Communications is also important for weather emergencies--like the New Years Snowstorm!

We had a tour of every desk and learned how the meteorologists do their work. N. learned that most of them now have a B.S. in Meteorology and that there are only a few schools that have the degree.

After the NWS, we ran some errands, including getting supplies for N.'s Scout Camp-o-ree.

The Sandia district of the Great Southwest Council had their annual Camp-O-Ree at Cedro Peak--just a few miles from us. We took N. there instead of meeting at the church where his troop meets.

A Camp-O-Ree is not just a regular camping trip. Rather, many different troops gather together and they practice various field exercises. Two things N. mentioned were night orienteering and field first aid.

This year, in honor of the scouting anniversary, the theme was the Boer War. Lord Baden-Powell got his idea for a scouting movement for boys during his service in the Boer War in South Africa. So the boys learned a little something about the Dutch "Afrikaaners" and the English Colonists and the war they fought at the turn of the 20th century.

Here is N. all ready for his Camp-O-Ree experience.

He was not thrilled about my taking his picture, but I told him that was my job as his mother. "Someday..." I started.

"I'll thank you for it! I know, I know!" he completed my sentence.

These boys learn some amazing things in scouts.

This afternoon, I picked up a very tired and wind-burned young scout from his experience. He said the best part was crawling through a simulated mine-field at 3 AM using their compasses in the dark to orienteer.

Only a dedicated scout would be enthusiastic about that!

Tenderfoot

Last night N. got his Tenderfoot Rank Badge!

Look at this handsome boy scout!

This is N. reading his part of the "12 points of the scout law" ceremony last night at a Court of Honor at which he made a rank advancement to Tenderfoot in his Boy Scout troop.

The Tenderfoot is the second rank on the "Eagle Path." The ranks are as follows: Scout, Tenderfoot, 2nd Class, 1st Class, Star, Life, Eagle. In the Scout through 1st Class ranks, the boys are learning the outdoor and life skills to be an accomplished scout. From the Star through Life, they are learning service to the community. At Eagle Scout, the boy not only has the outdoors skills and has done community service, but they have also developed leadership skills and have used them to lead others in service to the community.

This is N. receiving his Tenderfoot badge from the assistant scoutmaster for his troop. In order to earn the rank of Tenderfoot, N. accomplished the following:

• Present himself to his leader properly dressed for a camp-out with a properly packed backpack.



• Spend the night in tent he helped pitch



• Assist in preparing two meals at the camp-out for his patrol

This picture is N. putting his Tenderfoot Mother's Pride Pin on me! Requirements continued below:

• Whip and fuse the end of a rope



• Demonstrate and explain the use of two half-hitches and the taut-line hitch knots



• Explain the rules for safe hiking on the highway and cross-country, day and night. Demonstrate what to do if he is lost



• Demonstrate how to raise, lower and fold the American flag.


• Repeat from memory and explain in his own words the scout oath, law, motto and slogan.


• Know patrol name, give the patrol yell and describe the patrol flag


• Improve ability to do push-ups, sit-ups, and pull-ups over 30 days


• Identify local poisonous plants and demonstrate treatment for exposure to them


• Demonstrate the Heimlich manuver and explain when to use it


• Demonstrate first aid techniques for simple cuts and scratches, blisters, first-degree burns or scalds, insect bites, stings and tick removal, poisonous snakebite, nosebleed, frostbite, and sunburn


• Demonstrate scout spirit by living the scout oath and law in everyday life


• Participate in scoutmaster conference


• complete board of review

I really like the incremental approach to learning concepts and developing skills that the scouts use. I also like that N. is spending quality time among boys of a range of ages and that he is mentored by the older boys and well as by the adult men who guide the troop as scoutmasters, assistant scoutmasters, merit badge counselors, boards of review, and troop committees. What a world it would be if schools used these approaches--they are the methods that create autonomous learners. As it is, homeschoolers often use similar approaches by mentoring our kids or providing mentors and incremental learning approaches in which our kids are encouraged to take the next step and go the extra mile. I find the scouts to be a great supplement to my homeschooling curriculum for N.

Here is the Bazooka Berserkers Patrol with proud parents!

N. is third from the right in the first row. I am immediately behind him. Bruce, my husband is behind me. We are standing behind placards of the BSA ranks.

Happy Trails!