N claimed he was sick again yesterday and started crying about how bad he felt each time I'd threaten to take him to school. Other than that, he didn't seem very ill to me. Monday morning he really had been il, I thinkl. I think he got spoiled by a day at home, but I don't know. Anyway, I had to drag him to the post office yesterday to send a certified letter. Then I had to cancel my lunch plans with my friend. Monday I let him come out of his room after the time his school would have been over. Yesterday I told him if he didn't go, he'd remain in his room until he went to school today (except, of course for eating, bathrooming, bathing, etc.). He didn't get to use the computer or watch TV. Of course, he tried to convince me he was completely well after the bus that would have brought him home from school went by. He kept insisting he was well all evening, but I kept him in his room. He (and I) had forgotten his dad was going to start painting our living room, and was going to let him help. He was very upset that he didn't get to help, but K didn't get the room finished, and I told N he could help this evening if he was well enough to attend school today. He's completely cured today. I imagine I'll see more imaginary illnesses as time progresses.
I had to take care of some banking today that I was supposed to do Monday. N has only a half-day of school today (perhaps that's part of why he got well so fast).
I stopped at the supermarket and got a few things. It was very busy because of all the people (like me) getting the last few things for Thanksgiving. I got a small bouquet of autumn flowers. We have a chicken (one K hatched in his incubator this spring) thawing in the refrigerator. K will make a pumkin pie this evening or tomorrow morning. I got frozen roll dough. I got Stove Top stuffing and cranberry sauce. I got a bag of mixed salad greens. We have no family in town. Michigan is around 700 miles away so we aren't going there, and none of our family is coming here. My kids will have no idea how boring it is to get dragged to an uncle's house early in the morning with nothing to do but watch the parade on TV. Then overeat. Then spend the rest of the daylight hours watching uncles and cousins watch football since there is nothing else to do, and answering the obligatory "how is school?" and "do you have a boyfriend?" questions.
Instead, my kids don't even know their uncles, aunts, and cousins because they live so far away. My kids will get the day off school. If they are lucky, their dad will stay home and play with them. If not, he'll be too busy working on the rental property, so we'll eat early so he can leave for the rest of the daylight hours. Someday I think my kids will discover we celebrate Thanksgiving a lot differently than their friends, who have a lot of family around.
K had me call the newspaper and run the ad for our rental unit in the Sunday paper again. He's shown the place a couple times, but most people lose interest after I tell them about it, usually when they ask if one needs good credit and do we run a credit check. I'm not sure why people would think I'd want to rent the place to someone not likely to pay rent.
I saw in the paper someone on our block got robbed during the day (I assume while at work) of money, jewelry, and electronics. It wasn't us, thank goodness, although I think a burglar would probably destroy our place in anger when he found so few items worth anything. Both our TVs are cheap and broken in some way. I have a $30 (when new) boom box. I do have a digital camera, though. Most of my stuff was inexpensive when new, and it looks like it had a rough life. The only jewelry worth a darn I'm wearing, and it's not worth much. I think my engagement diamond is 1/5 of a carat. Okay, nothing is worth a darn.
My neighbor on one side doesn't live there yet, and has no walls nor heating and cooling. She certainly wasn't the one robbed of jewelry, money, and electronics. The only thing in her house are a few appliances, a lovely, uninstalled big bathtub, and tools.
On the other side, my neighbor just sold his house to a friend who will let him live there for a small amount of rent because he has no income. He'll pay the rent with the money from the house's sale left after the mortgage was paid off. He just got his phone turned back on in the past couple weeks. He's not the one who got money, jewelry, and electronics stolen because he's got even less (and older) stuff than we have. If the paper had said that old pizza boxes , empty beer cans, and empty cigarette cartons had been stolen, I'd have known it was his house. Besides, if he had been robbed, he would have come over and told me. That only leaves one house that is numbered such that it is on our block. It's a nice young couple with no children who have been maintaining their house very nicely. We've visited them a couple times and exchanged treats last Christmas. That house has been sold about four times since I moved into our house in 1998. They are very nice, but I'm afraid their robbery will discourage them from remaining here. Because of the traffic on our street and having shrubbery or bamboo blocking the view of one another's yards, it seems very isolated here. They'll probably feel safer in a proper neighborhood. I'll go talk to them today or this weekend to confirm they were the ones mentioned in the paper, but as I've just detailed, they are the only ones on our block (other than us) who are likely to have been robbed of jewelry, money, and electronics.
Oh, and I'm not complaining about the fact that my stuff isn't very valuable. If I cared about stuff such as high definition TV, expensive jewelry, cable or satellite TV, a fancy stereo, cordless phones, surround sound, an i-pod, etc., I'm sure we'd get some or all of it. I generally have no use for stuff like that.
