Benjamin Summer Camp 5.0 and other Monday Musings

Benjamin gives a thumbs up to his fifth year at Honey Creek.

 Sunday afternoon we took the hour drive to Honey Creek. the Episcopalian retreat, so hat Benjamin could start his week in camp.  This will be his fifth year in a row there, and he has moved to the part of the cabin used by the older boys.  He signed up for two of his favorites, Archery and Drama, among other activities.  Our goodbye to him is getting shorter and shorter, as often happens with teenagers.  In another year or two, we'll probably just come to a rolling stop and wave as he falls out the car.

Honey Creek has been a great, positive influence on Benjamin's life, as it has for so many of our church youth.  We are glad that Honey Creek is available, and going stronger than ever.

My blurry camera work, but this is the debut of The Outlands  at Reeal BBQ on the 4th of July.

Our fourth of July featured a great meal at one of Blackshear's finest dining establishments, Reeal BBQ, with music by the new group The Outlands.  They were very talented, with several members that I know from community theatre.  It was an enjoyable meal, and great music.  If you are in the area, and you see where they are playing you should check them out.

For the second year, we took in fireworks just by walking to a friend's who have a lakefront house, and by watching the fireworks put on across the lake.  This year we had competing displays by two different groups.  It wasn't big city level fireworks, but it was fun and close and you were among neighbors.  I'm not a big fireworks person (they tend to have lousy plots), but I do like seeing something close by, sitting on a lawn chair by the lake we live near.

The temps are getting hotter and hotter here, with frequent heat indexes exceeding well over 100.  I am not a fan of high heat and humidity, and being in San Francisco for a few days, makes me realize that there is an alternative to our impossible South Georgia summers.  If I could just solve the money problem, and become a milyumaire, I know where I would be spending my summers.

I love going to the movies, but it has not fit in now for over a month.  I ma finally get out to see Dawn of the Planet of the Apes.  Or I might not.  Hard to say.

I did not get much writing done this weekend, nor did I send out submissions to publications.  The biggest shame of that is I have at least two projects that have reached the tipping point, where more is completed than I have left to go.  A few months more of hard work, and one or both could be finished.  It would be great if I could be to the marketing/solicitation stage of them before the curtain descends on another tax season.

I have chosen by default not to participate in The Dixie Swim Club.  It's been awhile since I've been involved in a play (last winter's A Christmas Carol) and I miss it.  I feel myself withdrawing from the theater community, as I occasionally do.  It runs in cycles.

Well, the clock is telling me that I still work for a living.  

Until next time,

T. M. Strait