Refreshing, Rain, Races

Hi!

A few things I've noticed this week.

PAUL NEWMAN passed away this weekend. Of all his many movies, I think I only saw "Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid" and "The Sting" (both with younger Robert Redford, so I think that's actually why I watched those...). But the truly memorable part of this man's life is just now coming through the articles and postings, now that he's gone. Every article and quote from people who knew him talks about how generous and humble and sincere he was. Glowing reports from his 5 daughters, and he had the same wife for 50 years.(Ok, it was his second wife. But they stayed together 50 years.) His salad dressing line(there are other foods they make, too, but the salad dressing is what I buy) has been around for years, and guess what: all procedes from sales go to charity. Paul Newman has donated over $250 million to charities.

It is so refreshing to read that kind of report on "normal life" of a celebrity. It seems like he was a really good person, an example that we non-celebrities could follow.

RAIN, rain, rain! I don't even think this weekend is rain from a hurricane or tropical storm. It's just a lot of RAIN.
(Clipart photo, BTW) It' makes you appreciate umbrellas, I suppose! Or not. Many people just don't notice it, or seem to...while we are fumbling with our umbrellas at the front entrance of Home Depot to leave, other people just walk right out into it, to their car. What's a little rain? This is why New England is so green.

LEAVES are just barely starting to change colors. You'll see green, green, then all of a sudden there's a tree or group of trees that are mostly vibrant RED or YELLOW. This is just a ClipArt photo from Microsoft Word.Soon, I'll take some pictures of fall leaves HERE, when they change colors a little more, and when the sun comes out again!

CROSS-COUNTRY. David has been practicing and running in cross-country meets with the middle school here. Having never been involved in this sport, these meets are new to me! Here is the overview: they map out the route they will run, around school buildings, around soccer fields, through streets of the surrounding neighborhood, for 1.6 miles. They start and finish at the same line. When the bus brings the other school team, they all walk the course so they know where to go (whether the kids pay attention or not, is up to them...once or twice, I have seen a couple of kids start to loop the wrong direction around the field, then a bystander notices, and turns them around the right way).

Boys and girls run separately. They alternate who goes first each meet. Everybody starts the race at the same time. They space themselves out pretty quickly, the faster ones take off and they all run at their own pace for the rest of the race. Here is one of David at the start line, with all the other boys from both teams:

David has done really well in the first 2 meets. He came in 8th place (out of 44--7th and 8th grade boys)for the first meet, and 6th place for the 2nd meet last week. There's another one scheduled for tomorrow, at a different middle school.

Have a glorious week! Love, Kari