Summer's Coming!

As of today, I'm two weeks away from the Advance Placement national exam for my 10th Graders, and one week away from the State assessment for my 9th Graders. Everyone is stressed out, grouchy and the students are tired! What can you do to relieve the stress? As a Frugpal Propellerhead, I can make plans. Yes, I did indeed sign up to teach summer school this year so the break is two more weeks away than it would be otherwise, but hey; they are paying me roughly $1000 for those two weeks!

So, I'm in need of stress relief. And for me, there's no better stress relief than planning things to do this summer.To start with, I'm in the process of planning our first true "big kid" vacation. What does that mean? It's where the activity that is planned isn't "hampered" majorly due to the age of the children. Josh will be 10 and Katie will be 7 this year so I'm not terribly worried about the length of the car ride or whether they are physically capable of doing some particular activity. So yeah: Seaworld is finally off of the "short list"! In fact, I'm leaning toward what I've come to think of as the "Lan Sun Chen New Mexico/Colorado Swing". When I was a kid, my dad loved to drive up into Northern New Mexico, and Southern Colorado. That's figuratively speaking of course since, first my brother, then I did virtually always did the driving! Nevertheless I learned to love the rugged desert landscape and the Anasazi ruins.... Didn't have a choice, that's where my dad was going to take us, or his friends who came to visit! In fact, it's so integrated to the "Lore of Chen", that Carlsbad Caverns was where my wife and I had our first real date! So, I'm kind of thinking going to the caverns, then up to some of the ruins around the Four Corners area, Mesa Verde, then taking either the Durango, Siverton train or the Royal Gorge train, coming out at Colorado Springs, then down to Amarillo before heading home. For those who haven't driven all over that part of the country, that's a LOT of driving. 

So, there are many plans that have to be made associated with this vacation. First, I actually need to decide for sure where we are going, and when we are going there. Then of course there's the whole accommodations/reservations and other kinds of 'tions that have to do with the pleasures of vacation planning. I'll definitely need to make sure that the "Family Truckster" is in good shape. But I'm not here to write about all that. There are LOTS of Frugal Propellerheadish things to do as well.

First being that I'm going to have to decide what to do about my daughters tablet.  Yes; my victorious find of "refurbished" Dell Streak 7 tablets has turned into a mini-disaster! You guys remember my son's tablet dying from the sad and fatal "Dell Connector" disease. We now have my daughter's tablet which has succombed to the same fate. So, I have to figure out what to do; replace it (with a different kind), don't worry about it and let her use mine or momma's. I don't know!?! Have I said lately that I hate Dell!  

 

Then I have to deal with the in-car entertainment issue. In today's world of personal electronics, we all take a wide variety of devices everywhere with us; ipods, ipads/tablets, Nintendos, computers, etc. And with the long hours of driving anticipated between destinations such as Carlsbad, New Mexico to Farmington, New Mexico, we'll definitely be using the portable DVD player. However, this would also entail such other needs as drinks and snacks. All-In-All, this make the inside of a Honda Civic (of course we're taking that instead of the gas-sucking SUV. Not difficult to understand 45+ MPG vs. 20 MPG) look like my daughter's long-suffering closet. I'm thinking that it's going to involve some sort of wood-working project to build a bit of a backseat console to hold everything.

Then there's the need to organize all my photographic needs. We've previously dicussed the fact that modern (digital) photography usually includes a computer, so there is that as well. Now that I have a "street photography" rig as well in the Panasonic GF-1, that'll clearly include both camera systems, and attendant lenses, flashes, tripods/monopods, and last but not least....which bags to take! I'm beginning to feel like some 19th century Englishman going on Safari! Would someone please send along some porters....which is what I'm starting to feel like, just thinking about it. 

As a related (kind-of) "aside"; did you know that's China's participation in WWI consisted of 500,000 "Porters" sent to aid in the Allied Efforts!?!