Dicotomy

Our town is crawling with TV news crews and party buses.

News crews because Sandra Cantu remains missing. As each day goes by, our town grows more and more sad. Flyers are everywhere....taped to cars, plastering the windows of every gas station, grocery store, fast food place, etc. I exited my car at Starbucks and a guy getting out of his car saw two policemen in their cruiser and said 'have you found Sandra yet?'. 'No' was the answer but with a quick 'but the entire law enforcement team throughout the area is looking for her'. Sheriff's departments, police departments, etc. are on alert. It is sad. There is no reason to think she ran away. She just vanished. Missing. Just like that.

And party buses because it's Prom night - B.'s senior prom is almost here. I'm feeling a little melancholy about this last 'right of passage'. Though I should be cheering that his high school days are almost over. He will remember these last four years fondly - his dad and I, not so much. And that's as it should be - parents survive them and the kid's relish them. It has been this way through the ages - same for me. Same for my mom. Teens are hard. No way around it. I'll be glad for the 'fresh start' that college will bring, even if that fresh start still has him living at home. Oh well. More challenges ahead (undoubtedly) but we'll be officially past high school. One down, one to go.

J. and H. are out looking at a car for H. I think we've sold him on a car that has been in my work parking lot for sale for a month or more - it's a 2002 Dodge Neon. Nothing fancy but it's an OK car and it's priced well and if he likes it and it checks out mechanically and we buy it, we'll have enough 'extra' money to also get him a good stereo. Sort of an incentive for getting a car that is priced well under our 'low' price ideal. They took it for a test drive and liked it (they're home now) and the next step is to take it to our local Dodge dealer for a 'visual inspection'. To give us an idea of what kind of shape it's in mechanically. H. won't officially get his license until sometime in late summer - but possibly the 'torture' known as 'H. looking for a car' will be past us. He can move on to saving up for fancy headlights, souped up speakers, a fancy paint job, etc. More good times to look forward to. And for me, the challenge of paying for insurance for FOUR cars and TWO teen drivers. OMG! Wow. That's going to be a major chunk of change.

I retired for the evening last night at just after 7. Tired. Fell asleep around 9ish with all my clothes on. Awoke at 1:30 and finally disrobed. Slept until 7:00 this morning. Awoke with an 'official' (meaning I don't think it's allergies) sore throat and a raging headache. Piddle! Plans for the day shot to hell 'cuz I don't feel that great today. Excuses, excuses....thankfully, J. worked on the taxes a bit so we're getting pretty close to done. Just need to verify the charitable deductions and we should be ready to 'check' and then submit. And I need to file for B. so he can get his $$ back.

It's a beautiful Spring day today - 70 degrees, clear skies and NO WIND!! Hoping it's nice where you are, too.