Did my son forget about school?

Tomorrow is often the busiest day of the week.

-- Spanish proverb

Some back-to-school skills get rusty over the summer, but I found one at my house was already in midsemester form: procrastination.

That's why -- with the year's first school bell less than 10 hours from ringing -- I was pawing through scattered shelves at the 24-hour store getting some of the required items the young student at my house had apparently neglected to acquire.

My initial irritation was mitigated by seeing so many fellow parents I recognized, and after several minutes of commiserating we all vowed to punish the young scholars who had inspired our 11th-hour purchase rush.

I considered outfitting my teenager with pink three-ring binders featuring unicorns, but they were apparently sold out.

He lucked out this time, and hopefully such good fortune will continue in the school year ahead.

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MAIL CALL: Lori and Dave Van Lenten were in Washington, D.C., celebrating their fifth wedding anniversary.

Winston Johnson sends a card from Columbus, Ohio, where the 749th Railway Operating Battalion's 62nd annual reunion took place.

Joy Southern , of Augusta, sends a card from Orlando and Daytona Beach, Fla., where her weight loss club is celebrating its losses.

She says her group -- Carol , Bonnie , Ruth , Mary C and Mary A -- is tops.

Roy , Janice , Emily , Elizabeth Ann , Cleveland and (looks like) Brice , from Johnston, S.C,, say "Howdy" from Oklahoma.

It looks like Belford and Countess Wilkerson , of Thomson, made it to Pike's Peak in Colorado.

Diane , Tyler and Kyle Cole say they brought some of Beech Island's warm weather all the way up to Maine.

Eric , Carolyn Chan , Jamison , EJ and Shirley write from Wyoming, where the scenery is nice, but they're having trouble adjusting to dry air. "Never thought we'd miss humidity," they write.

Margie and Brian Yeaton , of North Augusta, are visiting family in Pennsylvania's famous Punxsutawney groundhog country.

Roy and Carolyn Head , of North Augusta, were also in Pennsylvania, sending a card from Bird-In-the-Hand.

Rob Hamilton says he spent a week of "winterlike weather" in Minnesota.

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TRAVEL JOKE (SUPPOSEDLY TRUE): As a Delta Air Lines jet was flying over Arizona on a clear day, the co-pilot was providing his passengers with a running commentary about landmarks over the PA system.

"Coming up on the right, you can see the Meteor Crater, which is a major tourist attraction in northern Arizona.

"It was formed when a lump of nickel and iron, roughly 150 feet in diameter and weighing 300,000 tons, struck the Earth at about 40,000 miles per hour, scattering white-hot debris for miles in every direction. The hole measures nearly a mile across and is 570 feet deep."

From the cabin, a passenger was heard to exclaim, "Wow! It just missed the highway!"

Reach Bill Kirby at (706) 823-3344 or bill.kirby@augustachronicle.com.