Through the Dust and Heat of Summer, We Emerge Sweaty and Grimy
The inevitable summer slump has happened. It's funny how my summer camp weeks are often more mind-consuming than my science camp weeks. Then again, science camp is more of a set routine and summer camp encourages more of an "anything goes" mentality. Add to that the fact that for the past month, I've been part of the Trailblazers team. Trailblazers is a summer program that was offered for the first time last year. This year, it was expanded from three weeks to four. Last year, I think I worked one Trailblazers week, but this year I worked all four. Two kinds of kids get signed up for the program: Kids who are really into natural science and related subjects, or kids who couldn't get into our main summer camp program because it was full. It's always pretty easy to tell who is who too. That said, we had a great month of hiking and playing. Everything ran more smoothly this year, and it's pretty obvious we've left last year's growing pains in the dust, although we're constantly improving things. Counselors for the Trailblazers program are provided by yet another summer camp program, Leaders In Training. Leaders In Training are mostly 13 year old campers who are being trained to be counselors. Both of my stepdaughters, Sophie and Eva, came up on different weeks to take part in the program, and they both had a good time and learned things. Willow came up at the end of July for the regular camp and had a fun week too, although she elected to not camp overnight on Thursday (although, come to think of it, Eva opted out of the L.I.T. campout too).
The wildlife around camp has been in short supply. For some reason, I haven't been finding as many snakes this year. I did get a cool infrared motion-sensor trail camera though, and I've got a few pictures of nocturnal and crepuscular happenings. I'm looking forward to using it again next week when I'm back at camp for the final week of the season.
The weeks flew by, and there were a number of profound moments. The campers, mostly third and fourth graders, were genuinely concerned about the world around them, and that always makes me happy. It was a treat to watch the Leaders In Training grow over the course of their time at camp, although there were three who didn't quite make the grade this year.
The last couple of weeks have been hot, although we've had some cloudy days. The air quality has been bad too, and I'm sure at least some of that is attributable to the wildfires burning upstate.
For the past week, I've not been working. I take one week off every summer, and usually that's family vacation week. This year, we ended up not going anywhere. Jeanine's mom, who lives with us, has trouble getting around and needs someone close by, so we had originally planned to take a number of day trips in lieu of a proper vacation, but since my week off got moved around due to the Trailblazers program (they wanted consistent staffing for the duration of the program this year), the vacation week didn't really pan out as planned. Instead, I made a list of things that needed to get done, but that ended up not really happening either. I still need to make a dentist appointment, and I still have plans to get rid of my old van which is gathering dust in the driveway (I'm thinking of donating it, and I may very well once again donate my hair at the same time, which is what I did the last time I donated a vehicle). In short, I've spent the week doing very little. Sure, I brought a couple of art prints to a framer, and I've done some writing (mostly for my
other blog), watched some movies (Theo Angelopoulos'
"The Traveling Players" and the Marvel/Disney film, Guardians of the Galaxy, both of which were great in their own ways, although at very opposite ends of the filmic spectrum), and gone out to see some live music. Oh, I also raked the yard, but the avocado tree has since dropped enough leaves that it looks like I hadn't. To hell with it. I've never been good at routine maintenance.
Today, Jeanine is out working, and I'm going to head to a BBQ and then up to Berkeley for some more musical entertainment. School already looms on the horizon for the kids. Willow is back to school on the 19th. Where has the summer gone?
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