August 27, 2018

Today teachers, including George, are back to school. Last week he worked a full (not-required and of course unpaid) three days doing band prep and practice with a core group of students. This week he is required to be there for four days, for teacher workshops and prep and open house. This is the first year in many that he's working in just one building, teaching band at Apollo High School. He's happy to be in one place, and hopes this assignment will last. Teachers like to build relationships and programs over time, and it's hard to do when districts move them around so much. Fingers crossed--we'll see. I mostly hope his years goes really well.

This season always feels like a big transition, but lately it's not as exciting for me as when I was a student or my own kids were little. Now back-to-school mostly reminds me of the passing of time, and it makes me wistful and a little sad. Our daughter is back to college, George is back to work, and that leaves our son and me home most days. I love the summer days when George is around, as he is my best friend and we have lots of fun together. Morning coffee on the deck. Walks around the neighborhood. Camping trips and bike rides and kayaking with friends.

In fact, we spent four hours kayaking down the Sauk River on Saturday with a couple of friends. Four hours! Yes, that's a long time to be in a little boat. But it was glorious. It's amazing how wild the river seems, so close to town. We paddled from Rockville to Anton's Restaurant here in St. Cloud. I don't know how many miles that is, but it's four hours when the water is pretty low and the river is quite weedy, as it is in late August. It was a fairly lazy paddle, but still...some effort.

We saw too many Great Blue Herons to keep track of, and at least five or six bald eagles. Do you know how big those eagles are up close? Wow. I've seen many bald eagles but never as close as they were on the river. They flew up out of trees and bushes right next to the water, right on top of us. The closest thing I can figure is they're about the size of a grown man's torso. That is huge in a bird!

After the trip, we treated ourselves to an early dinner at Anton's, a former speakeasy that is one of the St. Cloud area's best supper clubs and most kitschy, historic spots. It's on the river, so we paddled right up to the landing, put the boats in the truck, brushed ourselves off a bit, and sat down to eat.

It was a nice ending to a nice summer filled with memories.