6:24? Already? I thought it was
just 6:20 when I looked at the clock on the stove just before I opened this up.
No way. Amena is still in her room. Her
lunch is ready. I hope she is almost ready because there is no way we can take
her to school. More about that later if I remember.
Today is the day I get to take
the ASCP phlebotomy certification exam. I’m not sure that feel ready entirely.
I’m not sure I ever would. I am going to review this morning but no heavy
beat-myself-up-if-I-don’t-remember-something studying. Should be awesome and
groovy. Paul is staying and working from home today. I think he is planning on
taking me down. More about that if I remember.
I have been missing Daniel a lot
these past few days. Amena took responsibility for decorating the Christmas
tree and that was fine. I don’t know if my memories of Daniel decorating are
ever going to fade to the point that . . . well, to some point. I don’t want
them to and yet I can’t do it. I think this is something that I really should let
go of but I’m not entirely sure how. I’ve always liked Christmas to some degree
or another. I was often disappointed when the children were younger because I
wasn’t able to get them what I really wanted to but Christmas always turned out
pretty well in spite of that. Now it’s one of the times when memories of Daniel
weigh heavy on my mind and allergy attacks become several times a day
occurrences.
It’s time to rouse the boys from
bed. I think they were all hoping that school would be cancelled for today.
Based on what has happened previously, it’s somewhat surprising that it isn’t
cancelled, or at least delayed by two hours, this morning. It did snow more
last night and the roads can’t be completely cleared off.
It’s kind of strange how the
mind works. I was just thinking about snowy roads and then about McCloud where
there was just one bus; everyone else drove or walked and there were a lot of
students who walked. Quite honestly, I think it was kind of dumb to even want
to drive from my house to the high school since it was so close—unless it was
really foggy or snowing really hard, it was visible from my house. I think it
took all of maybe five minutes to walk. From there I was thinking about parking
at school if a person were to drive. I think when there were more students,
more drove. The parking lot in front of the school was for faculty and seniors.
I don’t remember if the paved parking lot behind that or the graveled one was
for juniors. I remember walking to elementary school by the shop and the tennis
courts and the edge of the graveled parking lot. Then there was a trail amongst
a few trees, one was a pussy willow, and then there was a ditch just before the
fence. The ditch was cool sometimes because in the spring there would be water
running off from the melting snow. When I got to the middle grades, I would
walk up and across the football field and climb the fence because it was
shorter. When there was snow on the ground and it was solid enough to walk on,
I could walk right over the fence. That was cool.
There are things I miss about
living in a small town like McCloud. I really never did feel like I fit in but
that was as much my own doing as anyone else’s. I certainly could have done
more and could have been more outgoing. I had everything I really needed—my immediate
family, my grandparents, and sometimes an aunt and a cousin or an aunt, uncle
and two cousins.
There are things I miss about
living in an even smaller town in Idaho. After all, how many elementary schools
have cross-country skis for their second grade students? And, even though I was
putting my 4th grader, 1st grader, and kindergartener in
school after having homeschooled, each of them knew at least one student in
their class from church which was nice and they all made other friends and if
it weren’t for the fact that one of my girls had too much unwanted attention,
life really was pretty good. We had a grandmother living with us and an aunt
and uncle not too far away. Life really was pretty good. But not perfect.
Until we moved here, I’d never
lived in a town that required six buses to take all the students to the local
elementary school. And there are a fair amount who don’t ride the bus for
whatever reason. There were a couple of buses for the school in Naples but that
was something of a necessity because most of the students lived a distance from
the school. We were four miles away and had to go a mile to get to the end of a
dirt road for the bus. There were a lot of families whose children utilized
that stop; I think there were at least six. Families. More than twice that many
students.
I miss various things about most
of the places I’ve lived. Mostly I think I miss things about McCloud and
Naples. One thing I don’t miss about any place I’ve lived and one thing that
annoys me about living here is the narrow-mindedness of people who have lived
in just one place their entire lives; people who even though they may have
travelled a bit still have such a narrow view of life that they can’t or don’t
or won’t allow that things are different in other places or that the place they
live isn’t the be-all and end-all of existence or that the rest of the world is
actually different from how they perceive it to be.
Monday, Blair sideswiped the
Jetta. I never got a look at it but Paul says that both passenger side doors
were banged up and the mirror as well. He drove it to work yesterday and was
planning on leaving early to get home in time to be here so I could drive the
Jetta to the hospital for my childbirth education class. Class ended up
cancelled but Paul left early anyway at 4:00. He didn’t get home until after
7:00. It was snowing and he got stuck behind a car on 68 going 20 miles per
hour. On the last hill before the center of Hubbardston, the Jetta died.
Because he was going uphill and had no speed due to being stuck behind a really
slow car, he wasn’t able to finish ascending the hill. He’s not sure what’s
wrong with it for this to happen because the sideswipe wouldn’t have anything
to do with the engine. Anyway, he was on the side of the road and had one bar
on his phone so he called Ray and asked him to come tow him to his garage. Paul
said Ray was almost there when a police officer stopped. Paul said that he
could either call a flat bed or wait three or four or five hours or have Ray
tow him and be out of there in just a few minutes. It’s illegal to tow with a
strap or rope but the officer said to go ahead and get towed; another other
decision would have been folly with the driving conditions last night.
So, with no Jetta, we’ve only
got the truck and the van running and the van seems to need something. Not sure
what. The bug, I think I mentioned a day or two ago, has a busted fuel line.
The green car needs a new battery. For now, the truck is our most reliable
transportation and with the plow on the front, I wouldn’t want to drive Amena
to school with it right now.
As for my test, Amena has Mutual
tonight and I’ve asked Julia for a ride for her. If Paul takes me to my test,
we really need to take the boys with us because they can’t stay home alone and
even if Amena were to stay home from church with them, that’s not really the
best option either because she and Cedric tend to fight too much too often for
me to be terribly comfortable leaving them for more than a few minutes. I guess
the options are to let me drive the truck down, which I’d rather not do, or
take the boys and entertain them while I’m taking my test. I don’t like either
option very much and the only other real alternative even less. Isn’t life
grand?
Have a splendiferous day!
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