Gotta get moving

I realize I am probably disappointing my readers who want to hear about life in Loreto Bay, but life in Kansas City is where we are right now though not for long. Soon we will leave the midwestern flatlands for Colorado. Our revised plan is to live in the Rocky Mountains for the autumn months leading to Christmas holiday when we plan to return to Loreto Bay for the winter. We share a condo with friends in Summit County and we've managed to snag it for the next several months (except for Thanksgiving break when we will fly home for the week.) Allison will attend public school; Robert and I will once again look for things to explore, which should be easy.

I love the mountains. Robert loves the ocean. This is the year we both get to indulge ourselves. I want to hike and fish and take lots of photographs. I will edit a video project for a good friend who has put together a genealogy study of her Irish-immigrant family. Later, when it snows I want to cross-country ski and take Allison ice-skating and sledding. The local school she'll attend has nearly 50% Hispanic students whose parents are most probably workers in the service industry that supports the ski resorts. We could send her to a more prosperous school, one with higher test scores and a lesser free-lunch tally, but some interesting research persuades me to withhold a blanket judgement that this school is inferior. Half the kids there are learning English as a second language. They may have parents who (hopefully are legal immigrants) are not proficient in English. Therefore, reading and writing may be a challenge to many of these students. Doesn't mean they are bad or dumb, simply means they have a challenge.

I researched the district schools as much as I was able to online and interestingly I came across the minutes from a year's worth of district meetings that altered my misgivings about this "lesser" school. The discussion was about high-risk behavior among district students. It was the consensus that the problem behavior was occurring in the middle class white student population, none in the Hispanic. The reasoning? "...the Hispanic students are generally involved after-school with babysitting or other means of providing for the family." That touched me and reminded me of the fondness I felt toward the Mexican children we met at Colegio Calafia. Good kids. Unspoiled kids. Kids I wouldn't be reluctant to let my daughter hang around with. Of course, I have to check it out first. I will be leaving with Allison in the next few days. Robert will come soon after he finishes some work here.

I need to get going because every day that I'm here I fall deeper into old patterns and desires. I'm watching a lot of television and my lust for consumer goods is reawakening. I'm looking at real estate and dreaming of condo remodels on the Plaza. Time to go.