Day: November 17, 2010

There was a big shoot-out in front of Grandpa Lauro and Grandma Conchita’s house in Mexico today.  The authorities recovered 60 spent shells.  There were a lot more, but the neighborhood kids picked up most of them.  It is getting to be a part of everyday life down there.  We are not sure or not whether anyone was hurt.  Jorge (Lorena’s brother) has communicated with Grandpa Lauro and everyone in our family is OK.  Actually they ran down to the grocery store to get some stuff, so Lorena is suffering greatly because she has not yet heard the gossip directly from the horses mouth.  The accounts we receive from that source are generally based on the truth, but I will try to get the straight scoop from Don Lauro or one of the brothers.

Here is a link to an early article the describes the event.  I will post more when (and if) we learn more.  Here is a second article.
You can see a video report here.

We have lots of things that are “in process”.  I suppose that is a normal state of affairs, but it seems a little overwhelming right now.  I like to sit down and make a list whenever that happens.  The work through such lists probably represents the most productive times of my life.  The kids are in the most work-laden and tedious part of their first semester in college.  The work like troopers every night.  I have the GaugeCam project, my weight loss plan, a new (very interesting, but very demanding) job, a road trip to Atlanta next week, and visitors from Oregon a few weeks after that.  Lorena and I had a great talk about this last night.  We are going to take some time to sit down and make some lists together.

I paid the tuition and fees for the kid’s spring semester at the community college this morning.  It was painful, but truly a great educational deal.  Tuition, fees, and books will be in the range of $7000 dollars for two full time students for the whole year.  We are very pleased, on the whole, with the quality of the teaching in the classes.  The kids have the same, very competent math teacher.  They are in different biology classes and both of their teachers are excited about biology.  Christian has a super history teacher who tells lots of side stories.  That is a little irritating to Christian, but I tell him the ones who tell those little side stories are WAY better than the ones who stand up and teach the class by rote in a monotone voice.  Kelly’s literature teacher is very confident in a world view that is worlds away from that of our family (I am making every effort to be gracious here), but a very fair teacher.  Among other things, she hates homeschool and the idea that parents should be in charge of their children’s education, even for elementary school, but she does not hold that against Kelly and appreciates Kelly’s hard work and preparation for class.