Elser Family Blog

Melinda School Project

Melinda and a friend had to create a web page at school. They wrote about the tundra, it’s animals and features.

You can see it here: www.treelessplain.com

We registered this domain (99 cents at godaddy, what a deal) and forwarded it to the page the kids made in school. I gave the teacher this info so she could share it as part of the lesson plan if she wanted to.

(Future reference:  When this page is gone, the forwarded URL was http://tundrarussellmelinda.webs.com and the whole site has been archived in a file called melindawebtundraproject with today’s date)

We also found out that Melinda was chosen to be in a small group that is going to be doing a special activity at the hospital tomorrow. I’ll let you know more when I fond out myself! It sounds like it might be special though.

Grade Time.

I visited Hannah’s school to talk to her teachers and pick up her report card. She did really well with all A’s this semester. Excellent Job Hannah!

I walked in to her Math (Honors Geometry) teachers classroom, and she says “Hello Mr. Elser!”  Before I got a chance to finish asking how Hannah is doing in her class, she replies “Oh, don’t worry about Hannah, she could teach this class”.  Alright then! I guess we are done here!

🙂

Actually, after a little conversation, The teacher offered Hannah the opportunity to be a tutor. She said they usually only offer that to NHS members (sophomore-seniors), but that Hannah is more than qualified, and it would look good on her resume. I like this teacher more and more!

Melinda and Rockwell are doing fine in the VI. I got to visit with their teachers while I was down there. Melinda submitted a Story about horses to be judged in the state fair they have down there. I will let you know how that turns out.

I’m so proud of my kids, and how seriously they are taking school. I am thankful for that!

Observations.

I read an article that said that Facebook was losing as many 12-15 YO’s as they were gaining +40 YO’s. As it turns out, Hannah is one of them. She deleted her FB account about a month ago. I asked her why, and she said that since high school, she had little association with the people that she had “friend-ed” during middle school, and she simply did not use it. She communicates with her current stable of friends directly at school.

Another observation is her texting habits. She does text, but she is not an avid text-er. And she does not take her phone to school. (“you get in trouble for having phone activity during school, why bring it and take the chance?”)  And she HATES texting shorthand.. Don’t BFF or L8R her, or she will delete you. Use proper English. “Handhelds have keyboards now, there is no excuse”… (if you want to text her, her number is 803 439 four five five two. ) She also does not spend much time communicating with her School friends outside of school. There are other behaviors that I wont dwell on (static clothing style, insistence on grammar…)

Our daughter seems like a bit of an anomaly when it comes to stereotypical teenage behaviors.

But that is OK with me.

Imagine that.

Blast from the past.

While organizing I found a good picture of Hannah and Mom…
Thinking of you Mom.

New favorite Poet

I think I have a new favorite Poet.
Richard Blanco wrote a poem for President Obama’s second inauguration, and as far as I’m concerned, it was the highlight of the show.

Hearing him read this at the inauguration today was awesome.

“One Today”

One sun rose on us today, kindled over our shores,
peeking over the Smokies, greeting the faces
of the Great Lakes, spreading a simple truth
across the Great Plains, then charging across the Rockies.
One light, waking up rooftops, under each one, a story
told by our silent gestures moving behind windows.

My face, your face, millions of faces in morning’s mirrors,
each one yawning to life, crescendoing into our day:
pencil-yellow school buses, the rhythm of traffic lights,
fruit stands: apples, limes, and oranges arrayed like rainbows
begging our praise. Silver trucks heavy with oil or paper — bricks or milk, teeming over highways alongside us,
on our way to clean tables, read ledgers, or save lives — to teach geometry, or ring up groceries as my mother did
for twenty years, so I could write this poem.

All of us as vital as the one light we move through,
the same light on blackboards with lessons for the day:
equations to solve, history to question, or atoms imagined,
the “I have a dream” we keep dreaming,
or the impossible vocabulary of sorrow that won’t explain
the empty desks of twenty children marked absent
today, and forever. Many prayers, but one light
breathing color into stained glass windows,
life into the faces of bronze statues, warmth
onto the steps of our museums and park benches
as mothers watch children slide into the day.

One ground. Our ground, rooting us to every stalk
of corn, every head of wheat sown by sweat
and hands, hands gleaning coal or planting windmills
in deserts and hilltops that keep us warm, hands
digging trenches, routing pipes and cables, hands
as worn as my father’s cutting sugarcane
so my brother and I could have books and shoes.

The dust of farms and deserts, cities and plains
mingled by one wind — our breath. Breathe. Hear it
through the day’s gorgeous din of honking cabs,
buses launching down avenues, the symphony
of footsteps, guitars, and screeching subways,
the unexpected song bird on your clothes line.

Hear: squeaky playground swings, trains whistling,
or whispers across cafe tables, Hear: the doors we open
for each other all day, saying: hello, shalom,
buon giorno, howdy, namaste, or buenos días
in the language my mother taught me — in every language
spoken into one wind carrying our lives
without prejudice, as these words break from my lips.

One sky: since the Appalachians and Sierras claimed
their majesty, and the Mississippi and Colorado worked
their way to the sea. Thank the work of our hands:
weaving steel into bridges, finishing one more report
for the boss on time, stitching another wound
or uniform, the first brush stroke on a portrait,
or the last floor on the Freedom Tower
jutting into a sky that yields to our resilience.

One sky, toward which we sometimes lift our eyes
tired from work: some days guessing at the weather
of our lives, some days giving thanks for a love
that loves you back, sometimes praising a mother
who knew how to give, or forgiving a father
who couldn’t give what you wanted.

We head home: through the gloss of rain or weight
of snow, or the plum blush of dusk, but always — home,
always under one sky, our sky. And always one moon
like a silent drum tapping on every rooftop
and every window, of one country — all of us —
facing the stars
hope — a new constellation
waiting for us to map it,
waiting for us to name it — together

Volkswagen.

As many of you know, I have had a Volkswagen for a long time. I got it in 1999 after we sold the 56 Chevy. It’s a 1964 Type 1 25 HP bug, with a 6 volt system. I’m a little attached, because its the same vintage as me.
🙂

So, I was listening to Click and Clack the tappet brothers on NPR, and they were telling a story about a guy they knew that did not have a starter in their car.. He had to always park it on a hill.

And that made me consider telling/documenting my own story on this subject.

Around 2005, the starter on the Bug started getting flaky. Sometimes it would start, sometimes it wouldn’t. It wasn’t too bad, and I just put up with it. But around 2007, it just wouldn’t start anymore. But by this time I had gotten used to parking on inclines. So for 4 years, up to this fall, I always started my car by rolling it. 99% of the time I would remember to park it on an incline, and I have to tell you, this car started very well. I mean, I did not need much incline AT ALL to get it started. If it was enough incline to cause the car to roll in neutral, that car started! I figured out what the problem was early on, but by that time, it was sort of a challenge to see how long I could get away without having a starter! It was funny.. all three kids are going to have memories of push starting that car. They loved to do it! They would get mad if they were not the one that got to go out and push. I had specific parking spaces I would aim for. At work I had a space, and at home I backed in to the driveway. The drive had just enough of a slant to get the car rolling, and that is all I needed! At Kroger, There was a space out where people did not park that was perfect. Walmart was more of a challenge.. Sometimes I had to give it a shove to get it to start moving, But I did not go there that much.
It really was not that much of a hardship, but I figured I proved my point after 4 years, and cleaned the contacts on the power strip in the dash.. it was dirty, and too much voltage was being dropped to engage the solenoid. It works fine now. 🙂

More St Croix

I swiped these from Kathi’s facebook.

It turns out horses like to roll in sand. Who knew??

Here is Melinda on xxx in the water. Evidently the horses like to swim too. The girls will hold on to their tails when they swim. how that works I’m not sure.

Does this mean that when Melinda comes back she is going to have a horse “habit”? I think I should be worried.

Pictures from the St Croix trip

Remember, you can click on pictures to make the bigger.

Melinda getting to ride XXX down the mountain. While the picture looks peaceful  the trip was rather exciting.

Melinda learned how to cinch the tack on the horse. She did a good job for only doing it a time or two before.

This was where the horses came down to to get fed and brushed. It’s as in the middle of the bush as it looks.

I like this picture at the mountaintop.

Hannah appears to be saying “I’m on a horse!” I’m glad to see the good posture.. On Hannah.. Rockwell just seems to be saying “don’t let me fall off!”

Here is the Tan Tan tour guys.. Rockwell got to go on a 4 wheel adventure up in the mountains. I wish I could have gone! It sounded like it was FUN.

The Tan Tan tour was part of one of Rockwell’s friends Birthday parties. Here are the friends from the party playing on the beach.

In this same park was the Mural that Hannah had a hand in last year! As you might know, Hannah was part of a small group of kids (15?) that had the opportunity to work with the Coral Conservation Corps program. They did all sorts of activities that where aimed at learning about the coral reefs and their preservation. At the end of the program, they made some relief sculptures, and the CCC had them mounted on a building in the park! Perhaps Hannah will be able to come back here with her kids and point to this and say, “Hey, I made on of those!”

Here is the whole display. (remember, you can click on the pictures to make them bigger.)

Here is the one that Hannah and another participant made. I think it s great!

The family on the beach.

Melinda and I messing with the panorama function on the camera… sorta funny, Melinda followed as I moved the camera.

Adios VI

We are leaving in an hour or two. It was a nice visit. Went to a dinner (sort of) party last night and met some interesting people. I wish there were more people like that where I lived. Hannah and I went Scuba diving yesterday while Melinda and Rockwell went on a “TAN TAN tour” Basically a offroad tour of the island… They were guests at a birthday party and that was the “party”.. pretty amazing too..  We all visited the horses Saturday. That’s a story I need to elaborate on. We saw the art installation that Hannah had a hand in making at a park on the east side of the island. Pictures of all of this to come. But lets see if this one really nice one of Melinda loads.

Live From the VI

Sort of live. Here is the living room/kitchen of the place Kath, Mel, and Rock are living. I would show you the rest but the Internet here is a potato. Maybe when I get home, I can upload the neat “view” picture from the balcony. Right now you would only see sky.

In the mean time, Here is a picture of the cabinets for he kitchen I have been working on.  Also uploaded while on the caribbean Internet.

Ill try again tomorrow. Maybe I can upload a picture of all of us!