5 am... contemplation

It is 5 am the week after the scheduled time change.  Last week, it would have been 6 am... the time when my morning starts with an alarm and some gentle stretching and the notion that someone has to make the coffee.

At this point, it's been a few days, but my body insists that it's time to get up.  Granted, getting up and writing is not a way to retrain your body, but starting the day by fuming that you are awake too early is not the best of plans either.

Body clocks are strange and awesome things... aren't they?

As I was lying in bed thinking, I realized that yesterday had been a very strange day.

So many things that sent my emotions all over the place.
I started the day with the off track body clock and due to reasons beyond my control, I left the house BEFORE acquiring my standard two cups of caffeine loaded coffee... that which assists in jumpstarting my day.

Early yesterday, I got a call from the dermatologist office with the results from two skin biopsies that were done more than two weeks ago.  As my heart raced, I got the good news that there is no skin cancer, but instead a chronic skin issue that is often related to having an excitable immune system. This is, indeed, good news in a person who lost a parent to skin cancer.  The whole excitable immune system... I have learned to live with.

Then, because there had been a car accident... a first among my offspring... I had to do some parking lot sitting at the local campus of a state college, where the highschool child is taking a couple of classes, so that I could get him to traffic court on time.   Now, sitting in a car isn't new to me... far from it... For the 25 years that I've been a parent, I dare say that I've spent several entire years actually waiting in parking lots and waiting rooms and venues for sports and band, and time has taught me to accommodate for this.  However, for more than a year, I've not had to do this except on rare occasions, and I've grown less than patient with the process. I mused on things like a local campus for higher education, which is a very good thing and as I was in a particularly punkish mood about such, I mused on the driving habits of teenagers.  I knitted on my project and contemplated that ALL of my reading glasses were in the car, which explains why there were no reading glasses by my favorite chair or in the kitchen when I needed to read a recipe. I contemplated calling and making an ophthalmic appointment to see if this time the advice would be 'you just need to get some reading glasses'.

Anyway...on the road to court, the kid worked on his senior project on a Macbook provided by the highschool... a very neat gadget... this computer.  And very handy that the seniors have this resource to make the task of the senior project so much easier.  I contemplated how projects have changed from my first child, who had a home computer from the time she started elementary school but whose projects were never turned in on flash drives.  I like the senior experience projects... I love that it gives  young adults incentive to explore an area of interest and find an expert to be their guide on a tour of self discovery.  With all my heart I wish that my senior's project had been next semester, when he has only a single class to take and it's not marching band season and college applications are not due.  I think the experience could have been so much more...

Then, we went to traffic court, where I realized that the 'kid' is no kid, but a young adult.  He has an excellent understanding of his rights and responsibilities.  He faced the experience quite calmly and with much maturity... he paid his fine and learned some important grown up lessons. 

... which brings us to college applications.  Last evening, the last one was transmitted electronically.
Again, another technological difference between even  the last two children.  In the last four year since we were sitting at this threshold of the door to education, several colleges have opted to use the common application, but all three of the applications that were made this time were done online.  His essays made me smile. Most of them were about himself... questions like "what experiences have you had that have given you leadership experience?" with an occasional one thrown in there about the difference between funding for science and the arts.  It's always so interesting to see where their minds go on these essays.  This time was no different.  But with the last application gone, the countdown to college begins in earnest... waiting for the emails (or I wonder if the acceptance is still sent by letter?) which hopefully give him a choice... one of the biggest choices on the road to true independence.

Then, lastly, when I finally got to my email last night, I had a surprise.  Early in the year, I'd entered a contest put on by our local electric cooperative. One of the prizes was an in-home power usage monitor and they'll be delivering it shortly!  It should be interesting and helpful in figuring out where the inefficiencies are in our home and helping to curb the ever increasing power bill.  As we face the last child leaving and our preparing a more than a century old house for our retirement years, this should be a helpful tool in the effort to reduce our footprint and live responsibly.

But now it's time to start the day...