When do they go back to school?
Thus ends the first week of our kids' summer vacation, and Bonnie and I have started to wonder how we'll survive the next two months.
Call me a scrooge, but I don't really see the point of summer vacation in this day and age -- it's very disruptive to kids and parents alike, and it seems mainly to be a way for school systems to avoid paying the cost of keeping facilities cool in the summertime more than anything, because the last time I checked, teachers were getting paid an average amount that seems like a living annual wage: An average of $51,942 in Massachusetts for the 2002-2003 academic school year, according to the American Federation of Teachers, which ranked us at the time eighth in the nation. Not bad for only having to work ten months out of the year.
This year, Bonnie and I have intentionally not overburdened our kids with a ton of activities during the summer break. Last year they did a week at a day camp (where James broke his arm) and had a smattering of other activities as well. This year, we'll just take each day or week as it comes without a lot of expectation that we need to keep the kids busy. Frankly, the family's schedule was frantic enough during the school year; it's a good time for all of us to take a break, I think.
The weather hasn't exactly been cooperative, and I feel bad for anyone who took last week as a summer vacation on Cape Cod. It was vile the entire week, sodden and cool. Centerville, a village of Barnstable (where Hyannis is), is just due east of us, and every time we went up there this week, it was draped in heavy fog and mist. Yesterday we had at times torrential downpours. That's good, I suppose -- we've had a dry spell of late, and I'm sure the vegetation benefitted from the precipitation.
But the mugginess has left me with the windows locked and the air conditioners on just to get the moisture out of the air. Unless you've got a breeze, which we haven't for the most part, the weather makes you feel positively leaden.
Fortunately, fate has smiled upon us this Independence Day weekend: They're predicting decent weather now, which is good, as we're due to go to my father/sister in law's for the annual big family cookout on the beach. Somehow Independence Day weekend just wouldn't be the same without some grilled meat at the Nowik/Neuberts' house.