Punch it, Chewie!

Back to school, here we go again.  One more time!  This is a big day, the first day of the first full week of being a senior at high school.  Maddie was up earlier this morning, and that's the goal, to be there about ten to fifteen minutes earlier than usual, which is to say, not risking running late as much as we did last year!  But yeah, we have our morning ritual, and it's a fast-paced one.  Mom, Maddie and myself pray and get some allergy medicine prepared for Maddie while she's getting her lunch together that Mom packed last night, and then we do a picture in front of the fireplace.  Then it's out the door, waving goodbye to Mom, and joining the fray out there.  The neighborhood is quite the bustle during the school "rush hour," with kids waiting at bus stops, and plenty of cars escaping to the Jot-Em-Down Motor Speedway.  I call it that because it's a crazy thing sometimes getting out of the neighborhood now that there's a high school just down the road.  It's only been four years, but the traffic now on Jot-Em-Down is predictably heavier, these long lines of fast moving trains of cars whizzing by the entrance, and neighborhood residents waiting on opportunities to pounce to hyperspace:  "Punch it, Chewie!"

She had a good day, although another boring one.  She is working on a cover for her photography booklet that she's making, and that actually looks really good.  Hopefully we'll show you a finished product soon enough.  We were delighted to learn that she'll be in the darkroom this year, developing her own pictures.  In fact, today she did something like a photogram, I believe.  Looking forward to seeing some of her projects.  Both Mom and I remember spending a good bit of time in the dark room, developing pictures there and learning that craft.  In fact, Mom still has an old projector down in the basement.

Nowadays things are done with such precision by machines and computers that the process of dipping things by hand into four trays of chemical liquids - and the waiting process too - all of that is not really necessary.  It's like listening to a vinyl record, I suppose, which is not really necessary, perhaps a bit more work, and possibly even not as good in quality.  But I can't wait to hear about Maddie's time in that dark room, and see the results of her work.  I'm pulling out a few books on the subject, including some by the ultimate black and white photographer, Ansel Adams.  Yeah, I said it.  

Of note:  my sea monkeys are still doing really well!  This is the second generation from spring of 2023.  I poured the eggs in back then, and the first generation lived a year, remarkably.  And with the passing of the last one, I noticed there were more little ones in the tank, a new generation of younger sea monkeys that are still swirling around in there to this day.  Each morning I'm adding oxygen, and once a week adding food, and that's about all the maintenance needed.  Pretty fun.

Also of note:  the juro spiders.  They're getting bigger.  August is when we see the rise of the spiders, and so I'm out there with he salt gun doing my Turok the Dino Hunter impersonation, shooting down these giant ugly spiders with the massive webs.  It's something we have to live with now...

Tonight, Maddie had taekwondo of course.  And she had fun with that.  We're still watching the Olympics, and watching the United States get more gold medals, including one in surfing.  The gold medal for the girl in Brazil was especially sweet, although the experience of the Roman gymnast was brutal, for no reasons of her own.  And we got a gold in discuss throwing, which is yet another obscure sport we look forward to seeing every four years.  I think the highlight might have been a moment where we get the term "raising the bar" from.  The gold medalist pole vaulter raised the bar - literally - and in an exciting third try, broke the world record height.  

That was pretty much our day.  I was walking in Glacier park this morning, and Mom was doing research on something you'll probably read about tomorrow, something to look forward to.  We closed out the day with reading from our "Return of the Jedi" short story book, and then we said a short prayer.  Time to get some sleep - got to get up early again for school tomorrow!