a graduation rant....

ok, so....i had too few employees in the building today because of graduation....from preschool, from kindergarten, from 5th grade, from 8th grade....gracious sakes...what ever happened to rewarding with a cap, gown and a few gifts the major milestones....like high school and college.....and maybe graduate school...after the mob scene that was graduation in the horseshoe of The Ohio State University Stadium, I opted for a simple celebratory lunch with family and a few friends at the Golden Lamb in Lebanon, Ohio when I finished grad school at the University of Cincinnati. I recall that we also skipped the ceremony when my spouse finished his M.Ed at U of C.....we were in honeymoon mode and paying for another cap and gown seemed silly.....but I digress from the notion that finishing the grades offered in any one district building is or could be the pinnacle of one's academic career.....the photos posted on FB are precious, of course...but I fear with far too many the bar has been set far too low with regards to potential.....as well as for actual achievement....the last time I attended an 'awards' event it was at the insistence of a child who was certian that an award was in the offing...there was...for attendence...which I contend is merely a parent's award for assuring that the child in question was out of bed and in the car in time for school drop-off despite the weather/attitude/health conditions.....having said my peace. let the numerous FB photos continue throughout the weekend with my congratulations and prayers for a brighter future

regrets

ok, so...over the past 2 weeks I have worked tirelessly on an epic birthday gift....I compiled the photos Andrew took on his TransAm bike journey in 2009 with his blog entries and when the blog entries petered out I added in Ernst's personal; journal entries from the time he joined the ride in D-ville until the finish in Yorktown. The written record helped me to organize the photos and produce a book with 115 pages and 363 photographs. The whole 'publish a book' started with the youngest child. I had produced a scrapbook when Andrew turned 21 and when Stephan graduated high school ( for him as well as his friends). For Cayle, I had missed the high school milestone, and scrambled to get an on-line book published using the MixBook templates. Fast forward to my trip with grandma to Cleveland for a family baby shower. I took lots of pictures of my mother and her sister and her niece and her grandson Jason who she never gets to see. I again scrambled to put together The Book Of Grandma as a tribute for Mother's Day/Birthday. This book included such milestones as our wedding, the birth/lives of her grandchildren and extended family on her side as well as her move to Danville. While I was in the book-making mood, I put together a travel memory book of the trip to London I took with Cayle in 2010, and then went on to make a travel book of my trip to Italy with Ernst in October. All of these scrapbooks were made easier by the availability of written records/emails/notes/calendars. Fast forward to this very day, whereupon I am trying to piece together the trip I took to visit Andrew in Austria in 2010. Like the London trip, the Italy trip and the TransAm trip, the Austria/Switzerland trip photos were never printed out. They exist only in cyberspace, unlabeled as to people, places or things. And so I got this bright idea- I would check back to my blog for April 2010 for the exact itinerary. Ha! Only three days were recorded and one of those was the day I left home rather than the day I arrived. I blogged on Easter Sunday, yet failed to name all of those present in the photos.....and I blogged the day we walked 9 miles to see the grave of James Joyce in Zurich. My last best hope is that I typed out a tentative itinerary and sent it to Andrew and somehow still have the email in a sent file. Bottom, line... the purpose of having a blog was to be able to reference things I can no longer remember.....at least I am blogging on this very day to chastise myself for failing to blog.... heavy sigh.

came this close.....

ok, so worked a half-day, then took my 4-hours of voting leave.....go figure....4 hours for a regular election and 8 hours for a presidential election....The actual voting was swift as there was no line....the only real lag time involved was showing my picture ID and then debating how to answer the question....Republican or Democrat? I had already signed in, so it was doubtful they would check my registration closely for afifliation.....could I get by with saying GPO just so I could vote for Matt Blevin in hopes it might push the election one step closer to my Ditch Mitch dreams?!...I came this close.....