Saturday, June 20, 2015

2015 Week 25: Plodding on. . .


Feeling puny all week, but kept going with basic chores and one long-ignored unfinished project--the Circle Tour 2014 photos. This week was the one year anniversary of where I left off months ago dealing with each day of our trip through the Basque Country, so I have been looking back and posting the year-ago memories on Facebook each day beginning with June 18. My favorite is the team photo.


And Mike has been gone most of the time. This is the weekend of the robotics competition in Ohio.


They (mostly Michael and a few students and mentors available during summer break) have been dealing simultaneously with two projects: set up the new CNC machine (read about it here), and improve the performance of the robot. Late Tuesday they realized that there were too many steps left to accomplish the latter before the CORI Off-Season Invitational, June 20th (happening as I write).
So at their Thursday meeting they had to back-track, replace the parts as they used to be, except for one aspect--it is faster now.Then they packed the trailer and finally got home by midnight.

Wednesday I learned that Aunt Berdine passed away at age 94. She was widowed 28 years ago when Uncle Harlan died suddenly at age 71. In recent years she suffered dementia but could still play the piano.


What a grand reunion in heaven. Only three of the Hirschy family remain on earth. Aunt Berdine is on the right and was preceded in death by both sons. She is survived by three daughters, 15 grandchildren, 11 great grandchildren and one great great!


We did get out to the senior lunch at the Lion's Club, a special meal celebrating fathers, and an entertaining program--two local retired teachers reenacting Abbot and Costello's "Who's on First."


Dan Fuller, on the right, was our kids' English and Theater teacher at Eastbrook High School, and is now in my Writer's Bloc critique circle.

This morning I said goodbye to our student boarder off to visit his brother in Arkansas for a week.


We've hardly seen him, either off to class at Anderson University or recovering from mental overload in his room. However, during meals or right after class I heard a LOT about what he was learning in the graduate-level course for music educators--First Steps in Music taught by renowned expert in the field, John Feireabend.
I must admit he kinda scared me with statements such as:
--If a child is not properly developed musically by age 7, it's too late!
--Pop music, too complex, or with a strong beat in infancy slows down or hinders musical development.
--Non-interactive screen time puts infants in a sleep/vegetative state that is damaging.

So, I'm reading a research-based article on how to develop the music intelligence of an infant, and even bought one of Feierabends books with songs and poems. Maybe I can use these bouncy rhymes with Rebecca.

10 months old
Stephan and Karen celebrated the one-year anniversary of their move with a Big Ol' Shindig. They put leaflets on all the mailboxes on their road and several of their their neighbors showed up. Lots of friends stopped by. Come to think of it, I was the only family member that was able to attend.


While there I heard that our robot and Team 1720 made it to finals and were the runners-up! Congratulations PhyXTGears for the best competition ever!


These photos were gleaned from Facebook.
Mike just got back, so I must go and hear the stories first-hand!

Next week we will be taking a break to celebrate with friends in Colorado. You may not hear from us for two weeks.

1 comment:

  1. I'm so glad you're able to board J for summer school! What a wide world blogging has opened for us all...

    Congrats to the robotics team - great job!

    Thanks for my weekly Rebecca fix :)

    Have fun in Colorado!

    ReplyDelete

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