2017 Life Logs, Day 248: First Day of School
Date: Tuesday, September 5, 2017
Weather: Sunny with Lots of Wind; High 81, Low 68 degrees F
Location: At Home in The Studio, Falmouth, MA
Today was the first day of the 2017-2018 school year for Sam and Jonah. Ollie went for a one-hour introduction to kindergarten, but tomorrow will be his first official full day.
Ollie and I spent a fun day together, and at the end of the day, all three boys reported that they loved their first day of school. Fantastic!
I picked Ollie up at East Falmouth after his hour-long intro to kindergarten and we headed to his house to pick up his bicycle. He went to get his bicycle out of the shed but came back with his little John Deere tractor. He loves taking that to the parking lot at The Studio where he can ride to his heart’s content on pavement.
You peddle the tractor like a bicycle, but it is really hard to peddle on grass. So, we took the tractor and the bicycle and spent the next three hours riding the tractor. We had lunch on the dock and finally took off for the planned trip to Trunk River to check out the rock cairns and ride bikes. About that time, I got an email from Carrie from Peach Tree Farm asking if I would like 30 more pounds of organic sauce tomatoes. But going to pick those up cut our bike riding short. I’ll have Ollie again on Thursday as he has only two full days of kindergarten this week and maybe we can get our bike ride in then. Ollie built a small cairn and we also hope to return on Thursday to add to that.
He rode his bike for a short distance and then it was time to go pick up tomatoes and meet Sam at the bus stop.
It was wonderful to pick-up such a happy fifth grader. Sam loves his new school because they have a 30-minute recess—the important thing about school! Jonah walked home from school with Heather and Molly, Joey, and their mom Melissa, and all of them were cheery about their first day of school as well.
They celebrated with wild rides on the slip and slide in the backyard and I slipped out to go home and start processing those tomatoes.
I have been in touch with Justin a few times over the last two days and I had a Skype video call with the whole family this evening. They are bracing for Hurricane Irma, but thankfully it is looking like there won’t be a direct hit on the main island of Puerto Rico. I sure hope this ends up to be the case as Irma is one scary looking storm. Justin thinks they have done everything possible to secure their home and property and I’m really hoping they will be able to communicate with me after the storm passes to let me know all is well. But they have been hearing that more than likely they will lose electricity and it could be days, weeks, even a month or even longer before power is restored. Justin knows a ham operator, so if all else fails, at some point he hopes to be able to contact me that way. Naturally I am sitting on pins and needles hoping that all is going to be fine. This would have been the fourth week of school for Ziggy and Coco, but school has been cancelled until after the storm. I didn’t have photos of them on their first day of school, but now I have those and share them here belatedly.
How lucky they are to attend a school on the edge of a beach . . . except when there is a hurricane with storm surge. Hopefully damage will be minimal. Justin, Jo, Ziggy, and Coco and the whole menagerie of plants and animals that call Finca Maravilla home . . . I love you so much. Be safe.
