The wheat began to turn this week. In a few weeks we'll be in the land of the amber waves again.

(...)

That's where that thought ends, apparently. When I sat down at the computer tonight I thought I had a reason to be here, but apparently I don't.

I could qualify the amber waves comment by saying that here in the eastern part of the state we do not have the horizon-sweeping fields of wheat that stretch across the western part of the state because too much of the terrain here in the Flint Hills is, umm, flinty and hilly, better suited to grazing cattle than to mowing with a $200K combine.

I might spend my minutes here pointing out (not too defensively, I hope) to anyone who believes that all of Kansas is flat, that nearby -- minutes away -- is a buried mountain range, the Nemaha Ridge, that would dwarf the Rockies if not for the fact that the Ridge would need to undergo a mile or two more uplift and the fact that erosion would have to wear down the sediment that covers it -- miles deep in places and left over from the long gone inland sea that covered the region. Don't order a lift ticket just yet, but after an era here, an epoch there, a glacier to scrape away the dust -- who knows? This could be bigger than rural electrification.

I could go on a rant about the expression "whole 'nother" and the use of the introductory "hopefully" that ends up recommending that they be elevated from colloquialisms to idioms, but that rant was never really a contender for my attention tonight.

So, I'm stuck instead reporting the news. The news, however, is generally good.

I'll add two more classes to my load on Monday when the summer session takes off. Both are late afternoon/early evening classes. Added to the noon class, they will still permit me plenty of time at home with the boys during the day, and as needed, away from them as well. That sentence might not scan, but it makes sense to me and I'd bet to many other parents.

The over-sized noon class goes well. However, no one who could have done anything to prevent its growth or morphed it into two classes has been around the office when I have been. Typical.

The younger boys and I have settled into comfortable routines, routines that summer school will soon adjust. Owen arises early for swim team practice. His mother drops him off at the pool by 6:45, and I retrieve him at 8:45. He returns moderately exhausted, but a sandwich or two and some quiet time revives his teasing instincts.

His younger brother, recognizing that it is better to flee and elude than to stand and whine, spends much of the morning at his grandmother's home, away from Owen's teasing. I retrieve him on the way home from my noon class.

Later in the afternoon, either the mom or I return with both the younger boys to play "Where's Waldo?" at the pool.

The graduate spends a few seconds each day arranging the want ads on the dining room table so that it looks like he has actually looked for a summer job. He would like a two-month job that offers plenty of vacation time and days off, preferably one that doesn't require the wearing of a uniform, and that doesn't require that it be apparent to anyone who might know him or who might possibly know or recognize him in the future that he is actually working. He spends the remainder of his time at the pool or at the lake, or here playing his three chords on the new Stratocaster. Speaking of new toys, tonight we ordered a new computer for him, one that he'll take with him to college in August. The computer will cost more than the first new car I bought, a '72 VW Super Beetle (Sumatra green, sunroof, Sapphire II AM/FM radio, "leatherette" upholstery, fart windows in back -- da works), and has better speakers.

The distraction of relocating these pages is almost over. All the files that need to be at the Geocities site are now in place, and I have copied most of them with their corrected links back to the Tripod site but in new directories. For a while (while I have space? while I remember? while it seems to me it matters?) I will leave the old Tripod journal pages in place for the sake of folks who might have linked to specific entries instead of to the index page, but the entry index page at Tripod (once it is uploaded) will link to newly-loaded duplicates of the Geocities pages arranged in directories identical to those at the Geocities site.

That last sentence was tougher than all the re-linking and uploading I've done over the past few days. Hopefully, I'll never have to re-type links on so many pages again (or maybe that's why online journalers stop a journal and emerge with a new one the next day), but that's a whole 'nother subject.

Dinner Conversation:
Owen seems to be enjoying swim practice. Between laps he picks up college rivalry jokes that in Texas would have been Aggie jokes. Here they translate as K-State/KU jokes.

Q: How do you get a KU grad off your porch?
A: Pay him for the pizza.

Q: What did the KU grad say the first time he met a K-State grad?
A: Would you like fries with your order?

When a KU grad reports for his first day of work at K-Mart, his new boss tells him that his first job will be to sweep the aisles.

The jayhawk says,"But I graduated from KU."

"Then we'll find someone patient to train you," says the boss.

Bada boom...

I should have posted a warning earlier: I can't tell a joke.