Wednesday, June 30, 2010

In case you wondered ...

No pics today; just a predawn update.

We're back from another ca. 2,000-mile trip together in a tin can on wheels. This time we traveled in the "Radish," the 2003 radish-red Subaru Legacy sedan. It is big enough, comfortable, drives much more responsively than the Jeep Cherokee and gets better milage.

It was a good trip, but the most exciting part was twixt Albuquerque and Mancos on the way home. It was 90+ in Albuquerque. Between San Ysidro and Cuba, we ran into a hail storm, which brought the temperature down to 55 degrees. It had gone back up to 92 by the time we hit Farmington. Then, just after we hit the Colorado state line coming up the Hesperus Highway from Farmington, a sudden downpour dropped the temperature to 56 again ... and it was raining so hard I had to slow down to about 15 mph for a ways to see the road. I think the forecast was for "scattered thundershowers!"

I hope Sandy will blog her take on the trip; I was just along for the ride, there for her as she was for me two years ago. Her class was about half the size of mine, so the crowd was a little more comprehensible. It was funny, though, that there were no nametags at the first night's informal get-together, just as happened at mine. It leaves us going around wondering, and sometimes asking, "Who did you used to be?"

All in all, I thought it was good fun and am glad we went. For sure, I won't be complaining about warm days here any more! That humidity makes comparable temperatures much more draining.

We're settling back into home life again. Got the dog back and returned to house routines. The cats appreciate that different-colored pieces of clothing get left around for them to decorate with white or black hair ... they're good at selecting colors they contrast with. Got the front yard mowed and the accumulated junk mail tossed. Caught up on local happenings by reading the back newspaper issues.

Back to the future. The Minds in Motion fundraising campaign hits me again. I'm going to SWOS to see if I can help with a grant application this morning, then picking up our booth kit to take to the Dolores Farmers' Market from 3 to 6 this afternoon. Tomorrow we have to go to Durango in the morning to do FeVa business, picking up and shifting around photos, and then it's Mancos Farmers' Market from 5 to 7. Saturday morning I'll add our new canopy to the load and go to Dove Creek for their annual Pick 'n Hoe Days celebration, honoring their agricultural and mining background. I've never been to Pick 'n Hoe Days before, so that should be a new experience. Back at Dove Creek again all day Sunday, talkin' SWOS and soliciting donations.

SW Open School doesn't have many students from Dove Creek, but it's part of our service area and it will be good to have a presence there for a couple of days. The Minds in Motion campaign has two goals: Broaden community knowledge and support of SWOS and raise money to establish an endowment, the proceeds of which will underwrite the academic travel costs of SWOS. SWOS students learn by doing, which involves travel to places both local and distant, so our travel budget is higher than regular public schools.

With these events under our belt, we should have enough pictures and experience and materials assembled to begin hitting the trail for corporate donations, stimulating media coverage and going to clubs to publicize the campaign. I think we've almost got the main details for a Sept. 9 celebration at SWOS, marking the end of the campaign for this year. Our goal is $200,000 over two years, next year being the 25th anniversary of SWOS' opening. If we can raise all the money this year, so much the better! tv


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