Yet Another Unfortunate Event

I have recently been going berserk with Daddy's Pentax K1000 SLR camera. I enjoy using it a lot. It's totally manual, and Daddy has three lenses for it with a variety of zooms. (No, I didn't drop it in the ocean.)

The unfortunate event referred to in the title of this post is this: over yesterday and today I took over twenty pictures that promised to be some of the best I had ever taken in my life. I couldn't wait to use up the film and develop it. The pictures were going to be so great! Such excitement! Such anticipation! Then all of a sudden my hopes were dashed. I rewound my film, opened the back of the camera, and . . . there was nothing there!!! Oh the anguish!!!!

Well, that little incident almost ruined my day. I feel better about it now, but that sure was a disappointment.

Y'know what's really weird? I've been at Cape Cod for almost three whole days and I haven't been to Kingsbury beach, which is where we usually vacation, the whole time! We can see it from our beach, but I haven't gone there at all. Fortunately, I am enjoying this beach here almost as much, and even if I wasn't, I'll probably go to Kingsbury a good amount after Friday, which is when THE HOLSCHERS ARE COMING!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! (and Kimberly : )

A Series of Unfortunate Events

Well, here I am on vacation. "What," you say, "could happen unfortunate on a vacation?" Well, well, well, let me tell you!!!

First Unfortunate Event:
This one didn't involve any of us exactly, but it was unfortunate nevertheless. Mama, Bria, and the rest of the boys where in the Rialta, and Cara and I were following in the Mazda 626. (Daddy is coming tonight or tomorrow with a boat) As we were zipping along the highway at 65 mph, we -- and all the rest of the cars around us -- zipped around a corner and found ourselves confronted with a traffic jam of massive proportions. Of course, we SLAMMED on the brakes to avoid a collision of equally massive proportions. We succeeded. The end.

Just kidding! I mean, WE succeeded in avoiding a collision, but the four SUVs next to the car I was driving (who were more than "zipping") did not. Cara and Ryan watched from our different vehicles in dismay and awe as the cars crashed into each other one by one. I got a glimpse of the cars crashing, but I was still able to here the loud "thunk.....thunk....thunk." As far as I know, nobody suffered any serious complications (the cars couldn't have been going much faster than each other when they crashed), but Nancy Brown was coming about twenty minutes behind us and she said she heard on the radio that that crash had caused a traffic jam itself.

All right. Now for the second unforunate event. "What," you say (or maybe you don't, but who cares?) "could be more disastrous than witnessing a devastating crash that blocked traffic for three miles (random guess)?" I can tell you in one word: Breakdown. We had barely crossed the Sagamore Bridge onto Cape Cod. We had not yet finished rejoicing in completing the second-to-last leg of our journey when Bria called Cara and me from the car ahead via walkie-talkie.

"Hey, you guys, is the Rialta smoking?"

We replied that it was not.

"Well, then, the Mazda is."

Sigh.

There is absolutely no place to pull to the side of the road on Rte. 6, the road that runs the length of the Cape. So we drove about three miles, took the next exit, and pulled to the side of the road on the highway that we were brought to. By then the Mazda was practically billowing smoke. I called Daddy and tried to describe the problem to him, but we could not figure it out. All we could determine was that the car was leaking some sort of liquid fast whenever the car was off. The engine was not overheating, and the oil level was fine. We were baffled.

After about twenty minutes, the Browns pulled up behind us. To make a long story short, after about half an hour of calling AAA and various garages, we finally got someone to tow us the approx. 35 miles to Eastham, which is where we are vacationing. We passed the forty-five minutes after that playing with Alex's camera and eating chips, which grew old after a while. We're here now safe and sound, but the total time we were stuck there was over two hours.

Unfortunate event number three: I got a new kite for Christmas and I was flying it for the first time today. I was supposed to watch Ian at the cottage, so I was flying it from the deck. Bria came to relieve me, so I started toward the beach -- a little too quickly. The kite dived and landed in a tree on the other side of the house. Using my more clever side, I pulled hard on the string, hoping it wouldn't break, and the kite came out of the tree. Now it was stuck on the roof. I am tired of writing, and you are probably tired of reading, so I'll just give the end away. I got the kite off the roof with a broom.

The rest of our vacation so far has been AWESOME!!!! It has been sunny, if not hot for the entire time. We had a really fun time on the beach with Karen and Alex this evening. The house is really nice, and we have had lots of fun. So it hasn't been all unfortunate; that just made a good title.

Countdown to Bliss

We leave for Cape Cod in just four days!!!!! I am totally excited. Unfortunately, the current forecast looks a bit grim (rain, t-showers, rain, cloudy, rain, rain....) but most of the chances of precipitation are below 50%, so there is hope. Just in case, however, I'll be careful to bring lots of rainy day equipment, such as games, puzzles, and a tape recorder. Two years ago the Holscher kids and us Sandford kids made a "radio play" with my little shoebox recorder that I brought. The story was about a sort of detective named "Tex Gardner" and a criminal that he was tracking all over the country (so that we could use lots of accents). The tape was really funny, and the making of it is one of my favorite memories. Sadly, we lost the tape.

Well, I would write more but it's super late: I had to wait for Bria to get off so I could get on, and she took forEVER! But, anyway, I don't have anything to say off the top of my head, so it's just as well.

As a side note, my Vocabulary book has been recovered. It was not lost after all; merely tucked in some small obscure corner of Daddy's car where it had eluded my searching gaze. So now I have four subjects to finish. Bother.

You may call me Mr. Reflexes

Yesterday, at Doug's graduation party (which went well but was very tiring, especially for a Sabbath), I put a Styrofoam bowl on the coffee table with a fork balanced on it. Doug was sitting on the couch. He put his feet against the coffee table, and the fork fell off the bowl and plummeted toward the floor one foot below. Well, in that split second, a thousand thoughts raced through my head. "Should I catch the fork in midair? Or would it give my identity as a superhero away? Is anyone looking? Does Doug realize that he knocked the fork over in the first place? If the fork hits the ground, everyone will look this way, so would it be more attention-grabbing to let it drop than to catch it?" In the end I decided to catch the fork. I snatched it out of the air after it had fallen about four inches. Douglas was the only one who saw me, and I think he appreciated that—being a superhero—I would want to remain anonymous, so he said nothing.

Superhero though I may be, however, I am still having a hard time catching on to the whole starting thing with our manual transmission Camry. Daddy had me practice a bit today backing up a hill without rolling forward. I did it, but not without jerks and bumps. But then later, after cleaning out and gassing up the vans at the office (rejoice, Derrick!) I had to drive the Camry home—by myself!!!—because there was no other car up there (except, of course, the vans and the pathfinder, which is itself a manual). I am finally starting to get better at shifting smoothly, and the ride down was almost bumpless!

I finished off the first roll of film in Daddy's new SLR camera. I hope the pictures come out, but I'm not sure they will: most of the pics were taken in dim light without a flash, necessitating a slow exposure. I used a tripod, but I have never used a SLR camera before, which doubles the anxiety. The most annoying thing is that the last picture is of....the carpet. Sigh. At least I didn't leave the lens cap on for any pictures....

Hi, it's me again.

Oh my word. It’s been almost a week since I’ve written in my blog. A WEEK! Where are all the comments asking why I haven’t posted? Why is no one begging me to thrill him (nice grammar, huh?) with my adventurous escapades? On the other hand, I might get annoyed with the comments asking me to post if they were TOO incessant. My great-grandmother used to say, "When summer comes, man wants winter; when winter comes, man wants summer. What a foolish creature man is!" or something similar at least. I know a good number of people who would rather it be summer all the time, but that’s beside the point.....

Back to my not posting for a week: I have an excuse! Several in fact. Reason #1: School. Reason #2: Yardwork. Reason #3: Housework. Reason #4: School. Etc., etc., etc. Fortunately reasons #1, #4, #7, etc., are soon to be gone. School is technically over at our house! Technically, but not factually. I still have a good bit of history, composition, and math to do. I’ve finished biology and writing, however, and I lost my vocabulary book in town (oops), so my subject list has at least been cut in half.

Reasons #2, #5, #8, etc., are the biggest reasons at this time. Douglas is graduating from St. Anselm College tomorrow (Saturday) and the party is going to be at our house! Plus, Bria’s graduation is in about a month. We’ve been working feverishly to loam and seed the lawns, mow the lawns that didn’t need seeding, mulch and fertilize the flower gardens, vacuum the pool, put up retaining walls, etc., etc., etc. (Variety check: I have now used "etc." eight times in this post; time to use something else...) The grounds have improved immensely over the past three or four weeks.

Reasons #3, #6, #9 and so on (variety!) are not as significant as the other two, but – have you ever noticed how hard it is to keep a bedroom clean? I certainly have. My room doesn’t stay clean for a minute. It’s like I have a major problem with borrowers, only they’re not borrowers but lenders. It’s either that or a vast household conspiracy...

(Or maybe I’m just a slob, but we won’t consider that possibility at this time.)

Have you ever heard that you know someone who knows someone who knows someone who knows (fill in the blank with anyone in the world? Well, I recently found a couple examples. (I define "know" to mean having met and conversed with) 1) I know Amy Partin who knows George Bush who knows a LOT of people. 2) I know my Aunt Candy who knows Harrison Ford who knows a LOT of people. 3) I have a neighbor whose uncle is Joe Morgan who used to be the manager of the Red Sox and—needless to say—knows a LOT of people. Here’s one I just found out that really surprised me: I know my cousin Ben who is a close friend of.....Howard Dean’s nephew! Of course, he (the nephew) knows Howard Dean , who knows a LOT of people. (Don't worry, though, Ben is not a fanatical left-wing democrat.)

Just More of the Same

There’s something really nice about being able to modify pictures after they’re taken. For instance, I’ve recently taken to whiting out my ugly annoying much-despised braces off all my digital photos. Of course, I don’t get a lot of pictures of myself because I’m the only one who ever uses the digital camera, it being mine and all, so I don’t get the opportunity that often. It's amazing sometimes the drastic changes one can come up with. People who are REALLY good at photo editing could probably make supermodels out of the ugliest hags.

The dreaded graduation prelude is over and done with. Not very many people were there for the time Bria and I were playing, which was from about twenty to twelve minutes before the ceremony started. Several people later expressed their deepest sorrow (ever-so-slight exaggeration here) that they could not be there in time, which was quite flattering.

Well, once again my post is brief and uninteresting. I’m beginning to develop a pattern here. Sigh. Oh, well. If my blog is really so awful, then why are YOU reading it? (Ha! Good point Aaron.)

Before and After

I can't wait for this picture to be more than just a concept.

Another great picture of Duncan 

Duncan enjoying his first swim of the year. 

Hurray! Another post!

We've finally gone swimming! We heated the pool to 75 degrees, and Bria took Duncan in with her. Later Cara and Ryan went in too. I -- well -- I just sat on the side and read The Pickwick Papers because I had/have a cold. In eighty degree weather! *Sniff* (No pun intended; well, actually, to be completely honest, it was.) : )

Well, it's late, and I should go to bed, but hopefully I'll get a chance to post more on the weekend despite my piano lesson and school (on Friday), the FBI graduation (in the prelude of which I am scheduled to play the piano), Grandpa's birthday and party, Bria's orchestra concert, <pause for breath> church, lawns that need watering, etc., etc......If I want variety I suppose I should stop saying how busy I am. Oh well....

Variety Exemplified

It’s been so long since I wrote on my blog, and I have a multitude of excuses. However, if I listed them all, the post would be quite similar to the one below, so, to preserve variety, I shall write something else.

For instance, we have a new car! Actually we’ve had this car—a Toyota Camry—for months and months (five total), but there was a lot of trouble getting the title transferred to us, and we only got it registered last week. The most exciting part of the car is that it has a manual transmission! I have driven the car about five miles so far, and I have a long way to go before I’m really any good at it. Several mistakes so far:

• Stalling on a steep hill (Grandpa’s driveway)
• Shifting from second gear to fifth
• Backing down the driveway with the parking brake on

Notice none of the mistakes are things that I would be likely/able to do with an automatic!

Daddy got a new camera: a Pentax K1000 SLR from eBay. It came today, and I had fun switching lenses around and focusing and zooming, etc.

But wait! Now I’m talking too much about new things! I need variety! Let’s see.....

Ah, yes! Ben H. spent the night here on Thursday. In the two hours or so he was here awake, we made a little black and white silent movie called "The Phantom." It’s so incredible. It looks like it was straight out of Hollywood. You have to see it to believe it (or to prove the fact that I am wildly exaggerating). The best part is the credits: Phantom: Aaron, Victim: Ben, Producer: Aaron, Director: Ben, Visual effects: Aaron, etc., etc.

Speaking of movies, it seems to me like a lot more movies coming out in the past few years have been really good, or at least not really bad! For instance, LOTR, Spiderman, National Treasure, Sky Captain of the World of tomorrow, Star Wars, The Incredibles, A Series of Unfortunate Events, etc. I can't wait for Narnia......