Bassoon Shenanigans

Tuesday Thomas came home from school one bassoon lighter. Given that he has his FIM bassoon lessons on Tuesdays at 4:15, this seemed more than slightly problematic. He said that he "didn't know where it was." Well, "shit hitting the fan" is an understatement. Over the course of an hour Thomas finally revealed that he stored his bassoon in a band room locker (but doesn't use a lock, despite the fact that I bought one for him), and when he went back to the room at the end of the day to pick it up, it was gone--nowhere in any locker, or anywhere in the room. His band teacher said he would "talk to a few guys" (translate: he would contact some likely suspects and put the squeeze on them, not: he would hire some goons to bust some kneecaps, which is what I would have preferred). Tuesday night I lay in bed, working over our financial situation and tried to figure out how we would possibly replace an $8000+ bassoon that we spent 5 years paying off, and made our last payment on two months ago. The kicker is that Thomas's FIM teacher really believes Thomas has an excellent shot at getting a music scholarship to cover costs of college so by 4 am I had visions of Thomas's entire future spiraling down a toilet. Wednesday morning I took him to school an hour early so we could tear that band room apart. He was quiet for most of the drive (too tired to be annoying--just the way I like him) but when we got there he started squealing, "What are you going to do? You can't just go in the band room and take things, you know!" Really? I thought taking other people's instruments was what everyone did there! When we got there the room was empty since school hadn't started yet so I set to work with Thomas squealing in my wake. After we worked our way along three walls, he said, "It's not here! I told you! There it is!" And lo and behold, there it was, on the floor right in front of the locker he uses (but doesn't ever lock, I pointed out at every possible moment). And not only did we find the bassoon, but a note laying on top of the bassoon: Thomas's band class is part of the "mainstream" school, Lakeland High School. All his other classes are run by his school which is parasitically attached to Lakeland High School, and is called International Academy West (or: IA West). Many of the IA kids are in band, and they are usually the best kids, winning not only school awards but state awards as Thomas did last year. Clearly this Derpy thought Thomas needed to be taught a lesson. So...like...yeah.

Trick or Treating

The usual candy stock-piling started earlier this week. Amazingly, Thomas didn't discover the cauldron of candy until last night. Thomas grabs another fistful before disappearing into his room as the Halloweeners arrive. The mobs of kids ebbed and flowed. We were visited by several small Spidermans and many princesses. One kid looked into our living room and his eyes goggled, "They live in a liberry!" Word soon spread on the street because from that point on every kid stared past us and goggled at our living room bookshelves. Here is Frederick's jack-o-lantern.

Halloween again...

And suddenly it is that time of year again. This year Frederick chose to be a dragon. He has been especially interested in Room on the Broom and Zog lately, so a dragon was sort of obvious. Today at school the kids had lunch and then changed into their costumes. After that, they were supposed to parade through the school but Frederick decided that showing off in front of JacQue and Simon was enough. See it while you can: this dragon was here and then gone in an instant.

Flint after dark

The CB stands for "Citizens Bank" - a Flint institution for over 100 years, and latterly our bank, until bought out by "First Merit". Apparently they will shortly change the CB to FM, but as it's 1950s technology, I will believe it when I see it. The ball above it changes colour to indicate the coming weather. There's a rhyme that explains what each colour means.

Thomas has a baby!

Thomas's school requires him to take 5 "enrichment" courses outside of his regular class hours. Last year he was so worried about being behind everyone else in French (and worried he would forget all the Spanish he learned so far in his short life), that he took one enrichment course in French and another in Spanish--and reported that he was bored senseless in both because they were too easy for him. (He took French last year and again this year--and will take both French and Spanish next year and the year after. He wants to keep up with his French because he intends to move to Paris and wants to keep up with the Spanish because "it sounds cool.") He also took another enrichment course, "Flash", which is some sort of web page design something or other. This year, he picked three enrichments (ever worried that the bare minimum isn't good enough, Thomas does more than he needs to): (a) "Java", which sounds like it is about roasting and brewing coffee but is actually a computer programming course, (b) "Flash II" (which is going to start in a few weeks and I hope gets cancelled because I am sick of trekking back and forth to the various schools at all hours of the day and night) and (c) "Build Your Own Computer!". This last class is pretty much what it sounds like: kids build their own computer out of miscellaneous bits. On the first day of class the kids watched a film on the invention and evolution of the personal computer and then were given a "shopping list" with a specific web site at the top. Then, once home, they emptied their parents' bank accounts. During week 2, they watched the teacher gut and rebuild a computer. FINALLY, on the third week (today) they all raced to class, tottering under the weight of giant, heavy boxes stuffed with computer bits. I normally drop Thomas off at the curb and peel away, but today I had to help him carry one of the boxes in to the library, where his classmates (all boys except for one girl) sat at a huge conference table piled high with boxes and boxes and BOXES of computer guts. Two hours later I picked him up and he was carrying out his newly assembled computer--and it works! (Or so he and the teacher claim.) He is supposed to test it out extensively in the next two weeks and then go back for a short meeting to either troubleshoot problems or report that everything is A-Ok. Thomas has already drawn up a long list of things he "needs" to upgrade his machine: another fan, more RAM, a giant HD screen, virtual keyboard....

PSAT

As if I don't do enough driving back and forth to White Lake (I average between 900 and 1200 miles a week, M-F) Thomas had to be taken back to school AGAIN today, even though it is Saturday. Thomas had to be at school by 7:45 to be herded into a small room with a small group of other hapless students so they could sit for three hours to take the PSAT test. The test becomes more important next year, when he gears up to fill out his university applications and apply for scholarships, so this year was just a practice. The test had 6 parts: 2 on math, 2 on critical thinking/writing and 2 on "vocabulary." I went and worked at a Starbucks while he was taking the test, and was subjected to two hours of old men nattering ("I baked the fish in wine sauce--got nice and crispy. It was a meal to remember." "Schnauzers are mean little bastards. Very protective." "Well, I should be getting home to clean the garage. Say, how are the kids doing these days?") while I tried to wade my way through a pile of terrible papers on Plato's Republic. When I went to pick up Thomas, he seemed fairly pleased with the math and critical thinking/writing sections but was peevish about the vocabulary sections. For one set of questions, they had to pick a term that would replace a word underlined, preserving as best they could the meaning of the sentence. He said he was mystified by the question that asked him to replace "arcane" in the question, "What term best describes the main character in the title Father's Arcane Daughter?" First, how do we know who the main character is? Second, who the hell describes a daughter as "arcane"? He picked enigmatic but is certain it was wrong. Here is Thomas's practice book--a fat lot of good it did, gripes Thomas.

A chocolate fountain!

Jami has worked her behind off for a long time (and coerced Zea, our old secretary into helping her) to organize a conference, which is taking place today and tomorrow.  This is not the place to go into detail, suffice to say that the above was what really made the event for me (and for Thomas, who I brought there later to "mop up").

More of the same

It was AMAZINGLY foggy at Frederick's school this morning but it burnt off later, as these photos attest:

Sights and sounds of Genesee County in Autumn