The school supply lists for public school aren't as extensive as they were for private school. So I had no trouble yesterday getting all the few items and I would have even been happy to buy more. On the other hand, there's a part of me that suspects that a second list may be sent home in the first week of school, specifically from the homeroom teacher, with more things. I imagine the office just sends home the same list every year and teachers don't bother to update it. But we'll see.

I went to Walmart, which I've learned very much to loathe in recent years, out of necessity. Flickr prints there now instead of at Target and I wanted Tim to send some summer pictures to his second grade teacher. I won't turn this into a rant against Walmart but the sound of jackhammering that wafted into the store from the loading dock area was constant and intolerable. No wonder kids were shrieking and carrying on. Even my nerves got a little on edge from it. Jackhammering is bloody loud.

On our way out, we ran into Ella's former teacher. It was very nice to see her but Ella was shy and certainly didn't want to hug her. I think my kids get embarrassed by their own strong feelings.

I didn't find everything at Walmart, surprise. So I was on the way to Target when I saw Michaels and decided to try there for an art smock for Tim. They've never had them in the past so I've no idea why I expected that to change. Instead, Chris was offering me a tantrum and didn't want to leave the car. I eventually made a game out of putting his socks on - I teased him about his big feet and, oh, would I be able to even get his tiny socks on?! I bet 'no' and he was determined to prove me wrong! He's pretty easy to win over and that bit worked on him.

However, in the store, he kept badgering me about buying him some sort of toy and berating me for never doing it. I found something that I wanted to buy quite a few of, so I went back a few aisles for a shopping cart. I picked one with squeaky wheels and between that and my own squeaky wheel, it was too much, so I exchanged the one I could and resumed shopping. But for the life of me, I could not remember the reason I'd entered the store. What had I gone in there for? I had only Chris's words playing over and over in my head, "You always say 'no;' you never buy me anything good except food."¹ And as I stood motionless in the center of the aisle, I confessed to Chris that I couldn't remember what I wanted to buy because I was so affected by his words, he asserted, "That's what I wanted to happen."

Now it's ridiculous how slow I am, but this type of belligerency is always (really, always) an indication that Chris needs to use a restroom. Seriously. But since I had offered him such an opportunity at Walmart twenty minutes earlier I wasn't in the mood to offer again. When we returned to the car, Ella asked as she often does, "Where we going?" and Chris blurted, "Home!" It was going on 3 and I hadn't had lunch yet, so skipping Target and going home sounded good to me, too.

But first I went 'round the corner to Fred & Murry's Kosher Deli and got a junior sloppy joe. I persuaded Chris to use their restroom and, incredibly (but not surprising) his attitude completely improved! To my great joy, the $10 sandwich was out of this world. And it was only a sandwich, on rye. The homemade pickles were awesome, too. Only a little soggy. I also bought a lb. of macaroni salad and had some for dinner. I need to find the recipe because it's so sweet. I don't know what the dressing it. Maybe it's made with pareve Miracle Whip.

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¹ Four hours later it came back to me: an art smock for Tim. But the memory was only triggered by catching a glimpse of the school supply list in my purse when I opened it to pull out the packet of prints.

This just doesn't stop ...

"Another Deadly Crash in Oakfield", WKBW, 8/12/10.

I'm reading the older boys Tom Sawyer (Google books) at bedtime, presently. Chris has great interest in hearing it, too, but the three of them together get too silly to listen and I can't imagine Chris understands it anyway. Kenny gets it and enjoyed tonight's chapter very much. As did I.

I read it against the backdrop, in my own mind, of those three killed in a car crash. How could I not? It's fresh pain on my mind. Twain's writing is so true to life:

Then quite a group of boys and girls - playmates of Tom's and Joe's - came by, and stood looking over the paling fence and talking in reverent tones of how Tom did so-and-so, the last time they saw him, and how Joe said this and that small trifle (pregnant with awful prophecy, as they could easily see now!) - and each speaker pointed out the exact spot where the lost lads stood at the time, and then added something like "and I was a-standing just so - just as I am now, and as if you was him - I was as close as that - and he smiled, just this way - and then something seemed to go all over me, like - awful, you know - and I never thought what it meant, of course, but I can see now!"

Then there was a dispute about who saw the dead boys last in life, and many claimed that dismal distinction, and offered evidences, more or less tampered with by the witness; and when it was ultimately decided who did see the departed last, and exchanged the last words with them, the lucky parties took upon themselves a sort of sacred importance, and were gaped at and envied by all the rest. One poor chap, who had no other grandeur to offer, said with tolerably manifest pride in the remembrance:

"Well, Tom Sawyer he licked me once."

But that bid for glory was a failure. Most of the boys could say that, and so that cheapened the distinction too much.

And, of course, they bust in upon their own funeral, as you remember. But superstition isn't reserved for the boys and girls, no. Most of the adults are steeped in it too. Kenny nearly fell off the bed laughing when I read Tom describing his "dream" to Aunt Polly, in the next chapter:

"Why, Wednesday night I dreamt that you was sitting over there by the bed, and Sid was sitting by the woodbox, and Mary next to him."
"Well, so we did. So we always do. I'm glad your dreams could take even that much trouble about us."
"And I dreamt that Joe Harper's mother was here."
"Why, she was here! Did you dream any more?"
"Oh, lots. But it's so dim, now."
"Well, try to recollect - can't you?"
[...]
"Oh, it's all getting just as bright as day, now. Next you said I warn't bad, only mischeevous and harum-scarum, and not any more responsible than - than - I think it was a colt, or something."
"And so it was! Well, goodness gracious! [...] Well, for the land's sake! I never heard the beat of that in all my days! Don't tell me there ain't anything in dreams, any more. Sereny Harper shall know of this before I'm an hour older. I'd like to see her get around this with her rubbage 'bout superstition. Go on, Tom!"

Kenny remarked that the characters in this book seem to be so very religious and he speculated that people were most religious "in those days." Well, the book contains way more descriptions of people being superstitious than of being religious. I think there's still a good mix of both with us today but we just have this chronological snobbery that blinds us to it all around us (and in us). Here's Polly's prayer that got Kenny's reaction:

"I'm thankful to the good God and Father of us all I've got you back, that's long-suffering and merciful to them that believe on Him and keep His word, though goodness knows I'm unworthy of it, but if only the worthy ones got His blessings and had His hand to help them over the rough places, there's few enough would smile here or ever enter into His rest when the long night comes."

I think I could say "Amen" to that.

I liked today's first reading:

The night of the passover was known beforehand to our fathers,
that, with sure knowledge of the oaths in which they put their faith,
they might have courage.
Your people awaited the salvation of the just
and the destruction of their foes.
For when you punished our adversaries,
in this you glorified us whom you had summoned.
For in secret the holy children of the good were offering sacrifice
and putting into effect with one accord the divine institution.

Wis. 18:6-9

I was really sick last Monday, mostly dizzy. I decided that the diphenhydramine I was taking to help me sleep was causing dizziness. So I got rid of that from the medicine chest. And, so, the caffeine has to go as well. I took some Advil for the headache on Tuesday (Advil doesn't have caffeine) because I had to lead Bible study in the morning. Tuesday was actually my best day.

Wednesday was awful with an upset stomach. I ate two meals on Wednesday, a bowl of Mini Wheats in the morning and again in the evening. On Thursday, I got a taste again for caffeinated soda, so I poured my remaining soda bottles down the drain. I went grocery shopping on Friday and didn't even go down the soda aisle.

I've been drinking lots more water, most because of the bad symptoms I had. I wanted to flush out the diphenhydramine too, which I think I've largely done. I'm still a little dizzy, mostly at night. I came home last night and threw my head back to look at the stars and nearly fell over. Since diphenhydramine is an antihistamine, I lost whatever benefit that gave to my urticaria. I've gone back to the prescription topical ointment but the itching keeps me up at night.

I'm reading labels scrupulously. Chris and I went out for pizza after the beach on Friday evening and he got an Orange Crush to share. I checked the label - "caffeine free." But Jeff offered to buy me an orange or grape soda - I'm still craving sugary drinks - and found Sunkist has caffeine. So, hankering for something sweet, I had a glass of chocolate milk. We keep chocolate milk around for our daughter who prefers it to regular milk. I remembered the caffeine in chocolate but hoped there isn't much and kept drinking.

Can I blame years of nursing? Can I blame children who get up at all hours of the night for my poor sleep habits? I don't know. I ought to be over that by now. Chris still tends to get up a few nights a week¹ and needs help in the bathroom.

I read somewhere online it's three weeks to get over caffeine addition. Well, it's a lot easier to do when you feel miserable. I'm yawning a lot more now, for sure. And I think I'm coming down with a cold, as well ...

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¹ I'm writing this at 1 o'clock and he just got up and I helped him.

Sunday Snippets - a Catholic carnival hosted by Rann at "This That and the Other Thing."

My submission this week:

• "At mass for the Transfiguration"

The news in the old town is of a fatal car crash, three kids coming home from the onion festival (Buffalo News and The Batavian and Democrat & Chronicle).

Jeff's brother just happens to be up there for the onion festival, like he does every year. I've never been.

Now the festival let up last night at 11 and the crash was after 1:30. Here are a couple of pictures, on Albion Rd., south of Lockport Rd.

I don't really remember the area even though I used to ride my bike that way several times a summer to visit my friend whose family took a house (and old church, actually) on East Shelby Rd., at the intersection with Barber and Posson¹. Down the road from their church/house, I remember a cemetery, probably this one. We would often visit to read the names and marvel at the dates.

The XC team took runs out Albion, too, in my time, I think but it must have been simply out & back because I can't see a reasonable loop or circuit. The time my friend got bit by a dog when we were riding bikes, we had gone Albion all around to Fisher and the dog got her almost at 262. I was able to take her to a friend's house, whose father taught at the high school, right along 262, for help. She got stitches and rabies shots and had a scar or two. Very memorable. We had been singing Beatles songs during the ride to pass the time, I remember, "The Long and Winding Road" seemed apt. There were two other friends with us but they had fallen behind.

The summer I worked at the Muck, probably '87, I drove Lockport Rd to 98 to the farm.

Years later, my brother bought a house on Eagle Harbor in Medina, which he has since sold, but I drove Albion to visit him on a few occasions. At the intersection with Fisher Rd. and through the hamlet of West Barre, there are some tricky spots but the turns coming into town where this crash occurred are smooth.

The girl was underage but the boys were not. The driver had just turned 21 last week.

UPDATED: Empty Beer Bottles Found In Oakfield Car Crash, WKBW News 7, Buffalo.

interactive map

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¹ "Posson" isn't from memory, it's from a map and it doesn't sound familiar. The other roads do and the "path" or course of Posson is familiar.