I'm sure you can guess that Connor is enjoying himself this summer. He's taking off this week for his annual summer trip to Texas with his mom and big sister. We will all be going to Hawaii later this summer, too!! All in all, a good time so far and very little stress for him. He did just finish up with his periodic neurology appointment. Dr Schub (see Tourette Syndrome Diagnosis ) has continued to be a source a good information about TS for our family. He and Connor agreed to keep his clonidine amount at the same level as Connor believes it is helping him and has not had any adverse side effects. Dr Schub also filled out an updated 504 Medical Form repeating the same "medical implications" which have been the basis for his existing 504 Accommodations.
Speaking of the 504 program, I did talk to our school district's 504 program administrator who works in the Counseling, Psychological, and Social Work Services department. I expressed my gratitude for such a program, but let her know that we are meeting with Connor's Principal this summer to discuss his 7th grade year and the various levels of adherence to his accommodations by his teachers. Most did a good job, but we had a few that (apparently) just did not feel this was something that they needed to help us with. The 504 program administrator clearly stated that the 504 accommodations jointly agreed to are legally binding. Basically, we simply want we want the Principal to know we are expecting 100% compliance for Connor's 8th grade year and if needed, we will explore other (possibly legal) actions to guarantee these accommodations are met.
On a less positive note, after significant discussion with Connor we have agreed to retake his math class next year. This is the 9th grade class that he, along with a few other kids, were taking in 7th grade. First, let me clearly say that he did not fail and that even if he did, we still could not be any prouder of him than we are. In fact, he actually earned a 91 in the first semester (while he was on Homebound), but that fell quickly to a 76 for the second semester which yielded an 84 for the year. Unfortunately, he was right at the border of the "meets" criteria on the Georgia EOCT (End Of Course Test). Most important is that Connor (and Gretchen and I) agrees that he does not have as solid of a grasp on the subject matter that will be critical as he advances in his high school level math courses.
As you would guess, he took all this pretty hard. He's had time to process it and calm down about it. He's even hoping that his best friend and him will be in class together in the fall. Since this is a HS-level course, the grade actually goes on his HS transcript. We are still sorting out what this means now that he will be retaking the course. The current hypothesis is that the grade he earns in 2013-2014 will replace the 84. Again, the most important thing is for him to continue to build on his solid foundation in math. As for his other classes, he finished up 7th grade with all A's except for his TAG Science which he obtained an 89 in. This past school year has been VERY challenging for Connor, and we truly could not be any prouder of him. At this point, our focus is on helping him be as successful at school as possible so his HS years can be positive and he can approach college with all the confidence he used to have.
That massive change in self-confidence is probably the biggest loss he had during this whole Homebound experience. As I described in Executive Cognitive Function, this year has also seen Connor struggling with "just keeping it all together and general organization and memory skills". We did a lot of research about psycho-educational testing and even found out from the 504 program administrator that the district offers these services. Their focus is primarily on seeing what shortcomings, if any, are preventing students from being successful at their current grade level. Connor's struggle with this advanced class is not of concern to them. In fact, based on his grades and EOCT they do not feel like he should retake the class. We, on the other hand, are looking at helping Connor meet (or exceed) the challenges at school as well as in the rest of his life and feel strongly we need to engage a doctor directly (and independently) for best "whole life" results.
We believe we have found the right doctor and the right type of evaluation. Based on a strong recommendation we have decided to have Dr Steven Berger conduct a neuropsychological assessment. Click here for a write-up on the differences between psycho-educational and neuropsychological evaluations. Our desire is to obtain a medical professional's analysis of any challenges Connor is facing and get advice & guidance on how we can best help him. The information we expect to gain from this two day evaluation may also be helpful with his current 504 and possibly drive changes to his accommodations. This is all new territory for us and it is quite expensive, so we would surely be grateful to others who have perspectives and experiences they would be willing to share with us.
Fortunately for Connor, this will only take up a couple of his days from his summer break. Yes... he will CONTINUE to have PLENTY of time to play video games!!
Gretchen suggested a couple of days ago that she and I should take a run on the river which I was thrilled to hear. As Tony and I had a 8.5 mile trip lined up next, I was thinking we'd skipped this one as I do want her to get back out on the water with me again. 
I researched the river map and even scoped out Morgan Falls Dam on the way home from work on Friday trying to see what we could do. As you can see below, there is ABSOLUTELY NO WAY to mess with this giant thing.
Fortunately, I realized there is a launch on both sides of the dam that only takes about half a mile off the overall river trip. Ultimately, I settled on a 3.5 mile from Island Ford (the same launch point of the First Canoe Ride of 2013) down to Azalea Park in Roswell. I made some modifications to the ATL50 - Canoeing thru the Chattahoochee River NRA plan and updated the Kayaking & Canoeing Google Map to account for this mixed up order (hey, I'll get all 50 in!!).
We got started around 1:15pm and there were some bumpy spots in the shoals right at the beginning of this run and the first part was quick moving water in a narrow corridor of the river.
Before long we saw the GA 400 bridge that we drive on all the time. It was finally nice to be on the river at the intersection instead of in a car looking out and wishing to be in the canoe.
Along the way we saw this grey heron.
Then, before we knew it we were done. We finished up about 2:45pm for a short, but very fun and relaxing, 90 minutes on the river.
Gretchen, thank you for getting out there with me. I really enjoyed it and I'm going to miss y'all next week on your annual Texas summer trip.
It surely wasn't anything that was planned, but when Gretchen said "let's take Dad on a hike" I got fired up. We consulted our 60 Hikes book and settled on what it called the Powers Landing Trail. A short car ride and we made it to Powers Island (see mile 306.5 on the river map) where the trail started.
Of course, it is kind of funny that the CR-NRA sign shows these two without their life jackets and then makes a big deal just below this about wearing your life jacket. For me; I always wear my life jacket on the river and I encourage everyone to do the same.
The Powers Island Hiking Trail is annotated on Google Maps and you'll see by the map I made of our trip that we surely took some shortcuts and only squeaked about a bit more than a mile; hey... we still got out there!. Most of the trail looked much like the following.
Although there was the expected amount of downed trees and other "acts of God" as you can see by this uprooted tree.
We had a little fun with it all as you can see by my three favorite people walking under this one.
Like you find all up and down the Chattahoochee River, there were some pretty cool little rock formations, too.
More to my interests, parts of the trail ran along a little tributary.
You also are treated to some good views of Cochran Shoals.
We finished up the hike with a view of the canoe launch where I'm hoping to be at soon as part of my ATL50 - Canoeing thru the Chattahoochee River NRA adventure.
Of course, the folks tubing outnumber the paddlers about 10 to 1 on this section of the river. Hey, get on the river however you can!!
While the hike was short, I never pass up some time in nature with my kids. Thanks for getting us outside, Gretchen!!
I've been talking about it for a good long while now, but I finally started my (multi-part) canoe journey thru Atlanta in the Chattahoochee River National Recreation Area. This is going to be a 50 mile journey which is detailed very well in the Park Service's Chattahoochee River map. I'm calling the overarching journey the ATL50. As my Coleman Scanoe (short for silly canoe?) needs two folks, unless I'm going to be in the middle of the canoe on my knees (which doesn't feel all that good after a few minutes), I need to give a big shout-out to Tony Mayes who was brave, or stupid, enough to come along with me. I should report that he repeated himself TWENTY TIMES that he was having a great time! We really did have a great little trip this morning.
I met up with Tony at his place around 8am and we headed for Buford Dam (in both cars) which is the start of this particular float. Of course, it would have been simple if we could just get the canoe off the roof and start floating, but... it NEVER is THAT simple. Yep, we had to lock up the canoe there and then drive to the stopping point for the day; Settles Bridge Park. Once we got down there we left Gretchen's CR-V (i.e. the car with the roof rack). Then... we drove back up to Buford Dam in Tony's car to finally start the trip. We finally hit the water around 9:45am.
The water was ICY COLD and very shallow here at the Buford Dam canoe launch. You can see the fishermen in the picture above just walking around. Rather quickly we were greeted with the fog remnants of the morning.
Other than the tons of spots where giant rocks are mere inches from the surface the water was very smooth an easy to navigate. We hit some "minor" rapids at the Bowmans Island Shoals that caused these two inexperienced "noobs" (as my son calls newbies) a bit of trouble. I had to get out – more than once! Did I say the water was ICY COLD?!?! The highlight of the rapids was at Fish Weir Shoals as shown in the next few photos.
I know; you're thinking these don't look too bad. I can tell you that after the trouble we had back up at Bowmans Island this little part of the river was looking 10 times tougher. Tony gave us on a 30% chance of flipping, but I was on the other side of the equation with an estimated 70% chance of getting completely wet – hey, did I mention that water was ICY COLD?!?! Despite Tony's enthusiasm, the "old guy" took a pass. We had a very creative portage exercise to get around this, but needless to say we finally got back in the water and were on our way again.
Truly, 95% of the ride was smooth paddling over calm water like you see below.
Of course, I got that shot by turning the canoe towards the bank as I'm sitting in the back. What was 95% of my view really? Yep, the back of Tony's head!! Nah, seriously, we had a blast!
Just after noon, we finished this 5-miler trip at Settles Bridge and yes, I forgot to take a picture of the actual old, abandoned, and mostly deconstructed, bridge itself. As it'll be the start of the next trip, I'll be sure to take some photos of it when we get back out on the river as it is a cool visual.
I created a Kayaking & Canoeing Google Map and it details this first leg very well. I'm going to update it with future legs, too.
I'll leave you with a picture that is indicative of the natural beauty you see up on this part of the Chattahoochee River. If you haven't been out on it, I hope you get a chance to check it out soon.
As you can tell by my Aquarium Stats log, I've been falling behind taking care of my 24 gallon JBJ Nano Cube. I started this saltwater nano reef about eight months ago and have had nothing but a great time with it. Unfortunately, I've had a few bumps along the way (hint: as my review says, UltraLife's Red Slime Remover works), but this tank is proving to be a bit more robust than the 12 gallon JBJ Nano Cube I was running a few years ago.
I've tried hard to not go too long without water changes, but I have been dodging a thorough water testing for a few months now. For those who don't know much about taking care of a saltwater tan – that's very bad. I bought a brand new API test kit and as my 6/2 Aquarium Stats show, everything came in just about perfect. The water is still a little warm (I've been fighting that since I got the tank) and I'm still trying to raise the KH to 8 (I'm at 7). I was really worried my nitrate level would be high and it came in a dead-zero. No wonder the fish, crabs, shrimp, snails and the rest of the gang have been looking good; especially Cinderella (the yellow clown goby) and Bernard.
The coral is looking good. The polyps attached to the little (live!) clam and doing well.
As well as the newer addition of the green mushrooms which are sprouting multiple feather dusters.
All in all, this darn ecosystem is doing well despite its inattentive caretaker. For the "gang", I'll try harder. I'll leave you with a little test based on the following picture.
How many crabs can you see?