Rain!

A strange substance fell from the sky in Colorado Springs tonight, as if angels were crying. What an extraordinary thing.

I'm not sure people out on the roads remembered how to drive in rain.

"Can you drink rain?" Alice asked as she tentatively wiped some off the car door, held it to her lips, and looked at me to see how I'd react. "Is it water?"


Glory hallelujah! Who would have thought we'd get to the point that we enjoyed getting soggy on our way to the car?

***

An addendum to the sickness story: Today the pediatrician's office sent a lab report indicating that a strep culture they did on Alice when she was in last week turns out to have been positive (they'd thought it was negative at first). So the kid had severe constipation, nausea, an ear infection, and strep all at once. Now I'm surprised she was hanging in there with us at all.

***

After the fall's start-and-go attempts at enrolling Edith in extracurriculars--all of them physical activity--we signed her up for after-school science enrichment for the next six weeks, her choice among several options offered weekly for an hour after school by parent volunteers with particular skills. No sooner had we signed her up than she said she was too scared to do it--mainly, it turned out, because she was afraid she'd forget to stay at school on the right day and would accidentally take the bus home, and that she wouldn't know where in the school to go for the class. But they met yesterday for the first time, and with the logistics resolved (after-school science meets in the art room, and her teacher sends her there before taking kids out to the bus)...she loves it. The whole six weeks are built around a central mystery: a dog has been dog-napped, and they're going to use various kinds of science to figure out whodunnit. Of course, provide a story and Edith's with you all the way. She made me and Tom each review the bios of the suspects when we got home. She was clearer on who they all are, I think, than on the science behind the acid-base indicator, the prism, or the invisible ink they used today. But that's fine. She wishes science happened every day.

***

Pop quiz:

Edith suggested it was time we name the car Tom's grandfather handed down to us. (Side note: How quickly our daily lives have changed with two cars! Another blessing.)

1. Who suggested which name?

(a) Purple Shiny
(b) Harold
(c) Mugisa ("gift" in Swahili)
(d) Movie Star Poop Car

2. Which name won in the final vote?