Duck And Rabbit

This is both an ode to single parents everywhere and a love letter to my husband.

The low-gas light on the dash was persistently, annoyingly yellow. The baby was crying. My son hovered between complaint and fear. Siri was issuing useless commands, directing me to a service station 12 km away. We’d been hurtling down the highway, in a rush to get to the ski hill on time. I’d packed the car, the kid, the supplies, the baby. I’d forgotten the gas. In a quiet panic, I pulled off and started scanning the horizon for Essos.

Are there more grown-ups or kids in the world? – Bean

My son asked me that a few days ago, and I spent a couple of minutes explaining that there are more grown-ups in the world, simply because we all spend far more of our lives being adults than we do being children. Plus, we’re all living longer than we used to, say, 100 years ago. I guess that made sense to him, because he left it there, and moved on to other things.

The other night, I was walking out of my garage into our back lane, when I ran into my neighbour, coming out of his garage.

I had Lark in the carrier, as I often do.

“I didn’t know you guys walked”, he said, joking.

“Sorry?” I said, startled. Unable to hide my defensive tone, I said, “Only every day.”

He quickly changed the subject and we parted amicably. But I was, shall we say, nettled. As happens so often when we have an emotional reaction to something, I couldn’t quite figure out why I was so irritated.

The other day I returned to this blog after a longish break, and was dismayed to find it covered with cobwebs. Once I dusted it off, I realized that I haven’t written here in ELEVEN months! Does the Internet even let you keep a blog that’s been neglected for so long? What have I been doing for the past (almost) year that has prevented me from rolling out even the most cursory post?

I am good at sleeping.

I rarely have insomnia, but when I do, I really suffer from the loss of my 8 hours. And I mean, tearfully, woefully suffer. Others around me suffer too.

The majority of the time, I strive to make those 8 or 9 hours happen. If I’m feeling unwell, I take to my bed for a solid 12-hour-marathon. I generally get up from these sleep-a-thons amazed at how restorative they’ve been. Well, duh.

Today when I was driving up my street, I noticed that four of my neighbours’ garbage bins were lying in the road. I moved them back onto the sidewalk so that they wouldn’t get run over by an approaching bus.

You’re welcome neighbours.

That’s it.

You know when you get approached by charities on the street, and you either breeze past them with a sorry-I’m-too-busy smile, or you agree to chat and then ask them to call you later? But you’re not sure if you have any intention of actually contributing to this charity?

About six weeks ago I was stopped on the street by a representative of Plan Canada. On impulse, I asked her to contact me about their child-sponsorship program - and then proceeded to dodge their calls for several weeks as they always rang at the most incredibly inopportune moments. (Think 3:00 am in Australia)

So. It appears that I have been taking a month-long break from good deeds. Not that I haven’t done anything nice for anyone, but I have been off on holidays, which means I have been mostly managing my husband and son whilst feeding myself ice-cream.

During this hiatus from deed-doing I have had many more lovely deeds done for me than by me. People have made me meals, paid for dinners, looked after my kid, and generally been nice. The deed of the Chicago Chocolate Chip Cookie Lady stands out.

I didn’t manage to do a good deed yesterday, although as my friend pointed out, if I made a meal for someone else, that’s a good deed. And yes, I did make dinner for my husband and son, so will give myself a pass.

The reason I wasn’t good-deeding yesterday is that I had to go to the dentist. To have a cavity filled. For the first time in eons. And I forgot how truly awful it is to have your face frozen for the afternoon, and then how truly awful it is to have your face unfrozen and realize how much it hurts. So I spent a large part of yesterday moping, and then slept from 7 to 7.

So here is Deed #1. This one is a bit of a cheat since I’ve actually already done it - but I want to support this amazing company and I figure spreading the word about them is a thing worth doing.

They are called TerraCycle. They are an American company that has recently branched out into Canada. (and other countries!) What they do, essentially, is try to eliminate waste by recycling or re-purposing garbage that cannot be traditionally recycled.