Well another foot fell on us yesterday. The good thing is that they plowed our neighborhood early and it's now clearer than it has been since the first snowfall at Christmas. The bad thing is that they neglected some main routes around town. Figures this would happen the first year that I have to worry about a teen driver. At least she is driving the Explorer. I am terrified in my little tiny car. Yesterday when I drove to work, two cars spun out and crashed in front of me on the parkway. I had taken the parkway only because I thought it would be the only road plowed! The rest were horrendous!
So Pegleg has her leg back! It looks pretty good, too. Of course she can't walk on it, but she will learn. She does have some irritation from being in the cast for so long, some pink pimples and little sores from the rubbing of the splint rods, but that should heal quickly now. She was licking at it but now she has curled herself into a nice little ball and she is resting comfortably.
As for Wilbur, his lump was tapped and the vet felt that what he got out was joint fluid. (It is on his 'wrist'). So we should have results of that back early next week. I am still worried, but the xray did show no bone involvement so let's just hope it was some sort of acute injury that will heal. It's gone down a lot since being tapped, but I guess it might fill back up. It did seem larger two days ago and smaller again yesterday, so it may be inflammation? Maybe? (What do I know..?)
And B is back to school, second semester in full swing. He already has a 50 in English, I guess he did poorly on his only homework, whatever it was that he did while he was home with the sickness. He seemed recovered from that, and he went to swim practice tonight, the first time in two weeks and he has a meet in the wee hours of morning. This may be the end of his high school season, as they only take the fastest to the state tournament meets, which are basically all that remain. There is one other, but it's also important.
M remains in the top five on the performance lists, but that is in jeopardy this weekend when there are several really fast meets around the state. She is now third in the state in both of her events; but I know there are girls who go faster but may not have been challenged yet. Still, it is exciting, and she has the conference meet next Sunday, her last meet of her high school career, since her high school coach doesn't let them go to the state meet. Too bad, it would be fun to go just once. But they have their Y State meet the following weekend and he is getting them ready for Nationals, so we have to do whatever he says. And the meet is a trek to a pool two hours away, and you have to go back the next day if you qualify for finals.
Speaking of Nationals, the bleachers at the pool have been condemned! A piece of them fell into a room below! So I guess it is better to know this now rather than to be on that piece that falls but now we don't know what their solution will be. A small part was closed even last year but we managed. There is no way there is going to be enough seating. Of course, Kevin has covered himself by volunteering to work the entire week, as an official on deck. I guess B and I will be doing a lot of sightseeing!
And in other news, will it ever stop snowing? I heard on the radio today that people are becoming depressed because of all the snow. I can believe it! Although sometimes when I drive down a quiet country road and just see all the untouched white, I do find it very peaceful. I also pass a lot of horse farms, and today I saw some black horses out in the snow, and their contrast to the white was striking. Of course, they are also fun to watch when they romp around in the fields of green!
Friday, January 28, 2011
Sunday, January 23, 2011
project pegleg and related woes
The surgery is a week in the past now on the lame beast called Abby. She sports a bright green cast to keep her splint in place while her kneecap heals back into its new location. She did have a pink cast, but she did a number on that when her lampshade wasn't long enough to keep her nose from poking out the end.
The good part about that was that she got the pain patch removed several days early. I think that the patch was bothering her more than the pain itself, plus it was in a spot on her back that hits me in the face if I try to pick her up. Which I finally did on Friday, and threw out my lower back trying to keep her from bolting around on the driveway.
Outside, she is slow to do her business, as she wants to eat snow, try to run in snow, or watch the world go by. We are cold and stressed, and want her to go, so we can bring her back in and box her back up. In the beginning, she got the idea that the crate was her home, and the pen we set up was her bathroom. So we have had to combat this with various hit or miss techniques. Last night, Kevin almost had to be committed to an institution because on one of his many ventures out, she was about to go (so he says) when the dog across the street started barking like crazy, a pizza delivery car cruised the block, and the dog next door came outside and her people called for her.
As if one dog with a woe is not enough, the other day Wilbur was licking his forepaw, and I checked to see why. He has a hard painless lump on his wrist! I looked this up, of course, internet hypochondria kicked in, and I spent the day in a near-panic, sure that he had bone cancer, which carries a very grim prognosis when found in the extremities. I got him into the vet that afternoon and was greatly relieved to find out that, whatever it is, is NOT on the bone. It's a soft tissue mass which seems to have no connection at all to the bone.
The vet said he could try to aspirate it, but he thought it would be ok to wait a couple of weeks to see if it would heal on its own. In two days it hasn't shrunk, but it hasn't grown either. I might ask for antibiotics tomorrow, when we take Abby in for her cast check. It reminds me of a lump Molly once had on her paw that went away when she took antibiotics. So I still don't know what it is, it could still be bad, but at least it is not bone cancer!
As for B, midterms were last week and it was a week of hell as usual. Grades are trickling in and so far, he hasn't failed a class ::knock wood - English grades are not online yet, nor religion:: but he did do poorly on history, which brought his average down. Math and chemistry were respectable grades, so that was a nice thing. But awaiting the rest of the grades is always a stressful time.
Today is the Y meet where they honor the seniors at their last home meet!! I don't think I will be able to stay composed. And this is only the first - we have nationals (at which, by the way, we may not even be able to watch, we got notice last week that the city condemned the bleachers at the pool!) and then the worst: the end of year banquet with the speeches !!! Not the speeches !!
We were looking online today and found a state performance list and saw that M is listed as top in the 200 and second in the 500! In the state! However, there's another story covering a county meet where a girl blew everyone away and took the top spot in both, which bumps M down at least one spot, and other county meets might have the effect of lowering her further. But it's exciting to see that anyway. Occasionally a story will say that someone's time is xth in the state, but we have never seen the actual list so we've always had to wonder.
And in other news, our house is a disaster, and they say more winter weather is to arrive on Tuesday and Wednesday .. enough of this!!! Can we just see some grass for a few days? I was thinking the other day about the snow at Christmas and how it looked so beautiful and everyone took pictures and posted them on Facebook. Now it's just so depressing that we all look at old pictures from springtime and vacations to warm locales and dream of better weather days!
The good part about that was that she got the pain patch removed several days early. I think that the patch was bothering her more than the pain itself, plus it was in a spot on her back that hits me in the face if I try to pick her up. Which I finally did on Friday, and threw out my lower back trying to keep her from bolting around on the driveway.
Outside, she is slow to do her business, as she wants to eat snow, try to run in snow, or watch the world go by. We are cold and stressed, and want her to go, so we can bring her back in and box her back up. In the beginning, she got the idea that the crate was her home, and the pen we set up was her bathroom. So we have had to combat this with various hit or miss techniques. Last night, Kevin almost had to be committed to an institution because on one of his many ventures out, she was about to go (so he says) when the dog across the street started barking like crazy, a pizza delivery car cruised the block, and the dog next door came outside and her people called for her.
As if one dog with a woe is not enough, the other day Wilbur was licking his forepaw, and I checked to see why. He has a hard painless lump on his wrist! I looked this up, of course, internet hypochondria kicked in, and I spent the day in a near-panic, sure that he had bone cancer, which carries a very grim prognosis when found in the extremities. I got him into the vet that afternoon and was greatly relieved to find out that, whatever it is, is NOT on the bone. It's a soft tissue mass which seems to have no connection at all to the bone.
The vet said he could try to aspirate it, but he thought it would be ok to wait a couple of weeks to see if it would heal on its own. In two days it hasn't shrunk, but it hasn't grown either. I might ask for antibiotics tomorrow, when we take Abby in for her cast check. It reminds me of a lump Molly once had on her paw that went away when she took antibiotics. So I still don't know what it is, it could still be bad, but at least it is not bone cancer!
As for B, midterms were last week and it was a week of hell as usual. Grades are trickling in and so far, he hasn't failed a class ::knock wood - English grades are not online yet, nor religion:: but he did do poorly on history, which brought his average down. Math and chemistry were respectable grades, so that was a nice thing. But awaiting the rest of the grades is always a stressful time.
Today is the Y meet where they honor the seniors at their last home meet!! I don't think I will be able to stay composed. And this is only the first - we have nationals (at which, by the way, we may not even be able to watch, we got notice last week that the city condemned the bleachers at the pool!) and then the worst: the end of year banquet with the speeches !!! Not the speeches !!
We were looking online today and found a state performance list and saw that M is listed as top in the 200 and second in the 500! In the state! However, there's another story covering a county meet where a girl blew everyone away and took the top spot in both, which bumps M down at least one spot, and other county meets might have the effect of lowering her further. But it's exciting to see that anyway. Occasionally a story will say that someone's time is xth in the state, but we have never seen the actual list so we've always had to wonder.
And in other news, our house is a disaster, and they say more winter weather is to arrive on Tuesday and Wednesday .. enough of this!!! Can we just see some grass for a few days? I was thinking the other day about the snow at Christmas and how it looked so beautiful and everyone took pictures and posted them on Facebook. Now it's just so depressing that we all look at old pictures from springtime and vacations to warm locales and dream of better weather days!
Monday, January 17, 2011
doggone new year
Happy new year! This is the first time blogger is allowing me to post in 2011! Maybe I had to age another year before it would work again. Last time I tried it just froze up.
Anyway, as many know already, the dog is gone :( After almost 15 years as our family dog, Molly couldn't hang on another second. So, despite my better judgment I replaced her with a new dog. And I broke the dog before I even brought her in the house! She was bounding around, so excited to have a home, and she slipped on a pile of snow and blew out her patella (knee). She is over at the vet now, eight days after her arrival, recovering from the repair. She is due home tomorrow, and she'll be in a splint for two weeks and slow rehab for several months after. Hopefully she will be ready for the spring season at the dog beach! I was really looking forward to having a dog who would enjoy things like ocean swims and dog parks. Wilbur IS my best friend, but sometimes as a dog he just doesn't fill that dogness void.
This week is midterm week for B. Hell week, one might say. We're all on edge not knowing how this will go! And with the blanket of snow, it's difficult for him to walk home, but I can't leave work to pick him up at 12:30 ... it takes me 45 minutes in travel time just to get here and back. So I'm making him carry some boots in a bag to change and walk home. Or he can try to figure out about the bus .. this is when it would have been convenient! He hasn't taken it all year.
As for M, she swam successfully at the HS meet the other week, so that was a relief because after her meet in December she wasn't sure if she still had it in her! And her college coach-to-be called her the other night so she was able to redeem herself a bit by reporting more impressive times even though she was not 'tapered' for the meet. Interestingly, her college team just came off of a tri-meet where they beat one of the other teams in the conference who has been ahead of them for the past few years. Exciting times for that team, as they may be able to rise up a bit in the conference rankings.
And in other news, my job plods along. At least some new business is finally in the pipeline but it's been quite a while since I heard talk of more money, or even paid vacation days and/or holidays. I hate having to stand up for myself in these situations but it might be time to do so. Of course, now that we have to pay for the dog's patella surgery, I'll be in dire straits for the next six months!(We got a credit line to pay for it but it has to be paid off within six months or we will have interest charges - otherwise it's a 0%...but we didn't see the final tab yet ... ouch) Stay tuned.
Anyway, as many know already, the dog is gone :( After almost 15 years as our family dog, Molly couldn't hang on another second. So, despite my better judgment I replaced her with a new dog. And I broke the dog before I even brought her in the house! She was bounding around, so excited to have a home, and she slipped on a pile of snow and blew out her patella (knee). She is over at the vet now, eight days after her arrival, recovering from the repair. She is due home tomorrow, and she'll be in a splint for two weeks and slow rehab for several months after. Hopefully she will be ready for the spring season at the dog beach! I was really looking forward to having a dog who would enjoy things like ocean swims and dog parks. Wilbur IS my best friend, but sometimes as a dog he just doesn't fill that dogness void.
This week is midterm week for B. Hell week, one might say. We're all on edge not knowing how this will go! And with the blanket of snow, it's difficult for him to walk home, but I can't leave work to pick him up at 12:30 ... it takes me 45 minutes in travel time just to get here and back. So I'm making him carry some boots in a bag to change and walk home. Or he can try to figure out about the bus .. this is when it would have been convenient! He hasn't taken it all year.
As for M, she swam successfully at the HS meet the other week, so that was a relief because after her meet in December she wasn't sure if she still had it in her! And her college coach-to-be called her the other night so she was able to redeem herself a bit by reporting more impressive times even though she was not 'tapered' for the meet. Interestingly, her college team just came off of a tri-meet where they beat one of the other teams in the conference who has been ahead of them for the past few years. Exciting times for that team, as they may be able to rise up a bit in the conference rankings.
And in other news, my job plods along. At least some new business is finally in the pipeline but it's been quite a while since I heard talk of more money, or even paid vacation days and/or holidays. I hate having to stand up for myself in these situations but it might be time to do so. Of course, now that we have to pay for the dog's patella surgery, I'll be in dire straits for the next six months!(We got a credit line to pay for it but it has to be paid off within six months or we will have interest charges - otherwise it's a 0%...but we didn't see the final tab yet ... ouch) Stay tuned.
Tuesday, December 21, 2010
what is the reason for the season?
I would love Christmas if I had the time. My boss continues to ask me when I can work longer hours (I am very happy with the hours that I have, by the way, regardless of kids or not) yet when I take days off, they are unpaid. It is the best and the worst of both worlds. But I drive around and see all of the lights and trees, and we just barely managed to get ours up over the weekend. Not even all, and somehow I never feel motivated to get the rest.
Traffic is picking up, and it's impossible to get anywhere. B is still having his math tutoring, which takes me up to the main strip twice a week, and the traffic is crazy. I guess with time having run out to make purchases online, shoppers are left with no choice.
I'm not even sure if the shopping is all done, although I am hoping that it is! I made one surprise last minute purchase for M, which I had told her she was getting but not until after New Years.
Speaking of M, perhaps the news has been seen that she did in fact get her scholarship to college! She wasn't admitted to the honors college which, while a bit insulting, is also somewhat of a relief. She would have lived in different housing, and she would have had additional requirements on top of swimming and the very specific program of the college to which she was admitted, the Speech/Language Pathology and Audiology program of the health sciences college.
Since her scores and GPA and class rank were high, I can only imagine it was either (a) her low science score on the ACT (b) something else in her application or (c) the fact that she will be an athlete on scholarship that caused her not to be offered that honors spot. No matter, we are very happy with the outcome. Oh, and she also did get into the other college to which she applied, with a $10,000 scholarship. I guess that validates that she made the right choice, as she'll get more from the one she chose anyway! And what a great city Boston is for a college student!
As for B, his grades continued to spiral downward with his venture into high school swimming. Although he's been enjoying the team, he isn't very good at time management and his grades have reflected this. Tonight he chose to stay home, because he has three tests tomorrow, his last day before break. One is in English, where he hovers at the low end of passing, and the other is history, where he's holding steady at a high C. The third is in math, where the additional tutoring funds are paying off and I no longer panic at the news of an impending exam. There are plenty of other opportunities for such panic, however.
And in other news, I'll get my car fixed on Monday and Kevin is off all week. My office is closed Friday and Monday and I'll probably take off one other day as well (maybe Tuesday). M will have to go to her training trip again, like it or not, and she will be back on New Years Eve. So that's our excitement for now. Run with it!
Traffic is picking up, and it's impossible to get anywhere. B is still having his math tutoring, which takes me up to the main strip twice a week, and the traffic is crazy. I guess with time having run out to make purchases online, shoppers are left with no choice.
I'm not even sure if the shopping is all done, although I am hoping that it is! I made one surprise last minute purchase for M, which I had told her she was getting but not until after New Years.
Speaking of M, perhaps the news has been seen that she did in fact get her scholarship to college! She wasn't admitted to the honors college which, while a bit insulting, is also somewhat of a relief. She would have lived in different housing, and she would have had additional requirements on top of swimming and the very specific program of the college to which she was admitted, the Speech/Language Pathology and Audiology program of the health sciences college.
Since her scores and GPA and class rank were high, I can only imagine it was either (a) her low science score on the ACT (b) something else in her application or (c) the fact that she will be an athlete on scholarship that caused her not to be offered that honors spot. No matter, we are very happy with the outcome. Oh, and she also did get into the other college to which she applied, with a $10,000 scholarship. I guess that validates that she made the right choice, as she'll get more from the one she chose anyway! And what a great city Boston is for a college student!
As for B, his grades continued to spiral downward with his venture into high school swimming. Although he's been enjoying the team, he isn't very good at time management and his grades have reflected this. Tonight he chose to stay home, because he has three tests tomorrow, his last day before break. One is in English, where he hovers at the low end of passing, and the other is history, where he's holding steady at a high C. The third is in math, where the additional tutoring funds are paying off and I no longer panic at the news of an impending exam. There are plenty of other opportunities for such panic, however.
And in other news, I'll get my car fixed on Monday and Kevin is off all week. My office is closed Friday and Monday and I'll probably take off one other day as well (maybe Tuesday). M will have to go to her training trip again, like it or not, and she will be back on New Years Eve. So that's our excitement for now. Run with it!
Saturday, December 11, 2010
have no fear! we are here!
Whew.
It's just been one thing after another, and I don't have much time now. M has her big meet this weekend and she really crashed and burned in her first event, which was the 500 free, adding 10 seconds to her time! Luckily she took it all in stride, and came back and took half a second off the 50 free and then swam a pretty close to best time in the 100 today, so she's back for finals in that.
And tomorrow is the 200, so please keep everything crossed for that! Her coach to be emailed and wished her luck and I hope he reads any result but the 500 first !!! She said halfway through she just lost her legs and couldn't kick. They felt like they were being sawed off from top to bottom and every push off the wall was excruciating. Most of the girls on her team are not doing well, although almost all of the boys are excelling.
I think it will be good for her next year when her school has only a womens' team! This meet always seems to be problematic for her with the distance events, they do a lot of sprints at practice in the days leading up to this weekend.
Otherwise, still buried in holiday needs, I am about to run up to the dog park with Pompom, and we are going to try to get a tree today even though it won't go up till next weekend, most likely. I'm just trying to leave the little dog out of his pen while I'm at work, because where his pen is is where the tree will be, so I don't know where else to put it. Anyway, he's almost two. And he didn't eat anything major yesterday, so maybe he is over that. Lately the worst he's done (if you don't count the rubber bracelet he ate last week) is carry some socks and washcloths around.
And in other news, the headlight is repaired, but Kevin decided to put the claim through insurance so now I have to take the car back in to get the scratches repaired as well. That will be the week between Christmas and New Years, while M will be away and I can use her car. B is in a bit of a downturn with his grades, which I attribute to the nightly swim practices, which are good for him but wear him out and challenge his already remedial time management skills. He presently has four Cs and two As. This is frustrating. One of the As is in math, because of course he is being heavily tutored. We can't pay extra for him to be tutored in every subject just to get him to pay attention to them all! And on that note, off to the dog park before the temperature drops.
It's just been one thing after another, and I don't have much time now. M has her big meet this weekend and she really crashed and burned in her first event, which was the 500 free, adding 10 seconds to her time! Luckily she took it all in stride, and came back and took half a second off the 50 free and then swam a pretty close to best time in the 100 today, so she's back for finals in that.
And tomorrow is the 200, so please keep everything crossed for that! Her coach to be emailed and wished her luck and I hope he reads any result but the 500 first !!! She said halfway through she just lost her legs and couldn't kick. They felt like they were being sawed off from top to bottom and every push off the wall was excruciating. Most of the girls on her team are not doing well, although almost all of the boys are excelling.
I think it will be good for her next year when her school has only a womens' team! This meet always seems to be problematic for her with the distance events, they do a lot of sprints at practice in the days leading up to this weekend.
Otherwise, still buried in holiday needs, I am about to run up to the dog park with Pompom, and we are going to try to get a tree today even though it won't go up till next weekend, most likely. I'm just trying to leave the little dog out of his pen while I'm at work, because where his pen is is where the tree will be, so I don't know where else to put it. Anyway, he's almost two. And he didn't eat anything major yesterday, so maybe he is over that. Lately the worst he's done (if you don't count the rubber bracelet he ate last week) is carry some socks and washcloths around.
And in other news, the headlight is repaired, but Kevin decided to put the claim through insurance so now I have to take the car back in to get the scratches repaired as well. That will be the week between Christmas and New Years, while M will be away and I can use her car. B is in a bit of a downturn with his grades, which I attribute to the nightly swim practices, which are good for him but wear him out and challenge his already remedial time management skills. He presently has four Cs and two As. This is frustrating. One of the As is in math, because of course he is being heavily tutored. We can't pay extra for him to be tutored in every subject just to get him to pay attention to them all! And on that note, off to the dog park before the temperature drops.
Friday, November 26, 2010
it's that time again
How can it already be the holiday shopping season? I haven't had time to pay off my credit card bills from the summer! How is it that the older I get, the less Christmas feels like Christmas? And working certainly doesn't help. At least when I worked in New York, there was Christmas everywhere. Somehow, the drive deeper into suburbia just doesn't pack the same punch.
Anyway, I did do a very little shopping online, and Kevin and I are going to take B to his swim practice and jump over to the outlet mall while he's there, hoping that the major crowds will have died down by late afternoon. M went to a friend's house and they were going to go to a mall by her house, before practice. M has opted to forgo her school's homecoming dance this year! Last year she deemed it 'boring' and left with the group she had gone with. I also think she doesn't like to put on a dress because of her hairy legs (it's a swimmer thing.)
The damage is in on the Jetta headlight and it's going to cost me just under $500 to fix. The good news is that Kevin paid for mine and B's plane tickets to Florida with a discounted fare through AMEX's new system so I won't have that $600 to chip away at this year. I could put the deer crash through my insurance, and as a comprehensive claim it "shouldn't" affect my rates. But the rep on the phone couldn't tell me that it was the best thing to do, and the woman at the body shop said she would pay it herself, because if another larger claim came in and they had a look at it, they'd sock it to me then. So we're coughing up an extra $400 to keep it off of the insurance. What a hassle! Insurance is a scam! Hate that deer!
Meanwhile, facing forward to the next month, I'm fixating on the merit aid issue with M and her college acceptance. I have been reading old postings on web forums where people posted how much money they were given, and what their SAT scores and grades were, and most with M's relative stats were given a fair amount of money. But one was given much less, and that was in 2006! So I keep thinking, what if they give her less because they know she already committed to come there? What if they give her less because they think they are not her first choice? (There was no way for her to indicate that they were, as far as I could tell.) And then I panic. It would be unfair of them to give her less because they know she has to attend anyway, since we were counting on this when she signed the letter. But the two awards are really separate, so we took a risk in allowing her to sign without confirmation. We should know in about three weeks.
And in other news,our Thanksgiving was a success. The food was well cooked, and the house weathered the guest without incident. The dogs behaved, no cats puked during dinner, and the dishes almost all fit into one running of the dishwasher (even if the soap dispenser did malfunction, requiring a second cycle to be imposed!) And the next few weeks will bring swim meets - M starts the high school meets on Friday; B's school has an alumni meet tomorrow, so that should be interesting. And M has a big club meet in two weeks, at which point she will finally be allowed to shave her legs!
Anyway, I did do a very little shopping online, and Kevin and I are going to take B to his swim practice and jump over to the outlet mall while he's there, hoping that the major crowds will have died down by late afternoon. M went to a friend's house and they were going to go to a mall by her house, before practice. M has opted to forgo her school's homecoming dance this year! Last year she deemed it 'boring' and left with the group she had gone with. I also think she doesn't like to put on a dress because of her hairy legs (it's a swimmer thing.)
The damage is in on the Jetta headlight and it's going to cost me just under $500 to fix. The good news is that Kevin paid for mine and B's plane tickets to Florida with a discounted fare through AMEX's new system so I won't have that $600 to chip away at this year. I could put the deer crash through my insurance, and as a comprehensive claim it "shouldn't" affect my rates. But the rep on the phone couldn't tell me that it was the best thing to do, and the woman at the body shop said she would pay it herself, because if another larger claim came in and they had a look at it, they'd sock it to me then. So we're coughing up an extra $400 to keep it off of the insurance. What a hassle! Insurance is a scam! Hate that deer!
Meanwhile, facing forward to the next month, I'm fixating on the merit aid issue with M and her college acceptance. I have been reading old postings on web forums where people posted how much money they were given, and what their SAT scores and grades were, and most with M's relative stats were given a fair amount of money. But one was given much less, and that was in 2006! So I keep thinking, what if they give her less because they know she already committed to come there? What if they give her less because they think they are not her first choice? (There was no way for her to indicate that they were, as far as I could tell.) And then I panic. It would be unfair of them to give her less because they know she has to attend anyway, since we were counting on this when she signed the letter. But the two awards are really separate, so we took a risk in allowing her to sign without confirmation. We should know in about three weeks.
And in other news,our Thanksgiving was a success. The food was well cooked, and the house weathered the guest without incident. The dogs behaved, no cats puked during dinner, and the dishes almost all fit into one running of the dishwasher (even if the soap dispenser did malfunction, requiring a second cycle to be imposed!) And the next few weeks will bring swim meets - M starts the high school meets on Friday; B's school has an alumni meet tomorrow, so that should be interesting. And M has a big club meet in two weeks, at which point she will finally be allowed to shave her legs!
Tuesday, November 23, 2010
oh deer me
And it has happened again. I've been accused of bloglessness. Apparently my weekly blog-ventures are not enough to satisfy those who live them along with me. So here is the latest: yes, I hit my first deer. Really, the deer hit me. Deer stories are like birth stories, and mine follows.
Driving along a 40mph road with B's school on one side and a county park and community college on the other, B had just told me that he may become friends again with a certain friend from his past about whom we have had concerns. I was lost a bit in thought, and made some random comment, never taking my eyes off the road. Well, never until B exclaimed, in someone else's deep voice, "MOM MOM MOM MOM!"
If you are driving in a car, and someone calls out to you in such an alarmist tone, what do you do? Do you turn toward this person, or do you think, "oh! a deer must be coming from my left peripheral vision, let me look AWAY from this person!"??
Well, I'll tell you what I do. I look at the person who is yelling at me. And then, when I look back, as if in a dream, a deer sails across my windshield, like a movie playing in hyperspeed. I slam on the brakes, but then I feel a crushing blow and what look like feathers fly up in the air. But the car moves on, and a van behind me slows, then picks up again. I pull over and find what seems to be a deer's tail in my headlight, which no longer has much of a plastic covering. In my rear view mirror, there is no sign of my victim.
So there is my deer-tale, in all its entirety. I believe that the deer was probably just bruised...the car sustained no apparent damage other than the cracked plastic and subsequent trips to the scene (where I noted a deer crossing sign when I came from the other direction) yielded no sign of an injured beast. I fear I may have weakened the poor thing just in time for the shootout at the park, scheduled for next weekend.
Anyway, animals aside, this is a nice short week! B is done, thank goodness, as he had taken to failing quizzes again. At the teacher conferences, most of them said he forgets homeworks, but three of them said he has been participating a lot more this second marking period. So that was good to hear. Hopefully he's getting the confidence we had hoped he would get from this school.
And M continues on her usual way: swims and does homework. We are trying to lean on her to enjoy her senior year a little more by participating in school activities. This year she isn't even going to go to the homecoming dance, and she had to forego the powder puff game because (a) she couldn't make enough of the practices due to meets and (b) the game is tonight and she had a paper left over to finish for tomorrow.
So she didn't even go to watch, which we don't like to see. She has distanced herself a little too much from the extracurricular life at school. Swim team has started but twice they sent the club swimmers home because there wasn't room for them on the bus to practice! They only have to go to six practices, but those six are their only chance to actually be part of the team, except at the meets.
Anyway, in other news, PetSmart has stopped carrying the litterbox liners that I like, and I'm really mad! I might just not change the litterboxes ever again. I am also troubled by the high cost of absolutely everything. I still cannot believe how much money I have spent on the pets in just the one month that passed. Wilbur must understand what I am writing because he stopped chewing his bone and is just looking at me. Oh yeah, and I discovered a crime map of Boston that shows the worst part of the city just on the outskirts of M's campus-to-be. Just great.
Driving along a 40mph road with B's school on one side and a county park and community college on the other, B had just told me that he may become friends again with a certain friend from his past about whom we have had concerns. I was lost a bit in thought, and made some random comment, never taking my eyes off the road. Well, never until B exclaimed, in someone else's deep voice, "MOM MOM MOM MOM!"
If you are driving in a car, and someone calls out to you in such an alarmist tone, what do you do? Do you turn toward this person, or do you think, "oh! a deer must be coming from my left peripheral vision, let me look AWAY from this person!"??
Well, I'll tell you what I do. I look at the person who is yelling at me. And then, when I look back, as if in a dream, a deer sails across my windshield, like a movie playing in hyperspeed. I slam on the brakes, but then I feel a crushing blow and what look like feathers fly up in the air. But the car moves on, and a van behind me slows, then picks up again. I pull over and find what seems to be a deer's tail in my headlight, which no longer has much of a plastic covering. In my rear view mirror, there is no sign of my victim.
So there is my deer-tale, in all its entirety. I believe that the deer was probably just bruised...the car sustained no apparent damage other than the cracked plastic and subsequent trips to the scene (where I noted a deer crossing sign when I came from the other direction) yielded no sign of an injured beast. I fear I may have weakened the poor thing just in time for the shootout at the park, scheduled for next weekend.
Anyway, animals aside, this is a nice short week! B is done, thank goodness, as he had taken to failing quizzes again. At the teacher conferences, most of them said he forgets homeworks, but three of them said he has been participating a lot more this second marking period. So that was good to hear. Hopefully he's getting the confidence we had hoped he would get from this school.
And M continues on her usual way: swims and does homework. We are trying to lean on her to enjoy her senior year a little more by participating in school activities. This year she isn't even going to go to the homecoming dance, and she had to forego the powder puff game because (a) she couldn't make enough of the practices due to meets and (b) the game is tonight and she had a paper left over to finish for tomorrow.
So she didn't even go to watch, which we don't like to see. She has distanced herself a little too much from the extracurricular life at school. Swim team has started but twice they sent the club swimmers home because there wasn't room for them on the bus to practice! They only have to go to six practices, but those six are their only chance to actually be part of the team, except at the meets.
Anyway, in other news, PetSmart has stopped carrying the litterbox liners that I like, and I'm really mad! I might just not change the litterboxes ever again. I am also troubled by the high cost of absolutely everything. I still cannot believe how much money I have spent on the pets in just the one month that passed. Wilbur must understand what I am writing because he stopped chewing his bone and is just looking at me. Oh yeah, and I discovered a crime map of Boston that shows the worst part of the city just on the outskirts of M's campus-to-be. Just great.
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