My summer break will end in less than 2 hours. It’s been several weeks since school let out but it somehow feels like less than that and more than that at the same time. One of the books that I read this summer explored the bizarre nature of time – how sometimes it can seem to pass so quickly and other times, it can nearly come to a stop.
“We live in time – it holds us and moulds us – but I’ve never felt I understood it very well. And I’m not referring to theories about how it bends and doubles back, or may exist elsewhere in parallel versions. No, I mean ordinary, every day time, which clocks and watches assure us passes regularly: tick-tock, click-clock. Is there anything more plausible than a second hand? And yet it takes only the smallest pleasure or pain to teach us time’s malleability. Some emotions speed it up, others slow it down; occasionally, it seems to go missing – until the eventual point when it really does go missing, never to return”
The Sense of an Ending (pg. 3)
My summer was full — full of rest and travel and running and books and family time and all sorts of outstanding experiences. More for my sake than anyone else’s, here are some highlights:
- Summer Bridge – The first 2 weeks of summer, I taught summer school for incoming freshman. I think I’d call it more of a camp than a class. There were 18 students and the goal was to set them up for success in high school. We toured the campus, completed a research project and presentation, explored a bit of the technology they’ll have available to them with their new Chromebooks, and laughed a lot.
- Camp – For the fourth year in a row, my family and I joined my folks and my sister’s family at a camp in the San Bernardino Mountains called Forest Home. Ziplines, hikes, a “cabin” that’s nicer than our house, and all sorts of family time made for one of the most refreshing weeks I can remember. I reflected on this camp experience here.
- Swim team – My oldest two kids were on the Loomis Basin Dolphins again this year and with practice every weekday and a swim meet every Saturday, the swim team was certainly something that shaped (consumed?) our summer. Both of our kids had a very successful year and they can hardly wait to start up again.
- Books – with the craziness of the school year, I don’t get a chance to read as much as I’d like. Then summer comes and I binge. My reading list this Summer included the following titles: Everything is Illuminated, 600 Hours of Edward, Wicked Girls, The Night Circus, You Are an Ironman, Cycle of Lies, The Wolf of Wall Street, Ping Pong Diplomacy, The Sense of an Ending, Where’d You Go Bernadette?, and Flight Behavior.
- The Garden – Morgan has gone a bit crazy with the garden. A few years ago we had what I would have called a big garden. It consisted of 8 large garden boxes and 4 half wine barrels with enough veggies for us a few friends. Things keep expanding. Now, those 8 garden boxes and 4 wine barrels are just a small corner of this massive garden that produces more veggies than we can give away.
- A Half Marathon – If you are going to run a half marathon in the Sacramento area in the summer, it’s best if it’s at night. I ran the Davis Moonlight half marathon in July, starting just before dusk and finishing in the dark.
- Santa Cruz and Palo Alto – A dear friend got married in Palo Alto this summer and Carson was the flower girl. Since we were going to be there for two nights we decided to make a long weekend out of it and spend some time in Santa Cruz as well. We played on the beach and the boardwalk, collected shells, ate cotton candy, and visited an art festival that the kids loved.
- Bodega Bay – When things were near their hottest in Loomis, we made our way with Morgan’s parents and sister’s family out to the cost to camp at Doran Beach on Bodega Bay. Geocaching, saltwater taffy, kites, late nights with “the book of questions” and gale force winds made for a delightful end to this summer break.
As work begins again in an hour from now, I feel pretty rejuvenated. I can hardly wait to meet my students.
Mr. Zerwas Teaches Here 