Blair Witch

What is it about writing that is so scary? Of all the subjects I unleash on these guys, none strikes fear into their hearts like writing. I suppose its the tedium. Can't say I blame them for that.


So today was no exception. I suspect they were on to me based on my reaction to their efforts yesterday. They seemed to know it was coming.

We started school late today, on account of... well, I can't really remember, but we didn't get started until around 11:30. I tried to soften the blow of the impending writing assignment by playing paper-wad basketball to start the day off. I got it all set up and began feeding them paper wads. After a couple of minutes, I stopped and asked them a question. If we were to keep official score, what would we need to do - what would we need to create? I was hoping to get something to the effect of "creating a chart", but before they could respond I blurted out "Oh, crap!" and ran from the room to check the time.

As usual, I completely forgot that the second session of Fall President's Physical Fitness Challenge was scheduled for today at 1:00 pm. I swear, since I quit working, I can't keep track of a thing. No really, its only since I stopped working. Really.

I scrapped the school session and began preparations for the Challenge. As it turned out, I only had two participants in addition to Josh and Kyle, but we had a lot of fun.

Afterward, back at the ranch, there was no time for games. So here was the drill: write an entire line of each letter of the alphabet, in perfect form.

I must digress for a minute here. Yesterday's project with the broken dryer didn't go so well. I mean, I don't think even Jason, our robotic pool vacuum, which does just about everything, and might even have some electro-cosmic connection to laundry machines, could have resuscitated this clothes dryer. So it is now resting peacefully in a scrap metal recycling bin at the Sandy Ridge landfill. I digress here to point out that the teacher, after having doled out the assignment, had to bolt to the store to get a new dryer. So I told the boys they'd probably need half an hour to complete the assignment, handed the reigns to their older brother, and headed out the door.

When I returned an hour and a half later, with no clothes dryer (but again, that's another blog entirely), I found the boys just finishing up. What they lacked in speed, they made up for in form. They actually did a great job. And I suspect they had a diversion or two while I was gone. So I have this vision for a new bumper sticker on my truck:


Anyway, to recap the writing fiasco, here is where we were at around the mid-point last year...


And here is where we began this year...


And here is today's effort...


So we made a left turn, circled back around, pulled a U-ey, backed up a little bit, stalled, and now we're cranking it back up. Sounds like my dryer shopping excursion.