AKMA’s Random Thoughts

Hurdles

I’ve been alternating between getting difficult things done (amended taxes (tssssss!), paper-marking, vocational stock-taking, a get-together with friends who still attend St. Luke’s, with FAFSAs and several other obligations left to complete) and periods of brain-dead inertia. Getting difficult stuff out of the way is good, but draining; my attention span diminishes, I tend to retreat into solitude and quiet.

But then (Margaret doesn’t call me “Half-Full Man” for no reason) I had a lovely walk with Pippa yesterday, down to the Art Store where I practically begged my frugal daughter to permit me to buy her the larger assortment of colored pencils and some paper, then to the library where she proudly took out a couple of children’s videos (“you don’t have to pay anything for these”), and then strolled back home with the wind in Pip’s gorgeous long hair and her cheeks pink in the slight chill, her laughing and pretending to be a train. Si’s growing into a thoroughly admirable young man, making his stability and kindness and sweet disposition evident at a variety of social occasions. And I’m so delighted that Margaret’s set for Duke next fall, already having leased an apartment, anticipating her course work (and fine-tuning a paper she’ll give in November at the annual SBL meeting). I love her more every day, and am thankful that she and I have ended up with so extraordinarily wonderful a family, and that we’re encouraged and supported by so many great friends — a fair number of whom I’d never have known apart from the internet. Margaret and I get one of our mini-vacations next week, and by then we will absolutely be in a position to benefit from one.

Oh, and while I’m busy being thankful — a good-looking, well-nourished insect such as I just can’t avoid reproduction — so I am still in a position to offer some of my abundant eggs to readers interested in exploring Breedster. [Correction: No more eggs; sorry. . . .]