Beach Pass

After some consideration, I decided to gather the money to buy two beach passes.

Since school let out and the neighbor kids are home, I'd noticed Maggie had become ever more dependent upon their company, her attitude had gone downhill, and she was no longer able to entertain herself. In other words, she was always bored unless she was playing with friends who were proving themselves to be a less than salutary influence. Now, don't get me wrong: they aren't bad kids. It's just that too much time with friends seems to make my kids icky. So I determined that we needed to curtail most of the playtime with the neighbors.

However, because of Maggie's scoliosis, she needs to be outside, playing, exercising, in the sunshine and fresh air. But what is there to do outside when you've become accustomed to playing with your friends and are now cruelly deprived of them? So she has a new bike, one that fits her taller size. And we've hauled out the scooter. But she's really missing those hours that she spent in the neighbor's pool.

That's why I bought the beach pass. Cheaper than buying our own oversized inflatable pool. Less convenient geographically. More convenient as far as effort needed to take care of it.

On that day I bought the pass, we couldn't go to the beach because I had to fetch Gary from O'Hare. The next two days we couldn't go to the beach because Harry Potter was newly out and we didn't get our audio version, but had to read aloud for hours upon hours each day. The next five days I was out of town and couldn't take Maggie to the beach. So the next day we were rarin' to go. Drove over to the village with the beach... not a place to park in the whole town. Not one! The Lions were having their annual Lobster Boil fund-raiser, and there were no available parking spots even 1/2 mile away.

Disappointment reigned. But do you know how sweet my husband is? He took Andrew to town to do the paper route, and he did my part of the route for me, so that he could drop Maggie and me off at the beach and then fetch us when they were done doing my job for me. And then Maggie and I drove over tonight too, and I got in four chapters of Harry Potter. Before we even left the beach, Maggie was trying to elicit a promise from me to take her back tomorrow.

Sun, fresh air, and exercise. Some of our main anti-scoliosis weapons. I may feel like I'm goofing off at the beach, but those early puberty years of great gains in height are when scoliosis worsens the most. So what we do now for Maggie's back will have consequences for the rest of her life. So I guess I need to find time to go to the beach again tomorrow. And I suppose that means I'll have to read more Harry Potter!