R&R at the Lake

"Hope High School"

Joplin, Missouri


Random Kingsley Picture - I just saw it and thought it was cute

Dogs Relaxing at the Lake

Happy Fourth of July everybody! Once it gets sufficiently dark, my uncle will be putting on his very own fireworks display, which is something that I look forward to every year. All weekend we have been watching the fireworks from across the lake or down the street, so in theory, we don't really have to our own, but it is still exciting. I will have to put some pictures later. But before that, I should describe what my time down at the lake has like been so far. To start out, the weather has been amazing. Up until late last night, it has been sunny with few clouds in the sky. If it weren't for the heat (yesterday it got up to 111 degrees), it would be perfect. The first two days down here were everything that I was expecting. We went swimming, rode on the waverunner, read, and generally relaxed and eaten delicious foods. Actually, correction: we didn't ride on the waverunner until the second day because my dad had to get it working. The deal with the waverunner is that it is only ridden one week of the year - the week of the fourth. In fact, if my dad isn't here to fix it (like he wasn't a few years ago when we stayed home), it doesn't get ridden at all. Basically the only bad thing that happened is that I got a little sunburned, but that's to be expected.

Yesterday was the exception to the routine. Instead of going down to the lake and vegging out, my family decided to go over to Joplin, Missouri - where that horrible tornado hit in May and where my two uncle, including Uncle "Frank", live - and volunteer for the tornado relief. Other than the heat, the day was nice. What we did is we signed up at the volunteer base in the local university parking lot, and then were bused to the high school, which was destroyed during the tornado. From there, we were given our assignment and were bused out to the house where we would be working. Because of all of the particulates in the air, it was required that we where these masks, which, while effective, were still uncomfortable and hot. The actual temperature outside did nothing to help. I think at one point, it got up to 111 degrees. Because it was so hot and there was a chance of getting a heat stroke, the volunteer leaders were constantly going around making sure everyone was hydrated. I must have drank around ten water bottles during the few hours (3 or 4 - I'm not sure) that we were there. What did we do exactly, you might ask? Well, basically we were picking up debris from the house and in the yard and sorting it into different groups. For example, there was the whole brick wall that had been blown over, and over the course of our volunteering, my family was able to clean it out and put all the bricks into the pile for salvageable bricks. After a few hours, we were super tired, dirty, hot, and sunburned, so we decided to stop and after signing out, just drove around town to get the whole picture of the destruction. I think my favorite thing from my time in Joplin was the high school sign. All that was left of Joplin in "Joplin High" was the o and the p, so someone put the letters in tape or something so that it spelled out "Hope High." It was something very simple, yet touching. Also, in the house across the street, one of the only thing left untouched was the closet full of clothing. It was stuff like that that really made you think.

Once we were back at the lake, we just relaxed and lay down because we were all so tired. Other than sleeping, though, one of the main things that I've done here is reading. I've finished four books while on vacation, not to mention the three or four others that I finished the week before we left. I'm a veritable reading machine. Granted, many of said books were quite a bit below my reading level, but that is still an accomplishment to be proud of. Out of all the books I have read here, my favorite is probably Pride and Prejudice and Zombies. I thought that Pride and Prejudice couldn't get any better, but this book was hilarious. I will definitely have to read the sequel and prequel. One of the books that I finished at home was A Tale of Two Cities, which is one of my summer reading novels. Even with all the preparation from hints from my family, I still was surprised by the ending, which I liked very much. (SPOILER ALERT: skip to next paragraph if you don't want the ending revealed to you) Sydney Carton just came out of nowhere. I didn't really think he was that important in the first two books, but in the third books, he comes out of the shadows and into the spotlight. From all the foreshadowing and such in the book, I was sure that it was going to be Charles Darnay who was going to die. Needless to say, I was certainly surprise when it was Sydney, not Darnay, who died. I also liked how everything came together and was glad that Mme. Defarge was killed. All in all, it was a very good book, and even though some say that the middle is sluggish to get through, I still enjoyed reading it. It is definitely one of my new favorites.

Until Thursday, this is what my days are going to be like. The only new thing today was that we went on a boat ride this afternoon. It was delayed by the early morning rains and then by not being able to start the boat, but when we finally went out, the weather was beautiful and cooler than the previous days, which was nice. We even stopped for a while and swam off the end of the boat, which is something that I haven't done in a while. Now, all we have to do is order pizza from the Pizza Hut and go to the Port Grill - two traditions. Again, happy Independence Day, and tomorrow, there will be more on the fireworks display. I promise.