Last Week: July 2nd through 8th

On Sunday morning, I traveled to Pleasant View to buy a water dispenser for Jessica's new office. The one we bought for the Exceptional Education office is going to stay there. I went home, gathered the garbage, and took it to the dump, swinging by Mom's house on the way to look at possible wood for the BNN set renovation. Not much else happened the rest of the day for me. 

On Monday, someone lost something I can't remember, maybe a remote, maybe a phone, so we tore all the cushions off of the bonus room couch to search. While the cushions were off, Sam hid under them, and I vaccuumed. The lost thing, which I can't remember the nature of, turned out to be located somewhere much more sensible. Jessica got home early from work, and made some delicious alfredo tomato bread things. 

Tuesday was Independence Day. I went to Home Depot to get new string for the weedeater, but ended up buying some blades to switch the head out for a different style, once I became confident I could really make it work. Last time it didn't, but I don't remember why. Later in the evening, we went to fireworks at Circle P Ranch. The Peaches got there RIGHT before parking at the actual event lcoation was shut down. Sanborns came, too, and I helped them navigate to where to park since the regular situation was full. I'd packed ice packs in case Jessica overheated, which she often does when it's hot outside, and we saw a police volunteer who looked like she was going through exactly that. We offered her an ice pack, which she seemed very grateful for, but someone else had already noticed the same and was getting her relief. 

There was a concert stage with 120" LED screens. I went to checkout the video setup and chatted with the guy running the cameras. He was running the camera setup solo, with one camera in a static unmanned wide shot, and him running the second camera for closer shots, while also dissolving between the shots with the Roland switcher strapped to his tripod. Fairly clever! The guy runs his own company, Vid Monster, out of Bowling Green. He got the job at the MJ fireworks show because the LED screen folks tend to hire him. I have to be better at getting after money. I can do that work, but I'm bad at getting after it. 

A parent of a student who has attended GSA the last couple of years approached me at a vendor tent. We didn't discuss the current situation surrounding the clubs and such, but she referred to her kid by the kid's preferred name, and the tone of the conversation was certainly one of real gravity and gratitude. I also got to see George Page, which is ALWAYS a high mark in my day. 

Nadia took her sound-resistant headphones off part way through the fireworks show, and she did great! It helped that the fireworks were farther away than they've been at previous shows we've attended. Still, it was a big deal. Sam listened to his own music. Everyone seemed to have a good time. 

On Wednesday, I met with Mr. Hill (new head principal of MJHS) and Mr. Berardi (new assistant principal and athletic director) about communications stuff for the upcoming school year. As well as ordered some stuff for the news set that I needed, with the assistance of others like Mrs. NcNeese, who has a better eye for such things. I settled on foam acoustic panels that are much more decorative than functional, alternating grey and black, 1x1 squares. Less fancy than I wanted, but my advisers insisted. 

In the afternoon, Sam got his first contacts ever while Nadia was in speech/occupational therapy! It was a pretty big moment. Sam and I got lattes with the extra time we had before picking Nadia up. I got work done during that time, and Sam read a book. Later in the evening, I went to Lowe's, desperately looking for ideas to simplify my original grandiose plan for the BNN news set. I was unsuccessful. 

On Thursday, I had my consultation with the oral surgeon who talked me through possibilities of removing my wisdom teeth, one of which was breaking apart the molar in front of it. 

On Friday, I confirmed that the waxing was complete in my classroom, and looked forward to starting the process of putting the room back in order and commencing work on creating the new news set. I believed that the acoustic panels had been delivered, but I couldn't get to them because waxing was happening in the front office. In the evening, the kids and I met Jessica after work at Los Compadres in Lebanon for dinner. Sam and I did our recent usual thing of sharing a large plate of nachos. 

On Saturday, all Peaches went to Mount Juliet High School to start setting the classroom back up. Everyone pitched in, which was really nice, and we got the tables, chairs, and computers all back where they went, as well as getting rid of some stuff. The kids wiped the desks down. I captured a timelapse of the process. I was also able to get into the office and find the acoustic panels, which Jessica and I unsealed from their vaccuum packaging in order to let them expand before putting up. The custodial staff told me that the hallway wax would be dry in time for me to resume work on Monday or Tuesday. 

Afterwards, all Peaches went to Opry Mills so Sam could spend a coupon at Hot Topic, but there were no Dr. Who shirts there. We ate at Chuy's meaning two Mexican resturants two days in a row. I was pretty dang happy.