1*F (-17* C) at the bus stop
I'm single parenting this week while B. is traveling. I'm dealing with snow storms without a working snowblower, a boy who needs his own livery service, a dog who cannot find her tennis ball in the deep snow, and all the usual things associated with running a small business.
But I still walk Small Boy to the bus in the morning. I pull myself groaning out of bed, pull on layers of clothing, grab a gulp of coffee, and off we go.
Often times I find the children at the bus stop are not dressed for the weather. They'll be wearing flip-flops when it's 50*F out, or they won't have winter coats when it's 20*F out. Yesterday when I was at CVS I bought a bunch of cheap knit gloves - the kind I sometimes use to layer inside mittens. What made me think of this is that I was walking down the street the other day and saw a man approaching me on a motorized wheelchair who wasn't wearing gloves. It took me too long to register what I was seeing; his cold, chapped hands that needed to be out of his pockets to operate the chair. How cold it was to be bare-handed. Uggh. But he was motoring in the opposite direction and there was too much noise for him to hear me address him by the time it occurred to me to turn around and offer him MY gloves (which were cheap, and I could easily buy more on that trip downtown).
But it got me to thinking about the kids at the bus stop, how they so seldom have gloves or mittens. So this morning I brought five new pairs of gloves with me to the bus stop. This was a particularly good morning to do it, I figured, since it is bitterly cold today. How cold is it? 1 degree Fahrenheit is -17 degrees Celsius. It is life-threateningly cold.
What I found was a sixth grader not wearing a winter coat, hat, or gloves. There weren't any other kids there this morning; perhaps their parents gave them rides, perhaps they were skipping school, I don't know. There are usually four or five kids there. But this time it was just her. I gave her gloves and asked if I could hug her for warmth. I wrapped my arm around her bare neck (she wasn't even wearing a turtleneck!) and hugged her close until the bus came. I gave a gentle lecture about not leaving her coat in her locker at school, but it hardly needed saying. She was suffering the natural consequences of forgetting it at school. And it's true, she lived. But, oh my, I want to kick her parents in the ass for that one.
Oddly, while we were waiting for the bus someone drove past and stopped to tell us that school was canceled. Small Boy - who is firmly linked to his unlimited-texting cellphone, shrugged and said his friends were already at school. We thanked them and they drove off just as the bus arrived. Not sure what that was about. Maybe some other schools canceled because it was life-threateningly cold out?
But I still walk Small Boy to the bus in the morning. I pull myself groaning out of bed, pull on layers of clothing, grab a gulp of coffee, and off we go.
Often times I find the children at the bus stop are not dressed for the weather. They'll be wearing flip-flops when it's 50*F out, or they won't have winter coats when it's 20*F out. Yesterday when I was at CVS I bought a bunch of cheap knit gloves - the kind I sometimes use to layer inside mittens. What made me think of this is that I was walking down the street the other day and saw a man approaching me on a motorized wheelchair who wasn't wearing gloves. It took me too long to register what I was seeing; his cold, chapped hands that needed to be out of his pockets to operate the chair. How cold it was to be bare-handed. Uggh. But he was motoring in the opposite direction and there was too much noise for him to hear me address him by the time it occurred to me to turn around and offer him MY gloves (which were cheap, and I could easily buy more on that trip downtown).
But it got me to thinking about the kids at the bus stop, how they so seldom have gloves or mittens. So this morning I brought five new pairs of gloves with me to the bus stop. This was a particularly good morning to do it, I figured, since it is bitterly cold today. How cold is it? 1 degree Fahrenheit is -17 degrees Celsius. It is life-threateningly cold.
What I found was a sixth grader not wearing a winter coat, hat, or gloves. There weren't any other kids there this morning; perhaps their parents gave them rides, perhaps they were skipping school, I don't know. There are usually four or five kids there. But this time it was just her. I gave her gloves and asked if I could hug her for warmth. I wrapped my arm around her bare neck (she wasn't even wearing a turtleneck!) and hugged her close until the bus came. I gave a gentle lecture about not leaving her coat in her locker at school, but it hardly needed saying. She was suffering the natural consequences of forgetting it at school. And it's true, she lived. But, oh my, I want to kick her parents in the ass for that one.
Oddly, while we were waiting for the bus someone drove past and stopped to tell us that school was canceled. Small Boy - who is firmly linked to his unlimited-texting cellphone, shrugged and said his friends were already at school. We thanked them and they drove off just as the bus arrived. Not sure what that was about. Maybe some other schools canceled because it was life-threateningly cold out?