Never Forget

Benedicat tibi Dominus, et custodiat te.

Ostendat Dominus faciem suam tibi, et misereatur tui.

Convertat Dominus vultum suum ad te, et det tibi pacem.

Labor Day

In honor of this year’s Labor Day holiday weekend we, er, worked.

We had three straight days of sunshine. Beautiful weather, though unseasonably hot and humid for this time of year. The finest quality of September, the one that makes it my favorite month of the year, is that slight nip, that hint of chill, on the breeze. Sadly, that playful bite was not present. And we sweated profusely because of it.

Personally, I mowed the front and back yard, clipped hedges, power washed the deck and the stone steps on the side of the house, doused the backyard bushes and beneath the deck with that Ortho bug-be-gone stuff, cleaned out 50% of the garage, and did four loads of laundry. The wife stripped the paint of the deck. I will be restaining it later this week.

As a result, muscles I never knew I had, despite painting Little One’s room two weeks ago, spontaneously massed to launch a revolt on my body. I was literally bedridden the majority of yesterday.

There was some fun. Saturday night we drove down the Jersey shore to attend a fair. I did my quota and took the little ones on the Ferris Wheel. Also went on the Crazy Bus. We bought tickets for the mega-raffle (winner gets $25,000) and blew through a hundred dollars in three hours. Budgeted money, and well-spent. Only downside was that my father-in-law could not be there with us.

The girls did the beach thing one day with their mom, swam in a friend’s pool the next, and played at the “Wall of Noses” park yesterday with yours truly. I hung out with my bud one night and we saw, basically because there was nothing else to see, Mission Impossible at the movies. Eh, so-so. Very convoluted and loud. I also visited my padre in the confessional for a recharging of batteries.

Only downside is that I did not read, write, or work on the Project. Too much going on, never a dull moment. That kind of a weekend. Hoping to make some progress this week, despite that deck waiting for me outside, and the birthday bashes for the little ones following in a few days.

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!