Back to School

  

It’s the most wonderful time of the year!

School resumed for us yesterday. Patch, entering second grade, continues at the elementary school three blocks away. Little One, however, is now attending the town’s excellent middle school, which requires me to drive her there. (Guess I should start thinking of a new nom de plume for her, as she’s not so little anymore.) We’re up at six-fifteen and out the door by seven-twenty. I sit in a line twenty-five or thirty cars long, drop her off at the school’s front gate, then swing back home and escort Patch the three blocks to her classroom door.

I now have at least eight hours of uninterrupted time during the day to work. No more wearing the hat of Entertainment Coordinator for a pair of merciless ten- and six-year olds. No more fending them out of the refrigerator with chair and whip. No more responding to three hundred “Hey Daddy?”s a day. No more wrangling to keep the Cartoon Network off in exchange for doing summer workbooks and library book readings.

It’s the hap-happiest season of all!

There are now no more obstacles for me to getting this book published.

The stress and headaches are still there. For instance, whatever money we’re saving from the girls being back to school is canceled out with Patch’s aftercare. When I eventually do get a job, we’ll have some difficulty finding out where Little One should be / go after school. At eleven she’s not quite old enough to be left alone at home, nor do I feel comfortable with her walking the two miles back and forth from her new school. But crossing that bridge, as it’s said, is something we’ll worry about when we come up to it.

Still, though, for the wife and I …

It’s the most wonderful time … OF THE YEAR!