Cowgrit has been lamenting the lost summer. With Calfgrit7 in a new school, on a year-round school schedule, now, we all feel like we’re missing summer. CG7 went into 2nd grade three weeks after finishing 1st grade — that’s just weird.

At first, we just accepted the short time out of school. It was new and different, but we were holding judgment on it until we’d actually gone through some time with it. But now it’s August and we really didn’t have a summer break. At home, it’s been just Cowgrit and Calfgrit3 all day, and they are both sorely missing CG7.

To make the deal even worse, some of CG7’s friends from the previous school year didn’t get moved to the new school, so they are all on their vacations. And on top of that, most of his friends who did get moved with him are on a different track schedule (there’s four), so they’re in and out of school at different times than him. Even his best friend is on a different track. (We tried to get them on the same track, together, but the friend got bumped.)

He’ll get another three-week break in September, during which we’ll be going to Disney World. But getting a short break at the beginning of summer and at the end of summer is not a “Summer Vacation.” Cowgrit has mentioned that she feels like she’s missing summer completely. And I agree, even though I spend my summer days in an office, like I spend my spring, fall, and winter days.

So far, this year-round school schedule isn’t something we like. Maybe it’ll start feeling more normal come fall and winter. Maybe we’ll be used to it by next summer. But right now we feel like we’ve been robbed of a part of our life’s routine.

Bullgrit
bullgrit@totalbullgrit.com

I usually write my posts the night before, but Tuesday night I was busy with other things and figured, “I’ll just write it in the morning.” I already knew what I was going to say, so writing it up and posting it before heading off to the office would be quick and easy.

But then Wednesday morning, after I wrote the post and clicked to publish it, the system failed. The post was lost and I just didn’t have enough time to rewrite the thing. So that’s why I posted the short note.

Those who have been reading this blog for a while will have noticed the ads newly appearing around the page. I had some blank space on the page, and I’ve seen lots of other sites with Google Ads that looked decent, so I figured, what the heck, let’s see how it all works.

So I’ve sold out, gone commercial. All the ads are from Google Ads, so they are, in theory, legitimate businesses and such, not just spam bots. I’ve clicked on a couple of the ads that interested me to see exactly where they go, and I’m satisfied that they’re on the up and up. So if you see an ad for something that interests you, it’s probably OK to click through it.

The system is supposed to scan my Web page for key words and phrases so to target the ads to my readers, but sometimes it seems this site is too generic and so we get Target ads. A friend emailed me about a Hello Kitty ad that popped up. But I don’t control the ads directly; the subjects of my blog posts control the ads. This concept strongly tempts me to post on some “interesting” topics to see just what the Google Ads system chooses to display. I could make a game out of it.

Bullgrit
bullgrit@totalbullgrit.com

This damn system ate my post. I don’t have time right now to rewrite it. Dammit!

I probably shouldn’t complain about it too much, as this is the only time this new posting system has done this, versus my previous method of posting which seemed to screw up once a month.

Bullgrit
bullgrit@totalbullgrit.com