Bill Gates speech: 11 rules your kids did not and will not learn in school

by Kent Summers on Wednesday, May 26, 2010 at 8:34am

Rule 1: Life is not fair - get used to it!

Rule 2: The world doesn't care about your self-esteem. The world will expect you to accomplish something BEFORE you feel good about yourself.

Rule 3: You will NOT make $60,000 a year right out of high school. You won't be a vice-president with a car phone until you earn both.

Rule 4: If you think your teacher is tough, wait till you get a boss.

Rule 5: Flipping burgers is not beneath your dignity. Your Grandparents had a different word for burger flipping: they called it opportunity.

Rule 6: If you mess up, it's not your parents' fault, so don't whine about your mistakes, learn from them.

Rule 7: Before you were born, your parents weren't as boring as they are now. They got that way from paying your bills, cleaning your clothes and listening to you talk about how cool you thought you were. So before you save the rain forest from the parasites of your parent's generation, try delousing the closet in your own room.

Rule 8: Your school may have done away with winners and losers, but life HAS NOT. In some schools, they have abolished failing grades, and they'll give you as MANY TIMES as you want to get the right answer. This doesn't bear the slightest resemblance to ANYTHING in real life.

Rule 9: Life is not divided into semesters. You don't get summers off and very few employers are interested in helping you FIND YOURSELF. Do that on your own time.

Rule 10: Television is NOT real life. In real life people actually have to leave the coffee shop and go to jobs.

Rule 11: Be nice to nerds. Chances are you'll end up working for one.

All so true!  KW

I D 10 T - Darwin nominees 2010

This year's Darwin nominees are:
Nominee No. 1: [ San Jose Mercury News]: An unidentified man, using a shotgun like a club to break a former girl friend's windshield, accidentally shot himself to death when the gun discharged, blowing a hole in his gut.

Nominee No. 2: [ Kalamazoo Gazette]: James Burns, 34, (a mechanic) of Alamo, MI, was killed in March as he was trying to repair what police describe as a "farm-type truck." Burns got a friend to drive the truck on a highway while Burns hung underneath so that he could ascertain the source of a troubling noise. Burns' clothes caught on something, however, and the other man found Burns "wrapped in the drive shaft."

Nominee No. 3: [ Hickory Daily Record]: Ken Charles Barger, 47, accidentally shot himself to death in December in Newton, NC. Awakening to the sound of a ringing telephone beside his bed, he reached for the phone but grabbed instead a Smith & Wesson 38 Special, which discharged when he drew it to his ear.

Nominee No. 4: [UPI, Toronto ]: Police said a lawyer demonstrating the safety of windows in a downtown Toronto skyscraper crashed through a pane with his shoulder and plunged 24 floors to his death. A police spokesman said Garry Hoy, 39, fell into the courtyard of the Toronto Dominion Bank Tower early Friday evening as he was explaining the strength of the building’s windows to visiting law students. Hoy previously has conducted demonstrations of window strength according to police reports. Peter Lawson, managing partner of the firm Holden Day Wilson, told the Toronto Sun newspaper that Hoy was "one of the best and brightest" members of the 200-man association.

Nominee No. 5: [The News of the Weird]: Michael Anderson Godwin made News of the Weird posthumously. He had spent several years awaiting South Carolina’s electric chair on a murder conviction before having his sentence reduced to life in prison. While sitting on a metal toilet in his cell attempting to fix his small TV set, he bit into a wire and was electrocuted.

Nominee No. 6:[The Indianapolis Star]: A cigarette lighter may have triggered a fatal explosion in Dunkirk, IN. A Jay County man, using a cigarette lighter to check the barrel of a muzzleloader, was killed Monday night when the weapon discharged in his face, sheriff's investigators said. Gregory David Pryor, 19, died in his parents' rural Dunkirk home at about 11:30 PM. Investigators said Pryor was cleaning a 54-caliber muzzle-loader that had not been firing properly. He was using the lighter to look into the barrel when the gunpowder ignited.

Nominee No. 7: [Reuters, Mississauga, Ontario]: A man cleaning a bird feeder on the balcony of his condominium apartment in this Toronto suburb slipped and fell 23 stories to his death. “Stefan Macko, 55, was standing on a wheelchair when the accident occurred," said Inspector Darcy Honer of the Peel Regional Police. "It appears that the chair moved, and he went over the balcony," Honer said.

Finally, THE WINNER:[Arkansas Democrat Gazette]: Two local men were injured when their pickup truck left the road and struck a tree near Cotton Patch on State Highway 38 early Monday. Woodruff County deputy Dovey Snyder reported the accident shortly after midnight Monday. Thurston Poole, 33, of Des Arc, and Billy Ray Wallis, 38, of Little Rock, were returning to Des Arc after a frog-catching trip... On an overcast Sunday night, Poole’s pickup truck headlights malfunctioned.

The two men concluded that the headlight fuse on the older-model truck had burned out. As a replacement fuse was not available, Wallis noticed that the .22 caliber bullets from his pistol fit perfectly into the fuse box next to the steering-wheel column. Upon inserting the bullet the headlights again began to operate properly, and the two men proceeded on eastbound toward the White River Bridge.

After traveling approximately 20 miles, and just before crossing the river, the bullet apparently overheated, discharged and struck Poole in the testicles. The vehicle swerved sharply right, exited the pavement, and struck a tree. Poole suffered only minor cuts and abrasions from the accident but will require extensive surgery to repair the damage to his testicles, which will never operate as intended.

Wallis sustained a broken clavicle and was treated and released. "Thank God we weren't on that bridge when Thurston shot his balls off, or we might be dead," stated Wallis

"I've been a trooper for 10 years in this part of the world, but this is a first for me. I can't believe that those two would admit how this accident happened," said Snyder.

Upon being notified of the wreck, Lavinia (Poole’s wife) asked how many frogs the boys had caught and did anyone get them from the truck? Though Poole and Wallis did not die as a result of their misadventure as normally required by Darwin Award Official Rules, it can be argued that Poole did in fact effectively remove himself from the gene pool.

7 Reasons Not To Mess With Children

A little girl was talking to her teacher about whales.
The teacher said it was physically impossible for a whale to swallow a human because even though it was a very large mammal its throat was very small.
The little girl stated that Jonah was swallowed by a whale.
Irritated, the teacher reiterated that a whale could not swallow a human; it was physically impossible.
The little girl said, 'When I get to heaven I will ask Jonah'.
The teacher asked, 'What if Jonah went to hell?'
The little girl replied, 'Then you ask him'.

A Kindergarten teacher was observing her classroom of children while they were drawing. She would occasionally walk around to see each child's work.
As she got to one little girl who was working diligently, she asked what the drawing was.
The girl replied, 'I'm drawing God.'
The teacher paused and said, 'But no one knows what God looks like.'
Without missing a beat, or looking up from her drawing, the girl replied, 'They will in a minute.'

A Sunday school teacher was discussing the Ten Commandments with her five and six year olds.
After explaining the commandment to 'honour' thy Father and thy Mother, she asked, 'Is there a commandment that teaches us how to treat our brothers and sisters?'
Without missing a beat one little boy (the oldest of a family) answered, 'Thou shall not kill.'

One day a little girl was sitting and watching her mother do the dishes at the kitchen sink... She suddenly noticed that her mother had several strands of white hair sticking out in contrast on her brunette head.
She looked at her mother and inquisitively asked, 'Why are some of your hairs white, Mum?'
Her mother replied, 'Well, every time you do something wrong and make me unhappy or cry, one of my hairs turns white.'
The little girl thought about this revelation for a while and then said, 'Mummy, how come ALL of grandma's hairs are white?'

The children had all been photographed, and the teacher was trying to persuade them each to buy a copy of the group picture.
'Just think how nice it will be to look at it when you are all grown up and say, 'There's Jennifer, she's a lawyer,' or 'That's Michael, He's a doctor..'
A small voice at the back of the room rang out, 'And there's the teacher, she's dead.'

A teacher was giving a lesson on the circulation of the blood. Trying to make the matter clearer, she said, 'Now, class, if I stood on my head, the blood, as you know, would run into it, and I would turn red in the face.'
'Yes,' the class said.
'Then why is it that while I am standing upright in the ordinary position the blood doesn't run into my feet?'
A little fellow shouted,
'Cause your feet ain't empty.'

The children were lined up in the cafeteria of a Catholic elementary school for lunch... At the head of the table was a large pile of apples. The nun made a note, and posted on the apple tray:
'Take only ONE . God is watching.'
Moving further along the lunch line, at the other end of the table was a large pile of chocolate chip cookies.
A child had written a note, 'Take all you want. God is watching the apples.'

The Darwin Awards - 2009

I started this blog site for the fun of it over a year ago. I don't often add to it, but this email from a friend reminded me why I originally named it I D 10 T.

Yes, it's that magical time of year again when the Darwin Awards are bestowed, honoring the least evolved among us.

Here is the glorious winner:
1. When his 38 caliber revolver failed to fire at his intended victim during a hold-up in Long Beach California, would-be robber James Elliot did something that can only inspire wonder. He peered down the barrel and tried the trigger again. This time it worked.
And now, the honorable mentions:
2. The chef at a hotel in Switzerland lost a finger in a meat cutting machine and after a little shopping around, submitted a claim to his insurance company. The company expecting negligence sent out one of its men to have a look for himself. He tried the machine and he also lost a finger. The chef's claim was approved.
3. A man who shoveled snow for an hour to clear a space for his car during a blizzard in Chicago returned with his vehicle to find a woman had taken the space. 'Understandably', he shot her.
4. After stopping for drinks at an illegal bar, a Zimbabwean bus driver found that the 20 mental patients he was supposed to be transporting from Harare to Bulawayo had escaped. Not wanting to admit his incompetence, the driver went to a nearby bus stop and offered everyone waiting there a free ride. He then delivered the passengers to the mental hospital, telling the staff that the patients were very excitable and prone to bizarre fantasies. The deception wasn't discovered for 3 days.
5. An American teenager was in the hospital recovering from serious head wounds received from an oncoming train... When asked how he received the injuries, the lad told police that he was simply trying to see how close he could get his head to a moving train before he was hit.
6. A man walked into a Louisiana Circle-K, put a $20 bill on the counter, and asked for change. When the clerk opened the cash drawer, the man pulled a gun and asked for all the cash in the register, which the clerk promptly provided. The man took the cash from the clerk and fled, leaving the $20 bill on the counter. The total amount of cash he got from the drawer.... $15. [If someone points a gun at you and gives you money, is a crime committed?]
7. Seems an Arkansas guy wanted some beer pretty badly. He decided that he'd just throw a cinder block through a liquor store window, grab some booze, and run. So he lifted the cinder block and heaved it over his head at the window. The cinder block bounced back and hit the would-be thief on the head, knocking him unconscious. The liquor store window was made of Plexiglas. The whole event was caught on videotape.
8. As a female shopper exited a New York convenience store, a man grabbed her purse and ran. The clerk called 911 immediately, and the woman was able to give them a detailed description of the snatcher. Within minutes, the police apprehended the snatcher. They put him in the car and drove back to the store. The thief was then taken out of the car and told to stand there for a positive ID. To which he replied, "Yes, officer, that's her. That's the lady I stole the purse from."
9. The Ann Arbor News crime column reported that a man walked into a Burger King in Ypsilanti, Michigan at 5 A.M., flashed a gun, and demanded cash. The clerk turned him down because he said he couldn't open the cash register without a food order. When the man ordered onion rings, the clerk said they weren't available for breakfast. The man, frustrated, walked away.
10. When a man attempted to siphon gasoline from a motor home parked on a Seattle street, he got much more than he bargained for. Police arrived at the scene to find a very sick man curled up next to a motor home near spilled sewage. A police spokesman said that the man admitted to trying to steal gasoline, but he plugged his siphon hose into the motor home's sewage tank by mistake. The owner of the vehicle declined to press charges saying that it was the best laugh he'd ever had.

In the interest of bettering mankind, please share these with friends and family....unless of course one of these individuals by chance is a distant relative or long lost friend. In that case, be glad they are distant and hope they remain lost.

Remember..... They walk among us.... And they vote!

The Handyman

Is there an unwritten code among handymen? The reason I ask is because anytime I have hired one to do some work for me around my place, they never stick to their word as far as to when they will show up. It never fails. They never come when they say they will. They are ALWAYS an hour or two or three late! Sometimes they never show up! And when they do show, the job that they were contracted to do, is never the same when they are finished.

I hired someone to do some outside repairs this weekend. I had put it off too long. He solicited the work. The neighbors had told him I had work to be done, and because they recommended him, I decide what the heck. He needed the work; give him the job; 30 years old, wife (who sat in the truck all three days while he was here), and a 10 year old daughter. He had few teeth, smelled of smoke, and had cigarette burns in his sweatshirt. He said he had left school at 16 because he was making good money working on homes; not something you tell someone in Education as I told him. But he did get his GED. Grew up in Georgia, slow talker, as it took him 20 minutes to tell me something that would take most people 5 minutes.

Now everything was fine; explained what I wanted done, price decided upon; until I wrote him a check. At that time, he told me he only accepted cash. Ok, void the check. I don't keep cash on me, so I did not have the down payment he wanted; had to give him some cash and write another check to make up the difference. We decided on a time for him to start the following day, 10:00 AM.

Well, I am up, dressed, and ready by 10:00; which is unusual for me as I am NEVER ready before 12:00 if I can help it. I like to take my time in the morning on my days off. 10:00 came and went, as did 11:00 and 12:00. I am ready to go run some errands when I get the call; wife’s phone not charged, running late, on his way. Now it was about 12:30, figured he would be here within the next 30 minutes. NOT! Another hour!

He got here, and I went to run my errands. He called me to explain something wasn’t going to work; he had to do something different, and to remind me to get cash; I had gotten that the day before after he left, having had to write two different checks for him. He worked another couple of hours, asked for more money for supplies (found something else that needed to be fixed), and off he went, saying he would be back the next day.

The next morning, same thing, I am up and ready by 10:00 AM (I do pretty well after I have my shot of caffeine) and again a no show until the call at 11:30 telling me he is on his way. At least the call was earlier today, but it still took him over 30 minutes to get here. Again, I told him I had errands to run. I would not be here when he got here, would be back in about an hour. I got a call from him about 2 hours later saying he was done and to have cash.

The additional jobs required additional money. I get that, but he said he did the math wrong and didn't charge me enough. Well, guess what? I only had cash for the amount he had told me the night before. So, cash and a check again. He drove off and called. The guy who usually cashed checks for him wasn't working. If I could get some cash for him, he would take less than the amount of the check. Yikes, have to go scrambling around looking for cash. Came up with the right amount of bills and change. What a pain in the neck.

I was surprised he was so disorganized. The neighbors recommended him highly, so I did not expect it. Another neighbor called and asked what I thought of his work. Come to find out, she had hired him before, and he kept finding things that needed to be fixed. I don’t mind being told things need to be fixed when I know they do, but figure the price correctly.

Time will tell if he did a good job. He still needs to come back and finish some painting. He did clean everything up well, so that is a plus.

It is soooo hard to find a handyman. Would I use him again? I don’t know. I did tell him if I did ever use him again, we would have to sit down and have the math worked out even before the job was ever started. I am all set for now. My next big job is replacing my bathroom counters and that will not be done by someone I hire off the street!

Why Do People Do Art Shows?

This is an old draft I finally made the time to sit down and finish. I sometimes have more than one going on at a time, posting none of them. This goes back to November.

I was at dinner the other night when two friends mentioned that I had not put anything new on my blog in awhile. Too true. I have saved stuff to write about but have not gotten around to writing anything. Time! That’s the key; time to do so. I decided today I would try to get something written. (And didn't do so until now, 2 months later!)

In the past two months I have been to a number of Arts Festivals with my friend Nancy. Nancy is a retired elementary school principal. Since retiring, she has been busy with a number of different projects; arts and crafts, stamping, scrapbooking; a regular Martha Stewart! She always has something in the works. Nancy is now into photography. She has taken a number of photography classes. She takes great photos, as she puts it, of things that do not move. She does buildings and objects, not people or animals. She has done shows in the Atlanta area and in South Carolina. I have helped her out a few times. Needless to say, most I have helped her with have either been rainy or cold days. The last one I did I thought I would never warm up, and it was only October. Most of Nancy’s shows are outdoors; one lately was indoors.

Preparation for the shows is a lot of work; which photos to take, framed or just matted, what sizes. I told Nancy one time (she had been out of town, and I had collected her mail for her) I would never know if anyone had broken into her house and disturbed anything because she spreads her stuff out ALL OVER the place!

Setting up for the shows is also a lot of work. Nancy has a tent she puts up and display walls on which to hang her photos. It takes a couple of hours to get everything set up. Nancy plans out how and where everything will be hung. She has a system in place; what photos get hung on the walls, which go in baskets. She has props and displays. She sets her tent up to “draw” in the customers.

That’s another story in itself. Some days there will be a number of visitors to the show and Nancy’s tent, other days few. I don’t know how Nancy does it. I think I would go nuts; being there all day waiting for people not only to come into my tent, but to also buy something. To me it would be very discouraging to have people look through my photography, tell me how good it was, then walk away without buying a thing. Not Nancy. At Chastain, one guy came back at least three times; even brought his cousin back with him; to look at a scene from Sullivan’s Island, and he still did not buy the photo. Nancy just kept smiling and having conversations with him. Nancy does not get discouraged. She will be ready for the next show, around the next corner.

It is also interesting to see which photos attract people at the different shows; at one show it was scenes from the Atlanta area, at another show photos taken in Europe, at a third show beach photos. Every show attracts a number of different types of people. Interesting!

Nancy makes friends at all her shows. She befriends the people set up beside her. At the Chastain show the photographer beside her gave her a lot of advice; price the photos higher, no posters, make the mats herself. He was very friendly; as was his girlfriend; and he wanted Nancy to be successful. He had no trouble sharing his advice with her; good advice at that.

Nancy is always planning; the next shot, the next project, the next show. She is off for awhile now, so she will have lots of ideas by the time the next show rolls around!

No wonder no one wants to learn English...

You think English is easy???

1)The bandage was wound around the wound.

2) The farm was used to produce produce.

3) The dump was so full that it had to refuse more refuse.

4) We must polish the Polish furniture.

5) He could lead if he would get the lead out.

6) The soldier decided to desert his dessert in the desert.

7) Since there is no time like the present, he thought it was time to present the present.

8) A bass was painted on the head of the bass drum.

9) When shot at, the dove dove into the bushes.

10) I did not object to the object.

11) The insurance was invalid for the invalid.

12) There was a row among the row of oarsmen about how to row.

13) They were too close to the door to close it.

14) The buck does funny things when the does are present.

15) A seamstress and a sewer fell down into a sewer line.

16) To help with planting, the farmer taught his sow to sow.

17) The wind was too strong to wind the sail.

18) Upon seeing the tear in the painting, I shed a tear.

19) I had to subject the subject to a series of tests.

20) How can I intimate this to my most intimate friend?

Let’s face it - English is a crazy language. There is no egg in eggplant, nor ham in hamburger; neither apple nor pine in pineapple. English muffins weren't invented in England or French fries in France. Sweetmeats are candies while sweetbreads, which aren't sweet, are meat. We take English for granted. But if we explore its paradoxes, we find that quicksand can work slowly, boxing rings are square and a guinea pig is neither from Guinea nor is it a pig. And why is it that writers write but fingers don't fing, grocers don't groce and hammers don't ham? If the plural of tooth is teeth, why isn't the plural of booth, beeth? One goose, 2 geese. So one moose, 2 meese? One index, 2 indices? Doesn't it seem crazy that you can make amends but not one amend? If you have a bunch of odds and ends and get rid of all but one of them, what do you call it? If teachers taught, why didn't preachers praught? If a vegetarian eats vegetables, what does a humanitarian eat? Sometimes I think all the English speakers should be committed to an asylum for the verbally insane. In what language do people recite at a play and play at a recital? Ship by truck and send cargo by ship? Have noses that run and feet that smell? How can a slim chance and a fat chance be the same, while a wise man and a wise guy are opposites?

You have to marvel at the unique lunacy of a language in which your house can burn up as it burns down, in which you fill in a form by filling it out and in which, an alarm goes off by going on. English was invented by people, not computers, and it reflects the creativity of the human race, which, of course, is not a race at all. That is why, when the stars are out, they are visible, but when the lights are out, they are invisible. Why doesn't 'Buick' rhyme with ‘quick’? You lovers of the English language might enjoy this. There is a two-letter word that perhaps has more meanings than any other two-letter word, and that is 'UP.' We call UP our friends. And we use it to brighten UP a room, polish UP the silver; we warm UP the leftovers and clean UP the kitchen. We lock UP the house and some guys fix UP the old car. At other times the little word has real special meaning. People stir UP trouble, line UP for tickets, work UP an appetite, and think UP excuses. To be dressed is one thing, but to be dressed UP is special. And this UP is confusing: A drain must be opened UP because it's stopped UP. We open UP a store in the morning but we close it UP at night. We seem to be pretty mixed UP about UP! To be knowledgeable about the proper uses of UP, look the word UP in the dictionary. In a desk-sized dictionary, it takes UP almost 1/4th of the page and can add UP to about thirty definitions. If you are UP to it, you might try building UP a list of the many ways UP is used. It will take UP a lot of your time, but if you don't give UP, you may wind UP with a hundred or more. When it threatens to rain, we say it is clouding UP. When the sun comes out we say it is clearing UP. When it rains, it wets the earth and often messes things UP. When it doesn't rain for awhile, things dry UP. One could go on and on, but I'll wrap it UP for now my time is UP, so... it is time to shut UP! (reprinted from an email)

Clueless in Seattle - YIKES!!!

In a Seattle Washington college classroom, they were discussing the qualifications to be President of the United States. It was pretty simple the candidate must be a natural born citizen of at least 35 years of age.

However, one girl in the class immediately started in on how unfair was the requirement to be a natural born citizen. In short, her opinion was that this requirement prevented many capable individuals from becoming president. The class was taking it in and letting her rant, but everyone's jaw hit the floor when she wrapped up her argument by stating, 'What makes a natural born citizen any more qualified to lead this country than one born by C-section?'

Yep, these are the young people that just voted for the President of the United States. These are our future leaders,

I think we are in deep trouble.
ID10T
(reprinted from an email)

In Memoriam

I went to a funeral today; Nancy Faye Tribble. Tribble was 55 years old; a year older than me. Too young! Tribble had been battling pancreatic cancer for 11 years. Two weeks ago she lost the fight; July 23. And what a fight it was. She did everything in her power to keep going. I was able to visit with her last April, during Spring Break, while she was living in Macon with friends. I am glad I got the opportunity to do so.

I did not know her as well as others did; did not grow up with her, did not go to school with her, did not teach with her, but did socialize a little with her in years gone by. I met her through a mutual friend; another Nancy. As the years passed, I might see Tribble maybe once or twice a year. We went to the opening of the movie “We Are Marshall” a few years back; to find Nancy in the movie; and many times I would see her at Nancy’s house. I knew a lot about Tribble through Nancy and learned more about her today as one of her brothers spoke about her. He tried to put her whole life into a couple of hours of time. She was a generous person, full of life, and very much a fighter.

It is at times like this you see how small a world it is. There were people at the funeral I knew. I work with a friend of hers; they went to college together. I had worked many years ago with another friend of hers; they taught on the same team in middle school. I recognized a retired teacher who teaches professional learning classes in the county where I work. I have worked and still work with other colleagues of hers, and they all speak very highly of her. She touched a lot of people’s lives.

As I was sitting there today listening to Tribble’s friends sing, and her friends and brother share their memories of her, all I could think was that whenever I met her, no matter what the circumstances (not only was she fighting cancer, but she also had MS), she always made me laugh. That is what I will always remember about her – she always made me laugh. Her sense of humor was incredible, and many of the stories told today were how she shared that laughter with everyone she knew and came in contact with throughout her life.

Nancy Faye Tribble will be missed by many; her personality, her jokes, her drive. I feel lucky to have known her to some degree and to have shared in her laughter.

Our mutual friend, Nancy, did the program for Tribble today. She did an excellent job. The picture is from that program. Nancy has a blog and will probably put into words, a lot better than I have, a tribute to Tribble, but I felt the need to say something.

Girls of '73

As mentioned in my
“Summer Vacation” blog, while I was in Dover, I got together with some old friends. There are a number of us who get together whenever I get up to Dover. We all went to junior high and high school together, and some of us were in elementary school together. In junior high and high school we were regionalized, two towns together, so this group in compiled of two groups; those who grew up in Dover and those who grew up in Sherborn; hence the name Dover-Sherborn Regional High School. I thought there were about 150 in our graduating class. I was told there were 120. Guess there seemed like more at the time.

As said, a number of us get together; not necessarily the same people all the time. Everyone is contacted, and those who can make it do so. Some live in the Dover/Sherborn area, others live in the western part of the state, and others, like me, live out of state.

This summer ten of us were able to get together; two of us from out of state. I make it home more frequently than some; every Christmas and usually in the summer if no other trips are planned. One friend brought her mother as she had driven up from Cape Cod and didn't want to do the ride back by herself.

It is a good group of women. We all do something different as far as work. Some have college degrees, some do not. Some have kids (they share their pictures and their lives), some are married, some are divorced, some are single (and get bombarded with questions about dating), and some have different sexual preferences, but we all get along. This year we celebrated a birthday.

We meet at the Sherborn Inn and catch up on the year and gossip or reminisce about times gone by. We tell stories about others or about each other. Even though we are mature women, many times we revert back to high school, maybe even junior high, ways. This time we laughed so hard, our sides hurt!

We have met at different restaurants in the past, but the Sherborn Inn has won out the past couple of times. It is very nice. It has a tavern and a dining room. We were told the dining room would be closed, but because we were a large group, they opened it for us.

The Sherborn Inn is an old house. It dates back to 1758, but it used to be a private home. We graduated with a guy who lived there. Don’t know what happened to the family, but he is now living on the Cape. It is celebrating its 20th anniversary as an inn this year. I have heard mixed reviews about it, but have always enjoyed going there; either with family or friends.

I enjoy these times with these women. It is fun to get together with them and cut up. It was a very enjoyable night, and I look forward to more to come.

My Summer Vacation

I just spent 7 days on vacation in Dover, Massachusetts. My sister bought the house we grew up in, so I stay with her when I visit. It amazes me how 2 adults and 6 kids lived in the house when I was a kid. My parents did build two additions, and I guess we did not realize how small it was at the time. My sister has 3 kids. She and her husband have done a lot of renovations, including taking down part of a wall and adding a detached garage. She, however, does not have a guest bedroom, so every time I visit I have to put someone out of their room. This visit it was my nephew Gregory’s turn. Gregory didn’t care. He got to sleep in the “cave”, the basement room with the TV and all the video games.

I thoroughly enjoyed my visit home. It started out rainy and cold; I had left 97 degrees in Atlanta; but it eventually stopped raining and warmed up. I was able to actually get a tan line, which I have not done in a long time, as it is not comfortable to sit out in Atlanta. We were able to spend time outdoors. I discovered this was one of my favorite parts of the whole trip. I got to sit outside all day and either visit with my sister or just read. I finished two books in 3 days. In Atlanta, it is much too hot to do this unless you have a pool you can jump into frequently.

Because of the rain, we spent a couple of days shopping; didn’t buy anything. Spent another rainy day visiting my mother on Cape Cod; a 2 hour ride took us over 3 hours because of the rain and flooding. The ride home was ok; dry; but it was a good thing we were heading off the Cape, as this was July 3 and the holiday traffic had already begun by 4:00 in the afternoon. There was a five mile backup getting over the Sagamore and Bourne Bridges; the bridges that go over the Cape Cod Canal. This is not unusual for weekend and/or holiday traffic. People have to plan to leave either really early or really late to get onto the Cape. And rain doesn’t help. The same is true for Sundays when people are leaving the Cape to get back to work for Monday.

Spent that night eating my favorite meal – lobster, mussels, steamers (a southerner asked me what these were, didn’t realize someone might not know; they are clams, as opposed to cherry stones which are small quahogs), boiled shrimp, and raw oysters. Pigged out! Ate every bit of everything! When I bought the lobsters, 1 ¼ pounds each, I thought there would probably be leftovers for lunch the next day. NOT! Absolutely nothing left over except for the empty shells. Then we went on to make "somemores" on the outdoor fire pit. YUM!!!

Another part I enjoyed was getting together with old friends. There are a number of us who get together whenever I get up to Dover. We all went to junior high and high school together, and some of us were in elementary school together. We meet at the Sherborn Inn and catch up on the year and gossip or reminisce about times gone by. But that’s going to be another blog.

Needless to say I had a great visit home. My last day it was raining again, so I figured that was a good sign to leave. Now I just wish they would send a little rain down here!