Gloves

Ty, by his own admission, was having a

dark and sensitive day.

He was dressed in black, head to toe. A long sleeved black shirt, black sweat pants, his black Converse.

So not like him.

I thought jeez, he's only 8, he's not going goth on me... is he??

So... umm... Ty honey, dark and sensitive... is this just today? or is it gonna be everyday??

Just today... whew!! that's a relief

So he moped for a while... not a happy camper.

At some point during the day, I noticed he was wearing these...

hmmm... where did those come from??

Hey Ty, where did you get those gloves?

Aren't they cool, Mommy?...I always wanted gloves like these. We found them in the park.

OK. the park. The park is the school playground which borders our backyard. I can look out our kitchen window, across the length of our backyard, and literally see into the school's cafeteria. Which is great. It's great that my kids can walk out our front door, make 3 left turns, and be at the school's entrance without crossing any streets. It's great that I can be cleaning the house, or folding laundry, or gardening, and hear them playing at recess. It's great that all the little kids file past our backyard at the beginning and end of their day, and stop to feed the dog cheese doodles or gawk at the chickens hi Mia's mom, hi Ty's mom.

There's also a lot of extra-curricular activity back there when school's not in session. Folks use it as a short cut, and toss their candy wrappers, soda, or beer cans over the fence as they walk by how rude.

At night, it's a secluded alley where high school kids can hang out, have sex, and do whatever kids are doing these days

i'm so old.

Last spring, one of the lunch ladies came by ...

umm... TyandMia'smom??... umm there's a condom... a red one... hanging from a tree by your fence... the kids can see it from the cafeteria... they're calling it a rubber tree...

RUBBER tree...it renewed my faith in the public school system that the elementary school children in our semi-urban town have learned enough about ecosystems to know that RUBBERS GROW ON TREES

So this is where Ty found the gloves that he's wearing on his hands... YUCK!!!

Later that evening...

OK guys... time to brush your teeth...

Mommy, what?? What's the problem?? It's protecting our toothbrushes from germs. Do you know how many millions of thousands of germs get from the toilet onto toothbrushes?? We learned it in school.

ecosystems and microbiology...

so glad the school budget passed