All Cool for School...

Tomorrow marks the end of Summer Vacation, the beginning of the New School Year, and thus the return to our Normal Schedule around here. While all of that sounds less-than-newsworthy...mundane,even...after the wacky events of the past week or so in Maryland, "boring" and "predictable" will be welcomed with open arms! Typically in August, we resign ourselves to hot, muggy, uncomfortable conditions and even while we begin to yearn for the cool crispness of Fall. But this year, the Mid-Atlantic Weather Menu served up: violent thunderstorms (with a side of hail); an earthquake (accompanied by a heaping helping of "are you kidding me? you've got the wrong coast!); and finally, a hurricane (flavored with high winds and torrential downpours). I'm telling you right now, if I peer through my window anytime soon and spot either locusts or frogs, I am outta here!

So anyway, after the big Irene Preparations--stocking up on food, charging flashlight batteries, and general "battening down the hatches"...whatever that's supposed to mean--we sailed through the storm relatively unscathed. The power never went out (so, SO grateful for that), both the house and our street escaped flooding, nothing seemed to get broken...and late in the afternoon the next day, the sun actually reappeared! The four of us spent a pleasant hour or so zig-zagging through the yard, retrieving lots of broken twigs and small branches, which represented the extent of the damage. Even our Lawn Gnome still stood stoically in front of the house, having withstood the battering without falling over and cowering under his adjacent bush.

Then it was time to start thinking about Monday, the first day of 3rd grade (Riley), Middle School (Derek), and the semester (me). I tried to gently introduce the notion of returning to school--without freaking the boys out too much--by reminding them that they should pack their lunches after dinner. (And may I just pause a moment here for a deeply heartfelt cry of YAY! NOT MY JOB ANYMORE! Thank you, I'm good now.) This suggestion was met with groans. Next I asked Derek how he would prefer to depart Slumberland in the morning: the personal-but-jarring "Wakey Wakey" method (implemented by Husband), or the anonymous-and-peaceful "Clock Radio" route. I got a noncommittal, mumbled, "I don't know." At least I provoked a reaction when I teasingly inquired as to what "Special Outfit" he would choose for his first day. He favored me with a "Mom has 3 Heads and is Speaking a Foreign Language" look, before subsiding into lethargy again and muttering, "I don't know." Sigh. He did, however, became quite animated when complaining about the fact that Husband, who will be delivering him to the Bus Stop every day at his new, too-early-for-Mom hour, forces him to...walk. (Rather than the Daily System of the last several years, in which we race out of the house with our pants on fire because we've inevitably pushed it until the last possible second, and peel out Andretti-like to the end of the street, screeching to a halt mere milliseconds before the bus shows up.) Derek seemed both horrified and outraged when relating this injustice, but I informed him that the Objectionable Parental Behavior occurs during the BMC Timezone...Before Mom's Coffee, that is...and therefore I could not assist him.

Nevertheless, backpacks sit at the ready near the door, stuffed to the zippers with fresh supplies; the boys retired at a decent school-night bedtime; and tomorrow we'll be revved to hit the ground running....probably to catch the bus! (Maybe I should go set up the coffeepot before turning in, myself...)