astra_nomer | Vacation recap, sort of

Got back yesterday from a week's vacation in Pennsylvania.

In the meantime, our neighborhood was hit by violent storms including a microburst that left the street littered with fallen branches and without power for two days. Our canoe was blown clear across the yard and into a tree, giving it a major dent which may or may not be repairable. The tree will probably survive. This is the third major storm we've had this year that's left us without power for days at a time. Our neighbors are talking about buying generators.

We spent yesterday re-packing the kids' stuff for a week of sleep-away camp. Despite spending the day mostly puttering around the house, by evening I felt as tired and stiff as I had every other day this past week, the difference being that I hadn't spend yesterday walking around an entire city. Then I took my temperature and it was 100F. That explained it.

This morning I got up early and with the help of judicious application of ibuprofen, I was able to see the kids off on the buses to camp, waving cheerily at them. Son the Elder was quite cheerful as the bus drove off, but it was a little hard to tell because his nose was deeply buried in the 6th Harry Potter book. Son the Younger looked a little mournful, but I fully expect he cheered up as soon as I was out of sight.

I am spending today "working" from home and trying to catch up on everything. I didn't bring my computer with me this trip, but I did cheat and check email occasionally from my iTouch. I'm way behind on news. I found out about Sen. Ted Stevens' death in a really roundabout way, for instance. Anything else I missed while being away?