Days 24-5: Home Again!

The last day was as amazing as the rest of the week. And we were just as busy! First, we had to reflect on the day before, which was an eleven hour day. It was full of emotion for me, as I'd never experienced another place like the Gettysburg Battlefield.

Our schedule was crazy. We had to put our final projects together. I never really talked about the group I was with, but I was teamed up with five other teachers. We had a lot of fun collaborating, for sure. And we were from a bunch of different places.

I'm going to do a presentation or four when I get my act together, but you can get a preview of what we did here. I plan on doing something at school, like talk about the whole process of getting the grant, how we studied what, and the results of that study. Then I want to do something at our public library because, well, why not? It'll be good practice for public speaking, which is a point of weakness for me.


There really are so many high points for me on this trip. One of them was definitely going to the National Archives to go through our soldier's records. It was an amazing experience to touch so far back in history and honor the dude by telling his story.

There is so much that will come out later, but he was an infantryman, calvary trooper, deserter, and he had a few wives and lots of kids! He really had an interesting life, as far aw we can tell from the documents. But the spaces between the documents are many, and I had so much fun filling in those gaps. Unfortunately, the evidence leads me to conclude that Hollingsworth's rascality was in the highest order!

And I got paid handsomely for all of this! This is to help offset my travel, room and board, which it did. And it certainly won't put me in the next tax bracket. But I sure appreciate the money to make this wonderful study possible!

We finished at 4:30 PM yesterday. That was a Friday. So I had to get out of Arlington, you know, D.C., at rush hour on a Friday leading into the Fourth of July weekend. And the traffic really wasn't bad to the beltway, but after that there was traffic the entire way to TN. And it wasn't until around 10 PM that traffic died down. So I was up before 6 AM, had a wonderful, work-filled day, and drove nine hours home. I was tired!

Val met me at the door, after the alarm woke her up. But she and the boys welcomed me home. I kind of dropped everything in my shop. After all, it was 1 AM. I just had to get my toiletries out so I could shower and brush my teeth. Then I slept until about 7 AM.

I woke up and André was cuddling me. Then, at various times throughout the day, the boys continued to cuddle me. But then they were over it.

Today was a good day. We went to the farmer's market and got some fruits and veggies. We had corn for dinner and watermelon and berries from there for dessert.

And I worked on school stuff. I have to start getting prepared. I go back in a week and the kids just after that. I have some great projects lined up, and I hope the kids enjoy them. But it is never easy to say what a class of kids can do to a project. I have to be ready to go with the energy of the class.

And then Val and I worked on two straps for dulcimers that will go out soon. Well, one will, anyway. I've not even started on the second one. But we are trying to get it so that are straps are consistently made--and pretty. They've got to be pretty!

I don't think I'll try to cut any wood until I get my balance back. I have plenty of other stuff to do. My current work is doing a design for the top of a Blue Lion dulcimer. I'm really stoked about the project now that it is in front of me, and I can see some victorian designs gong on there!