What Have We Done?

Last Friday Nashville was 109º.  On Sunday it had dropped to 106º.  This afternoon our Vandy group will be flying into Raleigh, NC where it’s expected to be 96º with a 60% chance of thunderstorms.  Tomorrow they’ll head to Washington, D.C. where it’s expected to be 96º as well.  The heat has crippled the electricity grid where millions of people from Indiana to Washington, D.C. are without electricity and where officials hope to have it restored before the 4^th of July holiday.

In some parts of our country what we’ve done might be considered child abuse or child endangerment. Transporting young people from a safe environment where the temperatures are in the mid-60’s, where the sun warms the soul without torching the body and where they won’t have to worry about incurring the wrath of Evil Don just because there’s no electricity for their blogging--all of this could be viewed by the wrong kind of jury as a crime against humanity.

We could argue that we’re just building character but when the prosecutors show the jury photos of four piles of ashes that used to be our Vandy group, some of us are going to be toast and can expect to do some serious prison time.

Nonetheless, our Vandy group gathered in front of ECHS this morning well before civilized people rise from their slumber so they could go through the ILC departure ritual where their luggage was examined and weighed, they were given last minute travel and blogging instructions and they said their fond farewells to their loved ones.

As an added bonus, the airport shuttle arrived plenty early and the driver was quick to load the luggage and his passengers before heading for the airport.

I fear, though, that the confidence of some of the parents (as was mine) was tested when the shuttle headed north when the freeway to the airport was south.  I have confidence, however, that sooner or later he’ll find a freeway onramp that will head him in the right direction.

It’s off to Vanderbilt by way of Raleigh, Washington, D.C. and Philadelphia where they will visit other universities to learn of alternative to the schools we have here in California.