Abbey's 21st Birthday

Today is Abbey's birthday. My younger daughter turned 21 today.

I spoke to Abbey for a few minutes this afternoon. She was in a good mood, happy with that moment of her life. How much more can a parent wish for than that their children live happy?

Abbey was grocery shopping when I reached her today on her cell phone. She is in Charleston, SC, at the moment. She moved to Charleston a couple of months ago.

Abbey talked about things she'd done today. Among them, she got a library card. As a teacher, that made me smile. Abbey loves to read. And she reads the good stuff, things I read at her age - like Tolstoy and Dostoevsky...

I don't get to see Abbey as often as I'd like. But at least I get to talk to her.

Happy birthday, Abbey.

Running the Furnace in May...

It's May 18th and we've resorted to running our furnace to keep the house warm today and a couple of days last week. Not that it's cold outside, just unseasonably cool. Today's high was about 58F and the weather might best be described as "dreary drizzle." We did have a brief thunderstorm about 5pm. But after hours of drizzle and temps in the 40's last night, the inside of the house eventually drops down into the lower 60's.

I've neglected my personal blog. Two weeks of not writing is a long time in the blogosphere. The end of the school year has me preoccupied with other things - high stakes testing, special education paperwork, summer classes for me, vacation plans, and the like.

The fact that the weather has warmed up enough for the grass to grow doesn't help. I've spent the better part of two days this month working with a chainsaw to take out our overgrown and unmanageable hedge before it consumes the power lines to our house.

Yesterday I planted this year’s tomatoes. I need another plant or two.

So today I'm catching up on my writing while it rains outside...