Do you know what a holiday is?  The kind you get gifts is not what all of them are.  Your mommy and daddy know, ask them about it. I’m glad I get Monday off, says Mommy.  Why? It’s Labor Day, she tells me.  What are you off from? I ask awkwardly. School.

Hmmm.  Well, the one class, that you don’t yet have any assignments for, is on Tuesdays, not Mondays.  I know.  But if I did I wouldn’t work.

Well, that’s one way to think about it.  But in reality working folks and students often use these days to catch up on schoolwork, yard and homework and add some friends and BBQ time, too.  We appreciate people who do the work.  We appreciate ourselves.

Grandpa found you an adapted saddle with small and adjustable stirrups.  You and he will try it today.  You want to ride Tony.  That will be fun.  I’ll get pictures.  Yesterday we took mommy on a walk.  You showed her the old bitumen quarry, the asphaltum road and some mossy trees. Sissy came too.  She rode in the jogging (cross country ski) stroller we picked up at a garage sale.  Its good on trails.  Liza and I will go for long walks when you and mommy are in school on Tuesdays and Thursdays.  Daddy will be sleeping because he works nights again at Fox Shox in Watsonville. With his schedule mommy is challenged to find ways to keep busy outside the tent.  You can come over to the sand, walk to the garden, to the barn, have a picnic, climb trees…that’s my ideas.  Mommy isn’t sure.  She wants to come over here and drink coffee.  Maybe she’s lonely.  I sure hope she finds a friend at her school. You too.

This week you have left the tent and gone on your own to the garden, to my house and once down to the barn.  Mommy is very angry and fed up with you she says.  Its not safe for you to go away to those places if no one knows where you are.  I ask, why are you leaving the tent so often?  And assume that you are telling mommy and all of us that you need something to do.  You need to explore, go out and play and have physical adventures.  I bet Liza would like those things too.  Let’s figure out how to encourage mommy to understand that.  That’s why we took a walk.  She seemed to enjoy it, but then she took pain meds when she got home and felt sick to her stomach. Oh dear, mommy.  No more medication.  Let’s help her try it without.  Medi-Cal is good, but makes it too easy for her to stay drugged. Last night I dreamed Liza had a spider in her ear and mommy gave her some of her back pills and sissy fell down the cliff.  I think I am worried mommy can’t take care of you when she’s rummy.  School may help keep her busy.  She’s reading Farewell to Manzanar for her Reading class and has to stay alert to write and think.  That’s good stuff.

I hope you have fun riding today.  Tony will take good care of you.  I won’t get pics, I’ll just leave you and grandpa together and hear about it.

gotta rush for a site meeting, gma