Illinois...

[AinaWGSD]

@Faraday40 I am so sorry you're going through this.
I'm in a similar boat, except my brother who is hospitalized is on the other side of the country. I'm stressed about not being able to be there, but he has a strong support group of friends that are stepping in and providing the physical and moral support i can't do from here. He went in for a bad fever and was diagnosed with endocarditis, then while he was hospitalized for iv antibiotics he had a septic stroke. They got the systemic septicemia under control and he had open heart surgery for a valve replacement Thursday. Meanwhile, my mom fell and broke her shoulder right before he was hospitalized (like, literally hours before).
Keeping you and your family in my thoughts and prayers.

 

[Molpet]

@Faraday40 how is your sister and family doing?

The CX you gave me are hanging in there with the heat.

I seen one laying with it's legs out and thought it was dead until it raised its head.

 

[Faraday40]

The 2 meaties I kept are huge. One has pretty slow feather growth with bald spots. It feels weird picking them up because of their plump, firm bodies and hot featherless skin areas.

I was at U of I in Champaign. I somehow agreed to chaperone 220 high school kids on a college campus for 5 days/ 4 nights. I was quite nervous as I drove down but ended up pleasantly surprised. I'm used to chaperoning middle school kids on school-related trips. There's always the excitement of being away from home, the constant elevator rides, social drama, and of course lost or forgotten items.

The high school kids were all enrolled in the summer academies because they wanted to be there. I didn't have to worry about their transportation to the camp and we simply walked everywhere during the program. (Yes the heat was a concern - but more for me than the youth. LOL) I was impressed by the maturity and inclusive, encouraging nature of these kids. Multiple times I witnessed a teen briefly sitting alone who asked "May I sit here?" Shortly it followed by smiles and conversation.

Some of my assignments were not what I would normally choose. Instead of art or vet sci, I was assigned to chaperone the class, technology in agriculture. Originally I thought it would be drones, GPS, automated harvesters, etc Instead, I learned all about genetics of popcorn & biotechnology. (Teosinte, pericarp, kernal, flake shapes, diploids/triploids/tetraploids, leaf printing for AI and coding breeding models, cas proteins, CRISPR-cas9) I was with a group of intellectual, motivated and highly competitive teens. The way they worked together and their thoughtful questions were impressive.

I'm generally a quiet person so of course chaperoning karaoke on Rec night was also a stretch. As we challenged the teens to get out of their comfort zone, I also challenged myself. I was fortunate to have been assigned a great bunch of girls back at the dorm. They were respectful and checked in at the requested times throughout the day. At 10pm they had to check in to let me know they were back on the floor and at 10:30 - lights out. On the first night I went around knocking on doors, waking my girls to make sure all were safe and accounted for. By the second night, I realized that about half of my girls wanted to check in before 10pm so they could go to bed. The days were packed so all were tired. On the 3rd night I had all my teens checked in and lights out by 10:02pm. Like I said I was lucky.

By the end of the week, I had made new acquaintances throughout the state and look forward to returning next year. The original reason for chaperoning was my son who really wanted to attend the AI academy. Although we went together, he wanted to hang out with his peers instead of his mom. ..... but I was able to see him make friends and smile.

While I was away, my husband took care of my dad and sister. They are not back to their full selves, so daily checks are mandatory.