Lessons from the Lamp Post: Lesson 256: Summer's Send Off

It's back to school time at the Lamp Post, Readers!

My clan ain't too happy about it, either.

School starts officially on Monday.

I had my last morning park run with a couple of my friends on Friday.

This was the early morning, August sky. It's worth getting up to see.

August sunrises are pretty, but so are the sunsets.

I hated to see this sun disappear over the horizon,

but it made way for this.

It was a lopsided moon last night.

I snapped this at the Say Goodbye to Summer Community Party last night.

A good local band played and my friends and neighbors turned out to give a listen.

The kids got a chance to meet up with their friends

and share in the nervousness that the start of school brings.

Grandma served up some wine from Six Mile Cellars.

I think she should spent less time pouring and more time

planning how to remove her tree branch from my driveway.

We ended the night watching a fantastic fireworks display.

I never lost Fedorable in the crowd.

The hat and the glow necklace made him easy to spot.

We watched the fireworks while a local band played. It is always cool to have music and pretty images together. That is one reason why I always put my pictures to music. I think it makes the experience more enjoyable. The M-80's weren't the only live band we listened to this week. We also saw this trio:

This is The Band Perry. They played at the Crawford County Fair on Tuesday night

under this beautiful moon.

I had a hey day with all the photo ops available to me.

Ferris wheels,

cows,

and cowgirl boots.

The middle pair belonged to my sister. She likes boots, too.

Kenyan met us at the show with some friends.

While I snapped terrific pictures like this,

Kenyan did what she does best.

No one can maneuver an iPhone like she can.

My girls LOVED the music.

And Sam.......well,

he loved this.

The highlight of his evening was counting the number of times he got to see livestock poop.

The summer was jam packed with fun. My fab five stuck together day in and day out. I think I counted only two instances where I was actually alone in my house for a short period of time, since June 4th. The constant clamor of kids around got to me. We had an opportunity to go on a Wine Trolley Tour. It is a Journey to all of the local wineries. You stop, sip, and sample, then move on to the next one. Wine lovers pack into a street trolley on wheels, and wine hop from stop to stop. The excursion takes about six hours. Eloise jumped at the chance to be kid-free for part of a day.

I was so excited! What terrific photo opportunities would this trip bring? I charged up my new Canon's battery and hung it 'round my neck.

Here we are at Dobbin's Landing where the trolley boards:

And here we are 20 minutes later when the trolley broke down on I-90.

Given the group of people I was with, the mishap was not so bad.

Circumstances were beyond our control, so we made the best of it.

One professional photographer was on hand, and lots of amateurs.

We all became fourteen year olds again and snapped stupid pictures of one another.

Mr. Helpful seized the opportunity to improve the environment.

Eloise seized the opportunity to make the world a little more beautiful.

But most of all, we just smiled and made the best of it.

We never got to go to a single winery.

An errand service showed up to shuttle us back to the point of origin.

We ended up having some drinks here instead.

Locals, can you guess where?

Smile through it all, Readers. That's the best advice I can give you today.

Don't be sad that summer is ending,

think of all the adventures fall brings.

Below is the link to some more photos from the week, set to The Band Perry's most famous song, If I Die Young. I know for a fact that I will die young, even if I'm 100. My people, that meaning my family, my friends, my neighbors, my students, and all of you Readers----you help me hang on to my youthful spirit and my zest for life. Thank you for that. You give me countless reasons to keep on breathing.

CLICK HERE for the link to my blog video for the week. Remember, this link takes you directly to my youtube account where all the videos are available to you. To answer a few questions, I do keep all the photos on my videos. If you spot one on there you want, contact me and I'll send it to you free of charge.

Speaking of zest for life---here are a few snapshots from my favorite photographer, Matt "Clicky" Kleck. He captured the moment that I opened my package from Fionnula Flanagan, my mysterious pen pal.

Opening the letter........