The First Day of School.

Today is the first day of school for KidThree. After that, she has an orthodontist appointment and then we have group. Today I'll go in with her to group to give the information on the SCI gym; next week KidThree can be at group on her own again.

KidTwo had a very funny entry yesterday on her online journal. She listed the pointless things she had done at her job to fill the time, then said, "Dad doesn't think this job challenges me enough." Dad is right! KidTwo has such energy and is so quick to complete tasks; civil service folks just aren't used to employees with her abilities. I pity the supervisor who isn't ready to keep her busy and contributing.

Yesterday was a good relaxing day. Six loads of laundry, as of course that never, ever ends, but lots of reading and lots of chocolate. I read John Lescroart's latest, "Betrayal," and enjoyed it. I had goofed, though, and reserved the large print copy. Blast. I hate reading large print--it feels as though the book is shouting at me. Sometimes, when I make that mistake, I just give the book back without reading it and then reserve the regular copy, but John Lescroart is one of my favorites, so I just read the darned thing.

"Betrayal" was good, but not so good as some of his others. Sometimes, authors who are writing about continuing characters can get lazy and write on auto-pilot. Lescroart doesn't appear to be doing that, but he is reducing the importance of his primary characters, making them secondary characters at best. In a couple of his other books, he had former secondary characters as the primaries, which I quite enjoyed. It was like getting to know acquaintances better, with them becoming friends. In this book, he didn't do that: the characters/victims in the legal conflict were essentially the primaries. It was good, and interesting, but I felt the lack. It just felt odd. But still, good, and the plot was complex and plausible, as usual. Lescroart does have us spoiled. (But, John, Frannie is always such a one-dimensional character, with stereotypical reactions. Not my favorite character in fiction.)

Then I read, "The Game of My Life," by and about Jason McElwain, the autistic teen who had a wonderful, inspirational experience with his basketball team when a senior in high school. It was good. It went back and forth between Jason's voice and members of his family and community, giving a well-rounded presentation of this young man and his life. I enjoyed that thoroughly.

Then I started the biography of Charles Schulz, but only just. No comments yet, except to say how much I have loved "Peanuts" my entire life.

And that is it for this morning, as KidThree is going to need some help facing the day this early, after an entire summer of sleeping in.

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