Life in the way of life…

Fall Break is a wonderful invention, one of the things that the school community has embraced as much as anything I’ve seen in six years.

In East Tennessee, late October is unquestionably one of the most beautiful times of the year.  I genuinely enjoy all seasons — skiing in the Winter, dogwoods in the Spring, swimming and boating in the Summer… but Fall, glorious Fall, brings an explosion of color and weather that’s just perfect.

I enjoy camping for Fall Break.  The crisp mornings and evenings are perfect for a campfire; the blue-sky afternoons are perfect for hiking or biking in the mountains and foothills.

This year, the Oak Ridge Youth Symphony scheduled their first concert on Halloween.  It’s a neat theme, with spooky music and musicians in costume, but it’s on the final Saturday of Fall Break.  Okay.  So, we cut the trip short by a couple of days.

Then, I find out that the Pro-2-Serve Math Contest at UT is scheduled for the Tuesday in the middle of Fall Break.  Gamma is competing and I’ve agreed to chaperone, so we’re stuck with going somewhere not too far away.  Gatlinburg maybe.  Big South Fork is probably too far (though an incredibly beautiful place, where we went last year).  If we’re somewhere not too far from Knoxville, we could just meet the group at UT, then return to camping.

Now, I find out that HWTFM has a Charter Commission meeting on Monday.  So, our only real free time is Saturday-Sunday, or Wednesday-Friday.

I already know that once a child leaves for college, family vacations are fewer and far between.  Breaks don’t line up, and other obligations get in the way.  This year is my last with Gamma at home, and I really want to enjoy the few breaks from school that we get.

Not.  Enough.  Time.

3 thoughts on “Life in the way of life…

  1. We only have one, but I have to say that–two years in–having her off to college has restored many of the features I most enjoyed about the first eleven child-free years.

    Don’t get me wrong. Our lovely and talented daughter was a totally planned addition to our lives (within two weeks). But life has predictable stages and the current stage involves the daughter discovering who she is and the parents re-discovering the reasons they hooked up in the first place.

    S’all good.

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *