62nd Annual Santa Paula Optimist Club Santa Paula Christmas Parade

"Half the town watches it, because the other half is in it."

Alan chose to be in it with his baseball team rather than with the Boy Scouts.

Alan is seated on the left.

Gregory chose to be in it with the Cub Scouts rather than with his baseball team.

Gregory is in the khaki shirt.  Stephen is in front of him on the left.

Isabel held the banner for the American Heritage Girls.

Juliana is in the truck, right behind the driver, but she is hard to see.

Laurence was the perfect companion to watch the parade with.*  Although he did not get any candy in this shot, he came home with a sizable stash.

Notice how Alan seems to be aiming at certain individuals . . .

In honor of Grandpa Alan, the Korean War Veterans:

In Santa Paula we've got tractors . . .

. . . and pony buggies . . .

and whatever the h*&% these are . . .

To those who live outside California: I am sorry.  I tried to crop the pictures as much as possible but I couldn't hide all the crystal clear blue sky.  By the way, it was about 75 degrees out.

*If you still hold to the old idea that it is improper to end a sentence with a preposition, what would you do with this one?

Homeschool: Imaginary v. Real

This is how some imagine it:

This is the reality we know:

Don't worry, Stephen's face wasn't clean for long.

Aphorism

Juliana: "I like the name 'Victoria'.  It's like 'tortilla'."

New Bike Rack

Our garage reorganization required a new bike rack.  I had admired very much the rack made by my brother-in-law, Bill.  But we needed the bikes to sit at 45 degrees to the wall, which required a redesign and some special order pipe fittings.

(Click on the photo to make it larger.)

It may look like some of the upright pieces are not perfectly vertical: I must have tilted the camera when taking the picture.  And the curve in the upper back cross piece is there by design:  having the pipe under tension increases the friction at the joints and make the whole structure more sturdy.  (Yeah, that's the ticket.)

Almost all of the kids helped with construction.  There are a lot of little pieces of pipe that were cut with a miter box.  And the joints were assembled with a mallet, no glue.

For Aunt Rachel