Imperfect Genius

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We’ve had an interesting week!

Friday night we took the kids to go see Pirates of the Caribbean, whooho! Mehalje is all about pirates and Captain Jack Sparrow in particular. I have to admit I like Johnny Depp for a whole other reason, hee he. We checked with our local theater but decided it would be very crowded and since it’s a long movie (about 2 hrs 40 min) we thought our youngest might not sit still that long and would entertain himself by torturing nearby patrons being disruptive. So we opted for the drive-in.

The drive-in is about 30 minutes from us and was built fairly recent, so it’s a nice setup. The sound is broadcast via radio, so no more hooking that speaker to the window. We watched Pirates and then stayed for the next movie, Cars, as well. We thought for sure the kids would be asleep but they stayed awake for the whole thing and were well behaved the entire evening. Cars was very cute.

Saturday we helped my sister move. The lease was up on her apartment but her “new” house (which was built in 1920 and is being remodeled) wasn’t quite ready. So we moved her furniture into storage and for the time being she’s staying at one of the those extended-stay micro-suite efficiency hotels. She’ll probably be there for a couple weeks. She’s not really pleased about this because her house was suppose to be ready but the contractor she hired is taking his good old sweet time. She threatened to move into his house until hers got done.

Late Saturday afternoon we went to our own “new old house” that we’re still renovating after a year and a half. It was built in the late 1800s, probably around 1875, and is a beautiful Victorian structure but needs electrical and plumbing upgrades as well as a kitchen remodel. This house had electrical lighting a full decade before the White House, and this original system was still operating when we bought the house in January of last year. We’re working on it as we have time and money, and neither of those things seems to be in abundance lately. We’d like to move in sometime before our kids are in college! Several planned “move in” dates have come and gone and it’s still not ready.

Anyways, we did yard work and mowed the grass. Chris cleaned out a refuse area designed for garbage pickup near the curb. We discovered occupants of an apartment building nearby were using the trash receptacle. He gathered the trash, bagged it up, dug out several tall weeds by their roots and then trimmed the area. Underneath all of this stuff was rich, thick organic soil, almost like compost material, probably from years of having dark, moist environment supplemented by rotting plants, kitchen scraps, and other decomposing natural substances.

When he was changing clothes afterwards he discovered three small dark brown spots of his leg, almost as if someone had dotted him with a permanent marker. He tried to wash it off but it appeared to have stained his skin. We just figured something in the soil had splash on him while he was weedeating. We didn’t think much else of it at the time.

Sunday night Chris started his new shift. He is still working nights but moved from “B” shift to “D” shift, which is a directly opposite schedule. At first we feared this would mess up our vacation plans as all the days he would have been off he is now working and vice versa. There was a bit of tension over this matter and Chris debated over whether he would go willingly or file a complaint. If he’d fought this decision the company probably would have been forced to make someone else change shifts, as others have less seniority than he does. I mean, he was required to submit his vacation schedule at the beginning of the year and we’ve paid deposits and made plans with other families who are counting on us, so this was no casual matter. But in the end, after much scrambling around, we were able to switch vacation days and move things around to accommodate his new schedule.

Sunday was also the day we tested Mehalje. I know, pretty late to be doing this as the deadline for turning in proof of progress is Aug 1st, but it’s the way things have worked out for us time-wise. She did really good. I created a few practice tests for her so she could get used to the concept of testing, which involves, among other things, my not being able to answer her if she asks “Is this right?”, filling in little circles in a precise manner, and sitting quietly for an extended period of time doing “desk work”. All things we don’t normally do in our day-to-day unschoolish life.

Even though I think these sorts of tests do not measure real intelligence nor potential worth, I am glad that she did well on the test. Back three years ago, before we even became “official” homeschoolers, we first went over our options for turning in proof of progress (in Virginia there are several acceptable routes) and the only thing that made us really nervous was the idea of testing. I mean, these were kids that had IEPs and special therapists at one point. I was very doubtful that testing would ever go well.

But since that time my confidence in the kids has grown immeasurably. I felt comfortable ordering a test this year for Mehalje to take because it seemed the easier, quickest way to jump through the “progress” hoop. And surely enough, she did great, only missing 3 out of about 130 questions. Now I am just awaiting the scoring results so I can submit them to the school along with my NOI and be done with my paperwork for another year.

Tuesday (i.e. yesterday) I had a meeting I wanted to go to in a nearby town. A group of women from our UU have been getting together on the full moon for about a year for sisterhood, celebration, and to share sacred space. Recently we decided to add another meeting each month so now we also get together during the new moon. I haven’t been able to make it to every gathering, but I wish I could. They are always fun, intimate, deeply moving, and happily irreverent. If that seems contradictory, I you assure it’s not. They are wonderful occasions. So last night was the July full moon meeting and as I had not been able to attend at all in June I was looking forward to seeing everyone.

The meeting was great as always. This time we shared books that have inspired us in one way or another. I spoke about Tales of Female Nomad and Hope for the Flowers. I also brought several children’s books which have been inspiring to us as a family and that I feel uphold or expound upon one or more of the UU principals. The Peace Book by Todd Par, Love Is by Wendy Halperin, and The Circle of Days by Reeve Lindbergh are a few of the books I shared.

Afterwards we went to eat with my mother and sister. It was a late-night meal, we ate slowly and did lots of talking and laughing. We didn’t leave the restaurant until nearly midnight. We went back to my sister’s hotel “apartment” to check it out. It’s not a bad setup - maybe not quite as nice as having a finished house - but it’s definitely livable short-term. She made it through several years of college and never once had to live in a tiny dorm with a crummy roommate, so I don’t want to hear any complaints!

Before we headed home for the night I asked her and my mom (who both have experience in this area) to take a look at the spots on Chris’ leg. By Sunday evening the skin had turned red around each black dot and on Monday the skin was raw and sunk in, as if an acid was at work on the skin tissue. By Tuesday the three places were ulcers, about the size of a dime, with dark black centers. (I know, you really wanted to read this, didn’t you? Just be thankful you didn’t have to see it.) They said it looked like a serious bacterial infection and suggest he get to the ER asap.

Chris had cleaned the wounds and covered them with band aids and had made a casual comment about going to the doctor “sometime” if they didn’t get better “within the next few days”. You know, the typical manly “it’s just a scratch, I’ll take care of it myself and it’ll heal just fine, don’t make a fuss” kind of attitude. But their concern caused him to rethink this and since we were already in an area with a good hospital we decided to head over to the ER.

It was a Tuesday night, not much happening, so he got seen pretty fast. The doctor was like “Oh!” He said Chris was working on a major situation and after examining the three areas closely and asking lots of questions he said it is most likely Streptococcus (strep), Staphylococcus (staph), or Bacillus anthracis (anthrax) infection, either way the treatment is the same. We were surprised to learn that anthrax is a naturally occurring (but rare) bacteria which can be found in soil and 95% of cases are contracted through a scratch or cut in the skin. The ulcers with black centers are common with anthrax, hence the concern.

He gave him a prescription for Cipro and a topical cream to apply. It is hopefully not contagious, it cannot be transferred from person to person through normal transmission routes as long as we don’t touch the affected area. With proper treatment the risk of complications drops to 1%. A potentially serious situation but with the meds he should heal up just fine. Of course we’ll make fun of him for this for oh, say, the rest of his life.

Now we just have to figure out what to do with that mulchy compost-like soil lurking at the garbage can area. We have calls in to the Health Depart and the Dept of Agriculture. As always, they don’t seem to know what to do and haven’t called me back as promised. I love competent govt employees!

I’m telling you, if anyone could find a freak accident or a rare way in which to injure oneself, it would be Chris. Who else ends up with this sort of thing from engaging in one of the most common, mundane, everyday things such as trimming the yard?