Yesterday, Brian and I headed out in the bus. Our goal: to test the systems and troubleshoot before Robbi and I hit the road at the end of the month. We started out tired. Brian has been working on the bus around the clock. I have been managing non-mechanical tour...
Yesterday the bus started to feel a lot more like a home. We got up early, grabbed our rollers and brushes and many cans of paint and headed to Brian's house, where the bus has lived for the past few months as he continues to magically domesticate it. While I opened...
The bus exterior has been amply documented. But in case you missed it, here it is, colorfully adorned with a literacy-themed mural, painted with love and persistence by Robbi and me and a bunch of our friends and a few hundred kids and community members. "But what...
Last Thursday we spent the afternoon with the students and teachers of Rock Hall Elementary School. They had used their Title I funding to purchase a hardcover book for each student and teacher. Robbi and I talked observation and storytelling with a group of preK–1st...
Last night around 9:30... After a marathon session of outlining clouds and applying a layer of clear coat, we finally finished the mural. Surely there will be nicks along the way and the necessary patchwork that follows, but for now we are done and moving on to the...
Robbi painted all night and wore out her brush. This morning at 8:30, I put out a call for a #8 round replacement brush to our Chestertown community, and by 9:30am, I was back at the Barn with six new brushes—and a jar of pear sandalwood body butter from Chester River...
The color is in. So it's time to add the final line. It's patient, painstaking work, but the results are so gratifying. This stage of the process is all Robbi, so my work for the moment is bringing her snacks and loudly exclaiming. Delight and calories in equal...
Switching for a moment from bus to books... We just found out Cookie of Perfection (book 3) was included on the American Library Association Summer Reading list (alongside such creators as Kate DiCamillo, Jason Reynolds, Dav Pilkey, and Jenni Holm, among others)....
Last week, the kids made a great start on the mural coloring. Yesterday, we recruited a spirited corps of semi-professional painters to continue the work. We divided and conquered, expanding the sky, filling the fields, and mixing a new shade of green to round out the...
This is the Daily Minute for May 3, 2022. In which gray and black have given way to white and blue.
Day four of bus mural painting was short but gratifying. We set aside the black paint and picked up the white and blue. Suddenly, the sky came alive, as did the pages of the many books that dot this literary landscape. It's so fun to see the outline turn into a living...
The Daily Minute: 9.30.23
In which Robbi has loved her best life and we are one child shy of liberation.
The Daily Minute: 9.29.23
In which the bus is heading to Cox Diesel Repair and Fabrication for a tuneup.
#busloadofbooks
According to Goji, it’s Bring Your Dog to Work Day. He’s trying so hard, but his stories are dull, with tedious descriptions of sniffing and snorting, endless dull stretches of napping, and inevitably concluding with the protagonist consuming large bowls of tasteless brown nuggets with reckless disregard for common politeness or personal well-being. Also, he’s terrible at typing.
The Daily Minute: 9.18.23
In which Robbi is sized up by her secret admirer.
