September Stuff

Things I'm thinking about this week

- A really big thing I've been thinking about is the affection I lavish on my puppy when there are so many children in the world in need of love and care. The other morning, I was walking the pup at the schoolyard an hour before school started and there was a child sitting on the swings, aimlessly. The story behind that is probably a working parent with an early meeting, but there I was, playing with my puppy. The dog eats a kibble that is made of salmon, apples and steel cut oats. And yet, famine in the Horn of Africa haunts me. I'm not sure it's either/or but I'm trying to think about how to respond to these promptings.

- Soccer season is finally over. Soccer season is almost never over for us because two of our kids have played year round for the last couple of years. But they've decided to take the winter off, and to play at a house league level from now on. As much as I enjoy watching them grow in skills and have fun playing, I will freely admit I am glad to have a break.

- Football season has begun. I should also note that football overlapped with soccer for a week. One of our sons has made the junior high school football team. In all the papers I signed, I looked for the guarantee that he will not get badly hurt but couldn't find it. Our younger son has made the cuts for his team too -- he'll find out the final decision today. I'm looking forward to this new sport for a variety of reasons -- one of which being that the practices and games are all after school: we get back our family suppers again!!

- Someone last week talked to me about the difference between publishing what sells and what should be sold. I find that oddly encouraging.

- I used to drive the 401 in Toronto every single day to and from work. That was almost 20 years ago. I've come to the decision that that is not something I do anymore. I find the multiple lanes daunting. I have to be in Toronto this weekend though, with the kids, and Dave is not available to join us. We're taking the train. I've decided that it's fine to say I won't drive and that there are ways to maintain my independence and mobility with the use of public transit. The kids think it's far more fun anyhow, and I actually agree.

- I'm really grateful for the kids being back in school and all settled well. With Dave working this summer, I arranged work hours for myself in July, but then we went away in August and after that, I had so many domestic responsibilities (Canning! Indoor shoes! Eye doctor! Dentist! Canning!) that my work slid off the table for a few weeks. Last week, I plunged in by necessity and got rid of the backlog. I feel so much better as a result.

- The liquid pool cover we bought this year to replace our solar blanket was extremely ineffective. It has shortened our swim season a lot. We were told it had been developed in Australia and tested in Arizona and that it would reduce both evaporation and heat loss by something like 90%. Um, no. The cool nights in August caused the temperature to plunge. We've only really taken quick dips for the last month, which feels like a terrible waste.

- Oh, and I finally sent a letter to our family doctor about our experience with Megan's sickness this spring. I never used the word negligence, but I'm still a bit uncertain about how the letter will be received. I'm hoping that expressing our concerns will lead to resolution and ideally apologies. I'm afraid we might get no response at all.

How about you? What's on your mind?