Wave farewell to summer, everyone. It will be in the rear view mirror before you know it. And that means school is back, and fall is on its way. So I\u2019m here to remind some of you procrastinators about important back-to-school and fall checklist items that you may have forgotten, and surely need to look into: <\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u2022 Get your middle school daughter a scientific calculator \u2013\nWhat\u2019s a scientific calculator? I have no earthly idea. It is both futuristic\nand old timey, like a Buck Rogers toy, or an abacus. It doesn\u2019t have a\ntouchscreen, but instead buttons. This will mean you have to explain it to your\nchild, as she will try to \u201cswipe\u201d to make it work and then complain it\u2019s\nbroken. When she asks about some of the symbols on it (for instance the\n\u201ccosine\u201d symbol) you will have to pretend you are smart and say that her young\nears aren\u2019t ready for the truth (and horror) about that. (She should ask her\nteacher!) <\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u2022 Survey the house projects you promised you would get done\nthis summer \u2026 but failed \u2013 Fifth year running! That\u2019s like a record \u2026 Anyway, you\nare going to need a good excuse. Like why you only cleaned half the outside\nwindows with the pressure washer. A logical reason might be that you wanted to\ndo the northern and western facing windows in the summer because of the\nslightly eastern bend of the Earth\u2019s axis, which during the summer months makes\nit more likely that prevailing solar rays will prevent uneven streaking. Total\nrubbish, but it sounds good, doesn\u2019t it? Work on that.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u2022 For us Floridians, start thinking about hurricanes \u2013 By \u201cthinking\nabout hurricanes\u201d I generally mean \u2026 START FREAKIN\u2019 OUT!!! Sure, a little\nplanning, purchasing of supplies, watching the weather and having a place to go\nmake sense, but do not underestimate the power of a good old-fashioned, early-fall\n\u201cFreak Out!\u201d It\u2019s a right of passage this time of year. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u2022 Buy new clothes \u2013 Now, as your children age, this one\nbecomes trickier and more complicated. Mainly because they\u2019re bigger, and have\nmore expensive tastes. They know what the good stuff looks like, and where to\nget it. Which means clothes shopping takes a few extra days thanks to the\nneeded procurement of a bank loan and the rented trailer to drag it all back. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u2022 Check the AC filters in your house \u2013 You don\u2019t need to\nchange them. All the lists I read just say check \u2018em, and then you\u2019re done. How\ncool is that?!? Same goes for windshield wipers on your car, the oil, your\nhouse insurance, the vet and your cholesterol. Just give a little look-see and\nyou\u2019re all set. At least for a year or so \u2026 or until something seizes up. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u2022 Review your finances \u2013 This is especially gratifying as\nthe thrill of your summer vacation wanes and you realize you went over-budget\nby an amount that will take your daughter\u2019s new scientific calculator to figure\nout. (Just don\u2019t press the cosine button. Not even scientists know what that one\ndoes!)<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u2022 Start planning for next summer \u2013 Nothing will get you\nthrough the fall like something worthwhile on the horizon. (Especially when\nyour wife gets wise to the fact that the house project list didn\u2019t go quite as\nexpected.)<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Wave farewell to summer, everyone. It will be in the rearview mirror before you know it. And that means school is back, and fall is on its way. So I\u2019m here to remind some of you procrastinators about important back-to-school and fall checklist items that you may have forgotten, and surely need to look into:
\n\u2022 Get your middle school daughter a scientific calculator \u2013 What\u2019s a scientific calculator? I have no earthly idea. It is both futuristic and old timey, like a Buck Rogers toy, or an abacus. It doesn\u2019t have a touchscreen, but instead buttons. This will mean you have to explain it to your child, as she will try to \u201cswipe\u201d to make it work and then complain it\u2019s broken. When she asks about some of the symbols on it (for instance the \u201ccosine\u201d symbol) you will have to pretend you are smart and say that her young ears aren\u2019t ready for the truth (and horror) about that. (She should ask her teacher!) <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[575,561,8],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1966","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-2019-nutshells","category-family","category-parenthoodandchildren"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nutshellcity.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1966","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nutshellcity.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nutshellcity.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nutshellcity.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nutshellcity.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1966"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.nutshellcity.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1966\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1968,"href":"https:\/\/www.nutshellcity.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1966\/revisions\/1968"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nutshellcity.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1966"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nutshellcity.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1966"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nutshellcity.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1966"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}