Meltwater of Bluster

It was a beautiful sunny day, and this would have been great except that I woke up at 5 and got up at 6, and that wasn't really enough sleep. I passed the time until the Sparrowhawk got up in reviewing a revised child protection policy document. I agreed to be on the committee for a group that I'm part of. We're meeting on Tuesday to discuss policy revisions, so I want to be ready. They wanted me to be the actual Child Protection Officer because I had so much to say about it, but I said I would prefer not to. I feel a little bit guilty about this, but I really don't want that responsibility, and I think I'm old enough that it would be better for some younger person to take that on. So I'm just in an advisory capacity for now. The revised document is much better in that it is better organized in terms of definitions and timeframes. It's about as good a policy as you can get. Nevertheless, it is depressing to contemplate, because experience tells us that there is no policy that can't be circumvented by a determined perpetrator, and sexual abusers of children are some of the most determined people on earth. Not the brightest start to a day!

I put away a bunch of laundry and did spot removal on my clothes and ran them through the washer. I had many plans, but at that point, I decided I would need a nap if I didn't want to feel like crap all day. So the nap took a big bite out, and other things, like a walk, didn't happen. I thawed out some chicken so the Sparrowhawk could make a large amount of stir fry to cover today and tomorrow. He made a really heroic cooking effort.

Dr. Music thought he might bring Bird Baby over for a visit while her mom was working, but alas, Bird Baby had a cold, so he thought he'd better not. We would have loved to see her, and maybe we will when she gets better. We went to church in the evening, and introduced ourselves to a couple we kept bumping into. The husband enthusiastically took advantage of the opportunity to talk about his grandchildren until his wife discreetly detached him and took him home. It made me miss my grandchildren all the more. Last night we called the Philosopher and sang the happy birthday song to his voicemail. He called us back tonight, and we could hear Aquinas making happy pre-bedtime noises in the background. The Philosopher sounds pretty good for a suddenly unemployed person. I asked him how he liked the first day of his new year, and said "At least you know they can't fire you today!" Then I felt terrible for joking about his misfortune, but he laughed and said it was all right.