Early September Thoughts

We're in those last days of summer where we're over the heat, bored with all the greenery, wondering if we really need more quarts of spaghetti sauce or not . . . but it is still hot, still humid, and the tomatoes (especially the cherry tomatoes) are still ripening, still flowering even, still producing. They don't really seem to know fall is coming. But there are signs. A few trees starting to turn already (how do they know? Is it a light thing? Because it is still soooo hot.) I would say the corn is already going brown, but that probably has more to do with the lack of rain than anything else.

I haven't been to the garden in days because of the taxing nature of the first week of school and I'm afraid I'm going to find bedraggled, semi-dead plants, dying of thirst. They could have used watering. There's almost no point in watering them tomorrow. They say it'll rain some tomorrow evening. But if I don't water the plants--then it won't rain. And we really need the rain. So I'll water.

The kids all did well this week--I think. I haven't heard a word from Max's teacher, but I'm sticking with the positive for now and assuming that means all is well. She had a behavior system in place on the first day of school. Last year his teacher didn't have one until January some time and it continued to change nearly weekly for another two months. Max thinks this one is pretty on top of things.

Ben and Milo's teacher says "They had a great first week." Ben has a new best friend, W-A. Ben says his first and second name are done together, giving the boy a grand total of 6-syllables in his name. I suspect this is really a first and last name, but I'll take Ben's word for it until I can look more deeply into things next week. I did meet W-A's mom Thursday afternoon. I think she's Castillian Spanish. W-A is the youngest of five and has four older sisters. She's very happy my chatty, gregarious Ben has taken on W-A as a new best friend. In honor of their friendship, I'm going to actually mow, bushwack, clean up the backyard tomorrow so we can invite W-A over for a playdate soon.

Milo has some new friends, too. True to form, he has a list. Two girls and three boys right now.

The twinks are celebrities at their school. Among 140 students, a couple of cute, chatty, outgoing identical kindergarteners can quickly rack up the social points. As they walk through the hall they get shout-outs from a dozen kids--some in kindergarten, but many not. Those who know their names use them. The rest of them call them simply, "The twins."

"There's the twins! Hi, twins!"

Ben and Milo wave back. Ben, without abandon. Milo, stylized, like British royalty. I asked them if they minded being called "The twins." They said they did not. I offered that if they DID, they could reply, "Use our names: Ben and Milo." But Ben simply said again, "No, it's okay." So I shelve my own guilt for "twinking" them together sometimes.

I am focusing mainly on work this week and next--when I'm not doing something for the charter school. But I got fairly far behind in August and I need to get caught up to feel good about things. For some reason, it kind of made sense to pick one knitting project and try to stick with it. I've been working on the Viking Twist on Orange Twist sweater pretty exclusively--although I think next weekend I'll put it aside to finish Baby Girl Sweater #3. This weekend though my-mother-Judy is visiting and we have planned another afternoon of working on unpacking Gaye and there won't be more than a few minutes here and there to knit--so I'll continue on the Orange Twist variant. The Viking cable is working beautifully so far and the design basic enough that if I don't have the chart in front of me, I can pretty well figure out which way to shove the cable needle without it. I can't cable without the cable needle yet though. That's not entirely true. I can cable to the right on a four-stitch cable without it. That's useful when working on Milo's sweater. But that's it. At any rate, I'll try to take a picture of the Twisted Orange Twist (ooh, I like that name better) soon and put that up.

And that is all I have to say about that.