Yesterday at lunchtime, a bad storm came through Ohio. Craig was at home & when he heard the tornado sirens go off he gathered everybody up (kids, Linda and pets) and got them into the basement. I'm sure at this point his adrenalin was pumping and he was worried how to take care of everyone during the impending devastation. I called him on his mobile just as he was doing this and he told me where he was and I cracked up laughing. At noon every Wednesday, the city does a practice tornado drill. Of course I'm going to take the Mickey and he knows it, because he gets me every time I do it.
You know what though? I'm doing that kind of scatty thing all the time. My brain is overloaded and I've even asked myself if I might be getting dementia, I get so nutty and lost sometimes.
My friend Deb at work has a theory and I think she's right. In the "old days" - 15 years ago, we didn't have cell phones or Facebook or Twitter or e-mail or Skype or blogs or chat rooms. We had phones at home and maybe in the office. When I was a kid in Scarisbrick 25 years ago, our big, clunky circular-dial phone even had a lock on it to stop my sister from calling her friends for 2 hours. Course we picked it (sorry mum). Anyway, sometimes, we'd spend all day on our own without interruption. I remember driving from Preston to Maidstone (an 8-hr, drive) in a crappy car at night on my own at 21 years old and I wasn't scared. Was that my youth? yes probably. But also a confidence that I could be on my own and be happy.
Now, in 2010 - I can't remember the last time I was on my own, I really can't. Can you? And I don't want my kids overloaded 100% of their waking life. That would be dreadful. They need alone time, to ride their bikes like a maniac, mess about in rock pools and poo in the woods. Alone.
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