When I was Young...

 While driving in to work today, I caught most of a song I have not heard in many years..."When I was Young," by Eric Burdon and the Animals.  Burdon's haunting voice accentuates the message of how life changes as we age and not always for the better.  We become jaded, sometimes enjoying what we call the "little things" less and less.  Even though I caught most of the song while it was being played, I was moved enough to pull it up on YouTube Music once I got to work.  Burdon's voice boomed throughout my dimly lit, empty classroom via a Bluetooth speaker.  It was soothing in a melancholy way, bits and pieces, tiny vignettes of memories flitted about in my mind's eye.  So much so, I paused setting up my classroom for the day and replayed the song sitting quietly at my desk.  As the song ended and the memories once again faded into the recesses of my past I realized something I often forget, one must never lose sight of those "little things" in life and take time to smile at what we once did as children.

Songs such as this are why I love listening to Little Steven's Underground Garage on SiriusXM.

Art

I have recently begun to use an app called PicsArt on my iPhone.  It allows me to snap photos of my drawings and post them online.  

I guess I could do that here to, but the app is set ip specifically for art.  You can also edit and draw on the app, which you cannot do in Blogger.

My username there is very original: dominicsalvucci.  Check it out.

Lemonaid Stand

Today was to be the big community garage sale, I am not big in to garage sales.  A lot of work for very little payoff; people haggle for pennies.  Me, in most cases, I would just rather give away stuff to someone who could use it, or to a charity.  But I digress, this is why I do not blog as much as I should...

Anyhow, Arianna and her friend had an idea to have a lemonade stand, we thought the community garage sale would be the best day for it.  Turns out that the threat of rain and the actual rain washed out the garage sale, but the girls' efforts to sell lemonade went rather well. 

They not only made some money, but they learned many things while they had fun.  The girls worked collaboratively together to serve their customers.  The ice and money box tasks were shared between the two girls, no small task for kids their age.  They were polite, "Thank you," You're welcome," smiles and small talk were emphasized.  The girls worked on their patience, a skill that definitely needs strengthened.  The cars and people were not as numerous as they hoped and there were definite lulls, but they held up well.  The girls worked on their money skills to male change for the customers, I helped and coached as needed, but it was their show.  I had to pour the lemonade for them at first, a gallon pitcher is too big for a six year old to use without spilling.  Once Arianna's friend's mom found a pitcher with a button pour spout, so it would not need tipped to pour, the girls worked together to run the entire service.

They enjoyed their effort and learned several good lessons.  I got to watch them have fun while they worked and learned. The day turned out better than I expected.

On a related note, the title is such due a misspelling on their sign, a flattened Scentsy box painted white and taped to several old metal posts.  I did not help with the labelling of their sign, just the preliminary set up; flattening, cutting, painting white, and delivering to have the words painted on.  Typos happen, the girls learned about that too, I promised to fix it for the next lemonade sale.  I commented that the typo was intentional, they we raising money to save lemons from being crushed by big corporations. 

Cheesey humor, but then again I liked "Sharknado," it was no "Class of Nuke' em High," or "The Toxic Avenger," but few movies are.

Grill Smoker Lesson

I was given a new grill as a combination Father's Day/birthday present this year.  I recently bought a smoking box to use on the grill top...I learned today that you need to add the firebox well before you put the food on the grill.

I added some water soaked wood chops along with dry wood chips to the box about five minutes before I put chicken on.  Not even close to smoking, next time I wait about fifteen minutes before adding meat to the grill; by then the chips should be smoking...at least that is the plan.