Cars and Driveways and Dreams

This is still the same day but tomorrow morning Amena has an appointment at 8:00 am with an oral surgeon in Worcester so I’m not going to have much time in the morning and I might not have much time in the early afternoon if she gets right in and it doesn’t take too long. So, I’m going to talk about the driveway.

Yesterday Amena went with Lincoln and Joanna to get her first car. That’s a pretty big deal, in my book. It is my belief that it will make my life much easier because I won’t have to perform taxi services for Amena anymore. If she misses the bus, she can drive to school. She can take herself to and from work. If she needs to stay after school to work on something, she can do it. If she wants to go visit someone, she can. It won’t matter that I won’t be home; she’ll be able to do what needs to be done and I won’t have to worry about finding or helping her find a ride. Believe me when I say I am totally and completely okay with her having a car.

Amena's new car from the shovel path. There is room for another car.

She got home yesterday and parked in the driveway. She and her brothers went to bed.

Paul got home. He called me while he was outside still to let me know there was a car in the driveway. “It’s Amena’s,” I said.

“Oh. Well, she’s going to be blocked in.”

“That’s okay.” She wasn’t planning on going anywhere until after school anyway because it still needed an inspection.

“I’ve got groceries. I can’t bring them all in.” He isn’t supposed to lift anything heavier than ten pounds.

This one I took from the driveway by the mailbox. I suppose it probably looked much different in the dark. Especially to someone who admits his night vision is not good.

“Are they perishable?”

“I can bring almost everything but not…..” I didn’t hear what the not was. “I just don’t want it to freeze.” Understandable. It was supposed to get down to 27° last night; I’m not sure it did but if not, it was pretty close. This morning I went out to see what didn’t get brought in and it was a gallon jar of pickles. There’s so much vinegar and salt in those it would take colder temperatures to freeze it; they were fine.

He came in and I already knew he needed to eat because he was grumpy. That’s the way it works. He expressed doubts and misgivings about Amena having a car, especially in light of the email from her teacher a few days ago indicating that she was failing English.

It is very hard to talk to him when he is in one of these hunger induced moods. Nothing is good enough and I always make excuses for the children. I try to listen to what he’s saying and respond as best I can but I’m afraid I fail because, as I mentioned, nothing is good enough.

He said that she needs to learn how to park and that if people want to park, they need to shovel so there is room because “there isn’t any room to park down there.” I admittedly hadn’t gone out to see exactly how she parked but I knew where I parked the white car and I knew that when he left for work, he moved the silver car to the other side of the white one so he could take the blue one. Even with an additional car, there should have been plenty of room. I did go out later to get something I’d left in the car and it didn’t seem to me that there was any lack of space or that more shoveling really needed to be done. Of course, different people do have different perspectives.

Anyway, just a rather unpleasant late evening.

I went to bed once I had submitted an assignment for Third Stage Management and took (and got 100%) on the quiz for that unit. It didn’t take long to get to sleep because I was tired.

Just before my 5:00 alarm went off, I had a dream and I'm pretty sure in was very influenced by the verbal exchange before I went to bed.

We had moved into a different house. It had a long hallway and all the bedrooms were off it. Amena had just painted her room so that it was white at the top by the ceiling, blue at the bottom, and they blended together a little higher than half-way up the walls. It looked really cool. There was one room that was a cluttered mess and from the looks of it, the mess wasn’t anything that belonged to me, Amena, or the boys and it didn’t look like anything that would be Paul’s either.

I was out in the garden one afternoon (that looked very much like the one we had in Greenview the summer before Laura was born) and was picking some carrots and asked Amena if she could get one particular one for me. It was out of my reach and I think I had Maddie with me. Amena said she couldn’t get it because she had zero specific gravity. I have no idea if that actually means anything but in my dream, it meant that she was pregnant but was probably going to lose the baby. I wasn’t about to tell anyone else, though, even though I wanted to at least tell Joanna and Laura.

Later, we were in the house and Paul was upset. He was really letting Amena have all kinds of heck about getting a car. He said that although she may have earned the ability to get the car, that didn’t mean she had earned the ability to drive it. I don’t really remember Amena saying anything but she was certainly getting angry and she ended up leaving with Lincoln and Joanna who were both at the house. My mom or Laura was there as well, but I’m not quite sure which one it was.

At that point, I needed to use the bathroom and if I have to in a dream, it means I have to for real. My alarm went off and I got up. Amena was already in the shower so I went downstairs to use the bathroom. I made sure Cedric was awake and then I went back to bed for a few minutes.

Due to the nature of the dream, there was no way I was going to get back to sleep so I got up for good at 5:20. I started the whole smoothie and hot chocolate morning routine and waited for Amena to be done in the bathroom.

I did want to tell Amena about this dream because she figured so prominently in it so once she was dressed, I did. When I told her she was pregnant I said, “And that wasn’t the worst thing,” and she made an entirely appropriate face which is somewhat beyond description. That was funny.

Other than the strange dream, it was a pretty good day. The boys got their work done pretty well. We started reading a book for science about Marie Curie. The introduction wasn’t that exciting even though the author attempted to add some humor.

Seth and I did do a bit of shoveling. It was so nice out that the three of us agreed it was too nice to be inside.

When Amena got home, I went with her for the inspection. The car failed but she ought to be able to take it to the place she got it and they ought to fix it for her. If not, she now knows what she can do about it. Then we went to the credit union and then home.

Seth had scouts tonight and is all set to go on the campout this weekend. It sounds like fun to me and I need to remember to email someone something about that.

And now it’s time for me to get myself to bed so I’ll be off and hopefully this will be posted in the early am tomorrow.

Have a terrifical day!

A Bit of Catching Up

My last post was written the day before a huge blizzard was expected. Now we are a week post huge blizzard.

That Sunday Paul stayed home, Cedric had spent the night at Jacob’s. I was going to pick him up at 8:00 like I usually do Sunday morning but I wasn’t home at 8:00 am. He stayed at Jacob’s until around 5 that afternoon. Seth and Joseph got a ride to church with Jeremy West. Amena wasn’t ready in time and thought that if Cedric didn’t have to go to church, she shouldn’t have to, either. At least, that’s the story I heard. Her version was similar but she’d planned to go with Joanna to look at a car so she left sometime between 11 and 12.

I got home relatively early. The labor ended with a placental abruption and trip to the hospital. I did not go to the hospital but did go home. I had to milk a poor Zoey and feed and water the goats. Then I took a shower. By the time I felt sort of human, it was pretty late and so I didn’t get to church at all.

I like to take the leftover wax and make new candles, if you recall. Sometimes it wrinkles up and looks really cool. This is from the 15th I think.

Monday not much happened. Because of the expected huge blizzard, school was cancelled for Tuesday and a two-hour delay scheduled for Wednesday. Because of this, many plans were made for sleeping over here and there. Cedric went to Jacob’s. Amena and a friend went to another friend’s. I warned both of them that if roads weren’t good Tuesday evening, I wouldn’t be picking anyone up. Of course, they were both okay with that. I think roads were possibly passible by the time it was five or six but it was dark and the driveway wasn’t plowed or shoveled and I wasn’t going to go out and do that then.

Tuesday morning I got up at 4:30 and shoveled enough to get the white car out of the driveway. My plan was to pick Amena up in Hardwick at 5:30 and Cedric up at Jacob’s at 6:00. However, it took longer to shovel than I realized it would so I started almost 15 minutes late. The roads weren’t bad, except in Barre, but they weren’t good enough to drive very fast so it took the whole 45 minutes to get to Hardwick. By then it was 6:00 and it took about 30 minutes or so to get back to Hubbardston. Still, even though everything was slower and later than I’d wanted, it was still pretty okay.

All five boys playing Risk. Ryan was actually just playing with the pieces but still, it was pretty cool.

Tyler and Ryan spent Tuesday and Wednesday nights here so we still had four younglings around. They had a two-hour delay as well, but their mother decided to let them skip school. I wasn’t even going to attempt having Seth and Joseph do school work with Tyler and Ryan acting as distractions so we had two days off school.

Paul almost didn’t go to work Wednesday but ended up going after all. The roads were pretty decent by the time he left.

I think there was something up Thursday and something up Friday but they were so long ago I don’t remember for sure and I just finished printing out my planner for this year this morning so needless to say I don’t have anything written down for them. Lame, I know, but it’s what I’ve got so it’s what I’m going with.

Friday night Seth and Joseph stayed at Tyler and Ryan’s and Cedric was at Jacob’s so when Maddie arrived Saturday morning, only Auntie Amena was here. That was okay. And, actually, Amena and I went to Friendley’s to meet Joanna and get Maddie because Joanna was running late. Amena drove Joanna’s car and Maddie home so, like most Saturday’s, she could drive Joanna’s car to work.

Is she not the cutest? This and the next are from Saturday.

Maddie is super cute, as always, and we always have fun with her when she’s here. She’s getting so big!

She's getting really good at picking up small objects and getting them to her mouth. These small objects were food so it was all good.

Sunday was an interesting day. There were three prenatals I wanted to go to but I felt somewhat sick to my stomach with a bit of diarrhea thrown in so I ended up not going. Amena wasn’t ready to go when I was and Cedric was being difficult and basically refusing to go so they were left at home. Paul hadn’t been sure if he was going to go to his meetings or not but ended up leaving in time to get there only a few minutes late.

Going back just a bit, Paul and I were asked to help chaperone a dance at church Saturday evening. We ended up not and that’s an interesting story in and of itself. I might elaborate another time.

Paul instead went shopping even though he didn’t have to. That is kind of part of the same interesting story so perhaps more another time.

Amena and I went to Hardwick to pick up a friend so she could sleep over (which is partly why Amena wasn’t ready to go in time on Sunday). We also picked Cedric up from Jacob’s on the way home. We got home close to 11:00. Joseph was still wandering around, Seth was in bed sounding a bit like he’d like to be asleep. Paul was in his chair. By the time I figured this all out, it was 11:00 and Paul said he’d asked Seth to bring in groceries half an hour ago. At 10:30? Really? Yikes! That’s really when I figured out that Seth was half asleep. I decided to just bring stuff in myself and mentioned on my way out that I’d told the boys to go to bed at 9:00. I got the perishables put away but left the rest on the couch in the living room.

Then I went to bed. I think. I’d wanted to go to bed as soon as I got home from taxi service but that didn’t happen. I’m glad that I don’t have to get up at 5 or 5:30 on Sunday mornings.

Sunday afternoon, Seth and Joseph helped to varying degrees to make lemon bars, lemon pie filling, lemon poppy seed muffins, and lemon sherbet. Except that none of them were exclusively lemon and some were exclusively lime. Still, good stuff, you know? We had tacos for lunch and I made hot chocolate for dinner. Except for the intestinal problems, it was an okay afternoon.

And that gets us almost caught up to date. I was going to do that but I think it might happen later. Not now.

Have a splendiferous day or week or year or whatever!

If you think it is cold in the house...

This is from a week and a day ago but some of it I felt needed to be out there so that events coming up make more sense.

March 13, 2017

8:14 am

If you think it is cold in the house…

…go spend some quality time in the barn with the goats.

If you think you already feel like crap and want to live on smoothies and tea all day…

…go out to the barn and remember that you need to move the huge round bale of hay to get to the remnants of the last one from last year before it’s only good for bedding. While you are doing that, make sure you breathe in lots of the dust from the hay so that you are assured of coughing and possibly having an asthma attack.

Good morning. Other than the cold and feeling like crap, which I can’t really admit to because everyone else either feels worse or has other things going on, life is okay. Not fantastic or even great, but okay.

My smoothie is good, albeit cold, and my tea, which I have to share with Kitty, is hot. Actually, it is no longer hot. It was hot before I went out to milk. Now it’s tepid at best. It is still good, though, and my smoothie is still cold. It’s 50 degrees in the house. Not much that is warm is going to stay that way for long. At least, well, never mind that thought.

In other news, Paul went to the doctor last Tuesday because he was having some pretty good pain. The doctor sent him in for a cat scan. That revealed a rather large kidney stone (9 mm). Heywood in Gardner sent him to UMass Memorial in Worcester. He had a stent put in Thursday evening after laying in the hospital all day Wednesday and most of the day Thursday. Friday morning his boss picked him up and took him to work where he worked for a bit. Devon brought him home Friday evening.

Tuesday Seth, Joseph, and I went to see the LEGO Batman Movie. It was worth the watch. It was funny and even has some good life lessons. However, while at the theater, my phone slipped off my lap onto the floor which apparently caused the screen to become unresponsive to touch. Paul called me at some point Tuesday but I couldn’t answer. My phone went nuts with calls and texts Tuesday evening; I could see who was calling and texting but I could not answer or respond.

Joanna finally let me know what was going on with Paul via Facebook Messenger. I went down to Worcester and ended up waiting for Paul at the wrong hospital for about an hour. That was fun. I was hungry because I hadn’t eaten dinner and was thirsty so I got a bag of CheezIts and a bottle of water. $4. Good grief. I was there so long because Joanna was under the impression that Paul was leaving via ambulance from Gardner when she spoke to him. He didn’t actually leave until much later. Finally, the girl at the information desk was able to tell me he’d arrived but at the other hospital. Great. I had to pay $3 to get out of parking there and then go park at the other one which would also cost $3 to get out. And then, I felt like my presence was pretty useless. There wasn’t anything I could do. It was late, I was tired, he hadn’t been seen by the urologist, no one knew yet what was going to happen. So I left. With $3 for parking and a debit card for fuel.

Wednesday was a busy day with taxi service. I went to get the boys from Joanna’s because they’d stayed there overnight because I didn’t know where I’d be or what was going to happen. I mean, the first report I heard about Paul was kidney failure. A stone, while painful, looks a lot different than failure. So, a trip to Athol, which was nice because it’s always nice to visit with Joanna and Maddie and Lincoln (he was only there for a few minutes before we left). Then I needed to pick Amena up from a friend’s house in Oakham. That wasn’t too bad; it wasn’t really much longer than picking up from Quabbin. Then Amena had work. While she was at work, I went to Leominster so someone at the Verizon store could look at my phone.

This is looking down the stairs. One trail to the left going to the barn, one to the right going toward the end of the driveway where the cars are parked. You can't really tell by the time I took this on the 18th, but Hubbardston made the news for snow accumulation. In the driveway we had between about 6 inches and almost 2 feet.

At some point during the day, I’d left my phone in the car while I went in the house; it was useless to me, after all. When I went back to the car, the phone was vibrating. It wouldn’t stop. When I took it in to the store, the first young woman I spoke to asked if I’d dropped it in water (um, no) because that was a sign it had been. Great. I retained my phone and waited until someone was available. When I handed it to the young man who would be helping me, he first managed to get the vibrating to stop. He didn’t think there were any signs of water damage and said it was still under warranty so if I was willing to wait, he could get me a replacement sent within 3 to 5 days. Well, what is a person to do? I agreed.

This is the trail heading to the barn.

Saturday my replacement arrived so I activated it and got the old one ready to ship back. I need to drop it off at Staples today sometime. Paul wanted to go shopping once Joanna and Maddie were on their way home. I thought he was nuts but whatever. I went with him. I hate shopping with Paul because he tends to like to stop at five hundred different stores.

We went to Aldi’s for milk. We also got a few other things. Not as many of the things I’d like to have gotten but not as many of the things he wanted to get. Then we stopped at Big Lots. I’m not really sure why because all we did was see if they had any graham crackers discounted. We didn’t need any. Then I walked to Market Basket while he drove. There we mostly got fruit for smoothies. Pretty exciting. Lastly, we got diesel in the containers and gas in the car.

This is the trail heading to the end of the driveway. It looks a lot different now.

On the way home, Paul informed me that he would not be going to church the next day because he overdid it. Well, imagine that! I could have gone shopping by myself. Except that I couldn’t have because he doesn’t really have a budget and wouldn’t have been able to tell me what the dollar limit was for the day.

Just before I went to bed, I got a call from Katie. A client was in labor. So I got ready and drove north into New Hampshire. The only problem with that is that I put the wrong address in the GPS and by the time I was half an hour away, I had to pee so bad I was seriously examining the side of the road for likely places to stop. But I was so close, I never did. Then I realized I had the wrong address. Then my phone didn’t have a strong enough signal for Waze to work so I had to rely on the GPS. By the time I got to the house, I had to go bad. Holy cow.

And then there was yesterday. Which is a tale for another day because I need to get some things done and get school going for the boys. 

Of Water and Dams and Stupid People

The month is approaching half over and I’ve yet to post anything. Not due to lack of writing anything, I just haven’t felt that what I’ve written is something I care to share with the world. It has been an interesting month, to say the least. I saw a meme on Facebook to the effect of, “January was a trial, 2017 starts February 1.” Yeah. No. I didn’t think January was that bad but February hit with a vengeance.

Yesterday, Oroville, California, was evacuated. For the first time in several years, the snow and rain has been plentiful. Reservoirs have filled to above seasonal norms. This is a good thing. In order to have room for future flooding, water has had to be released. I remember when I was 14 or so going to Shasta Dam to see water flowing over the dam. It was incredible.

The problem with Oroville is that the spillway developed a huge hole. Releasing the amount of water necessary was not really possible because even less than that would have, and did, make the hole even larger. So, water began flowing over the emergency spillway. There was a basin with a road running to a recreation area which acted as a dam of this. That was not only breached but the road was washed out. The parking area was under water last night in video I watched and water was flowing down from that area as well. Not a little, either.

As I watched this video, I read some of the comments people had made and went to bed wondering that people can be so stupid. So ignorant. So thoughtless. So rude.

“We should just give California back to Mexico.”

“This is all your stupid governor’s fault.”

“If you weren’t taking care of so many illegals, you could afford to fix your dam.”

Just a small taste.

Really? I’m not sure what the actual numbers are but one report I saw said that nearly 200,000 people were evacuated. Another said over 188,000, which is pretty close to the first. A lot of people. The roads were packed with people leaving and traffic was moving slowly. People had to comment about that, too, and give their unwanted and thoughtless advice. There were, however, also quite a few comments to the effect of, “Leave politics out of this, we’re talking about people here.”

I guess we’re so polarized right now that we don’t care about people unless they agree with what and how we think. “I’m a Democrat, you’re a Republican, you can go to hell. It’s your politics that has caused this.” And vice versa. We are all human; we all bleed red. Why can’t people wake up? Why can’t we be kind to one another? Why can’t we care that people and animals die in situations like this and that we should be asking what we can do to help rather than tear down?

I have relatives, albeit somewhat distant, who live in that area. I have quite a few relatives buried in cemeteries in that area. Anyone who knows me knows that I am not afraid or ashamed to state that I am from California. Northern California. On my mom’s side, I’m fifth generation Californian and I’m completely okay with that.

But I wanted to mention something regarding the comments people were making such as “We should just give California back to Mexico.” Or that we should just let the state secede. Think about that for a minute. Just think about it. Do you see any problems with that? The state admittedly has some money issues that are related to politics. However, everyone who lives in the state is not responsible for that. I currently live in a largely Democratic state but that doesn’t mean that I am a Democrat or have liberal leanings. It means that I live in a largely Democratic state. The fact is, I have somewhat liberal conservative leanings but that really is beside the point.

What if California were no longer part of the United States? Hmmmm.

Do you like milk? Cream?

Do you ever eat almonds or grapes or lettuce or strawberries or tomatoes or walnuts?

Do you eat beef?

Do you use hay at all?

How about wine? Do you like that?

Try this for size, 99% of the walnuts consumed in the US are grown in California. 95% of the garlic is. 99 % of artichokes consumed in the US. 95% of the celery. The milk and cream industry in California in 2015 was $6.29 billion. Grapes—do you eat those?—$4.95 billion. Flowers—ever give someone flowers?—$1.08 billion.

Do you get the idea?

Sure, give California back to Mexico. Go ahead. Better yet, let the state secede. And when either of those happen, and you are hungry because that salad or that steak or that bottle of wine or those grapes or whatever-the-heck-it-is that you really, really want costs five times what it does now, think about it.

Better yet, get your stupid head out of the sand and wake up. Smell the roses, or coffee, or whatever.

Be a part of the solution instead of part of the problem.

No Words

I was perusing Facebook earlier and saw one of those posts that you never want to see. The feelings come flooding back and your heart aches for the family who will be, indeed already are, aching. Joseph said, “Why are your eyes red?”

My eyes are red because there are no adequate words to describe the feelings I have.

Another day, it is sometimes hard to believe how quickly the time passes by, the feelings are still present. As I was on my way home from picking Amena up last night, a Creed song was on the radio. It wasn’t the one I’ll post here, but it reminded me of this one. “Children, don’t stop dancin’; Believe, you can fly. . . away. . . away. . .” and “Although I hurt, I must be strong, Because inside I know that many feel this way.”

The other day, I was going somewhere, to pick Cedric and Jacob up from the school, I think, and I was listening to the radio again. Listening to the radio is difficult because I’m kind of picky about what I want to listen to and although many stations play what I like, they don’t always. So, it’s a crap shoot as to if I’ll hear something I actually want to listen to. It does happen. And this particular day, this came on. I’ve listened to this before and I’ve cried because some of the words perfectly describe how I feel. “I love you, I’ve loved you all along, And I miss you, Been far away for far too long. I keep dreaming, You’ll be with me and you’ll never go…”

On this particular day, I was thinking about how Daniel might feel. I know he has an eternal perspective now that I don’t because I’m still here and he isn’t, but when the song came to, “I’ll forgive you…” it was like Daniel speaking. That was powerful. It still is. I needed that because there still is, and might always be while I’m alive, a piece of me that can’t forgive myself. I know that there is a reason for everything and I do not believe in consequence. I know that I don’t know everything but I know that if I do everything I need to, I will be able to be with Daniel again. If I did not know this, I would “stop breathing (because) I don’t see you anymore.”

This morning while I was looking for that video to share with you, I ran across this one. I had never watched the official video because I like to think I don’t have time to just sit and watch videos; most of the time I really don’t. Still, I watched this and it’s almost perfect. The girl goes through life seeing her father at all these important milestones but it turns out that he really wasn’t there, she was seeing the ghost of what could have been. That is something that I, and every other parent who has a child graduated from mortality, must live with every single day. In spite of what I believe and know, I still miss what could have been.

Yesterday I asked Cedric how Nick is. Nick is Jacob’s brother. He got cancer and has been fighting the fight but is losing. Cedric said, “He’s bad; he can’t even move.” Amena reported that the friend of a friend said that he might not make it through the night two nights ago. Yesterday on Facebook, his mom reported that he’d be earning his angel wings soon. My heart aches.

More Words (and Pictures)

Good morning. Yesterday was one of those okay days that was really ridiculous. One of those days when you see someone with only two children and you think they’ve got it easy.

Today is Seth’s birthday. Because Amena works this evening and Paul has a hard time getting home at a reasonable hour, I asked Seth when he would like to have his family party. He said Saturday which is completely fine. If it’s the choice of the person whose birthday it is to celebrate on a day other than the actual day of birth, I’m completely okay with it. If it is chosen because it’s easier for those who might want to be there, I’m not so okay with it. His choice; completely okay.

Paul likes to do birthdays on Sunday because everyone is home, blah, blah, blah. Only problem with that is that I hate doing birthdays on Sunday just because it’s convenient. That’s why we have three day weekends and I wrote letters to my representatives about that many years ago. I can understand why, I just don’t like it. And I probably won’t ever like it.

Because Seth said he was okay with Saturday, I told Cedric that he could spend the night at Jacob’s because that’s when he’s having his birthday party.

Because I said Saturday was the day, Paul said, “I’ve got meetings for Stake Conference.”

What? Really? The first time since we’ve been here that you’ve decided to go to the meetings on Saturday? Hmmm. I guess I should really work on my Jedi mind reading skills.

Because I said Saturday was the day, Amena said, “But I wanted to go to Nick’s after work.”

Well, that’s a huge surprise. We can make all kinds of deals to get to his house for birthday parties for his cousin’s but your own brother doesn’t even rate? Right?

My solution is this: Amena can go to Nick’s after work. Paul can go to his meetings. Paul can pick Amena up on his way home. Problem solved.

Will they like it? Probably not.

Do I care? Not at this point.

***

Maddie baby. She's the cutest little girl around, let me tell you. She had eaten all her pears and had some milk and still thought she'd give her book a chew, too. This is from the 21st.

I wasn’t going to make hot chocolate for Amena and Cedric this morning because a couple of days ago, Amena made a big deal about the fact that I’ve made a big deal about the fact that she didn’t wash the thing that she takes hot chocolate in but I’ve never made a big deal about Cedric not washing the one he uses. I went ahead and made hot chocolate anyway, and told Cedric that if he wanted some, he’d have to wash the thing. I don’t even know where he put it from yesterday so there’s no way I could wash it. Amena at least put hers in the sink but I didn’t wash any dishes this morning. So, there’s hot chocolate on the stove getting cold. I’m sure Seth and Joseph will be happy to have some once they get up.

***

Kitty was helping me read. She's a big help, as you can see. From the 23rd.

The water here usually doesn’t taste very good in the morning so I’ve developed this habit of drinking a cup of tea when I get up. I’ve run out of all the ones I like and I went through everything that’s here and tried something that seemed promising yesterday. It wasn’t that great so I went through the shelf that Paul has his tea, etc., on. I didn’t find anything that I wanted to try because although there are some I like, they are meant to be made by the quart as iced tea and that’s not what I want right now. Although, now that I think about it, I could just make that much and drink it hot. A quart isn’t really that much more than I have to begin with. Well, you know, sort of.

What I did find was two open boxes of Truvia. That’s the stevia sweetener that Paul likes to use. There were five or six unopened boxes as well. Most of them were hiding and he looks for things about as well as some children I know so I guess it’s natural that he would think there weren’t any which is why he bought some a month or few ago to take to work. There were two opened boxes of Swiss Miss Dark Chocolate hot chocolate mix. There was a Reece’s Peanut Butter Cup still in its wrapper that bugs ate through. There was an open and partly used box of lasagna that had had bugs in residence.

I ended up emptying four boxes and there is now actually a bit of wiggle room on that shelf. I also ended up trying some of the tea that there had been two open boxes of. I know that Laura liked it when she was here (that tells you how long it’s been around and the scary thing is that there is some tea here that has been here longer than I have). It’s okay but I’m not a big fan.

***

The clouds were really pretty yesterday with the layers and sunlight. There was an even more incredible view toward the west but by the time I got to the school in Barre, it wasn't as amazing so I didn't take a picture.

Yesterday afternoon Seth and Joseph got to go to the church for games and a possible movie as a kind of birthday party for Seth. They both reported that they had fun which is always nice to hear. I dropped them off and went to Barre to pick Cedric and Jacob up. Then I was home for a bit before going back to church to meet Katie.

Cedric texted earlier in the afternoon asking if he could spend the night at Jacob’s. On a weekday night? I don’t think so.

On the way home, he asked if he could play soccer on Sunday because there’s going to be a tournament at Clark University in Worcester and Jacob is going. Jacob’s mom is supposed to have emailed me information about it. I haven’t even looked at my email since early yesterday afternoon so I don’t know what the details on it are.

I asked Meredith if she could give Seth and Joseph a ride home because my plan was to be out with Katie and Erin for a prenatal. She was able to, yay!, and the boys traded the snow stuff that Tyler left here Tuesday for my rubber boots that he accidentally wore home that day.

Katie texted at some point in the afternoon to say they were going to leave an hour early to go to Korean. I was welcome to go or meet them at the appointment. At first I thought, “Korean? Is that a new client or something?” No, dope head, it’s a kind of food. An hour early still gave me time to pick Cedric and Jacob up so it was all good and I got to the church, which is an excellent meeting place for many of our destinations to the east, a few minutes early. When Katie pulled in, there were two cars behind her so I thought I needed to hurry and get in her car so they could get by (I think they could have if I’d have thought about it). When I got in, she said that Christiana, Katie’s daughter was going with us and would sit on the stairs during the appointment and that Erin was in her car, and Erin’s friend was in her car which is why there were three cars. Katie was in the lead because she’d have me and I’d be able to tell them which exit for the Korean restaurant.

That was a blast. Really. On the way there, I got to listen to Christiana talking about group chats and it was amazingly similar to Amena’s discussions about group chats. When we were at the restaurant, Katie retold the story of a parrot that one client has who likes to choke himself; absolutely hilarious.

I got home at a reasonable hour not too much after nine, and Paul got home not long after that. I thought I was going to get all kinds of reading done but I didn’t. I did get a few pages, but not nearly as many as I wanted to. Paul brought home one of those huge avocados that is almost ready to eat. Sometimes the pits are so big you get almost no actual avocado; I’m hoping this isn’t one of those.

Today Seth and Joseph have dentist appointments so we’ll do that and read a few pages of The Fellowship of the Ring and I’ll get some reading done and I’ll make ice-cream and maybe Seth’s cake. Seth isn’t happy about going to the dentist on his birthday and both boys asked if I could reschedule. Their appointments have been rescheduled and forgotten too many times already so I didn’t. If I had, I’d be going with Katie and Erin to a prenatal in New Hampshire for a client I haven’t met yet who is due in March. Next visit I’ve got to go.

Anyway, that’s that. Have a terrific day.

Words. Just Words.

Good morning. I have some wax from old candles melting and it is almost time to get school started for the boys. I was going to sit and read because I’ve got 36 pages of Anne Frye to read before I finish an assignment, take a quiz, and move on to the next section; I even put my hot chocolate over by the couch. However, I needed to use the bathroom so while I was thus occupied, I braided my hair. When I was done, I decided that it had been a while since I’d done anything here and so I would do that rather than read. After all, it is only 36 pages and I’ve got enough time to do it without spending these past ten minutes on it. Right?

I actually typed a few paragraphs earlier this month. One of them has to do with showers. I said, “You should never complain about people taking long showers when you have the water running for twenty-seven minutes. Just FYI.” This morning I took a shower and was dressed while the water in the other bathroom was running. I no longer feel bad about taking a little more time in the shower upon occasion or taking more than one during the summer.

This morning I let the dog out and sat on the couch in the room-that-isn’t-the-library-or-dining-room-or-entry between the stairs and the fireplace to vegetate because my eyes felt something akin to sandpaper due to the fact I stayed up until about 11:30 last night finishing an assignment. I know I shouldn’t stay up so late when I need to get up early but for some stupid reason, I do it anyway. Kitty decided she wanted some lap time so I pet her and scratched her neck which of course sent her to kitty nirvana. We would have continued had it not been for the barking of the canine; she wanted back in. I disturbed Kitty, forcing her back to the harsh realities of life, and let Misty in. Then I busied myself washing some dishes and making hot chocolate for Cedric and Amena to take with them. For some reason, I have to use the bathroom every now and then, twice so far just today. When I was done this time, I went through the library toward the kitchen and discovered that the mangy mutt (she isn’t either, really, but I was annoyed) had both peed and pooped on the floor. She’d been out earlier, for goodness sake! I expressed much displeasure as I mopped and picked up the mess before resuming hot chocolate and wax melting duties.

When last I typed, I also mentioned a dream that I’d had. It was interesting enough I’d like to include it now so here you go:

I’d gone to a birth with Katie and Erin but for some reason, I’d taken Amena and the three boys. Joanna and Maddie were there, too, and Laura and Blaine lived in the same town. During the prodromal labor, for which everyone was there (why?), I walked to the library and discovered this really awesome place that had stone steps down to a creek. There was some snow and dirt and rocks on some of the steps and some of the steps went down into the water. I determined that while I didn’t have the time right then to explore, I would return and do so later. I returned to the home where the birth was eminent and fell promptly to sleep and therefore missed the birth. When I woke up from the nap in the dream I was going to walk to see Laura but decided that we’d all been there for entirely too long and was beginning the process of gathering everyone and all their stuff so we could all leave when I woke up from the dream. I think that the part before the nap was before I got up to use the bathroom and the rest was after. So, if I’d not gotten up, maybe I wouldn’t have missed the birth.

Tomorrow is Seth’s birthday. He’ll be 13. Holy cow.

Have a fantabulous day!