It was a time to reconnect with family

I was in search of good news and felt compelled to go home, just to be sure everyone was as I left them. Last Sunday I was reassured that in my family, nothing has changed.

Mom still can't hear her smoke alarm even though my brother, Michael, had just replaced it with a new one. Michael, his girlfriend, and I packed up Mom and went shopping for an alarm for the hearing impaired but the people at the store we went to looked at us like we were asking the impossible. I didn't even bother to ask if we could test the various models to see if there was one there she could hear.

Since we didn't get a different smoke alarm we bought her a new toilet seat instead. It made sense at the time.

We did some other shopping before returning to Mom's. Michael and I ended up on the floor in the bathroom installing the new seat. Trust me, there is nothing that will bring siblings closer than to curl around a toilet together while screwing in plastic bolts.

I checked out my brother Michael carefully. His truck had gotten smacked by a car a few days before while Michael was trying to turn into his own driveway. The truck was totaled and I was afraid my brother was, too. He was left with bumps and bruises but was not seriously injured. Thank goodness, or I would have been curled around that above-mentioned toilet alone.

I called my other brother, David, who declined to come over as he was doing some much-needed work on one of his vehicles. We talked for awhile. He told me that his son was grounded for bringing home bad grades. The kid was banned from television and the computer as well.

So what was the first thing the kid did? He went into his own room and turned on the television. David took away the remote and hoped that the kid couldn't figure out how to turn on the television without it. So far, the verdict is out on that one.

David also told me that one of his neighbors has gotten approval to install a shooting range on his property. David had gone to the town meeting to object but it was approved anyway.

There are a lot of kids on his street and I see it as an accident waiting to happen. Like, David, my objections don't count. We have a God-given right to kill each other in this country and woe to anyone who tries to mess with that right.

On the way back to my own home I was thinking how much I need to reconnect with my mother and brothers. I was also feeling the need to flee. Spending time with them reminds me how similar and how different we all are. We love each other dearly, but too much closeness feels like smothering.

I talked to my daughter later that night. It seems that granddaughter, Emma, had found the smiley stickers I had sent to her. She applied them all over her face and declared, "Grandma sent me stickers so I wouldn't get bit by mosquitoes!"

The child had a point. What mosquito would dare try to bite through a sticker? The next morning the stickers had moved to her arms. I guess that since her face was safe from attack, she should protect her arms, also.

In other good news, baby Jacob has said his first word, "Da, da." This distresses Emma to no end as she says that Jacob is supposed to say, "Emma," instead.

These are all ordinary things, happening on an ordinary day. Sometimes we need ordinary things. We need to be reminded that happy things happen every day. We need to be reminded that what we see on the news and in the newspaper is there because it is not ordinary. News is, by definition, different from the norm.

Shootings and assorted mayhem occur but not as often as little girls covering themselves with stickers to avoid mosquitoes or siblings helping out their mother on a Sunday afternoon. Sometimes we need to be reminded of the ordinary things that make life worth living.[[In-content Ad]]