Thursday night was lively and eventful. We thought we were going to get a little nap after our after school program sessions. Were we ever wrong. A shipment of veggies and groceries for the concessions stands got here about 15 minutes earlier than we had expected, and pretty well shot the nap idea square in the head. Word was that we would need a 4-wheeler and a trailer to get it unloaded from the river bank. I ran over to the school and got the keys, while my bride organized the student loading crew.
The 4-wheeler seemed to be just fine, except for the fact that it had been a while and I couldn't for the life of me remember the procedure for starting it. The trailer, on the other hand, definitely left something to be desired. I recalled as I headed out to the shop where it was stored that the trailer had had a flat tire. By the time of my arrival, I learned the current situation. One side was resting on a block, wheeless. It was clearly not going to be of very much help in our project.
My next thought, although not a happy one, was that I would have to get the wagon that we use at the school for hauling trash. I didn't want to haul groceries in that wagon, but couldn't see any real alternative to that. After throwing a few bags out, I saw my buddy Joe, who had brought the stores down by boat, heading toward home on his own 4-wheeler. This was puzzling indeed. After a few puzzled thoughts, I hopped on the machine that I was using, and headed toward the river bank to see what was going on. No one around! No boat full of supplies! No group of expectant students looking for me to show up! What is going on here???? Where am I supposed to be??? I headed down the river bank into the old part of the village, looking for some signs of life. Nothing.
Confused beyond reason, I turned back toward the school. I looked away from the river, and saw a group of kids unloading a trailer at the storage facility. I had just been running around in what amounted to a circle looking for all of this. Jeez...
A quick trip to the storage building indeed confirmed that a group of happy students were tossing packs of pizza into freezers. So as not to feel entirely useless, I decided to deliver veggie boxes to teacher housing. One of the elementary kids had kind of attached himself to me, and I took him along for the ride. We had a great time tooling around, with him holding onto the boxes, and helping me to carry them to the houses.
Next, we entered the school, and hung around with Gabe, one of the crack computer guys, while he fiddled around with the aluminum brick that is my MacBook pro. We told funny stories about his dad, who is kind of a legendary guy in these parts, and watched him chase his little boy around my wife's classroom. The best part of that was when the little fella apparently felt the call of nature, and headed toward the gym with his pants around his ankles. There is no way in hell that I would have the energy to chase that little dynamo around all day at my age...
Next, we decided to head down to deliver a baby blanket to another of our staff. This turned into an hour-plus extravaganza of location, conversation and baby-dandlinification. I finally had to beg to get home so that we could get something for dinner before 9:30. Having said that, it was a lot of fun. See-we don't need restaurants or movies, or bars to keep ourselves entertained out here in PKA-we have 4-wheelers and veggie boxes....
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