Finding Fall in Findley

We are keeping to our mid-week kayaking schedule. Tuesday evening we made a dash away from work, changed our clothes, and headed for Findley. Made it there about 5:30 which gave us a couple hours of boating. We are beginning to notice the changing fall colors and the lake is getting a smattering of leaves floating on the surface. Started by visiting the shallows near the tall grasses. We’ve found the large carp wallowing in the warm waters. This time Nicki was leading along the shore and found herself in the middle of a pack (5 or 6?). When her boat was almost on top of the group they did their explosion thing - manic flippering on the surface until they get to deeper water. There is a slight concern that they might collide with a boat. So far they’ve managed to escape contact - but it has been close - and it is exciting. Certainly disturbs the tranquility. Things happen too fast for photos - sometime I’ll bring the video-camera cause it is slightly unbelievable until you’ve seen it happen.

The rest of the paddling was normal. We snuck up on a few herons. One old guy refused to get spooked by us and watched contentedly from his perch in a tree. And our thousands of little black birds were swarming and swooping into the tall grasses while a hawk hunted for dinner. There were more people in the park than we expected - might have been the warm evening that brought them out. Even shared the water with 3 other kayaks.

Monday evening Nicki and I did go to a Katrina Relief Concert held at Oberlin College. A real mix of music that was broadcast live by a Cleveland radio station. The audience was a little sparser than I expected but the music was impressive - all performed by students.

I’m also getting involved in our local school levy campaign by running their website - YesYes for Oberlin Schools. There are 2 Yes’s because we are actually asking for voters to approve 2 levy proposals. We did this before - about 2 years ago - but it didn’t generate the funds we expected so we are trying again. One big complication is that our superintendent just announced that she is leaving Oberlin in January to become superintendent of the Pitt County Schools in North Carolina. Our selling point for the levy campaign will now be that we need a financially stable system to attract worthwhile administrators. Right?