Hi All Peach, happy Monday. Or maybe Tuesday, by the time you are reading this. Thanks for the nice email.

I noticed that your kid's tryouts are right around the corner. I'm glad they don't have tryouts that early here. I don't know if many people would show up. People here take their vacations seriously. I know several families who go back to where they're from, for as long as they can manage. Usually the mom and the kids can stay the longest.

I'm glad your kids are still making lots of progress in the physical realm. Do you make them read at all, during the summer? We don't, really, other than to encourage sleepy time reading. They just yesterday were saying that they keep reading all summer through all the media that hits their eyes; it's not a skill they'll lose. Okay then.

K1 got off to camp without a problem. I didn't even have to miss an exercise day at the Southwest YMCA, ha ha. K1 has an actual job with responsibilities at camp, and 2 days off when she may go to a limited number of places (like the beach). On the way home, we tried to go to "Mystery Spot" in Santa Cruz, a place in the woods that seems to have gravity anomalies, where things appear to roll uphill, even when you're holding a level right next to the area. But there were too many tourists and summer people out, and we were told to phone back to get a reservation. Anyway, we had a lovely drive through some of the smaller roads of the Santa Cruz mountains. The spouse would maybe like the kids to go to a camp in the Sierras he has heard good things about from his coworkers; they offer more water sports and waterfront training. The spouse really, really loved the sailing experience he got as a youth. I was maybe a stronger swimmer than my kids are, but I'm not sure about that; they are competent - they just don't practice stroke work ever. Well, sometimes K1 does, associated with her high school diving - sometimes being required to do a swimming workout towards the diving training.

I feel like I have water in my ear today; there is a funny sound and feeling. It's bothersome. But I haven't been in the water for something like 9 days, and that was a rarity in itself. That was the day I swam with the kids. The climate here is perfect; usually 70s to 90s in the summer with low humidity and lots of sunshine.

All Peach, I hope you and your family have a very good day. Lots of love, 90hazelnut

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