Driving to distraction

Once again, the pitter patter of raindrops on the skylights is a backdrop to the tap-tap of the keyboard as I type this entry. I don�t mind the rain that much, but I do mind the cold. For three days now I have had to wear a sweater--totally unheard of in early-August. Today I even gave up the pretense that it was summer and put long pants on, but I wouldn�t give up my sandals and have been suffering with freezing piggies as a result.

I had to drive Little Princess to Fitch Bay this morning to meet her boyfriend at a mutual friend�s house. The mutual friend was a counsellor at the same summer camp for underprivileged kids that BF was working at and was implicated in the accidental fracturing of a camper�s leg during some roughhousing. Instead of risking a lawsuit, the camp fired him and sent him home. His only regret is that he misses his girlfriend.

It�s actually a very lovely trip from here to there, the Eastern Townships being some of the most beautiful countryside you�ll find anywhere (barring Newfoundland and the Rockies, of course). We passed a llama farm and several apple orchards with pick-your-own signs, as well as fields where the corn is definitely as high as the proverbial elephant�s eye. We also passed the carcasses of a deer and a raccoon on the side of the road, evidence that wildlife really do not look both ways before they cross the street. The whole trip was almost exactly 100 km and took me one and-a-half hours. The things I do for my kids.

The rain kept me from hanging laundry out, which saddens me. I cooked up new sugar-water for the hummingbird feeder, since it seems those air-borne jewels have finally figured out what it�s for. I finished the NY Times crossword puzzle after much erasing. Did you know that the 18th-century French inventor of a thermometer scale was named R�aumur? The things I learn. After copying most of a page this afternoon, I was overcome by fatigue and ended up napping.

At around 5:00 p.m. Hubby finished the passage he was working on and decided to head out to buy coffee, but was greatly worried that the shop would not be open. I accompanied him to downtown Sh�brooke--we were arguing almost nonstop--and lo, the torrefacteur was open. He was able to purchase 300 gm of Cuban coffee, hitherto untried, and I suggested that since we were already downtown, and since neither Little Princess nor Buddy Boy was home for supper, that we treat ourselves to dinner out. He acquiesced, and we ended up at Le Baladi after first strolling up and down Wellington Street, gorging ourselves on Lebanese vegetarian cuisine. Delicious and cheap, too. My mood, and Hubby�s, improved greatly with the application of food, and I am looking forward to an evening sans children (Little Princess remains in Fitch Bay, Buddy Boy is at a friend�s in town). I shall stop there and leave the rest up to your imagination.

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