Years ago, Carl accidentally rode a pig. Backwards. You know how that can happen. Well, maybe you don’t. It was at a county fair and he was standing in a narrow corridor when a large pig was running for freedom. Carl was in the way, but the pig didn’t stop, and Carl found himself being carried backwards until he fell off. It is one of my favorite Carl stories, and one that I think of any time the subject of a county fair comes up. A week ago we went to a county fair, so of course I asked him to tell the pig story to our friends. For our time at the fair, no one rode a pig, but the girls and Carl did go on a very tall curvy slide called a Helter-Skelter and on the Ferris Wheel. Amy and her bestie went on many other rides, all of which I would describe as my nightmare. I had a nice quiet experience eating a caramel apple, which is the right level of adventure for me.
Sarah has been eagerly anticipating the start of school for weeks. On Monday I went in with her to help with her senior photo. She was allowed to dress up instead of wearing her uniform, and Carl took a picture before we left, so you can see how the black and white stripes of her dress match the stripes of her glasses. I was able to successfully wrangle a real smile for the school photographer, thanks to Daniel Tiger and Mom Tiger complaining about Daniel bringing sand into the house. I tried that wrangling again on Friday before her bus arrived for her first day, but I was too successful so all of the pictures I took show her laughing with her eyes closed.
Amy wanted to get a little more practice riding the city bus before her school starts, so one day she did every part of her journey to and from school by herself. Sarah and I followed on the bus behind hers. The unexpected challenge was that the Transit app told Amy to get off at a different stop than she ever had before on her return home. She didn’t immediately know where she was, but managed to find her way despite the increased stress level.
Sarah and I took multiple buses to get to the children’s hospital so she could have some routine bloodwork for her neurologist. It was a shock to realize how much longer it takes to bus instead of driving. The whole thing took us about three hours, but if we had driven then at most it would have been ninety minutes. The bloodwork all looks good, which is great but doesn’t explain why she is having trouble sleeping lately. We have started having her wear Carl’s Garmin watch to track her sleep and it shows that she is sleeping lightly most of the night, and very rarely has REM or deep sleep.
Yesterday we did the Run Around the Square, which is a 1.5K run. Many people walk the whole time, but if you are Sarah you jog for half of it, and if you are Amy you do cartwheels. Sarah carried a picture of Granddad with her so he could run with her in spirit. Carl was thinking about us too, but he was in Chicago for a Fretboard Summit. That’s a conference about guitars, and he built his own working guitar pedal. After the run, we all went home to rest before we went to an enormous swimming pool with Amy’s bestie and her mom. I have never seen such a big swimming pool in my life. It has a water slide that is large for a normal pool but small compared to what is at most water parks. It still looked like too much for me, but Sarah and Amy eagerly went down in many times. I thought for sure Sarah would sleep well after the run and the time at the pool, but it still took about two hours for her to settle into sleep. Maybe next time I should try having her ride a pig backwards too.
Wishing you all an easy ride today.
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