Summer to me was rolling out the slip-n-slide, riding my bike to the Pick-Quik to spend my hard earned allowance on swizle sticks, using a plastic comb to try and break my friend Tom's world record at Track and Field, taking ill-advised dives into our above ground pool, which we sunk into the ground, trying to stay the entire night with my other friend Jeremy in my fathers tent without needing to go inside, or having the flaslight go dead, getting icecream from the icecream man out of his rusty van while The Entertainer blared from out the top of his roof-mounted speakers, hiding in my room conquering Nintendo games as fast as the video rental store acquired them, and generally being a happy, lazy boy, glad to be out of school.

Nothing took up as much time though, as the trips to North Carolina. my Mom, bless her brave soul, would bundle all 4 of us into her custom conversion Econoline van, loaded to the hilt with suitcases, books, coloring books, travel games, and coffee, and spend 5 days driving to NC. Each year, we'd rent a different house in a ski resort community of Sugar Mountain, our first year at the tippy top of the mountain, and each year thereafter getting closer and closer to the bottom. Eventually she bought a house of our own, next to a river and a lake, near the slopes and tennis courts. It slept 15, but still never felt big enough for 4 kids.

Along the way, we'd go out of our way to stay at a particular style of Holiday Inn called a Holidome, which was a fancy way of saying a kids friendly hotel, complete with fancy pool and slide, video arcade, often times a 3-hole mini golf putting range. We had our share of less reputable Days-Inn or local places, which had their own charm, along with their own diseases and rickety plastic slides. One of the greatest thrills was discovering that a particular pool came equipped with a diving board.

The car ride itself was a challenge. Loaded with travel games like scrabble, magnetic chess, and those books with the special pen that caused the paper to change color, my Mom headed off down US 301 or I-75 with little more than a prayer of keeping us in control. She also had a little wooden spoon that she hung from the rear-view mirror, and was not afraid to threaten us with it. It was much more effective as a fear tactic. Psy-Ops were my Moms speciality.

We travelled to such exciting places as Valdosta, Georgia, which is the home of King Frog(and King Frog radio), and the Valdosta Mall, and some outlet malls which we used to pine for. Once we hit Valdosta, we were officially on our way. We were making serious progress. It also took the better part of the first day to travel those relatively short 250 miles.
Some other locations that stick in my head include Macon, GA, Commerce SC,

Savannah GA, which is dangerously close to the infamous paper mill on I-95. If you've ever driven I-95 when the mill was active, then you know what I'm talking about. It stinks. Really. It gets in the can, and like a skunk, you can't get rid of it for miles. Close the air vents, roll up the windows, it doesn't matter, the smell still gets in. Roll the windows down, turn the air back on, it still doesn't matter, the smell won't go away.

Once we hit Winston-Salem, NC, we knew we were getting close. Here we left the interstate, and got on local highway for the last 3 hours. Slow, twisty roads, steep inclines and declines. It was mountain driving at its finest. Of course our full size van was not the easiest or most nimble vehicle in the world. We'd be barreling down one of the inclines, passing flashing signs warning you to please, please, for the love of God to use your lower gears, blazing past runaway truck ramps, which are dangerous looking mounds of sand designed to take a truck, and bring it from 90mph to 0mph in a stretch of 200 feet, and a glorious could of sand. We kept pleading with Mom to take the van into one of the ramps to see what it was like, but she never would. Harumph...

Each time, we survived, and arrived on Sugar Mountain. Every year I'd make a point to trek down the ski slopes, which in the summer are very steep, covered with tall grass, and exposed to any wandering kid to play on. They wisely took down the lift chairs, and locked the doors to the ski lift control rooms. Mom drove us to the top, we walked down. Along the way we'd find ski poles, broken skis, hats, goggles. Some of these we'd keep. I don't remember why...

The place was heavily forested with coniferous style forests, tall green trees, but with little underbrush. It made for great hiking and exploration. At one point we found a river that was part run-off, and part natural spring, which ran from somewhere near the top of the mountain to what would eventually become our lake. We tried many times to ford the river to it's origin, but were always stopped by a think bramble we couldn't get around, a spider web that some banana spider built across the river, or a hive of bees. Beeeeees....

When not hiking in the woods, I was likely to be hiking the 1.2 miles to the Scotchman's convenience store, which was across the street from the front entrance to the mountain. In the early years, the Scotchman's would be home to a different video game each year, and I would make an effort to hike down, or get Mom to drive me down, whenever I could. Sometimes, when feeling extra energetic, I might even go the extra 1/2 mile to the Food Lion grocery store, but then I would almost always need help getting home.

Summer in NC usually meant some sort of summer programs. The area had a decent selection of summer programs, from horse back riding, to tennis, to a nifty course in whittling wood, to a course in Calculus I and II. The calculus was reserved for my last summer in NC, at which time I was completing my first summer of college.

That's summers to me in a nutshell. I know there are other things worth talking about, but the summer heat has me pining for latitudes north of here.

I've almost finished with the collapsible months on the right, but for some strange reason, they start in the open position and not in the closed position. Everybody else implementation starts closed. Must investigate further.

Update : Have I ever mentioned how much I love Ace Hardware. This is a great small town style hardware store, with everything you need, without all the large HomeDepot style hustle. The people are nice, wonderfully helpful, and very affordable. I was briving to Home Depot to look for a back support belt, when Denise suggested the much closer Ace. I don't know why it's so hard to remember they are there, they are closer, nicer, cheaper, friendlier. I should buy some stock in them. Anyway, I found the back belt, and also found some coaxial cable to play with. I'm trying to continue digging up my front yard, but I'm tired, really tired. . .

Update : Yea, the menu on the right works now. Click on a month to expose the days I've written about. It's now much cleaner and easier to find things. Not that anyone other than myself will be looking at the history. Except maybe Mike in about 10 years when he's trying to justify large electronic purchases.

"But Dad, you bought a $2000 computer right after I was born, why can't I?????"

Added a personal food tracker to my site. I won't show it on the front page for a while, but for now, it's my personal food diary.

I spent a bunch of time in the front yard today. I borrowed my dads trailer, hitched it up to the van, and brought it over for some yard duty. I ripped up the side of the house, and a chunk of the from easement, and loaded the grass and dirt into the trailer. It was a lot of work, over 3 hours worth. Now I need to take the traler of refuse, and find a good home for it somewhere on the side of a road or even better some place in a nearby woods.

I'm estimating that it'll take 6 trailer fulls to clear the land of grass and dirt, and about 3 days per trailer full to load and unload. That's a goodly amount of work ahead of me. Maybe Randy can help a little when he gets here. hmmmmm.

Classes are over, and I'll summarize my week now.

Sunday
Denise and I arrived at our hotel, the Sheraton Suites, around 2pm. The hotel was wonderfully decorated inside. A river running through the large atrium lobby, water fall, restaurant, coy pond, turtles, cafe tables, lots of flora and fauna. It was a great place to sit and study. I found myself down each morning reviewing the previous day to the sound of falling water. Very peaceful. Excellent white noise.

We did a bit of shopping at the local Super Walmart (I hate Walmart)

Eric and Sharon arrived a few hours later, and we went to dinner next door at the Starlight Diner. Good food, but it left Denise and Eric feeling a little less than happy about themselves, tummy-wise. Not food poisoning per-se, but a less than pleasant sensation in the stomach. We give this a 2/5

Monday
Class began promptly at 8am, and ran through to 5pm. We broke for lunch, and at out our only day this week. Lunch was a safe meal at Chili's, although the quality was much less than we are used to at other Chili's restaurants. We give it a 3/5.

Denise went to a butterfly garden, and had a wonderful time with Mike. They returned and went swimming. Mike has really taken to the water. He sits on the step, splashing and laughing. We got a few pictures with an underwater camera. Development later.

Tuesday
More classes. We gave up eating out, and instead bought food from a newly found Publix to feed us for breakfast and lunch. Much cheaper this way.

Denise went shopping at a scary flea market. They didn't get in very far. A scary fortune teller type woman approached Denise, telling her that she was getting some very disturbing vibes and that Denise needed to have her palm read. Denise was justly freaked out, and declined, then left the premises. They did some shopping at a local party store for Mikes 1st birthday party next month, then came back and went swimming again.

Dinner we went to P.F. Changs in Boca Raton, and wandered around a rather nice shopping center. Barnes and Nobles for desert and reading, browsing at a kids furniture mart, a quick review of nostalgia looking at the old TV shows now available on DVD, and then we went to the Whole Foods Market.

Note to everybody. Avoid the Whole Foods Market. The idea is a nice one, sell natural foods and supplements. They offer a great selection of healthier foods, prepared without less desirable elements like Corn Syrup, Trans fats, processed flours, and other such food stuffs. Unfortunately, the store is a pigsty. One look by the local health department should be suficient to shut them down(we hope). We could smell the fish market from halfwalf across the store. Actually approaching the fish counter revelaed warm fish with flies buzzing around. The meat was a suspicious purple shade. The ground turkey, which normally should have some definition and look like firm brain, was instead a congealed mass of flesh, melted from the poor handling. The open trays of prepared food had a healthy crust of scum floating on the top. It was really terrifying. We wisely limited ourselved to packaged foods that were clearly still sealed, and were well within their expiration date. Eric tells us that he's been to a few other Whole Foods, and while not quite as bad as this one, were still pretty undesirable places to shop. Avoid Whole Foods and instead shop at Fresh Market.

Wednesday
More classes, and more lunch at the room.

Denise went to Walmart, then swimming.

Dinner was at a shopping district similar to Sentral Ybor called Los Olas. We ended up eating at Dan Marino's tavern. I had a very nice piece of Tuna, seared medium, while Denise had some chicken.

One happy surprise about the area was its proximity to the Ft Lauderdale Science Museum. Even better, in the open air lobby, was a giant rolling ball structure. Large bowling balls rolling all around the lobby, following 2 of three possible tracks on their way to the bottom. Unfortunately, the most interesting track, a ball clock, was not operational now. In all, the track was nice to look at, but a bit run down with age. Too bad.

Thursday
More Classes, and more lunch at the room.

Denise skipped today, and just went swimming. For dinner, we went down to the beach, and a place in Ft Lauderdale called Beach Place. It was a nice shopping place, across the street (A1A) from the beach. We arrived near sunset, and was treated to a nice rainbow over the ocean.

Dinner was had at Lulu's Bait Shack, an overly warm, open air restaurant that served pretty decent food. Eric still managed to feel ill for the eating. Dinner ended with a trip across the street to the beach. I took some nice sunset pictures of Mike on the beach, and the nice waves rolling in. Mike got his first taste of beach sand, which he didn't appreciate very much. Cleaning him in the public shower was a fun chore to boot. Walking back to the Beach Place, we were treated to a nice acoustic guitar player, and we supped some coffee and tea while we listened. It was a very nice way to spend our last night on the east coast.

Friday
More classes, and lunch at the room. We finished classes around 11am, and Eric and I parted ways to find our way back to Tampa. We'll meet up again on Monday in the office.

The drive back to Tampa was rather uneventful, if not long. 5 hours is a lot to drive. We celebrated our homecomming by eating at Estelles, our favorite mexican place in Brandon.

On the whole, I'd consider the week a success. The class was a bit long, spending a day too much in some areas, and not enough in others. I have a hunch that the course could be shortened to 4 days with no ill effects. We learned a bunch, and are much more comfortable with our environment back home. Hurray for formal training. Hurray for having a wonderful wife and son to share the week with.