CAMP GONNAWANNA PATCH - DAY 6

Camp is quickly coming to end, fizzling out like a fire that's been peed on.  After having my meltdown last night, I told everybody today that all activities were optional.  I was going to participate in everything planned because I want my damn vest patches, but they could do as they pleased.  I didn't even bother reading the write-ups for today's activities and merely told them what was on the agenda.

First up was earning the Fun With Nature patch.  Originally I had wanted to take them to Big Bone Lick State Park in Kentucky, but the temperature was still 90 degrees today, even with significantly less humidity, and I decided not to risk a long drive for nothing.  I went with Plan B, the Trammel Fossil Park in Sharonville.  Foghorn opted to stay behind, declaring, "I have a life to live, you know."  She didn't even want to go to Applebee's for lunch with us, so I left her at home watching Mermaid Melody videos on YouTube.  Thankfully her father works from home, although he wasn't too thrilled to hear she was staying behind.

The Professor and I had a nice, peaceful lunch together.  Chicken fingers with barbecue sauce is a sure way to the boy's heart and he seemed to have been fighting a case of the guilts over yesterday's meltdown.  He was unusually cooperative and positive about my plans for the day, cheerily saying, "Sounds great," to every suggestion.  I had taken the Healing Crystals book with us to Applebee's and suggested after the fossil park we go Amethyst Book Store and pick out stones for his medicine bag.  He decided to make getting a good night's sleep the focus for his bag, since he's a terrible insomniac and is perpetually sleep deprived.

 

Trammel Fossil Park would be a great place for a kid who's really into natural history and, well, fossils.  Unfortunately, The Professor isn't one of those kids.  (And The Warden isn't one of those adults.)  There is informational signage around the park and a large hillside for exploration.  It might have at least been pleasant to stroll around there on a nice autumn day.  On a 90 degree day, with the early afternoon sun blasting us, it was not so fun.  We wandered for about 15 minutes and then headed out for the air conditioned Amethyst Book Store, where The Professor got the stones for his medicine bag -- citrine, malachite, rose quartz, amethyst, and hematite. 

He declared himself "exhausted" after that and promptly retired to the family room for an afternoon of Pokemon watching.  Foghorn spent a chunk of the afternoon booby-trapping the house by running yarn around the furniture, up the stairs, and over picture frames, ensuring I'd break my leg if I had to run out of the place in an emergency.

Uncle Chester arrived in the evening to help with part three of the arts and crafts patch:  making stepping stones.  Both Inmates declined the invitation to participate, so Chester and I set up the supplies in my enclosed porch and made them ourselves under the breeze of the ceiling fan.  I'm in a hippie mood in preparation for tomorrow (and from watching Taking Woodstock last night and making tie-dye shirts), so I did my stone with the flower shaped mold, using pieces of broken dishes for mosaic petals, and carving "peace, man" in the center.  (I wanted it to say "we must be in heaven, man", but there wasn't enough room.)  To please Foghorn, Chester attempted a sea scene, complete with mermaid on the right.  (No, really, that's supposed to be a mermaid.)  When The Professor was asked what he thought the scene was he said, "Museum Center?"

Last on the list was playing an assortment of card games for our Game Day patch.  The Professor politely said he'd rather not, if it was all the same to me, thank you very much.  Foghorn initially said she wanted to play, but then decided to set up a library in my living room instead, harassing people to take out a book (and then trying to charge them $2 when they returned the book the mandatory 10 minutes later).  They weren't going to cheat me out of my patch, so I got my laptop and shoved in my Hoyle Card Games disc.  I played black Jack and poker and solitaire and bridge against computerized players.  You haven't lived until you've had an alien as your bridge partner...especially if his name is Roswell.



For more ideas for things to do in Cincinnati (and things to do with kids in Cincinnati), please check out:

** Things to Do in Cincinnati


You might also be interested in:


*  Camp Gonnawanna - Day 3
*  Camp Gonnawanna - Day 4

*  Camp Gonnawanna - Day 5