waterPuzzles
Well, Matt’s cross country season has come and gone, my brother-in-law has died and still I haven’t written a word. I’ve too many puzzles in my head, and I keep wishing things would clear so I can at least see what direction I’m facing.
My pay was frozen at work so I won’t even see my extra half tank of gas per month in 2008, but what does that matter since the pittance would only be equal to about a third of a tank or less this year depending on how high gas prices rise. I needed a new frying pan last week and agonized over the price of what the discount stores offered. I read in the Sunday paper about all sorts of new housing developments blooming in the area. All claim to be priced affordably, but they are shoe-box size and not affordable for my family. Where did I go wrong?
I may have found a new church. It’s small with a choir that needs help, but it has a warm heart. And yes I said “it”. The church is the people, and this little group understands that a church is for more than sitting in the “pews” on Sunday morning. Refreshing. When I’ve completed my obligations at my present church, I’ll see what it is like to attend the new one on a regular basis. Then I will decide whether to divorce my old one and remarry.
Christmas is approaching, and this year we’re giving up on the cut tree in favor of one in a carton. This will seem odd, but then giving up my pencil for a computer screen felt odd at first too. So I’m off to work where I will shiver in my cold office and wonder if I will even have a job next year. Rambling thoughts. Confused thoughts. Puzzles.
Summer’s end
Why do I always happily anticipate summer? In May I was thinking about all the things I was going to do… books I wanted to read, projects around the house, walking, writing, photography. But tomorrow I take Matt to school in the afternoon for locker day and Wednesday I put him on the bus at 7:00 a.m. So our summer is over and I haven’t accomplished much of anything I had planned. We did take a week-long vacation this summer, my first since I began working in 2000. It was lovely! Well, at least I might get a little better access to my computer, but probably not. After all Matt will need it for school so in the evening when he’s home I’ll have to let him have it.
Ah August. Hot, hazy and sticky. Maybe it’s good for Matt to be back in school. What can one do when the weather is this oppressive? Run of course. At least that’s Matt’s answer to life. But I think the heat has finally gotten to him. He hasn’t even been able to run the last few days. He was supposed to do a 10-mile run with his team this evening, but he only made it 6.5 miles. Too much heat!! The next few weeks may be interesting for him… school, training, and homework. What fun!
Lately I've been doing more writing than usual but not in this forum. This is a good thing, a stretching thing, and it consumes more than the little bit of time I actually have to do it. Which means I'm always running behind, but what else is new? One project is an on my own Bible study. I'm treating the study questions as journal entries and have discovered lots of things while writing that I didn't know about myself. I'm also doing some interesting reading and for me that takes lots of time. I picked up my camera for the first time in several weeks. I have so many pictures that I haven't downloaded that finding out what to throw away could take awhile.
Matt is officially a high school junior. A little over a week ago we watched him run in two state track races. He didn't win; he didn't come close. Still it was a positive step over last year when he didn't make it that far. His coach told him to take two weeks off, but of course he didn't. He's back at it again happily planning to burn up all the courses during next fall's cross country season. Also when we received his report card we were happy with the steady improvement in grades. Now that college admissions people will be scrutinizing his grades and scores for the next year and a half, they need to see upward trends. Of course he only thinks college coaches will be watching his downward running times. Ah well. Whatever it takes to get schools to pay him to come.
My grass is crunchy! Every summer we go through a period of time when the grass is brittle, but not this early in the season. Pray for rain... nice gentle rain for days and days. I heard on the news that because of the drought we'll soon be paying more for milk and beef because farmers are having a difficult time finding enough hay to feed their animals. Oh joy. Does anyone know a rain dance. Matt washed my car a few days ago but the skies didn't take the bait. I hate the think that it might take a hurricane to shove this weather pattern into the Atlantic.
Late night mother thoughts
Ever since Acronymsical acquired an official girl friend (who is on Facebook rather than Mindsay), I have lost most of my online communication with him. I suppose it had to happen some day, but I do miss our late night chats on IM, and I miss his Mindsay musings about life. I also miss his posted views of his world on deviantART. I suppose this is just a bit more of the apron string cutting that most mothers go through. It feels funny though. Oh, no one think for a minute he has abandoned me. I’m sure our recent phone conversations have used up lots of his cell phone minutes. Actually I’m glad he’s happy and doing the work that I know God put him on this earth to do. Still, after Matt graduates and goes off to college perhaps I’ll have to reconsider Andy’s request and get a cat.
