Dells trip with the grandsons

The blog has been quiet this past week since the LWW and I have been on a road trip with grandson's Paul and Miles. As always, my primary goals was for everyone to have such a good time, we all want to take another trip next summer.

After picking Paul up from Concordia Chinese language village near Detroit Lakes (MN), we drove to Sparta WI to do a section of the Sparta-Elroy bike trail. Grandma and Paul has their own (rented) bikes from Speeds and I took (a reluctant) Miles on the trail-a-bike. 

The coolest (both figuratively and literally) part of the 11 mile ride was an old railway tunnel the trail passes through. A quarter mile long, flashlights are needed to walk the bikes through the very dark tunnel. You can't see the end when you start. A little spooky in "the tunnel of doom" as Miles called it. But we survived - both the tunnel and the trail-a-bike experience. 

After the bike ride, we checked into the old-fashioned Black Hawk motel in the Dells. We loved it - nice pool and comfortable rooms, just a few blocks off the busy, touristy downtown. The Wizard Quest adventure was a big hit with the boys one evening.

Blue slushies and motel waffles were mainstays of the trip. We all love breakfast, hitting Mr. Pancake, Paul Bunyan's Cook Shack (no bacon!), and  IHOP during the stay. 

The Original Wisconsin Ducks ride was exciting, especially when Paul took over for the driver while he took down a rain covering. Pretty scenery but no crocodile sightings.

The Big Kahuna wave pool at Noah's Ark waterpark was a big hit with both boys. Lines were long for the slides, but playing in the waves was more fun anyway. Despite sunscreen, we all wound up a little red. Fat bodies wearing multiple tatoos were in abundance. 

We enjoyed the Rick Wilcox magic show in the evening (Paul, an aspiring magician, explained the tricks) and the next morning we headed to Baraboo to visit the Circus World museum. Shows were fun, but the boys had little reference for "circus." 

But the old fun house mirrors were extremely entertaining.

From the Dells we drove to Prairie du Chien WI and McGregor IA where we briefly toured the medical museum and Villa Louis and then took a 2 hour Mississippi River boat ride, learning a lot about the history and ecology of the area - and how to make buttons out of mussel shells. This time Miles got to drive.

Our last morning was spent hiking Effigy Mounds National Monument north of Marquette IA. Paul and I did a 3 mile loop while Miles and Grandma did just two. Miles did earn his Junior Park Ranger badge so he now has authority to tell people to stay on the trails. Fantastic views of the river from the bluffs along with the mystery of old Native American moundbuilding.

After a boat ride through Spook Cave in the area, we made the long drive to Des Moines where we had supper with the boys' parents, exchanged luggage and said our good-byes. 

While I heard the expression "awesome" a few times from the boys, Grandpa probably has the best time. Now the question is - where next summer???

More photos on SmugMug

All 10 fingers, all 10 toes, redux redux

London Marie was born yesterday, July 27 at about 12:15AM. Grandchild number four for the LWW and me (and first granddaughter). I am updating my wishlist that I created for her cousin Miles in 2005. and repeated for her cousin Theo in 2010. Education decisions take on a special importance when one realizes grandchildren will be benefit from good ones and be harmed by bad ones.

London will start school in 2017 or so. Here’s what I hope she finds:

1. A place that cares as much about her happiness as her education.
2. A place that cares more about her love of learning than her test scores and where it considered a mark of intelligence to ask questions and make mistakes.
3. A place where she feels safe and welcome and can’t wait to get to every morning.
4. A place that honors creativity more than memorization.
5. A place that has a library full of stories and a librarian who makes them come alive.
6. A place where technology compliments, rather than replaces, playing with blocks, finger-painting, naps, graham crackers, or a teacher’s soft encouragement.
7. A place where she learns to work and play with kids who make not have been given the blessings of a middle-class lifestyle or a fully-functioning body or brain.
8. A place that teaches kindness along with math, tolerance along with history, responsibility along with communication, and conservation along with science.
9. A place where teachers are excited about teaching and passionate about encouraging the passions in their students.
10. A place where she gets a chance to learn in lots of different ways from lots of different kinds of teachers.

Mom and baby are doing fine. Grandma finally has a reason to buy princess dresses along with Legos. - Grandpa Doug

BFTP: How many jobs have you had?

A weekend Blue Skunk "feature" will be a revision of an old post. I'm calling this BFTP: Blast from the Past. Original post September 9, 2007

The Department of Labor projects that people will hold on average 10.2 jobs between the ages of 18 and 38... Fletcher, An  Eye on the Future, T.H.E. Journal, July 2007.

Fletcher is only the latest in a long line of futurists, change advocates, school reformers, journalists, and other individuals of shady character to quote the statistic above. 

Personally, I don't find it shocking or all that meaningful.  My first job was gathering eggs at about age four - a terrifying experience which made me work-shy to this day but which gives me a sense of revenge each time I eat a chicken nugget. They are made out of chicken, aren't they? Anyway, here's my list:

1. Seed corn plant laborer (Mostly stacking 60 lb bags of chemically treated field corn seed.)
2. Dishwasher at the university food services (All you could eat, too!) 
3. Silage truck driver (Only four days before I crashed a truck and was fired.)
4. Hod carrier (The guy who mixes mortar and humps bricks and block for masons. Lost 20 pounds first two weeks on the job and made college immediately more important.)
5. Furniture deliverer (Almost fired for starting a fire in the packing blankets in the back of a moving truck with an errant cigarette.)
6. Laundry worker (More familiar with dirty diapers from nursing homes than anyone ought to be.)
7. Surveyor's assistant (Light, outdoor work. Great summer job.)
8. High school English teacher. (World's worst. I still owe those kids an apology.)
9. Gas station attendant. (Supplemented my big $7,600 a year first year teaching salary.)
10. Hospital worker (Central sterilizing from 3-11PM working through grad school. Autoclaves and endless 3-gown surgical packs.)
11. Junior high librarian and English teacher. (First job I really, really enjoyed.)
12. Motel clerk. (11PM to 7AM - teaching income still needed a boost. Pretty interesting people who inhabit the wee hours of the morning. Learned to sleep sitting up.)
13. Library media specialist, K-9. (Working for the Aramco Oil Company in Saudi Arabia. Sweet income!)
14. High school media specialist. (Good job.)
15. Writer. (I started getting paid for my work when I was in my late 30s so I'll count this one.)

Summer jobs, part-time jobs while in school. Similar professional jobs in four schools.

Were transferable skills important? I suppose. But they were "soft" skills - reliability, cooperation, communication, strong back, high tolerance for boredom, etc. - not job-specific.

How many jobs did you have from 18-38? Is this a statistic that has any meaning? How should it be used when we talk about school reform?