We have been back in the Chicago area this week with Sky Dome Planetarium, our portable planetarium school assembly, presented in schools there by the exceptional Rojo. He just appeared at a school in Joliet, Illinois, and judging by the reaction I think they liked him!

Depending upon what part of the country you live in, school may be already out, about to finish this week, or reaching it's end soon. Kids will be underfoot for awhile and most parents will soon be looking for ways to keep them occupied.

There is a problem in Florida. No, I don’t mean their voting machines. There is a huge problem in the Florida Everglades, and it could be coming your way. 

Every year I say goodbye to friends. Friends I have worked with for years. That’s because every year principals with whom I have become good friends pack it in after many years of shepherding children through their formative growth. While I am always happy for them personally, I am also always so sorry to see them go. Not because I won’t be doing business with them anymore, but because I have honestly grown to value them as friends. I know their kids. I have never met their kids, of course, but I remember when they were sick in elementary school or when they left for college, when they got married, had children and so on. I remember because my friend and I talked about it at the time. I know where they went on vacation, and I know about the time a tornado knocked down their house, or their wife won the lottery or their town flooded. I know them because we are friends. This year alone, I will be losing touch with several good friends in Ohio. In Bryan, Ohio alone I am losing two good friends. Over near Canton, Ohio there is a gentleman I consider a very good friend who is retiring after more than forty years. I have been to his school myself several times, and we have worked together, picking his programs since 1992. I have listened as his son, whom I am sure is a great guy, left high school and applied at colleges, settling on a prestigious military academy. I listened as his son went off to war in the Middle east, and I listened to the relief in his fathers voice when he returned home safely, then married and began to raise a family of his own. These people are my friends and I will miss them!

Last week we had an adventure, of sorts, here in our office. We began to hear strange noises emanating from an interior wall in the back room where we store unused equipment from our school assemblies. Hmmm.

Well, I didn’t know this existed, but apparently today is a special day! Today, May 17, is apparently Museum Memory Day when we are supposed to share a great memory of a visit to a museum. Look here:

I just listened to an amazing piece and I want to share it with you. Our kids today are so much more internet savvy than I am. Of course, when I was that age we did not have the internet. When I was a kid we were still writing with quill pens!

If you read this blog often you will know I listen to NPR a lot. Today was no exception. At lunchtime I was out to pick up a sandwich and got stuck listening to a pair of interviews on Fresh Air with Terry Gross that concerned education in the United States. The first was a fascinating interview with former Assistant Secretary of Education Diane Ravitch, explaining what changed her mind on No Child Left Behind, school vouchers and charter schools.