very, very tired and also eating a lot

Today's activities include: a phone call before 9 a.m., telling us that there would be no school for T. The basement had flooded. Part of the phone call was to tell me tag, I'm it: I had to call the next person on the phone chain. There's a secret benefit to being listed last in the school directory. Who knew?

A trip to Roche Bros. with T., who was very happy to push the little kids cart, put produce in plastic bags (I suspect B. taught him to do this; we're ordinarily a loose produce family for the most part, but I'm happy to play along if it keeps T. involved in the activity), hand money to the cashier. On t he way home, he did something new and different: he took his coat off, and carefully held it in his lap the rest of the way home. We went on the bike.

At least he left his helmet on. I'm standing by my assertion that we should hook him up with a circus.

After we got home, I was looking forward to lying down with A. for a morning nap, because she woke up at 6:30 a.m. and we went downstairs immediately to avoid waking T. up. Unfortunately, T. wanted to go for a walk, so A. napped while B. watched. And of course A. woke up shortly after T. and I got back. Partway through our mile long walk, T. took off his socks and shoes, which I then carried. He wanted to take off his overalls. I checked -- he was warm. But he had to leave his overalls on. When we got home, I felt his feet. Even tho he'd been walking barefoot on the road in weather around 50 degrees or lower, his feet were toasty warm.

T. and B. went for a ride, presumably to her house and to run whatever errands she had. I think R. is going to pick them up later. I had hoped to walk the double jogger over to the consignment store in West Acton but I still had A. to take care of. I had the van; I could have driven, but it's so damn close and such a pain to wrestle that thing in and out of vehicles. I got out the Ergo, the fleece babywearing vest, the backpack diaper bag that attaches to the Ergo, and got us all out the door. I figured we'd stroller over and have A. ride in the Ergo on the way back. Sure enough, the nice lady who runs the store was happy to get us all assembled and was, not unexpectedly, great with A. We left the double jogger, supplied contact information and headed back. I think we lost a binky on the way. It's like there's a binky tax whenever I go anywhere with A., whether stroller, bike or backpack.

I returned a phone call I had missed, then we were back out again with A. in a different stroller to go walking with my friend M. and her dog.

As a result, I am very, very tired and eating a lot.

I would be doing a happy dance...

Except that I'm too tired.

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/11/03/health/03brod.html?em

Jane Brody covers a breathing method to mitigate asthma. It's what my paternal grandmother taught my father when he was a little boy. It's what I discovered on my own, because no one got around to teaching me. For most of my adult life, a wide variety of people have commented that I should breathe more deeply, some with quite a lot of emphasis. Finally, some justification for the very shallow breathing I prefer.

IIRC, my friend J. also suffers from asthma, and this is how she breathes when she runs, and it pisses her off when people try to get her to change because she knows it would set her asthma off.

a few useful definitions

I hate it when my programs get pre-empted by some horrific incident. The news coverage of the incident is really awful and I don't get to see what I had expected to see.

Here are some things that it would be helpful if people were talking about on television right now:

http://www.counseling.org/wellness_taskforce/tf_definitions.htm

I don't _know_ that people died because a member of the helping professions got overloaded. But as long as everyone is trying to figure out if the shooter was married or had family or whatever (and therefore issues on the home front might have been the, er, trigger), they could do a little education on this topic.