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Keith and the boys have
Father's day breakfast at Keith's restaurant.
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The boys watch Karch Kiraly
getting served.
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Doug and Keith at the mouth
of the mine shaft.
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Doug practices Safety Patrol
with fifth graders, preparing to take over duties next year.
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Brad, Cousin Kelsy dressed
for dancing, and Doug at the Fair.
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Kristi and Keith enjoy a
funnel cake at the fair.
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Doug enjoys a carmel apple
at the Fair.
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Keith and Dancer wash each
other.
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Doug, Michelle, and Kristi
wander among the pop culture iconography at Universal Studios.
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Brad goes back up strong
after the offensive rebound.
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Keith moderating the Annual
Congregational Meeting.
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| June, 2005 |
.June hasn’t necessarily been
a wind down month traditionally, but it was this year. When
baseball ended in early June, that opened up 2 to 4 evenings a week and
two game spots on Saturday. Next year we’ll have double
graduations, but this year the end of school comes gradually and stress
free, with well paced end of school activities like Open House, Family
Fun night, and final Band Concert of the year.
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One of the few things that
seemed to take up more time this month was music. After two and a
half years, Douglas had his last piano lesson this month. Like
Brad, he is quitting piano as he switches to another instrument to
begin Fifth Grade Band. Unlike Brad, Doug didn’t get to go out on
a recital. So, unfortunately it was more a whimper than a bang to
end Doug’s piano career.
Doug has been convinced by the rest of
his family that his instrument should be trombone. No instrument
with a reed,
vows his mother. A family from church was kind enough to lend
Doug their trombone when they heard he was interested. Darned if
Doug can’t get loads of sound out of the horn already. He’s a
natural. Even Brad admits that Doug is much advanced compared to
where Brad started. Doug is very excited now, and quite pleased
that it has started off easy for him. He’ll have some lessons
this summer before Fifth Grade Band starts next fall. Perhaps
they can tell him (and us) whether he’s holding the instrument
right side up or not.
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Brad continues to play trumpet
in the 7th grade honors band. The end of school brought the
exciting news that
he
had indeed made 8th grade honor band, which was a goal. He also
began
to expand playing music beyond the confines of band class: he did
two different pieces of performance art for a “culture of the Sixties”
project in Humanities. He played guitar in a band attempting to
cover
“Paperback Writer” then played trumpet in a jazz trio interpretation of
“Louie, Louie.” He's still taking guitar lessons, but will take a
break for the summer.
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The
professional beach volleyball tour made its San Diego stop in June, and
Keith took the boys. Pro volleyball is cool for many reasons, not
the least of which is the total lack of barriers between athlete and
fan. We watched a game in the stadium court, only to have one of
the players from that game sitting in front of us ten minutes later at
another court. Sports aficionado Brad knew more about the top
players than Keith. It was also amusing how star struck he became
walking in the same sand as Olympians ("That's Dax Holdren!
That's Kerri Walsh! Dad, that's Kerri
Walsh, dude!"). We were only able to stay for some preliminary
rounds Saturday morning, but the boys enjoyed it so much we'll make it
a priority next year.
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School
did end this month. But before it did Doug had one last fourth
grade field trip, and he invited Keith to join him. To finish off
the year's study of California history, the fourth graders go to the
mountains of San Diego county to visit one of the local gold mines from
the great San Diego gold rush of 1869. Turns out Julian, that
little tourist mecca at 4500 ft located 50 miles east of San Diego, is
actually a gold
rush town.
The other bit of school news is that Doug was selected to be on Safety
Patrol next year as a fifth grader. Safety Patrol runs the stop
signs at the cross walks behind the school. This is a selection
by teachers based on citizenship, not academics, and is an honor for
any graduating fourth grader. This was an honor not afforded Brad
after his sometimes contentious
fourth grade year. Brad's comment: "I guess keeping your mouth
shut does payoff."
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We went to the San Diego
Fair
(nee Del Mar Fair) much earlier than normal this year, on only the
third day it was open. Keith marveled with Kristi that 15 years
ago
we used to plan our visits to the Fair around when our favorite local
band was playing. Now we plan our visits around when our nieces
are performing. The Dance school that Quinn and Kelsy attend put
on a show at the fair on one of the multiple stages about the fair on
Sunday afternoon, so we built an entire day around it. We used to
go to the fair for pigs and the exhibits. Now we go for the Midway
rides and the deep fried food. Well, okay, we’ve always enjoyed
the deep fried food. This year it was battered potatoes that was
all the rage.. But while the boys will tolerate a trip through the
Fine Arts display to see what amazing things craftsmen have made out of
wood, their goal is still ride as many midway rides as time and budget
will allow.
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The family has decided
to
participate in a 5K fun run/walk to benefit ElderCare San Diego on the
second Sunday in July. This has been decided for a variety of
reasons: a goal to get Keith back in an exercise regimen (he has been
sedentary since last year's Badwater to Whitney adventure
completed), an appropriate activity to honor the memory of Aunt
Betty, and a reason not to attend church once Keith's term as Board
Chair ended on
June 30.
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Circumstantial evidence
indicates that
Keith has indeed run for exercise sometime in the distant past: he has
a pair of fairly good running shoes (near mint condition) and running
shorts of the “dolphin” style that was all the rage in the early
80s.
There had been some thought on Keith's part of trying to
beat Brad in July (thus turning the Fun
Run into competition).
Keith figured with his goal oriented work ethic against Brad's tendency
not to practice, there was a chance he could get into shape and Brad
would fall out of shape, thus allowing Keith to establish that he was
still Brad's athletic superior. The couple of training runs they
took together this month proved that as far as running
was concerned, Brad had athletically eclipsed his father. Brad was
compassionate (or was it condescending?) enough to shout encouragement
as he
made the halfway point and turned, passing Keith still lumbering in the
outbound direction, “Good job, Dad!” (Ed. note: I’m sure
that Brad indeed
cheated. After he made the turn off the main road .6 miles from
home, I never saw him again. I’m sure he must have flagged down a
ride from a passing driver.) |
| After school was out,
Kristi
and the boys had a
spontaneous day trip up to Studio City to see Kristi’s childhood chum
(and Matron of Honor) Michelle Wolf. Spontaneous in this case was
planned within 48 hours. Michelle lives in Phoenix, but was
visiting. Studio City is in the San Fernando Valley, on the far
side of LA from us, just north of Hollywood. Kristi wanted to go,
but wouldn’t do it without the boys, so that she could have company on
the
three hour drive back at night. Brad was enthusiastic, but Doug
was dubious at the prospect. As with most adventures, everyone
was glad they went after it started. Doug enjoyed wandering around the
mall area of Universal Studios, and Brad enjoyed the pop culture aspect
of being places he’s heard about like Hollywood and Sunset
Boulevard. Brad took pictures of all the freeway signs, mansions
on the hills, and downtown LA as the car sped through the land of the
lotus eaters. |
We do have one sport
going on
this summer. Brad is playing summer league basketball. Doug
decided to skip it this summer. The thing about summer basketball
is that it is supposed to be low key and kids are expected to miss
games. It is as much of a joy to watch Brad play basketball now
as it was to watch him play baseball 5 years ago: he's enjoying
himself, he's got a natural feel for the game, and he's pretty darn
good. It's amazing how gracefully and naturally he has put on six
inches of height in the last 8 to 9 months.
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Keith’s term as Chair of the
Board concluded in June. He presided over the annual
congregational meeting where the new board officers were elected, and
gaveled his last board meeting. While it would have been nice to
have a slow last month, it wasn’t, and plenty of issues kept him
working 20 hours a week on church business right until the end.
The Sunday of the congregational meeting was also the first Sunday of
the new minister, so there was a feeling of closure, and of leaving the
office (and congregation) in pretty good shape compared to the last 6
months. Keith and Kristi plan to retire from as many church
responsibilities as possible and re-establish church as a place of
worship for us.
The next day Keith got a call at work from the church office (a not
unusual occurrence over the last few months). It was the new
minister, on his first official day in the office, calling to talk
about my article for the newsletter that summarized the congregational
meeting and set soft target dates for the new worship schedule.
"I've talked with the staff this morning and we're going to change the
worship schedule on July 17. Do you mind if I update your
newsletter article?" No, of course not. As he hung up the
phone, a wave of relief rolled over Keith: for the first time in six
months, there was somebody in charge at the church on a daily basis,
empowered to make decisions and doing so.
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They said it
Kristi, smelling, “Brad, you’re kind
of smelling a little tonight.”
Brad,
“Yes, I’m full of flamboyance tonight.”
Doug,
describing why he can’t watch a particular movie rental, “It’s full of
talk about, you know, ess-eee-xxx.”
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All of this month's pictures
All of this months pictures may be
viewed at virtualsherwoods.shutterfly.com.
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Compliments
and condemnations may be forwarded
to VirtualSherwoods.com, preceded by 'Keith@'.
Text
and pictures copyright 2005 by Keith Sherwood. All rights,
writes, and rites reserved.
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