More Thinking

It’s been a heavy day for the brain and it didn’t perform too well this afternoon. I completely messed up some statistics (never my thing) that I do every month and sent them off to my client with an uneasy feeling that something was wrong that I hadn’t been able to pick up on. Sure enough! Ah well, he’s very forgiving and I’ve known him for about 30 years.

This afternoon we said goodbye to our tall, elderly neighbour who has just remarried at the age of 77 to a tiny bald gentleman ten years older. This is her third marriage, so good for her. She has really been an ideal neighbour in some respects – not always on the doorstep but happy to water the plants when we’ve been away. She and all her husbands are/have been Jehovah’s Witnesses so they keep to their own clan and fortunately she has never tried to convert us although some cousin or other took it upon himself and his wife to make a “call”. Joe knew the guy and was far too polite to turn them away and even called me to meet them. Bad mistake. I find it quite impossible to listen to their drivel and I feel that I have no obligation to be polite to them when they are trying to jam their beliefs down my throat. Poor Joe – I think I embarrassed him – again!

The neighbour’s house is now on the market at a very low price and we are a bit concerned about who might buy it. There are a number of hillbilly Deliverance types round these parts. A very sobering thought indeed.

I was interested to hear from my sister-in-law in England that she and my brother have decided to home-school their daughter. She’s been having a few problems and now she will have her own teacher on a one-on-one basis. It will be very interesting to hear how this works out. I remember meeting a family when camping in BC who had five kids and all of them were being home-taught. The parents were strong advocates for the system and couldn’t say enough about it. I think they must have been pretty amazing parents too.

My English nieces Kate and Rebecca

I don’t know much about the Rudolf Steiner school system but apparently the little girl may go on into that system later. I do applaud her parents for taking action. Of course it helps when you have intelligent parents who are  looking to solve a problem. But think about all the poor little kids who are being written off by the school system – Canada too – with no hope ahead. Just give ’em Ritalin.

Just done a bit of googling around RS Schools and apparently in N. America they are known as Waldorf schools. I am very impressed with the mission statement of the Toronto Waldorf school. See http://www.torontowaldorfschool.com/why_waldorf/mission_values/index.php#

It’s bedtime and my Elizabeth George book awaits. I have a bad habit of reading into the night which renders early rising quite impossible. 

Almost forgot – two animal sightings today – without even leaving the house. A white-tailed deer on the lawn in the morning, chewing apples and a young racoon in the evening, chewing apples.