First First Day of School this Year

Good morning! So far, so good. Unless you take into account the humidity which is 100% here. I think I’d gladly trade for Yreka’s which is 33%. Even Bonners Ferry’s which is 55%. However, I have to say I’m glad that I’m not breathing all the smoke from the fires in Idaho right now. Bonners Ferry actually has an Air Quality Alert right now and I’m sure it’s affecting Coeur d’Alene where Alisha and her family are. That’s not good. In fact, Becky told me the sun was red much like it was during the fires of 1987 in Siskiyou County. Something to think about for the east coast people who think a 50 acre fire qualifies as a forest fire. Yreka has Special Weather Statement (according to weather.com) to expect some precipitation this weekend beginning Friday. I hope they get it—the west needs water in the worst way. The worst Hubbardston has is a Local Pollen Alert. Bad enough for those of us with sensitivities to such.

Today is the first day of school for all Quabbinites. Cedric and I went to the 7^th grade orientation last night. It was so hot. I had a river running down my back. Aside from that, I think he has the same teacher for Science that Daniel had but other than that and the art teacher, and he doesn’t have art this grading period, there are none that Amena or Daniel had. Very sad. It is also sad that he doesn’t have a single class with any of his friends. I was hoping that he’d at least have one or two in each class but when he compared schedules with them, it looks like the administration did a good job keeping them all apart. I really think this is sad when it comes to Ryan because he and Cedric really work well together.

It kind of hit me last night as I was going to bed that today would have been Daniel’s first day of his senior year. That is something of a milestone for a child going through the public school system. I guess I’m getting used to him being gone because it didn’t automatically register a month ago as something to be prepared for.

I actually had a dream about Daniel last night. I like those dreams because they don’t happen very often. This one was pretty short and he only figured briefly in it. The entire dream was just about life-like things happening with the exception of travelling to a secret base. It was so secret that everyone going there had to be blindfolded and the people there had no fear of falling great distances. When someone fell, I found out the reason why is that there was some kind of a force field that prevented people from slamming into the ground. Pretty cool. Daniel had been at a scout-like camp all summer and at the end, he qualified for some ranking that was had to achieve; he was only the second one to do so. It was when we were picking him up that my first alarm went off.

Soccer has begun for Seth. He has practice on Monday and Wednesday every week from 5:30 to 7:00. That’s great other than Wednesday when I need to be to church at 7:00. I’m either going to be late every week for a couple of months or he’s going to have to leave early. Or a combination of the two. The first game is supposed to be this Saturday in Holden but the coach doesn’t know more than that. As of last night at about 10:30 the game schedules hadn’t been posted. One of the other mom’s said that she’d heard that six of the ten games were supposed to be against Holden in Holden. At least it’s not too far away but I still would prefer Hubbardston. I’ll be checking soon to see if anything has been posted.

Last night I registered Cedric for soccer at the middle school. I don’t know how much to pay for registration yet because I don’t know if we will qualify for reduced lunches or not. The difference is pretty drastic--$120 if you don’t qualify, less than $20 if you do. And if you qualify for free lunches, you don’t have to pay anything. I’m sure we won’t for that and I am doubtful we will for reduced. Still, there’s a chance and I’ll be able to figure it out today when he brings the papers home.

School is starting fifteen minutes later this year but the bus is only supposed to be nine minutes later than it was last year. This year school starts at 7:20 and the bus is supposed to arrive at 6:33. Fun times. At least Cedric and Amena are on the same bus so if Amena is running late, he can tell Mr. Hale. Hopefully she doesn’t do like she did last year and run so late that she missed it upwards of a couple dozen times.

Right now there is a goat letting me know it is time for breakfast so I suppose I should be off doing that.