Air Cannons

Today's Tinkercrate project involved the creation of a few air cannons, probably the simplest thing we've ever done with Tinkercrate, to be honest.  These didn't take that long at all to put together, including the stand-up tic-tac-toe board there.  The fun part was blasting air pockets at each other from longer distances.  We were like duelists, taking seven steps, turning and firing away at each other.  The tic-tac-toe game is a target shooting exercise, and there are other things you can do and learn with this project as well, so we've got it tucked away to learn from this week.

We were battening down the hatches today, as yet another hurricane is making landfall as this is being typed.  Hurricane Nate has passed over the mouth of the Mississippi, about to make landfall again in Mississippi and then Alabama and then Northwest Georgia and Tennessee.  We should see winds here and lots of rain of course.  A hurricane is a bigger thing, so just because the center of it is over in Alabama doesn't mean we won't see any rain.  And just because it's a tropical storm doesn't mean we won't see some rougher weather.  Irma and Katrina taught all of us Georgians that.  Still, this one is striking the Gulf Coast as a category 1, which is a weaker sort of hurricane of course.  So that's a spot of good news.  Regardless, we'll see the bad weather tomorrow.  Today we've seen lots of rain already, which was enough to spoil our plans to go get pumpkins.  No worries - we've got time to do that later.

We stayed home today, the three of us literally staying in our pajamas all day long.  We had a seasonal movie marathon, starting with "Hotel Transylvania 2," then moving on to "Chicken Little" as we built our air cannons.  Tonight's feature was "Box Trolls," which has incredible animation.  Laika needs an Academy Award.  All of their features are simply amazing to see, especially with the understanding that it is done with stop motion animation, rather than the computerized sort of animation.

Anyway, it was a quiet day today with not much accomplished.  Daddy took down the canopy outside on the back deck, just in case the winds get crazy tomorrow.  We added a bunch of music to Madison's MP3 player, including some worship songs she's requested.  We also found out through a random conversation that she's been studying the stock market.

Okay, what?  Yeah, in school, she's been looking up stocks and learning about the market.  Which I guess is something you're ready to look at when you're eleven.  She seemed interested in it, so why not?  She was telling us some of the stocks that are doing well, and others that aren't doing as well.  We didn't bring up Target.

We have friends up in Dollywood right now, and they sent us some pictures of the pumpkins being carved up there.  This sort of got us looking at some of the attractions and decorations at Dollywood, and although this is the first time the word "Dollywood" has been mentioned on this blog, it won't be the last:  we're going soon enough!

The Georgia Bulldogs have won again today, and decisively so.  The last few games have been pretty dominant, otherwise it wouldn't be worth mentioning here:  the scores have been amazingly lopsided. 31-3.  40-0.  45-14.  We're not used to this sort of behavior from our teams.  Locals won't know how to react or what to do if this keeps up.  As with all things sports and Georgia though, we'll believe it when we see it, which is a terrible way to be.  But it's easier when the heartbreak comes.

Speaking of heartbreakers, the more interesting news from the University of Florida game was a Tom Petty tribute where 92,000 people spontaneously sang "I Won't Back Down," pretty much the entire song.  Tom Petty passed away earlier this week - he was part of the soundtrack of Daddy's post high school life.  Driving to work, Daddy would listen to "Into the Great Wide Open" and "Full Moon Fever," and both releases from the Traveling Wilburys.  He's been listening to all that again this week.  Can't believe Tom Petty is gone.

Tonight we read from Nancy Drew's adventure "The Bungalow Mystery."  First of all, we're learning what a bungalow is.  Secondly, we're at chapter two and already Madison is into this book.  This might be one of those things she reads on and off for a while, as there are plenty of Nancy Drew books to choose from.  A friend from church recommended this one next, so here we are.  Daddy got it from the library, where they have a huge section of Nancy Drew books.  Lots of them.

We said our prayers for folks in the path of Hurricane Nate, and got ready for bed.  It's been a restful day - KidPak should be lots of fun tomorrow as we wrap up "Master Builders."