Recall Scottish festival in Ventura?

Two years ago today we attended the Seaside Highland Games - a celebration of all things Scottish - in Ventura, Calif. Since you're Scottish (on your mother's side), I thought it'd be a fun festival for you to attend and learn about your heritage!

The photo at right shows you standing by your family emblem. You're a descendant of the Clan MacDonell of Glengarry (a branch of Clan Donald).

The big thing that you really enjoyed at the festival was the parade of bagpipe players! I lifted you up onto my shoulders so you could see the whole thing! You also liked watching the border collies herd the sheep in some of the demonstrations of old Scottish arts being held.

There was a fun little playground as well. One of them included a ramp that would slant in different directions depending on where you stood on it.

Here's a bunch of photos of us at the festival!

My years working as a teacher

You probably remember from a past entry that I mentioned I was a teacher for a few years. When I first went to college, I earned a degree in education so that I could teach English and journalism to grades 7-12. While in collegeat the University of Wisconsin-River Falls, I taught for several weeks at Park High School in Cottage Grove, Minn., under Joe Adams, the head of the English Department there.

I decided to go into journalism after graduating but then went back into teaching. From 1992-94, I taught at Deming High and Middle schools in Deming, N.M. My first year there, I was named teacher of the year at the middle school thanks to an essay written by one of my best students ever, Chris Martin Briseno.

I then moved back to my home state of Wisconsin and taught at Merrill Middle School. I mainly taught English to eighth graders. During that time, I earned a master's degree in education at UW-Stevens Point. In 1999, though, I went back into newspapering.

Remember the Pumpkin Festival?

Pumpkin Festival 2010

Two years ago today we attended the Pumpkin Festival at Lombardi Ranch in Santa Clarita, Calif. It was a Saturday, a little warm even for California, and we had a great time!

You got to walk through straw bale mazes, touch and feed llamas, goats and a calf at the petting zoo, took a tram ride through the corn maze with its scarecrows, and played on an old fire engine. We even brought home a pumpkin for Halloween!

I always liked to go to the Pumpkin Festival because with autumn and its farm setting it reminded me of the Midwest where I grew up. But given the vegetables sold at the market there and the heat, it definitely was a California experience!

One neat thing about us now both living in the upper Midwest is that there are tons of autumn and Halloween festivals to go to. I can't wait to take you to a whole bunch of them next year when (hopefully!) we finally can be together again.

Some good advice on succeeding

Today I read a great quotation by the Chinese philosopher Confuscius: "Our greatest glory is not in never falling but in rising every time we fall."

There is no shame in failing, Kieran. Often we lack the knowledge or skills necessary to succeed, but rarely do we ever know what we need to understand or master a chllenged until we've tried it and come up a little short. Failing is way of learning. For example, did you know that Thomas Edison tried 999 times to invent the light bulb but failed each time? On the 1000th time, he finally figured out what was wrong and got it right!

Today, no one thinks of Thomas Edison as a "failure." Instead we think of his great successes (inventing the light bulb as well as dozens of other inventions, such as the ability to record electronically). Arguably, though, he failed many, many more times than he succeeded.

What would have happened if Thomas Edison had quit, if he'd never rose again every time he failed? No one would know who he was. And maybe we wouldn't have the light bulb today!

Hiking Red Cliffs Trail in the desert

You at Red Cliffs Trail parking lot
Oct. 7, 2010

Two years today we hiked and explored towering volcanic deposits left in the Mojave Desert more than 12 million years ago. They were the red cliffs at Red Rock Canyon State Park, California, along Highway 14.

This probably was the first hike where you really got interested in rocks and actually started trying to remember their names when I pointd them out! The three main kinds of rocks there are basalt (black), volcanic ash (white), and sandstone (red). You thought it was really cool that the black rocks came out of volcanoes!

You even picked up some of the rocks and brought them home! I have them in a box and will give them to you when you're older.

This wasn't our first visit to the state park, but it was to that area of the park Some of the red cliffs stood more than 20 stories over our heads!

Here are a bunch of pictures of our hike.

A copy of my third email to you

Sent this email to you Saturday, Oct. 6, 2012, and am posting it here in case you don't receive it:

Hi Kieran,

How are you? Hope you are doing well. I did not receive your response to my email sent Sept. 25. Perhaps you could resend it? That’s why I’m so long in getting back to you; I was hoping to first see what you wrote, and then I could respond to it.

How is kindergarten going? What are the names of your friends and what kinds of things do you like to do together? My best friend in kindergarten was Ronald Wolfe. We were next door neighbors, so we got to ride the school bus together. Our kindergarten classroom had these large cardboard blocks the size of shoeboxes, so Ronald and I spent a lot of time building cool things with them: forts, bridges, mini-cities and so on. It was a lot of fun.

Halloween is almost here! What do you plan to dress up as for trick or treats? Last year when I lived in Encinitas, we went to a lot of different Halloween celebrations together during the month of October, and if I recall correctly, you dressed up as something different each time! Let’s see, you were a Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtle and then a Jedi knight when we went to Legoland and then a clone trooper when we went to Sea World. Do you remember meeting Jack Skellington and Sally at Disneyland? That was all a great time, and I have pictures of each of our trips as well as other Halloweens we spent together. You can see the pictures here.

Have you read any good books lately? I just read a really good book called “The Little Old Lady Who Was Not Afraid of Anything” by Linda Williams. It’s about this old lady who takes a walk in the dark woods and this pair of shoes starts following her! But she wasn’t afraid of them. After all, she’s not afraid of anything (I would be scared of a pair of shows following me, wouldn’t you?!). Then a pair of pants starts to follow her. But she wasn’t afraid of it. Then a shirt and all kinds of other clothes start to follow her. But she wasn’t afraid of any of them. And then a jack o’ lantern starts to follow her! Do you think she was afraid of it? You will have to read the book and find out!

Your cousins Bryan and Rebekah have not decided want they want to dress up for Halloween this year. They are very excited about Grandma baking some Halloween cookies, though! She has cookie cutters to make pumpkins, black cats and autumn leaves. She just bought lots of orange frosting and cool black and green and purple sprinkles to put on them. Hopefully we will be able to get together soon so I can bring you some of her cookies!

I’ve missed you every day that we’ve been apart and can’t wait for us to get together again. So tell me a little about your life these past few months. What is your bedroom and house like where you live? What are your new favorite toys to play with? What TV shows do you now like to watch? What kinds of things are you learning in school? What exciting places have you been to since moving to Minnesota? What would you like to do again when we get together?

Well, I best let you get back to playing. Have fun and be sure to write back!

Love,

Daddy

Dynamite magazine, among my fave reads

I can't wait until you're older and can read! Hearing what you think about the books you've read and seeing what new things you learn from the various books and magazines your enjoy will be very exciting for me.

When I was a little boy just a little older than you, one of my favorite things to read was Dynamite magazine. It came out each month, and we ordered it through our school. The magazines had articles about some popular actor or singer and lots of comics and fun games in it (and sometimes even posters!).

I've been able to find online the covers to some of my favorite Dynamite magazines. Unfortunately, I don't have the actual magazines anymore, but just seeing the covers brings back some great memories!

What kinds of books do you like to read now?