The opportunist

One of Sonya's cousins passed away this weekend. It wasn't unexpected given that she was in her 70's though I note that her mother (Sonya's aunt) is still kicking at 96. The funeral takes place on Friday in Southern Texas and Sonya was trying to decide if she wanted to attend and, to use an unfortunately apposite phrase contextually, kill two birds with one stone by checking out the local cemeteries for ancestors.

Naturally this news led to questions about how Andrew and I would cope. I opined that we'd cope very well indeed. Obviously I can't just take time off work (much as I'd like to) and the expense of ferrying the pair of em halfway across the continent deserved consideration. I also can't help feeling that at 15 it's time Andrew learned to cope with the unexpected.

His major concern was how would he get to school? School is about a mile away but apparently he's never walked to school in his life. It seems we're just a trifle too close for the school bus so Mom always drives him. The thing I don't understand is that she drives him right to the entrance and therefore has to do daily battle with both the teenagers who are old enough to drive to school and with the 15 mile an hour speed restrictions. I've always said that if I ever had to drive him a block away would be close enough and he could damn well walk the rest of the way. Of course, I'm such a curmudgeon that I'd let him walk the entire mile or so. It's not summer time here yet and he stands a better than even chance of getting there without dying of heat prostration and thirst!

I imagine he knows better than to expect me to be out of bed at 7:00 to drive him to school and the prospect of two days without Mom to drive him weighed heavily upon his mind. Thus he broached the idea of not going to school at all. Uh huh, cheeky bastard! That wasn't going to fly and he was told, in no uncertain terms, that he was dreaming!

In the end Sonya decided not to go. *shrug* She says it's because she'd rather visit the cemeteries there with yours truly. I'll take the compliment and run with it!