A New School Year!

It has been a while since a new post has been added to the blog.  It is time for me to get busy and do some writing!

Monday marked Zack’s first day of his 7^th grade year in school!  It was amazing to watch him head out the door and walk to the bus stop.  Gone were the anxieties from past years.  Gone too was the trepidation of going to school.  Instead there was hopefulness for the school year and a desire to do well and achieve good grades.  Zack left me with a positive feeling and hope that he has finally turned the corner in regard to his anxiety.  He has made me very proud of how much he has achieved in overcoming his anxiety and starting to take ownership of his own life.  I love my son dearly and all I can say is that I am so very proud of him!

The last 2 summers have been very important times for Zack.  He has really grown and started to feel confident in his abilities to manage his own life.  Don’t get me wrong there are still plenty of anxiety related issues that he needs to work through.  However, he has really moved beyond the maturity level of a child into that of a teenager.  He is thirteen now and is really starting to adapt to how he should behave as a teenager.  In one way it is scary as he is starting to take an interest in girls – gulp!!!   Since Zack is an only child, this is the first time in my life that I have had to deal with a teenager and their blossoming interest in the opposite sex!

(Zack on the way to the bus stop for his first day of school.)

(Zack wanted to show off his new backpack in this photo.)

Work continues around the house on all the projects that have been in flight since early this summer.  The entertainment center in the basement is almost complete.  My brother has worked hard and all the cabinets have been installed and now the finishing carpentry and the placement of a counter top is all that needs to take place.  It will be quite exciting to purchase a new television and get the satellite system installed. Though it may be a little bit before that happens as the selection of the TV to go into this space may take a little while!  Regardless it is certain to be installed before the football season is too far underway.  So we will get to watch some of the Pittsburgh Steeler games on a new big screen TV.  Of course Zack is very excited to get it up and running as he is looking forward to playing his video games on a giant sized TV.  You can only imagine how excited he is going to be to play “Smash Bros.” or “Mario Cart” on that television for the first time.

 (The beginnings of the new entertainment center in the basement.)

Other than this, there hasn’t been too much going on.  God – I sound so boring.  But I guess life for me has become relatively boring at this point.  The end of August and the month of September are always a time of transition as you move from the fun of summer into the humdrum existence of school and colder months.  (I can tell I am in somewhat of a crappy mood as I had an invitation to attend an event at the Colorado School of Medicine for the Leukemia & Lymphoma Society tonight and I didn’t quite get there.)

Truth be told, we are far from the colder months at this time.  The temperature for the last two weeks has been extreme with Denver tying a record high the last two days in a row. 

In addition to the extreme heat we have had another strange event in Colorado this week.  On Monday evening at 11:42PM the largest earthquake Colorado has had in 40 years occurred.  It was a 5.3 magnitude earthquake with the epicenter 9 miles to the south of the small town of Trinidad.  Though the epicenter was located about 160 miles south of here, we still managed to feel it.  I was sitting on the couch watching television when I noticed a slight shaking of the couch.  It wasn’t anything too drastic at all, but it was definitely noticeable.  (I have been through several more significant earthquakes before including several 5.x earthquakes in California and a 6.8 magnitude quake in Seattle in 2001.  I was in Portland, Oregon during that earthquake.  Even though it was over 200 miles from the epicenter it did enough shaking to scare the crap of me.)  So it has been a weird week all around in terms of earthquakes and extreme temperatures.

That is about it for the evening.  I hope everyone is having a great week so far!

Thanks and peace to all!

P.S. There is much to be written in the coming days.  I have purposely not written much recently because all that has been happening.  There are many deep and interesting stories that must be poured out into this blog.  Stay tuned.....