There was a fire on Sunday night just outside the building that houses PSCS. Melinda and I were alerted that something was amiss by a call to our home from the school’s alarm company. We arrived just before 11pm to the presence of a firetruck and firefighters mopping up hot spots outside.
The fire marshal told us that that the likely situation was a cigarette butt having been tossed into the bushes. It smoldered before igniting. The firefighters arrived to flames shooting some 40 feet up the outside of the building. We were told that if not for the mylar coating on the school windows, the fire would have entered the building. As it stood, two windows broke but the mylar kept them from breaking out.
So on one hand there was a fire at PSCS. Not a good thing. Trees and plants were destroyed. On the other hand, no one was hurt and the school suffered no property damage.
July 1, 2010 – Day 1 of the sabbaticalThis blog had undergone several changes since I started it on July 1, 2010. Back then, however, it was pretty simple. My family was embarking on a 12 month sabbatical to France. Melinda, my wife, & I had been granted a paid year away from the school we had created in 1994. Our oldest daughter, Chloe had just graduated from high school. And our youngest daughter, Ella, was a year away from entering high school.
It was the perfect year for us to be away.
What I look like today…So I decided to create this blog, more or less on a whim. I was inspired by those blogs I’d seen back in 2010 in which people posted a photo a day for a year. I thought that I could do that, adding a little summary of what we had done that day. So on July 1, 2010 I posted the first entry. And every day, throughout the sabbatical, I made a post to “the blog.”
The initial intention was for our family in Seattle to see what we were doing in France each day. But the blog took on a life of its own and was soon being watched by more than just our family. When we returned to Seattle in August of 2011, many people asked me to keep posting. I did so, again on a daily basis.
Since then, however, I’ve tried to adapt the blog to being more of my various meanderings or thoughts. I use it promote my kindness classes, among other things. Now I’m not quite sure how to use it. It has many, many followers.
What would YOU like me to do?
Some people prefer reading about the day-to-day exploits of a father-husband-founder/director of an innovative private school. Other people like me to post things about my life’s philosophy.
What would YOU like me to do?
My pre-sabbatical fortuneIf nothing else, read it for its history. Track my family’s sabbatical history, from Day 1 to Day 365. Or maybe you’ll find something else of interest.
Regardless, please consider telling me what you think and how you’d like me to use the blog now. 🙂
So I renamed this blog “Thinking Allowed” some time ago and apparently didn’t allow myself to think on Saturday. I mean, I think you should think that I think about this. Or maybe I should go to my room to think about what I’ve done. Or think about what I didn’t do.
On my mom’s 80th birthday, I posted a photo of my brothers and me, and not one of her. What was I thinking? If you read the comments on that post, you will notice she helped me see the error of my ways.
In an attempt to correct that error, I present this photo of my mother blowing out her 8 candles, each one representing a decade, on Saturday night. You may notice that the candles are not in a cake. They are in brownies.
And these are not ordinary brownies. These are Christine’s brownies, made on Saturday morning in Seattle by Christine herself. These brownies are so good that I need not explain further who Christine is. Like Cher, Madonna, and Liberace, I will simply refer to her with one name. Christine.
Remember that old TV show from the 60’s, “My Three Sons?” I always felt a special connection to it, given I have two brothers (and no sisters), therefore meaning my parents have three sons. I really don’t have some additional insight about this. Heck, I was just a kid and the world revolved me, right?
And give me a minute and I’m sure I can tell you about my special connections to “The Courtship of Eddie’s Father, “The Flying Nun,” and “Get Smart.”
You’d think all I did as a kid was watch TV (and you might be right).
Anyway, yesterday was my mom’s 80th birthday and my family came together at my brother Scott’s house to celebrate. It’s not often that we get my parents, my brothers, and me all together. So I’m pleased to have this picture of Steve (on the left), Scott (center), and me.
Melinda and I spent the better part of the last three weeks in France. I didn’t announce this on this blog because Chloe and Ella were staying alone in Seattle, and I didn’t think it was a good idea to be promoting this on the Internet.
Instead, I set up another blog to provide updates for our family, especially Chloe and Ella, while we were gone. And I made a couple of posts here to keep things active.
But now we’re back in Seattle and I’m offering interested people the opportunity to read the blog I kept while we were in France. If that interests you, start here.
Yesterday was the 14th of July in France. Heck, I’m pretty sure it was the 14th of July everywhere, but with time zones and everything, who knows. I just know yesterday was the 14th of July in France.
We returned to Nantes to see the feu d’artifice, which translates literally as artificial fire. Its actual translation is fireworks, and it being the 14th of July in France yesterday, there was a lot of artificial fire taking place.
This was the view we had from the car yesterday as we drove in to the Château de l’Oiselinière, a winery/vineyard/B&B some 30 minutes from Nantes. Laurent, at Melinda’s request, had arranged for us to have a private tour of the vineyard, followed by a wine tasting.
Scott, you would have loved it.
This particular vineyard dates back to 1635, although the history of the property dates back even further. It’s like going back in time. For the tour of the vines, we were taken by M. Verdier, our host who spoke in both French and English, out into the vineyard. He talked in specific detail about how the vines are cultivated, including the 6 months it takes each year to prune each individual bush by hand.
After that, he showed inside the buildings and talked about the fermenting process, before taking us to the wine-tasting room. All they make is a white wine here and we got to sample several different vintages.
Note, the link above is to the English language version of their website. Much more detail can be found there.
Such was my blog post title 3 years ago today, on the 13th day of the sabbatical. How can it already be 3 years? And here’s a link to that post, for those of you who, like me, enjoy time travel.
Get this, this is our fourth consecutive year in which we’ve spent July 13th in France, which leads me to think there are two interpretations of this. The first is that we feel some kind of need to get far away from my father on his birthday. And the second is that we so much want to celebrate his birthday in a big way that we travel to France to do it.
On that note, Melinda & I found this poster in Paris announcing a big French celebration of my father’s birthday taking place today at an Irish pub. If you squint a bit while using your imagination, you can almost believe it says Smallman there on the poster (or O’Smallmans).
#1 – That really is a house in the water. It’s an art installation. Think that’s nuts? Go to that link above.
#2 – As I wandered the boat, I discovered that they have brassieres stowed away in packages of 6. My guess is that if the water gets rough and a lot of large-chested women are on the boat, they want to keep everything in order.
#3 – When you get off the boat in Saint-Nazaire, the first thing you see is the re-purposed Burger House!! You may recall that Rick moved the Burger House out of Nantes. Sad fact of the day, it was closed yesterday.
There was a fire on Sunday night just outside the building that houses PSCS. Melinda and I were alerted that something was amiss by a call to our home from the school’s alarm company. We arrived just before 11pm to the presence of a firetruck and firefighters mopping up hot spots outside.
Andy Smallman 