June 30th
The hot weather has broken; the high for today is 92°. Yet the morning was a very comfortable 64° with a very comfortable dew point reading. You know you are an optimist when you discuss how comfortable the temperature is because of the dew point, or you are a weather nerd, you choose. The children do their morning outdoor chores with a smile … or is that a grimace? Either way they are mature enough not to utter complaints loud enough to be heard.
I spend the morning taking advantage of the weather conditions and work in the yard and the workshop. By day’s end I am covered with a sawdust paste consisting of sweat and …duh…sawdust of course. I complete a few jobs before some good friends stop by to go swimming. The sound of five children laughing and splashing is one of the glorious sounds of summer. Then the children are off for their last music lesson until August. They are making good progress. They are not the next Yo Yo Ma or Sergei Rachmaninoff but they make us proud. Oddly enough they practice and perform better with more challenging pieces. They also have more pride in their accomplishments when they succeed with these more difficult pieces. Is there a lesson for a teacher there? I think so!
