Friday is a busy busy day…I have to go to Kalamazoo for work (that’s 3 hours in the car…keep count). Get back in time to take boys to the first community soccer night….they had a good time, free hot dogs, got to do a lot of little games and skill contests and picked up some free candy for their trouble.
Kevin has a track meet up in St. Johns; Mom has to go and get Kevin from the track meet early because Kevin needs to get back down to Mason for the last concert with the Mason orchestra.
We accomplish all of this with the spectre of having to get Kevin out to Blue Lake this weekend as well hanging over our head. He was supposed to be there by 6 pm, but, because of the concert, we asked for and received permission to either get there late Friday night (but not after 10:40 pm) or early Saturday morning (and that would mean being there by 6:30 am).
The Saturday morning arrival would have meant leaving here at 4:30 am or something, so, after really plotting things out, it becomes clear that Kevin will be done by 9 pm and we can get him out there Friday night. So, we pack everything up Thursday night…put that stuff in my car, put the stuff Kevin needs in Mom’s car (track meet switching to orchestra). Double check that we have everything…go!
Meet up with Mom down in Mason. Kevin performs, they have intermission, we have to stay for the announcement of the scholarship after intermission, and then we can bolt. At intermission, I make the fatal mistake of saying that we should get everything we can out of the auditorium so we don’t make a big commotion as we leave…..ask the boys to wait outside for that 5 minutes, and Mom takes Kevin’s viola to her car.
Intermission ends; they award the scholarships (Kevin is not the main winner, but, does receive a $200 to assist with his trip this summer). He comes off stage and we leave and head out to the parking lot. Kevin collects what he needs from Mom’s car and we are westbound.
Get to Blue Lake at 10:30 pm. Camp is pitch black, find Kevin’s cabin…start unpacking and Kevin says “where’s my viola?”
……
(what Scott was thinking at that moment is censored here).
….. If we had gotten there at 6 pm without it, there’s a chance that we would have been able to find an extra viola hanging around Blue Lake; they said that this happens every once a while and the guy in the cabin knows there are a few extras lying around. But, he’s not sure if they would be there this early in the season, and, it’s 10 minutes to lights out, and, well, our choices are limited.
I head home (get back at 12:45 am) to collect the viola and get up at 5 am to get it back out to Kevin before he needs it. His first rehearsal is at 8 am, so, I guess I could have slept in another hour, but, figure I should get there early and get it to him before he leaves his cabin so he doesn’t stress out about it.
The driving count, 2 hours out, 2 hours back, 2 hours out the next morning. Get back there at 6:45 am….pull in and Kevin is walking with his group to breakfast a little earlier than the schedule said and he is walking down the road I pull up to his cabin on….I hop out, he takes the viola (voila, a viola!) and heads out. I’m glad I got there early, if I hadn’t, I would have had to find him wherever he may have gone at the camp.
Ugh. 2 hour back the next morning. That’s 11 hours of driving in 24 hours.
Bright side: we now have a really good object lesson to reinforce one of our major concerns…losing track of personal belongings while in Europe. He’s not completely to blame here, I’m not sure if he hit the 50% mark, but, hopefully we all learn from it…
