I cannot remember what the story behind this pic is. The GG sent it to me yesterday. Where was it? When was it? Who took it? I do not know. Actually it’s probably somewhere in upstate NY or Vermont, taken in recent weeks. Twin brothers, clowning around…

Of course I ALSO forgot that he was going off this evening to a north country trail boondoggle in a town 50 or so miles away. Did I want to accompany him? Nope. I am still not up for an evening with a bunch of strangers. Even before covid I was not a social butterfly. I am saving up my social stamina for the “formal” wedding looming on our calendar. Exactly one month from today. (KW wedding GUEST mantra: this is about the bride and groom, not about meeeee.)

I just finished North Woods, a recently published book. It might not be everybody’s cuppa but I enjoyed it a lot. Gorgeous descriptions of the natural world and related processes woven in and around human stories. Very quirky humans for the most part. And a whole bunch of sorta spooky stuff that didn’t become clear until the end. There’s a great big bear on the cover. Throughout the book there was a lot of talk about catamounts but any significant mention of bears was absent until the end.

I’m starting a re-read: The Good Mother. I’m revisiting this because I have a vague memory of being somewhat annoyed by this book back when I first read it, which is when I had very young children as my children are similar ages to the book. There was also a movie (which I didn’t watch and probably won’t).

I remember being at the moominbeach with my young children and having various relatives ask over and over if us young moms were “Good Mothers”. This question was related to the issue of whether or not we were slathering our babies with sunscreen. Now. I am all for protecting children from ultraviolet rays (although I can’t say I was always perfect). But at some point I remember getting totally fed up with the Sunscreen Police and declaring a Sunscreen Moratorium. I meant a moratorium from DISCUSSING sunscreen, not from USING it.

Of course the book is not about whether the mother is using sunscreen or not, but the Sunscreen Police were definitely borrowing the phrase from the book/movie. All these years later, I can’t remember exactly what the issue was. I know there was a divorce and an accusation from the ex-husband about inappropriate behavior on the ex-wife’s part. So for whatever reason the book flew by me on the internet and I snagged it to read again.

This entry was posted on Wednesday, October 11th, 2023 at 6:34 pm and is filed under Uncategorized. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.