Happy Summer! Well, to those of you in the Northern Hemisphere, at least. ‘Twas a lovely day today – an Open Windows Day, as I’m sure Leo would call them if he could speak.

So, back to B-WISER. I spent Wednesday night going around the dorms helping Becky and Charlene as they checked on the state of the girl’s straw bridges. That was pretty interesting in itself. The ideas that they came up with – plus the variance in quality/progress throughout the camp. We got back to our dorm about the time the girls were supposed to be in bed.

Thursday was Current Electricity Day. “One of these days I’m gonna run away and join the circuits,” I always say. I don’t understand why boys are encouraged to build electronics and girls are not – the girls always love building circuits and playing with lights and motors. Some of them even asked where they could get the various pieces parts to play with at home. (RadioShack is the answer. If you’ve got questions, they’ve got answers. The answers are usually “I don’t know,” and “I’ll have to ask my supervisor” whenever I ask questions, but there ya go…)

That evening was the bridge contest. I helped out a little in the Check In process, but then headed off to KMart with Carolyn while Becky and Charlene judged design. This is when I bought my Martha Stewart towels. (She did a very good job in making those towels, BTW. For $4, I got a nice fluffy towel that actually wraps around me!) I was back in time for the bridge testing. Turns out the bridge I picked to be the strongest actually was. It even beat the B-WISER record. (It held 1350 grams – not bad for a bridge made of straw and pins). It also won overall, since it had a long span and was pretty tall compared to the other bridges. (Just now realized that I didn’t take any pictures of the bridges. Bad journaler! No cookie!)

Denise (who was totaling up the points) and I headed off to join Carolyn, Joyce, Dee, and Dennis at TJ’s, another bar in Wooster. When we arrived, Carolyn paid for Denise’s drink, to congratulate her on taking up the role of co-assistant for the camp next year. I had an Amaretto Sour (a better one than the one from the Jaol) and water – which Dee picked up. The six of us talked and laughed for another hour or so before returning to the dorms and bed. Only one more day of the camp!

Friday is the day that Dee and I always end with static electricity. Sure, static usually goes before current electricity, but the van de Graaf is a wonderful way to end the week. Alas, the one that we borrowed from the physics department of Wooster didn’t work all that great. The little one that Dee brought (brand new – thanks to a grant from the Tipp City Rotary Club) worked just fine.

Me and my fluffy hair. I’d always start the activity off so that the girls would be afraid to touch the van de Graaf.

Dee does her Phyllis Diller imitation.

One girl does her Dandelion imitation.

After the last class, Dee and I rushed to finish packing (we’d done most of the classroom stuff the day before) and then headed for McGaw Chapel where the final recognition ceremony was. We teachers began the program by embarrassing ourselves with the B-WISER Camp Song (sung to the tune of “YMCA”.)

I had one of the girls take our picture as we sang. She got all of us but Sue. From left to right: Sue (not in photo), Wanda, Bill (hiding), Joyce, Dennis, Carolyn, me, Lois, Betty…

…Denise, Charlene, Becky, Ann, and Dee. I think those pink shirts really screwed up my white balance on those shots… (Notice that Bill and Dennis were spared.)

After all the girls got their certificates (and the counselors even honored us teachers with certificates – I got the Big Kid award), it was time to go out to our last supper. I do have a photo with Sue here:

Carolyn, Joyce, Lois, and Sue. Sue will be the other co-director of the camp next year.

After supper, I meandered back to the room with Carolyn and we packed up our plants (we got free kalanchoe plants that were leftover from the Alumni weekend. I claimed a cute little red one. Carolyn took a red one, a yellow one, and a pink one. She’s got a gorgeous garden at her place (no grass, just flowers) and they’ll be right at home. I apologized to mine cuz it’s gonna die. Let’s be honest with ourselves) and hugged and drove off back home.

Bleh – it is warm in the house. Come on, breeze! Let’s let these Open Windows mean something!