SCHOLA: Crappy Birthday To You

Sunday, August 29, 2004

Crappy Birthday To You

S wanted to see Princess Diaries II - The Engagement with a few friends for her birthday. With a carload of girls, I set out for the mall in Port Charlotte, site of the only multiplex for miles, and learned, upon arrival at 6:05, that the mall will be closing at 6:00 PM until further notice because of a hurricane induced curfew. Do we head north to Sarasota (45+ minutes) or south to Ft. Myers (45+ minutes)? As I drove north, trying to find the closest movie house by bugging various 411 operators, we realized we would not have sufficient time to see a movie in either location and return to the Punta Gorda house before the 9:00 curfew went into effect.

I thought maybe we'll just get a bite to eat and try the movie earlier the following day. By now it was 7:35 PM. Carrabba's and Outback were still closed from the storm. TGI Friday's, Chili's, Red Lobster, even, I hate to admit it, Hooters, all had their last seating at 7:30 PM to get their employees out and home by curfew. The only other place in town that was still open was Arby's. Fake roastbeef sandwiches for all. Whoopee.

S, ever the good sport, was happy enough to crack open a pack of our hurricane supply Oreos when we got home (at 9:05 PM -- ha!) And we did make the matinee the next day.

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Darby passed this fun site on survival knowledge along. My score? I survived, probably maimed though.
Question 11, "You're driving in an isolated area and a tornado is coming straight at you. What would you do?" posed a problem for me in that it did not offer my first choice: Drive through it.

I was on my way over to the west coast, driving up US 27 through sugarcane country when I spotted a pretty big tornado miles away to the west. Another smaller funnel cloud dipped down immediately east of me. It seemed small enough to be considered just a dust devil in comparison to the other more menacing storm to the west. I watched in amazement as the whirlwind spun toward me through the canefield, across a dirt road, and figured it would sputter out when it reached the canal separating me from the fields. My ears popped, my Excursion was picked up, and gently set down in the next lane.

Yep, that was probably a pretty accurate assessment of my survival skills.

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SCHOLA 101

schol' a: 1) An intermission of work, leisure for learning, learned conversation, debate, disputation, lecture, dissertation. 2) A meeting place for teachers and pupils, place for instruction, place of learning, school. 3) The disciples of a teacher, body of followers, school, sect. 4) An acronym for my tortuous blog title "Secular Classical Homeschoolers' Odyssean Learning Adventure." 5) How my Boston cousins pronounce "scholar." 6) Someone who studies at 10 o'clock for a dilla or a dolla.

These are the blatherings of an introverted, autodidactic, champion of The Enlightenment raising three daughters. At one time or another we have homeschooled, public-schooled, Catholic-schooled, cyber-schooled, unschooled, and even threatened boarding school. We have been inspired variously by The Well-Trained Mind, A Thomas Jefferson Education, and Climbing Parnassus, tempered by the writings and wisdom of Charlotte Mason, John Holt, Benjamin Franklin and Michel de Montaigne.

I try not to get wrapped up in labels, but we are secular and we are classical-ish.

We travel. A lot. Sometimes to the other side of the state and sometimes to the other side of the planet. Join us on our journey as we search for our home, navigate the waters of self-education, lounge with the lotus-eaters, and bash a Cyclops or two.