End of Summer Thoughts
*Dentistes Sans Frontières came to town and fixed my dishwasher. (And buffed the jagged edge out of the spoon that went down the disposal.) It never occurred to me that someone with extreme dexterity in working with tiny things in confined spaces is exactly the person needed for removing those pesky screws in the sodden bottom of the dishwasher. So all it took was a couple of computer geeks and a dentist with an extra degree in neuroscience to undo three years of accretion of heaven-only-knows-what in the tube that directs water to the upper arm of the washer. The local appliance repairman was at the rectory not long ago and I joked to him that it had been too long since he had been to my house. I think I may have jinxed something. It's good to know skilled professionals. But even better to have family members with mad skills. [And a tip of the hat to Fran, for diagnosing and dislodging the doghairball from the dryer!]

*Gearing up for back to school...Not quite ready here. But Fran and Martha are off to a good start. Fran (after something of a 'gap decade') is taking three science courses as she begins her coursework to enter a nursing program. Dissecting a cat isn't too scary to a girl who spent some years in a veterinary office. You loose a lot of squeamishness when you are accustomed to seeing animal heads in the office freezer.

Fran is doing an online earth science course and is going to be dragging Eddie and any other loitering family members along through the labs. She has the lab kit so why not take advantage of it.

Martha is still unsure of her final academic destination. Now she is wondering about social work. Her books were not really intimidating; more like depressing. Just reading the back cover of one bio in the stack made her morose. So I told her we could work our way through it together, just like we did with Where the Red Fern Grows back when she was at the junior high. Oy, we hated that book. [Imagine, Dust in the Wind, sad boy and his dog books...pulling her out of that school wasn't a tough decision.]

Time for work. Got a little bit of those weird Friday blues. Forewarned is forearmed.