Freedom - almost - there's still Elcie

The girls arrived at school without incident and without forgetting anything. I got them settled with their belongings and watched one teacher carefully checking to make sure all possessions were labeled. (Ours were). If I missed anything, it's too late now. By now, they're probably tucked into their purple and royal blue sleeping bags giggling. Tomorrow will be their first "exploring" day. It's such a wonderful opportunity and I hope they love every second.

Andrea - I haven't made it to Yosemite yet - ridiculous when it's only 80 miles away. Maybe in the spring. The girls are all one up on me now.

When Elcie went, I waited until the buses left and had planned to this time. However, the girls were trying to have a good time with their classmates and I was putting a damper on the whole thing so I hugged them one last time and left. One of her classmates said to Rochelle, "boy, you sure are a huggy family". Yep, we sure are. Another year or so and they may be embarrassed but not yet and I'm taking advantage while I can.

Ray's lung specialist was worried about some weakness in the left arm so today he went to see a cardiologist. Good news - nothing wrong with his heart according to ekg and ultrasound. Bad news - may be a little angina so he now has a prescription for nitro. When he had surgery three years ago, he had a couple of small strokes while in hospital so when something unusual happens, we worry. Mollie, further to our conversation earlier, the small strokes were some weakness in his arm and considerable distortion of speech. He recovered from both except for some minor speech problems. I do most of his phoning for him but, in person, he's understandable. He's had several health problems over the last few years; none life threatening in themselves, but all debilitating. Good days, bad days, so-so days. It's hardest on him because he was so active and still wants to do things that physically he can't.

While he was at the doctor, I picked up Tim and we went to sign some legal papers for PFLAG to incorporate here. Second time around. Our treasurer had copied them double sided and the government wanted them single sided. Great - they can kill twice as many trees that way. One of the joys of dealing with the government. So, back to square one. We never did find the small print that said no front and back copies allowed. Ray still wasn't out so we headed for Long John Silvers next door to the doctor's office. Very convenient. Ray called just as we sat down and came over and joined us. Elcie had eaten so my evening became suddenly simple.

I don't hang out at doctors' offices with Ray. It makes him more uncomfortable, not less. He's more relaxed if I just go do something else. Took me a while to learn that one and then I had to pick it up from body language. He'd tell me I didn't need to stay and I'd insist, thinking he was just being polite. I bet one of my commenters here can relate to that.

Elcie is now sitting behind me clipping her toenails which may sound fairly mundane but for Elcie is an achievement. She's been dressing herself (except for shoes) much more as well. It's not quite like pulling on jeans with legs in casts but it's similar. It's a lot of work and she should be proud.

I don't know if any of you have been following the ongoing "room painting" post over on BB. I'm not sure why that would be controversial but it turned into a discussion on how much control parents should have over their kids' choices. It was a continuation of a discussion a couple of weeks ago about "out of control" kids which became an attack on parenting.

Anyhow, some of the comments on both posts bordered on nasty which led to another exchange on acceptable blogging behavior. This led me to wonder what acceptable blogging behavior is. I know I wouldn't have hung out at BB the way I did if the nastiness had become commonplace. If I want that, I'll head over to the political blogs. On the other hand, if I ask for opinions, I don't want to hear only from the people who agree with me. I learn nothing that way. People can support me as a parent or guardian by pointing out a different way of doing things. That's not attack. I think I recognize the difference.

I look at BB as a forum with many viewpoints, a variety of topics, a lot of humor, an opportunity for learning, and usually a lot of civility even when we're fiercely opposed. I'd like it to stay that way as much as possible. That's just me.

Since I have no real blogging experience, I'm wondering what my friends over here think. If one of the contributors to BB puts a topic out for discussion, does he or she leave him/herself wide open for attack? Should the contributor just "suck it up" and move on? Is she or he justified at feeling hurt? Asking once more, is there such a thing as a decent gender neutral pronoun? This he/she stuff is driving me nuts. Political correctness can border on the absurd. Is there such a thing as blog etiquette? I think there is and it varies widely from blog to blog.

Should I even be bringing this up here? Maybe. Am I a little thin skinned myself? Possibly. Just wondering what others may think.