What a day
So, The Kat and I ran down to Oakville yesterday to see Paul and Sarah, as I'm sure did hundreds of other people. We got in about half an hour before the official visitation started, and so we got about twenty minutes to ourselves before the next early birds arrived. They're, well... okay is far from the right word, but they know that they will get through this. They've had times and episodes when their brains have just shut down and all they can do is cry, but that's understandable. They've also had other times when they've looked up and seen friends standing there just wanting to be with them and do whatever they can. We'd been distant for a while, and we're hoping to close the gap - time, distance and work just does that for some people, and sometimes it takes tragedies like this to force them to see how close they really need to be to each other.
The new van performed wonderfully. We got a 2006 Uplander a few weeks ago, and one of the great blessings/curses of the thing is that it has a 100-litre gas tank. We've managed to get the "average fuel economy" down to just under 10L/100km, but that's with a lot of highway driving over the past week or so (and a LOT more yet to come before October is over!). On the highway, we actually usually see 7 or 8 L/100, and that's going 115! She's a good vehicle, and hopefully will prove herself worth the other headaches and debt!
Sir Goobs had to join us, which wasn't great (from his perspective either). He occasionally goes off on wonky impulsive tangents to what is expected of him, and yesterday, with a book fair, an election polling station at the school, and The Kat and I heading out of town, the school administration asked us to please sign him out and take him with us - not a suspension, but rather a "parental withdrawal" to keep everything in a better place than it might end up if he just stayed there! He wasn't impressed at first, but I hope he has a better day today.
When we got home, we still had to run, run, run, as #1Son had a friend over for playtime/supper, Darth Daughter had to get to basketball, we had to get some books back to the library, and VOTE!! It was a tiring night, after a long day... but I wouldn't have taken that trip out of the schedule for the world. Pray for Sarah and Paul today, if you please - they'll really need it today, as they say another farewell to Sam.