The past week or so has brought a couple of worthwhile achievements — and working on others. If you didn’t read last Thursday’s (June 15) Oak Ridge Observer, pick up a copy before they’re gone. It’s free, and they’re all over town.

I have a column on the op-ed page, sort of an expansion of the thoughts seen in Calling Council’s Hand. I’d rather you read the whole paper (the main editorial is good food for thought as well), but if you can’t get it in time, you can read the text of my piece here.

On the heels of that endeavor, our whole family engaged in the time-honored tradition of helping friends move. They only relocated about a mile or so, but it was from a house that was getting a little cozy (now that their boys are 9 and 15) to their dream home. So our family — along with several others — packed, loaded, transported, unloaded, and helped unpack the essentials.

I was exhausted and more than a little sore, but it felt really good to help accomplish something neighborly, the way people used to help each other as a matter of routine.

Next was Gamma’s birthday — daughter #3 turned 14. Her wish for the day was for the whole family to do something together, so we all hung out at the Secret City Festival for a while, and she attended the concert Saturday night with her father and me. While at the festival, I snagged a copy of Cooking Behind the Fence, a collection of recipes from the 43 Club.

Father’s Day was a laid-back affair, with my husband enjoying an uninterrupted nap for most of the afternoon. We went to my parents’ house for supper, where my father ranted about Phil Mickelson’s meltdown on number 18 in the US Open. I told Dad he should have been caddying for Mickelson, to which he responded “damn right! I would have told him to use a 2-iron.”

Somehow, I have no doubt that Dad would have no problem doing exactly that. And he probably would be right. Funny how the older I get, the more he knows.

I also spent a bit of Sunday missing my father-in-law, gone a little over five years now. I treasured knowing him for 15 years, long enough to recognize that my husband is who he is in large part because of his own father’s influence.

The upside of the moving experience is that it has inspired me to do a little packing of my own — packing up things we don’t need, that is, and clearing some of the clutter that has accumulated over the past 20 years. There’s a long way to go, and we’re not likely to be cured of our pack-rat tendencies in this lifetime, but at least we can be a bit more organized.

With Alpha college-bound in August, the remaining three are eyeing how to divvy up the added space. Gamma has set out on the ambitious project of cleaning out the “office” (a room which was once an office, but has now become a repository for boxes of stuff that doesn’t belong anyplace else), so that youngest sibling Delta can move out of her shared room.

Seems like just last week that I was nursing one, trying to keep the other three from writing on the walls or disassembling the electric outlets. Where have the years gone?

Some situations are so challenging that you simply have to make light of it. In Memphis, where politics has had a somewhat different twist going back to the days of Boss Crump, John Harvey has taken the inititative to empower ordinary people to help fix the problems.

www.votinginMemphis.com has an assortment of information and actual tools — like a link to the Social Security Death Index, so that an army of regular citizens can help search the database for dead people still registered.

And, for your listening pleasure, a new take on an old tune.

BTW, Anderson County will be using brand-new voting machines (as a result of the Help America Vote Act) for the August election, and early word from one of the election workers is that you might want to take the opportunity to familiarize yourself with the machines before time to cast your ballot for real. The Election Commission will have the machines on display at this weekend’s Secret City Festival, with staff on hand to answer any questions.

How’d you like to wake up to this news, then spend the day wondering if your spouse was one of the 100 unlucky folks at Y-12 today?

Welcome to my world.

When he called a few minutes ago after a late meeting to see if I needed anything on the way home, I had to ask… and he doesn’t yet know the answer. Said he’d have to check his e-mail to find out.

For the NNSA — which sounds quite like an oxymoron at the moment — to know that personal data was stolen and NNSA administrator Linton Brooks knew about it ten months ago, but failed to either inform DOE or the 1,502 affected employees, is absolutely inexcusable.

I don’t know how this is going to end, but hiding bad news and hoping no one will see seems like a particularly poor choice.

This is a tough one to write… but it has to be said.

Yesterday’s Oak Ridger featured a story of a young marine preparing to leave for Iraq, just days after the birth of his first child. Today’s News-Sentinel carries a front-page, above the fold photo of the same young marine, with his newborn son and girlfriend.

I deeply, sincerely hope that this young man comes home safely, and soon.

I also wish that, for the sake of this new baby, that he would marry the baby’s mother before he goes — to give the child the benefit of his name, to provide some security for the baby’s future should the peril of war take its toll.

Perhaps I am wrong, but my instinct is to chastise both newspapers for glorifying this little family that seems to have forgotten something terribly important: the paperwork. Marriage, commitment, and security. How many teenagers read these two papers and came away with the only tragedy is that the Marine has been called to war so early in fatherhood?

I desperately hope that the young mother pictured never has to tell her son that his father gave his life for his country… but couldn’t give his name for his child.

Other people’s lives are none of my business, but the media has a role in upholding the standards of society. Do we have any left?

Aahhh… nothing like a few days in the woods to restore the soul.

This morning, while Hubby, Delta, and Dog were still sleeping, I hopped on my bike and rode down to the dam to catch the morning rays in the water. This shot is looking back toward the lake through the downhill side of the dam — I think this one was designed as an overflow spout, but it wasn’t anywhere near overflow stage.

Still, it was pretty.

To the right is a view from the top of the dam — yes, the one I was told not to climb and did anyway (twice). The chute that I climbed didn’t have any water falling so the stone steps were dry, and all but one were low enough that I could just pull myself up the next one. There was one where I had to grip the rocks on the side and sort of shinny up the side wall, but it was no big deal. Really. And the view was worth it.

All is right with the world again.

Coming home, I had my faithful companion drooling over my shoulder most of the way (as seen through the rearview mirror here), but that’s okay too.

Some days, there’s nothing like a friend who loves you no matter how worthless you are to the rest of the world. That’s Dog. However, after a few days of renewal, now I feel like I can take on the world again with a rational perspective.

Let me know before Tuesday evening what makes the most sense to cut from the school budget. I have my own thoughts, of course, but input is always welcome and considered.

Sunday: child Delta confirmed; child Alpha’s convocation ceremony attended.
Monday: City Council meeting… undesirable result.
Thursday: Child Alpha graduated; chaperoned graduation celebration from 10 p.m. to 6 a.m. Friday. Lots of Starbucks consumed.
Friday: Finished a little work that had lingered; packed everyone for various destinations over the weekend, hitched up the little camper and left for the woods.

It is in the woods that I can get everything back in the proper balance. I’ve slept about twice as much as usual, ridden my bike around wherever I need to go (the pool, mostly, but also to the little bridge with a dam underneath). I’ve cooked on an open wood fire, read some more of my first Sharyn McCrumb novel (A Rosewood Casket), and just sat and listened to the woodpecker that seems to hang out overhead.

This morning, I climbed the stone dam (across, I think, the Obed river), much to Hubby’s chagrin… he doesn’t like heights. I do, and I’ve climbed like a monkey since I was a child. So I pretended not to hear the cries of “don’t do that” and did anyway.

Youngest child Delta, the only one to accompany us on this trip, informed me later that he said I was going to die if I fell. I told her that’s why I didn’t fall.

We biked back to camp and I took yet another luxurious nap while he took Dog on another several-mile walk. Dog likes that. Delta biked to the pool.

As a thundercloud threatened, I gave in to Hubby’s jonesing for a hotspot and we headed for the DQ at exit 320, where we now sit. But, that peanut buster parfait is making me sleepy… it may be time to go back and throw a few logs on the fire, then take another nap as the logs burn down to perfect cooking coals.

Nothing tastes so good as whatever is cooked on an open fire in the woods. Tonight’s fare will be kielbasa with potatoes and onions, with slabs of fresh tomato and cottage cheese on the side. Dessert: s’more s’mores.

Already, I think that my sanity is returning. I can be nice again. I can think clearly, make sound decisions, and not bite people’s heads off at the slightest offense.

Although challenges remain upon my return, I will be equal to them. Have a great Sunday.

Fifteen seconds this evening wiped out a month of exhaustion, frustration, and anything else negative that may have happened in the last month… or the last three years.

This evening, I handed my eldest child her diploma.

I didn’t cry, but it was close. She’s worked so hard, climbing from the lowest math and reading classes in early elementary school, to knocking out AP exams in AP Calculus, Physics C, and Chemistry this year. Oh, and lest I forget, she earned a nice little scholarship from the UT College of Engineering.

All of last year, she arrived at school an hour early to soak up whatever extra physics she could from Peggy Bertrand (one of ORHS’s very gifted teachers); most of this year, she arrived by 5:30 to get in some extra calculus with Ms. Hillis (another great one) and then additional physics — her favorite subject.

I’m very proud of her, but I’m sure you’ve gathered that already.

And now, true live journaling from the now-famous Graduation Celebration! About 85% of the graduating class is here — safe, busy, and enjoying every last minute.

From line dancing, sumo wrestling, twister on a giant inflated mat, dance dance revolution, the graduate store, the thank-you note room, the buffet… there’s so much to do, and happy kids everywhere.

Earlier, each studied the sharp Chevy Blazer to be given away at 6 a.m. to the lucky one who can come closest to guessing the number of balloons stuffed inside. From some who studiously calculated the internal area of the vehicle and the average volume of balloons, to random guesses, each has a shot at the grand prize.

Watch more more a little after 6 a.m., and I’ll let you know who drives away with it, thanks to a gallon or so of Starbucks coffee (donated, of course, like everything else here).

Thanks to Karen Bridgeman and the many people who started this event ten years ago, to all the businesses and people who contributed money, gifts, prizes, and time to throw a grand community party for our graduates.

This is the best city on earth.

6:02 a.m. update:
Mark Cardinal won the car, guessing the exact number of balloons inside and being the random winner among the 10 envelopes distributed to the 10 closest guessers. Congratulations!

My gift to you today is a recipe, passed along from my mother, who made this dish for me on every birthday going back some undisclosed number of years. The paper on which it is written has turned as brown as parchment from 1800, so it was about time that I archived it anyway.

Broccoli Casserole
1 onion
1/2 stick butter
1 can drained mushrooms
1 can cream of mushroom soup
1 garlic cheese roll
3 10-oz packages of broccoli

Sautee onions in butter; add mushrooms, soup, and cheese. Stir until smooth. Cook broccoli, drain, and transfer to a casserole dish. Pour sauce over over broccoli and bake 20 minutes at 350.

I’m glad to have my mom nearby, and will enjoy spending some time with her today. Of course, since my kids are chinese-food fanatics (and neither Mom nor I really care what or where we eat), we’ll go to China Wok simply because it’s easier to carry on a conversation when the kids are full and happy.

Life is fragile and fleeting; if your mother is living, take time for her today. And if she’s gone, do something today that would make her happy… it’s bound to make the world a better place.