What I mean...

Be kind, for everyone you meet is fighting a hard battle. Plato.

For the record, Ditz is 14. This is not old enough to drive ~ in any state ~ & we're funny about a 14 year old running round town after dark so I drive her to her rehearsals. It has been raining for over a month & I can never find parking at the mainland jetty so when it began mizzling again on Wednesday night I put Ditz out at the jetty with both bags & the hot food [no sense in both of us being drenched] & went to look for parking.

Parking is a five minute walk away through the slush in the pitch dark but I do this every week, no big deal, only AVAE times have altered slightly which means we are tight for time, especially if Ditz wants to eat ~ & Ditz invariably wants to eat.

Just the same I swear I was being careful, I just never saw the big sloshy puddle of mud. I came down hard; hard enough that Dearest commented when he saw me I was lucky not to do my collar bone like Liddy did playing soccer a few years back. At the time I was less worried about the pain than the glug. I have serious tactile issues ~ as anyone who knows me really well will testify. I don't eat certain things because I can't stand the way they feel in my mouth; I'll never be playing clarinet . I don't wear certain fabrics because their feel drives me bonkers. I can't stand the combination of sand & salt on my skin at the beach. I prefer cats to dogs as much because cats feel better as for their temperment. That being said, a 2" thick coat of wet mud plastered down my back in the wind & the rain was pretty much guarenteed to drive me into a frenzy. By the time I got home I'd been in this wet grubby state for almost an hour, long enough for absolutely no~one to laugh when they saw me. It took coffee & copious amounts of hot water, clean clothing & deep breathing before Dearest could assess the actual damage. I warned you I have serious tactile issues.

Ditz has been wonderful. No, she hasn't sat down unasked & worked through copious amounts of school work. She did manage everything on Wednesday so all I had to manage was me. Mind you, she finds me falling apart in public a huge embarrassment so it was in her own best interests. Thursday, however, is our shopping day. We have a large household so shopping is not for woos'. True, Ditz couldn't drive the car but she did everything else. She wheeled the trolley. She loaded & unloaded groceries. She packed everything away where it belonged & then she cooked tea: homemade pizza & chocolate mousse. I'm told the pizza was very nice. I passed as Ditz did us scrambled eggs on grain, nut & seed bread to hold us & it held me very well indeed, thank you! Not even getting landed with unexpected extras for tea fazed Ditz.

Somewhere in the process I believe Ditz has a menu plan. I did see a shopping list of some sort because Ditz is planning on doing a few meals over the coming weeks. OK, so she's got a bit to learn about the clean~up process but frankly I will take any amount of cleaning up over actually having to cook a meal. See I can think my thoughts while cleaning up: of poetry & Celts & plots for non~existant novels ~ something not really feasible while cooking though I have been known to try. Ditz, who has been blessed with a sunny disposition, worked cheerfully too. I appreciate my girl. I really, really do. ☺