down to the wire

sunrise: 4:53

The first spring that A, N and S all came home after college was a rugged time for T.  There they were, home on summer vacation, friends coming over and filling the house, staying up late, and T still had a month of school left.  This year it was still difficult, but quieter and more short lived.  It was only S and N, and they spent more time at home without a crowd.  That seems to be a common evolution for college returnees.

The older three kids are off on their own tracks now, J is back from his canoe trip, and our household is back to its status quo - but the status quo is, as ever, an ever-changing thing. 

In a way it is nice that we have T's last two weeks of school together without the distraction of her siblings' busy lives filling the household atmosphere.  It's always nice to have them here too, but our little three person family has grown to be a dear one, and I think we'll all miss it.  T got a summer job down on Mount Desert Island - Bar Harbor.  She'll be starting shortly after the June 13th graduation.  Whether she goes to live down there or not is still a point of exploration.

She has 6 school days left.  Tomorrow - her 18th birthday - she'll be getting up at 5:00 to go on the senior whitewater rafting trip for the day.  And next week they only have a couple of regular school days before the soon-to-be grads start "marching practice."  Time, too, continues its perpetual practice of marching on.

I've taken a little break from writing these last couple of weeks with the kids home.  But I did get a nice piece out about memorial day, including some of the best May sunrises and some recollections of my very wonderful father-in-law, whom I miss a lot.  Here is the link.  T and I had a parade and event-filled day yesterday.  She marched as a flag girl with the high school band in two town parades and sang the national anthem at two events.  Pretty sweet all around.  And a day of perfect weather.

More photo glitches today.  I hope they'll all be resolved for tomorrow.  I may be adding photos to today's post later, if I can find the wire to T's camera so I can upload from its internal memory.  Don't you wish you had a wire to plug in, so you could retrieve your internal memory?