Carnival capers

The Boy's school's annual carnival took place this evening.  For the last two years this has been a jolly outdoor event resulting in mild early-summer sunburn.  Today the rain has been coming down like stair-rods, so all activities moved inside.

Kids still had an excellent time, though the strain was showing on a few parents' faces - it's not that relaxing being stuck indoors with quite so many excitable children.  Games took place in the gym, food and cakewalk were in the cafeteria.  I did a turn on the ticket table, and the Girl put in good service applying tattoos and supervising a treasure-chest game. The Boy mostly hung out with his friends.  They are suddenly looking very much ready to move on to bigger and better things - though that cakewalk still proved irresistible to some.

Not shy, but retiring

I attended a retirement party this evening for a local hero - Craig Thompson.  Craig has worked at Five Rivers for 35 years, the last nineteen of them as Director.

The party had been planned for outdoors, but the rain came down, so a good few hundred well-wishers crammed into the Center building for food and speeches.  There were many speakers with warm words to share in praise of Craig, who is widely regarded as "the heart and soul" of Five Rivers.  Much loved by staff and volunteers for his wry sense of humour, self-deprecating style and motivational pencils (not to mention a very impressive beard) he has been instrumental in introducing all sorts of improvements at the Environmental Education Center over the years, making it a model for the state.  He has always had a keen desire to make Nature available to all and among other actions he has seen to the installation of wheelchair-accessible paths and ramps and Braille signage at various sites around the preserve.

A glorious spread of party food was provided by the guests, bring-and-share style, as befitted a family party - which is what it felt like.  The "Five Rivers family" is sad to see Craig retire, but tonight we were happy to celebrate with him.  His own speech this evening was typically humorous, modest and full of affection for his team and of course for Five Rivers itself.  Very Craig.  We're all really going to miss him.

Pit stop

There's no end to rites of passage for the Boy as he rapidly nears the end of his elementary education.  Tonight it was the fabled Pit Party.

The Pit is the Middle School's very own rec room - basically a cellar with a few pool tables, ping pong and space to dance in if it's a party night.  The Boy joined classmates from his school for a couple of hours of wild 5th Grade partying.

I've been down in the Pit before, but I'd forgotten how painful the acoustics are: the walls and floor are bare concrete.  The Boy had made it very clear to me that I was not to volunteer as a chaperone for the evening.  Frankly I was only too happy to deliver an offering of cupcakes and beat a hasty retreat.

Needless to say, the Boy reports that he had a good time.

Cooling off

After an extremely hot weekend the weather has cooled off somewhat in the last couple of days, and today we've had whippy winds, blowing leaves off the trees and into the pool. 

Yesterday was more tranquil, however.

Finding my way

I ended up on a bit of a wild goose chase this afternoon, hoping to help a friend get to a dental appointment but failing to find them at the meeting place we'd agreed on.  I couldn't find them at their house, either...well, I'm sure it was all down to some sort of mix up.

Anyway, I found myself negotiating the network of roads that links the major arteries out of downtown Albany - quite a maze of one-way streets and streets that don't come out just where you expect them to... It's always a bit of an adventure, especially for someone as directionally challenged as me.

Yet I think I'm making some progress on acquiring the Albany equivalent of The Knowledge.  There are a couple of areas near the Empire State Plaza which I do actually know pretty well now.  I can more or less place myself when I come across streets named after birds, or trees, or US Presidents.  And every so often I dazzle myself by correctly devising an excellent short cut.

Albany will never be my favourite place to drive, but I feel it's becoming familiar at least.

Music City muse

The Man writes...early this morning I got back from a hectic two day visit to Nashville, Tennessee.

Here are some more images from the conference hotel. With nearly three thousand rooms, it is the twenty-ninth biggest hotel in the world. Its distinctive feature is three huge atriums - the "Delta" atrium alone covers 4.5 acres and is 150 feet tall - containing fake rivers, fake waterfalls, fake landscape, real plants, real buildings, and various expensive restaurants and shopping opportunities. There were hundreds of guests, usually a couple of weddings in progress, many families with kids, and a few harried and lost looking conference delegates.

Of course the atriums were air conditioned to provide us all with a perfect never-changing climate. Perhaps it was meant as a glimpse of a future where we all spend our our lives indoors, shielded from a poisoned uninhabitable Earth. I found it ludicrous and annoying.

Downtown Nashville is relatively humble. One street - Lower Broadway - is lined almost exclusively with numerous small, smokey bars. Many had long lines outside, each had a basic stage up front and a small band playing Country music for tips.

Saturday amusements

I had another dental errand this morning, while the Girl set off on a much more exciting adventure, to the Great Escape amusement park with her Girl Scout friends.  She returned much later in the day, rather sunburned and pleased with her day.

Back at home, the Boy had mates round in the afternoon and the pool got some good use.  He has friends his age in the neighbourhood, including a couple of boys who moved here this year, plus he has a whole bunch of other friends to call up and invite - so he looks set to have a splashily sociable summer.

The Man is still in transit from his latest trip away, his flights somewhat delayed due to thunderstorms, but he should be turning up after midnight...