Scenic Routes: October 2012. In bullets

One of the reasons that I need to get back here is that this is my external brain. When it came time to write the Christmas Letter (which is still unwritten, I might add. I got the Christmas cards printed, but that's where things stalled. Boo. Happy Chinese New Year, anyone?), I realized that i had NO IDEA what I'd been up to. When was Skip sick, and missed 2 days of school? Um... When did I have my last migraine? Er....
So here we go. Back on the wagon.
And here's what happened in October. Good thing I take too many photos.
1. Early in October, I got a call from my 2nd-grade-teacher friend, Abby. She was taking her class to the California Academy of Sciences, and had had TWO parent-drivers bail on her at the last minute. I was able to move stuff around, and take the day off. It was a grand day in the City.

2. Kelly's friends in high school had a day off, and they wanted to go riding on the beach. I thought that called for a 'mental health day' (because obviously I have no regard for public education - which was almost verbatim said to me two months later, over another episode - but that will show up in the December update) Such a great morning on the beach. And Kelly made it back to school for the afternoon. I'm not a complete cretin, after all!

3. I spent a good deal of time with Abby's class. The kids are a hoot, and I'm tutoring 4 of the kids who are still having trouble coming up to speed with reading skills and focus. I'm bringing pets into the classroom, and Rosie the tarantula is in fine form. The kids love her.

4. I was driving home from tutoring one day at lunch, when I saw an interesting cloud in the blue, blue sky. As I drove closer to home, I realized the cloud was rising. Oddly. Uh oh. It was smoke. Did I stop? No, I drove home like Steve McQueen, and grabbed my camera, and then ran back out to the open space. As I was running through the dry, dry grass, towards the smoke, I realized something: "This is how people win The Darwin Awards!" Just as I was thinking that a shift in the wind could turn me into a statistic, I saw two dark figures emerging from the smoke. Ah, a controlled burn. And then I got scared "Eek! maybe I'm not supposed to be here!" so I turned and fled, crashing through the thistles and manzanita, like some blue-cardiganned deer, trying to flee back to the herd.

5. Big Save the Music festival in town, trying to keep music in the schools. Man, I hate budget cuts. But this festival raises good money, and Stanford and UC Davis come and play, and it's a big hit. Kelly likes working in the musical petting zoo, and I like wandering around and getting shaved ice. Here's one of the Stanford marching tubas, getting ready. I love the reflected street-scape in the bowl of the tuba.

6. Skip's buddy Cole is into Dagorhir. Skip kind of likes the exercise, and the weaponry, but he thinks it's pretty poncey to get all dressed up. So he goes to the odd practice, but doesn't go to any of the meets. I like shooting the battles, because I kind of like the dress-up aspect. But here's a photo of Skip, because they're few and far between.

7. Kelly's been riding at the therapy place, taking lessons with a couple of high school girls. When she's taking a break, there's all sorts of farm-type activities. And great dogs.