Hare–Raising Adventures
5th Edition, May 21st, 2000
Well, this is my fifth edition of my newsletter… While I
had high hopes of sending one out every two weeks, or maybe one a month at the
latest, I seem to be consistently sending one out only once every two or three
months, but it is a start — maybe next year I’ll try to close the gap some more.
I think the main attraction when I left was Ben’s, Mom’s, and my trip to
Florida…
Florida. The trip to Florida wasn’t all that interesting — the usual leaden cased gold suitcases, dashing to catch plane flights, long
boring lay–overs… but with a new twist — we had Ben. Needless to say, Ben is
not the most patient of boys, so we were well glad to get to Ethel Houck’s
apartment. I think Mom has already described Ethel Houck, so I will just say
that it was interesting watching her deal with Ben. The first major thing after
we got to Florida, I believe, is our visit to Jungle Larry’s, a zoo, of sorts,
but different from the other two zoos I’ve been to (the Philadelphia and the
Hawaiian zoos) in that there were trees and bushes everywhere — it was more like
a forest with paths in it, and animals along the path… I like it a lot in that
while the Philadelphia zoo has more animals, there is concrete everywhere, which
makes it hot, and practically no trees, and seemed more like a zoo, while Jungle
Larry’s had trainers come and talk about the animals, and shows with them doing
stuff (the animals, that is), and lots of neat things like that. Now to get to
the real thing — the beach! we went to the beach a couple times when we were
down there, but it was still a little chilly for swimming in the ocean, so we
mainly swam in the pool. I bet if I went down to Florida in the middle of July,
they would have an abnormally cold week or two while we were there.
We also went shopping — The Mole Hole is the type of place
that I either plan to own, or shop weekly at — after I get very rich. It is
packed full of stuff: glass balls with air bubbles in weird patterns, wooden
boxes that you have to hold in a certain way to get them to open, a quart sized
bucket of ice cream that looks exactly like real ice cream until you touch it, a water faucet that is standing in
mid–air with water coming out of it (cleverly
the water goes straight down, covering a clear plastic tube that holds the
faucet up, and supplies that water that runs down), a stone with Nothing
is Written in Stone carved on it, stomp rockets that can shoot 400 feet
by just stomping on a plastic air filled pad, and on, and on, and on. The only
problem is that every thing costs a lot of money.
Yet a second place we went to was Tin City: a shopping
complex that isn’t as interesting as The Mole Hole, but cheaper. There were two
stores there that were most interesting: a candy store that sold huge chocolate
chip cookies — I mean a quarter inch thick, and four inches in diameter — with a
large portion of chocolate chips liberally scattered in. Their candy was
ridiculously priced though — never buy candy there. The other one was a sea
style store, with shells, and carving, and so on.
After spending several days with Ethel Houck, we went up
to visit my Dad’s Mom’s cousin (I think), Mary Lou Shay. We stayed with her for
the night, and then the next day we went off to see Mom’s Dad’s sister (I
think), and her daughter and her family (Mom’s aunt and cousin). We stayed with
them for several days as well, and the main highlight there, as far as I’m
concerned, is that I lost my glasses. After a full 24 hours or more, we finally
found them, and that was a great relief. Since our time was getting short, we
went back to Ethel Houck’s apartment, and started packing to go home the next
morning, which we did, groaning mightily without the other family members there
to help with the lead–encased gold suitcases plus all our extra stuff we had
bought during our trip. Returning was about the same as arriving but when we got
home from our ten day trip, we felt no inclination to work, so we had our work
cut out for us once we started again.
One field trip we went to was a performance by the
Allentown Symphony which most of the home schoolers that I know went to, and it
was all right, but how much can you say about a symphony or a concert? Another
field trip that just my family went to (of the people that I knew) was a college
play, a Japanese version of The Ugly Duckling, which also was pretty good — they
had really nice costumes as well. All throughout these great adventures, we
still have to plod through school as fast as we can, while still being accurate,
since we have gotten so far behind (I am only in the middle of Test 120, and I
still have 40–50 more days worth of work!
Aaahh!), as well as play with
Blackberry, Sawdust, and Sage (the three guinea pigs) for at least an hour each
day, along with my quota of 3–4 hours of reading per day, not to mention having
to write newsletters, respond to all my E–Mail — I wonder how I do it! I would
like to say that I have semi temporarily moved down two floors, and am sleeping
in the basement so I have more room, don’t have to worry about how my bedroom
can successfully cook a whole chicken in only 8 hours during the summer, and don’t have to worry much about visitors, so if you want to know where I am for
about twelve hours a day, check there.
Steve and I constructed a Pig Pen covering a nice chunk of
yard for the pigs, complete with a cave and rosebush, so we were sending the
pigs out for most of the day to eat grass and run around, but then it got rainy,
and Mom has been taking it apart bit by bit, so it will eventually succumb to
oblivion in the end.
Dan, Nana, and Poppa all arrived from College and Hawaii,
respectively, in one week so we had a mad flurry of activity trying to find
space for everyone and everything, including all of Dan’s college luggage, but
it settled down when Dan and Dad went to a seminar or something or other in
Panama City, Florida for a week. Yesterday, the day that Dad returned, Cinder, our bunny, made a wild bid for freedom before Dad got back.
Unfortunately for all involved, it took Steve and me all morning (in the rain)
to catch her, but catch her we did. Dan is supposed to return tonight, so things
will be quiet for a couple of days until we have Nana and Poppa’s 50th
wedding
anniversary celebration, and then, after that, we will have a family reunion —
so keep an eye out for the sixth edition, which will include those experiences in
full depth, unless something drastic happens, as usual.
Disclaimer, Notes from the Editor, and Good Stuff Like That.
Disclaimer: Anything said here is probably false unless I
specifically say so, and if you want to try to convince me that something I
haven’t said is true, actually is, you will have to speak to my lawyers:
Blackberry, Sawdust, Sage, and Cinder(ella), or you can call me at anytime by
calling 911 (I had to pay a lot of money to get a only a three digit phone
number instead of a ten digit one)
Note From the Editor: if you have any suggestions,
corrections, or problems, please, come to me! you can E–mail me at Snowshoe_hare@cdgreen.org
Good Stuff Like That: If you really want to show your
appreciation I must tell you that I don’t like nuts, but I really like licorice
and gummy worms and bears, but not black licorice…..
–~Snowshoe Hare~–
–~Christopher Green~–
–~Snowshoe_hare@cdgreen.org~–
*Here Endeth the Newsletter*
