God Takes the Reins

[fossilfreak]

Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire, vol 1 p. 560

196.4 miles

clear and cold

 

371 recordings of 29 types, 7 old SVU and 32 old CPD. 24% clear.

 

Thursday the 16th I was a seething mass of resentment because Bernadette and family were going to Oregon for Thanksgiving, even though they had been planning to be at Roni's with me and the rest of the family. There's a good (though sad) reason for it, in that Rob's Aunt Marie is sick with bone cancer.  But I really resented it, and it brought up memories of some of the other good reasons, like last Christmas, and really, tellingly, Bernadette's wedding, which Joan took over. I had wonderful plans for here, but it had to be in Junction City, for the good reason that Rob's dad was too ill to travel here.

 

Joan only left 10 days ago, and would see the kids again on Saturday. She  sees more of the kids than I do!

 

When I got to Bernadette's, she was gone. I burst into tears. Then I called her, where the heck are you? She was at her Mom's group, Heart 2 Heart, which I thought she'd had last week, so would be home this week. FINE! I'm going home!! Wait, wait, she said. Why don't you come to Heart 2 Heart with me? I grudgingly said OK, but really was considering going home anyway. But I drove over there and she was waiting outside in the cold for me. In we went, with me griping about the trip to Oregon. Then I hear the speaker talking about "how to get along with your inlaws this holiday season!"

 

She was really very good and made a lot of telling points about relationships and how a quick prayer can help.  Most of the mothers there are young (Bernadette, at 40, may well be on the old side) but the points still applied to me, and I got the definite feeling God got me here.  I definitely finished with a better attitude and am trying to hold on to it.

 

When we got back to Bernadette's, it was almost time for me to fetch the kids.  I stopped at Joanna's class (she had a good report for a change!) to talk to the teacher and ask if I could chaperone the planetarium trip in January. It's at the nearby museum so I would like to meet them there rather than ride the bus. We don't know yet.

 

Meanwhile, all the way home Joanna insisted the field trip would be tomorrow. She only heard part of the directions, that they had to return the permission slip the next day.  This was one of the things the teacher meeting talked about, that her comprehension was down. Apparently we need to have her feed back what she heard. She didn't really believe me till Mommy told her the permission slip was what she needed.  

 

Vincenik sent my Christmas present already. Since I hadn't actually read the Facebook thread, I'm afraid I opened it. Then I re-packed it. (It's a scratch-off map, you scratch off places you've been.) . I think I'll know where I'll put it.

 

(On Friday, in the Travel discussion at Renaissance, which was about Panama, I started listing all the places I want to go. There are at least 10 of high priority. Then I realized that we didn't travel (out of the country) for 40 years! (Rich had trips to Europe, but I stayed home except for a quick trip to Burwell in 1977.) 40 years between 1972 and 2012 wasted. Lots of travel in the states, but a lot of it was to places we'd been before. So this map will have a lot of places not scratched off, and never will. Well, at least I got to Hawaii.)

 

I finished And be a Villain which introduces the criminal master Arnold Zink.  So I am now reading

Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire; Pepys' Diary; Embarrassments by PJ Nel; Shattered, Jonathan Allen & Amie Parnes; The Little World of Don Camillo, Giovanni Guareschi; and The Second Confession by Rex Stout.

 

I have to renew my passport next month! I was thinking of doing it next year, but now realize I'll be going into Canada just a couple of weeks before it expires. Can't do that!  I guess (see above) it's possible the next one will be my last.