Tag Archives: other people’s kids

I did some physical therapy the last few months and my referral was on the east side of town. I would take the bus from the office to get over there. One day giant group of high school students was at the bus stop. When the bus door opened, one of them asked, “Can my whole class fit on the bus?”

The bus driver waved them on.

They piled on in their teenaged squirrely glory. They were doing a project of some kind. At least half of them carried a bucket or box. The bus was loud with their talking and laughter.

Once I got over my instinct to be annoyed, it was delightful being in the middle of that energy. A few stops later a teacher yelled it was time to get off and they departed with the same energy, off to save the world with their beautiful youth.

The crud finally got us. We’ve both been coughing our faces off for several days now. I went to pick up an extra stockpile of Fisherman’s Friend and–disaster!–they were out. I still have one unopened bag plus a half bag.

As a back up we have three tins of what we are calling Tante Hilla cough drops. Those are sorta low rent Ricola that Tante Hilla sent us from her Apotheke in Germany.

We’re remaining calm for now.

Before I went down with this cold, I had planned to write something about flu shots (Since this is the Internet, I will clarify that I know colds and flu are not the same thing but both fall under the general heading of crud and are being combined in this post.) But now that I have the crud, I don’t have the energy for the whole manifesto.

I have become a huge fan of Health News Review which is a website where medical professionals discuss how health news is portrayed in the media. I think it should be required reading. This article from 2015 talks about flu shots and I will just pull this quote:

“…under ideal conditions (when the vaccine matches the main viruses circulating that season) you need to vaccinate 33 healthy adults to avoid one set of influenza symptoms.”

I’m actually in favor of flu shots. What I hate is when you get sick and someone says, “Oh, didn’t you get a flu shot?”

Moving on.

For one calendar year I saved all the mail sent to our work suite that was addressed to the previous tenant, the people who moved out in September of 2008. That cruise company sends stacks of huge catalogs. I tried to notify them that “No one here cares. Your fancy catalog goes directly into recycling.” I guess no one there cares either.

Finally, I was at the bookstore last week and there were a bunch of kids there doing some sort of program. A little girl approached me to give me a card she’d made.

She wanted me to know it was Martin Luther King’s Birthday on Monday. Here’s the quote on the front of the card:

Darkness cannot drive out darkness; only light can do that. Hate cannot drive out hate; only love can do that.

She wanted to remind me to remember his message and pass it along. I wasn’t sure if she wanted me to pass the card along but it was so cute I kept it but I’m sharing it with all of you. Peace.

This is Christ Church Burial Ground in Philadelphia. What’s the difference between a cemetery and a burial ground? This was a lovely stop during a long hot day of walking around the city. Some of the grave markers had been modernized so we could read the poetic sentiments. For example, Col. Benjamin Flower was “Punctual and unwearied in Business / Sprightly and successful / Firm in his attachments.”

We always joke about the rain coming with Halloween and yesterday was no joke. Almost 2 inches. And did we have trick-or-treaters? We did. Just as many as we have when the weather isn’t terrible. About one jumbo bag of candy worth. I bought one jumbo and one small so we have some peanut butter cups for us, too. Actually, they’re scary peanut butter ghosts. And they are delicious.

Look at this cute bunny that lives next door. I almost said cute little bunny but Charlotte is gigantic.

But so sweet and innocent. Actually, I think you can spot a little attitude in this one. Charlotte’s superpower is escaping from her cage. She escaped last summer and there were four of us running around the yard trying to catch her. She ran into the hedge and we all gave up. The next morning she was sitting at the door to her cage.

I don’t think we give rabbits enough credit.

This morning I noticed the dirt was disturbed in the pumpkin planting area. (No pumpkins planted yet). It looked like something had been digging.

What could it be?

Of course since I watch too many movies and read too many scary books, I thought it was something that could jump out of the hole and bite my head off so I approached with great caution.

These look like chewed up carrots. Hm. I think I figured out where Charlotte hangs out when she’s not at home.