This week, our evening caregiver Ginny is off. So we are doing Edda’s pick up at aftercare at about 6 pm. This may highlight the need for a second car. I volunteered at Main Street yesterday from 6-7 pm. Jeremy dropped me off at the beginning and I walked home afterwards (1.5 miles) – so it took me about 30 minutes to walk home. And today, I would like to go to guitar lessons which is also at 6 pm – Jeremy could drop me off before picking Edda up, but this is 2 miles from the house, so 40 minutes to walk home. (Jeremy does offer to pick me up, but it’s trouble to load Edda up into the car again for a pick up and he’s home cleaning or learning spanish or getting Edda ready for bed) Or maybe I’ll be lazy and not go to guitar lesson. So we talked about getting a bicycle or e-bike. In 2008-2010, I regularly biked to the train station in the cold/dark to get to work. Could I do that again on a regular bike for non-work things? Would I love an ebike enough to preferentially take it over a car in the driveway? That would be the DREAM. To prefer the ebike over the car. There are a lot of things that I do within about 2 miles of the house. Here’s the list: grocery store, UPS store, bank, running track, church, guitar lesson, main street volunteering, swim center… It’s hard to know really until you try. I always think I’m going to be lazy honestly. Then when you actually do it, it’s a nice surprise.
We went to Edda’s last holiday party at her school – she won’t be in public school after this year – the year after she turns 21 which makes us sad. We brought the fancy cupcakes, we brought gifts for the staff. Jeremy brought out his holiday vest. We’ve known Edda’s program has been under a lot of stress this year and well, it was a terrible, horrible, no good, very bad day for everyone. I went home and cried and I wasn’t even part of it. My heart and soul go out to the teachers and staff who we love and appreciate all day, everyday. Hopefully it all resolves soon, but perhaps it won’t. And then the program falls apart under the weight of burden that it carries everyday.