Summer 2017! Day 1+

So it's really day five, but this is the first blog post I'm making. I'll catch you up and then share today, which was really fun and adventurous!

I don't know who this imposter who lives where I used to live! Overlord there?! I doubt it!

I'm the Overlord here, where I currently teach. I know so because it is on the mail that I get. I cannot imagine what the front office says as they're sorting mail directed to "Overlord Runge." I didn't start it, you know. My boss did. I just accepted the title that she gave to me!

I sometimes get end of the year biddings into the summer in the form of cards and gifts. I got a lovely card from a middle schooler. While I openly admit I sometimes struggle with this age group, this girl does not fall into that category. I'll be teaching only high schoolers next year, so I won't get her for a couple of more years, but I bet we stay in touch!

In the last month my kids used the lost wax method to make aluminum objects--we smelted aluminum!--built and ran a hovercraft, and on the last day made some slime. School Teacher Coolness Level 10--assured for a couple of years!

My schedule for next year is set and wonderful! Thank you, CBA, for having me and allowing me to continue to mold these great kids!

The sad moment of the year is when I wore these boots for the last time. I took them to the cobbler here and he just looked at me and said I got my money's worth. Just let 'em go. He did commend the last cobbler who resoled them in FL. But he said I'd worn the lining out, and once that goes that's it. Bye guys. I'm sending them to a friend who works in leather, and I hope that he finds something to do with them.

I finally finished the big drawing I was working on. I'm all set up for the next one!

Since I'm teaching a fibers class next year I'm reacquainting myself with crocheting. I never did anything great with the craft, but grandma and ma certainly did. I don't think my mom does anymore, and I'm certain my grandma doesn't!

So I've been through the YouTubes and found a couple of books, but nothing was getting me to go like this current book I'm using. So I'll just keep practicing away over the summer. I'm going to bring a flock of expert knitters into the classroom next year, so the kids will have a lot of knitting help. I've found a woman up in Knoxville who gives crocheting lessons, and I'm going to talk her into coming, too.

I set up in my living room. I binge watch shows and practice away. It's a good life because I get to "go away," as we called it in my Art and Mindfulness class.

Ultimately I want to crochet critters in the round. In my search for books at the library the librarians told me how many of them crochet there. And one even showed me the dragon she just made. They are really encouraging me.

And I'm certainly working on instruments. These are true labors of love. But if I'm not feeling any love whatever I am feeling goes right into the craftsmanship. Did you ever read "Like Water for Chocolate"? Do yourself the favor and pick it up!

I have a few instruments going, but it is really these two that I need to get done. I've been struggling with both, but now that I'm not I literally don't have the time because I'm leaving.

The one on the right without the top is white walnut, and it is turning out even better than I imagined. The one on my left is my version of a TN Music Box. But, like I told the musician that is getting this, I don't do corners. So he said do a Runge version of it. I call it the TN Blues Box, in part because the musician wanted a 1+ fret, which allows him to play the blues.

I was vacillating between painting the decorations that are burned into the wood or not. But once Val finished the strap and gave it to me I knew I was painting it!

I laid out six colors to choose from, and once I did that the color became obvious. So I just went to town. It was quite a process because I had to do three layers of paint on each section. But the patience and effort was worth it. Now I have to sand the color back so that it fades and looks old. Then I'll put on two coats of shellac, maybe three, and then I varnish it. I hand wipe 7 coats of varnish on. Then the final coat is wax. I use Trewax in a ruddy hue. In my mind it really looks great!

Corrine came up from FL on her way to somewhere or the other, and it was a treat to get to visit with her. We stayed up way too late catching up, and then we got up pretty early to go up in the Great Smoky Mountains to hike. I invited one of the STEAM LaBrats to join us, and I'm so glad she did. She was our official guide to Spruce Flats Falls and Girls Scout Island at Tremont. And she was our in to the super secret activity at the end of the post!

We all proclaimed long before we got to the flats that we were going in the water. And it was hot and muggy hiking up the mountain to get to the falls. But once we were there the air temperature dropped a bunch because of the falls. But not one of us faltered!

Splish splash we were in! We had conquered the cold of the water. There was one other family there when we got there, but we were the only ones who went in. The water was cold, to be sure. But it wasn't so frigid that it was uncomfortable. It was just refreshing, like midday cup of iced tea.

Okay, so maybe we didn't run right in over our heads, but we certainly got there. My favorite part was just sitting in the water as the falls tumbled down, crashing on rocks and the water in pleasing cacophony. Words will fall flat when in telling the magnificence of communing with the woods, water, falls, rocks, and great folks I was with. So go to the flats and try it for yourself!

Going into the water was relaxing and just fun. I've always loved floating. And in the rivers up here, where there are a lot of rocks and not so much water it is pretty easy to just plop down on a rock so that my body is submerged as if I'm floating; it is one of the most pleasant feelings I can get, mostly underwater with the water caressing me as it passes by. It really is like a ritual bath, and we all need those now and again!

But standing under the waterfall is a different thing altogether. Whose ever heard of a ritual shower, anyway. Still, we took the obligatory under the falls pictures, and we all kind of enjoyed it!

Super Secret Part! Which really wasn't so super secret, but it certainly was super!
On our way up to the falls Rachel went to say hello to someone, but that someone wasn't there. So after we left the falls and were heading out she found that someone.

As we walked up to her, the SSS--Super Secret Someone--she was in a full power stance facing away from us. She was engaged with a couple of folks, obviously talking about birds and such. This I know because it turns out that Tiffany is a bird nerd of the highest order! She is the Citizen Science Coordinator at the Great Smoky Mountains Institute at Tremont. Rachel had worked with her before, and that was clear when Tiffany broke her power stance to fully embrace Rachel in a power hug!

Bird banding begins, basically, by birds being bound in a net and bagged. Tiffany uses the secret retrieval method to get them out. And then she went through the process of measuring, weighing, and recording all sorts of data that creates some indignant birds! But Tiffany explained one of the studies being done, and it is significant to the park. So, some ruffled feathers? Yeah. But necessary!

Birds that didn't have bands got them. Bird bling, I heard Tiffany exclaim after a successful banding.

Okay. Rachel. A girl who does a lot in the world. I mean she has volunteer hours to spare. She does more than anyone I know, literally. At one point I told her to go be a kid--go fly a kite--I may have used more colorful language, but I really meant it! Just go play in the world, like when we were in the falls; she made paint and painted a bit. But balance must be struck in the universe, and so when given the opportunity to work with Tiffany again she jumped on it! Scribe away, Sister Girl!

And the day ended with this gorgeous sunset after 9pm. Yeah, summer is easily the best!