Today's Update

Much of what I write here has all of the excitement of a holiday newsletter. This is especially true today. This is really just a brief update to let you know I’m still alive (which is not the same thing as saying that I have a life). What’s been going on? Nothing. What’s been going on with my kids? A lot more than what’s been going on with me (surprise!). Here are a few brief highlights.

Helaina is on break from her online studies. They'll be resuming soon enough though, starting with another week spent in Boston. Before that happens, she’s on the day shift at work and she managed to have her tag sale last weekend. She didn't make huge bucks but she got a little something for all her efforts. More importantly, she was able to get rid of bunch of stuff. Now we only need to plan on renting four dumpsters instead of five. That might make a dent in the porch at least.

Rachael, as mentioned earlier, is in The Big City. It’s been a tough adjustment- there’s been the constant worry about having enough money, having enough to eat, getting enough sleep and of course, there's always the safety concern. All of this has added up to many, many restless nights- for me that is, not her. She’s doing fine. She’s still looking for a decent job but things are moving forward.

Jake has been working his summer job at the semi-local university where he faces daily challenges such as making sure all the dorm room outlets work. He’s also been plugging away towards getting ready for college in the early fall or late summer or… something like that. Finding housing is still on the plate but the more immediate concern has been shopping for a used car. We’ll be looking again today. I know he'll be needing one for when he moves, but I wonder if this has anything to do with having a girlfriend that lives a hundred mile away. Probably not.

Sam is now officially on summer break. This year, instead of going to the same summer program, he’s going to be working with a “career coach” a couple of times a week, for a couple of hours at a time. This will be in addition to his ongoing summer speech therapy. We’ll be practicing how to walk into town on his own. This is as nerve wracking to me as the idea of Rachael living in The Big City.

Exciting? You bet! If you’re lucky, there may be more updates as the summer progresses. In the mean time, I will continue to mentally run through the various nightmare scenarios for each of one my kids. 

Father's Day

Today was a great day that actually started last night when Helaina came in the door with Rachael. This was a complete and pleasant surprise to me. I had just been talking with Mom about not hearing so much from Rachael and thinking about spending this day without her.

We all got up early and spent the morning at the flea market- maybe starting out a little too early.  The afternoon was spent planting irises that Jake gave me and a new viburnum which Helaina gave me to replace the old one. In between, I made muffins with Sam and I got to cook for all of them.

As the day wound down, I stopped at Dad's grave, as I have every Father's day, save one- before having to bring Rachael to the bus station for her long ride back to The Big City.

It was a whirlwind and people are tired. It reminds me of one of those summer days long ago when the kids were small and we would get up early to head out to the beach. It was great, but exhausting. We would get back to the cottage and the rest of the day would be spent trying to get people to relax and keep out of each other's way.

It was all worth it.

And it still is.

I hope your day was as good as mine.

Let's close with this, as I have on most other Father's Day...

Friday Night Video

I don't have a whole lot to say tonight, so how about we watch about an hour's worth of old toy commercials that someone, with more patience than I, put together.

Quick Comment

Jake's driving into Boston for the first time alone- a Friday night, rush hour, and in the rain. It doesn't feel a whole lot different than the first time he walked to school without a grownup.

Friday Night Video

Helaina has driven up to Montreal for a long weekend. The first and only time(s) I’ve been there was back in 1967 for the World’s Fair. We went twice, once with Nona and Eleanore, from Mom’s side of the family, and once with Auntie Anna, Dad’s sister.

For years I measured things in my life either “Before the World's Fair” or "After the World’s Fair”. It’s not that it was life changing or anything like that. I think it was mostly because it was the biggest event in my life for a long time. That unit of measure has long since been replaced by associating past events with whichever of my kids were or weren’t born, or how old they were at any particular time.

Strangely, I don't remember the ride up or back with Nona and Eleanore, but I do remember it with Auntie Anna.

We had a Rambler station wagon. This was one of those station wagons that had three bench seats. The third seat was way in the back and it was one of those that when the back was folded down, it was pretty much a luggage deck, but when the back was folded up, it made a tiny, rear facing seat between the two rear tire wells. It was almost big enough to fit two small children, as long as they didn’t need any leg room.

The usual lay of the land was that Mom and Dad would sit in the front seat, my brother and two of my sisters would sit in the middle seat, and I and my remaining sister (hereafter referred to as, “Short Straw”) would be in the way back.

That was the usual lay of the land- when it was just the seven of us, which was almost always. But when we had a guest, which Auntie Anna was, then different arrangements were made- which is to say, everything stayed exactly the same except Auntie Anna was wedged in between me and Short Straw in the tiny way back seat. How this was even accomplished, I have no idea. Auntie Anna wasn’t obese or anything, but she wasn’t petite either. She was definitely the biggest out of the eight of us.

The seat belt didn't help. Back then, seat belts in cars were optional. Dad bought this car with seat belts for all of the other seats, but the way back seat didn’t come with any, so Dad had a seat belt installed. He claimed it was for safety reasons, though I have my doubts. You’re strapping, essentially me, in the unprotected very rear of the car, directly over the gas tank. I was one thin piece of sheet metal shy of being strapped directly to the rear bumper.

But anyway, Dad had one installed, and when I say “one”, I mean “one”. It was one long seat belt that usually strapped me in, along with Short Straw, but in this case, it somehow managed to tie me, Short Straw and Auntie Anna- into one barely contained, bulging heap. Picture a fleur de lis- Auntie Anna would be the one in the middle and me and Short Straw would be spilling over the sides while the seat belt cut into us like a thirty inch belt around a fifty inch waist.

There are are four things in particular that I remember about the ride with Auntie Anna (aside from stopping to pick what turned out to be weeds that everyone was allergic to). First, she liked perfume- the strong kind. Second, she had a white plastic “wicker-look” pocketbook that squeaked whenever she opened or closed it- which she did a lot. Third, she hummed, also a lot. And the fourth thing I remember is that whenever Auntie Anna repeated herself, whether she was asked to repeat herself or not, she would preface the exact same remark with “I say…”, and then say it again. This wouldn’t have been so unusual if it was in response to someone saying, “What did you just say?” But usually it was in response to no one saying anything. I think what made it worse than usual was that she was mostly trying to talk to Dad, and he was at the other end of the car- and facing the other direction besides.

I say all of this like it was an awful ride, and it kinda was- but not completely. And the thing is, if Auntie Anna were still around, she’d probably laugh about this harder than anyone.

Someday, I’ll write about the main point of the trip, but not tonight. For now, here’s a couple of clips of Expo 67. I assume the first is being narrated by Inspector Clouseau and the background music on the second one gets kind of annoying but somehow, that makes it even better.

My Weekend Plans

So, Rachael arrived safely in The Big City. That's according to the text I received last night, allegedly from Rachael.

Helaina will be heading up to the Great White North tomorrow for an extended weekend. She'll be driving both ways.

I plan on spending my weekend sending each of them constant text messages, just to make sure they're ok. Past experience has taught me that if they don't respond within thirty seconds, it's best to follow up with a phone call- just in case.

Today's Brief Comment

Rachael leaves today for The Big City. I'm already fighting off my depression.

P.S.

And this, if you're interested, is what spured Friday night's post...