1. It was quite a day for Debbie's third graders and I helped chaperone it. All the third and fourth graders at Pinehurst Elementary bussed to Gene Day Park and Gene Day Pond for a field trip run mostly by Idaho Fish and Game with a couple of time slots planned by the teachers.
The children learned a lot about fishing today. First, Debbie's class listened to a presentation on the basics of fishing after which they went to a grassy area where they practiced casting and tried to hook artificial fish spread out before them.
A horn sounded and Debbie's students dashed to a station where a Fish and Game guy taught them about different species of fish in Idaho.
After learning about Bull Trout, Brook Trout, and other fish, the children paired up and, working with a list of things at the park to find, went on a scavenger hunt.
Hungry from all this activity, the students broke for lunch and then had a generous amount of time to play on the park's playground, on swings, slides, and other equipment and played a rousing game of Red Light, Green Light together.
Debbie's group was the last to stand on the banks of Gene Day Pond, or on the fishing station, and fish for twenty minutes. I guess the fish weren't biting because no one pulled a trout out of the pond, but it was a really fun activity all the same.
The day ended with a ticket drawing. Several students returned home with a fishing rod and reel. Everyone went home with a couple of stickers and seemed content with the consolation prize.
Debbie's students -- and all the other ones, too -- were at once excited and well behaved. They had plenty of space to run and jump around in, but were never out of their chaperone's sight and were very good about moving from one activity to the next and following instructions.
It made volunteering to chaperone them an enjoyable job.
2. After the field trip, I drove up to Radio Brewing. I hadn't dropped in there for months, but today I sidled up to the bar and enjoyed a hoppy Silver Mountain IPA. Later, I joined Debbie at The Beanery and we enjoyed a couple of drinks and split a turkey club sandwich with chips and salsa.
In between these trips to watering holes, I took Luna in for a quick checkup and some blood work. The vet is monitoring Luna's heart murmur, thyroid health, and kidney function. The checkup was positive and I'll find out later what the blood work revealed.
3. The episode of Monk we watched tonight was another strong Sharona story. Adrian Monk investigated the death of an adult magazine publisher who was in the process of shutting down the magazine run by a guy named Dexter Larson. Larson tried to end the investigation by threatening to publish compromising photographs of Sharona he unearthed from over ten years ago. His threat initiated a powerful subplot as Sharona responded to this blackmailing threat. I'll leave it at that.
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