Summer

How to distill summer down to a few words?

I worked nine weeks of summer camp, four of which were Summer Camp Classic, and five of which were Trailblazers, with one of the latter being a residential camp for the migrant education program. Badger, despite his attempts to retire, is still the director of the classic summer camp, and Sasquatch has stepped in as director of Trailblazers. He came laden with all sorts of new ideas, including shelter building, a blind walk, Jedi training (sort of a combination of tether ball and dodge ball), cooking, and new (to me) games such as Wolf Pack, Mission Sasquatch, and Nature Survival Experience. It was a blast, and over too fast.

Due to the storm-damaged road, we shuttled kids to and from camp in vans all summer. I was skeptical that it would work, but we managed.

Willow had summer school for much of the summer, but managed to spend two weeks as a camp counselor, one week for Wild Things (mostly 5 and 6 year olds), and one week with the older kids. Sophie was up for some Wild Things counseling too. By all reports, they both did great jobs. I'm a proud dad. Willow is sad that it's over, and is now back in school as a high schooler. Initial reports suggest that the biology teacher gives too much homework.

To mark the end of camp, on Friday I went and saw an uncut Italian language print of Dario Argento's Suspiria at the Roxie Theater in S.F., and on Saturday went up to camp in the evening with Jeanine and Willow, where we met Weasel, Night Hawk, Lion, Clover, and others for a Perseid Meteor Shower viewing party. We saw some big ones and had a fine old time. Weasel recently had both her vocal cords removed to combat the cancer growing there, but can still talk because the false vocal cords help create sound. She went through the whole ordeal with bravery and grace, plus some online diagrams showing what was happening.

Sunday, Jeanine, Willow, and I went up to see the most recent Central Works play, Winter, about the right to die with dignity. It was excellent, even by the high standards of Central Works.

Here is a photo set of all the photos I took during summer camp.

As far as this blog goes, I haven't been writing much mainly because I've been listening to records. It sounds funny when I write it that way, but I've been trying to re-listen to all of my old records, CDs, and cassettes, and since I have over 8000 of them, it's taking up a lot of time. I've rediscovered some gems along the way, but this has led to more purchases. But hey, it's a hobby.

I may or may not get back on track here. Time will tell.