Thursday, August 19, 2010

How do the raccoons survive?

I just left my child in Ohio for her Junior year at college.  Junior year people!

How did that happen? HOW THE HELL DID THAT HAPPEN?

I seem to feel even sadder this year than previously as it's now obvious that she doesn't really need me there except as The Wallet and The Chauffeur, roles at which i excel.

I didn't say she doesn't WANT me there, but really, she could do just as well without me.  It seems i go for myself.

I was a very 5th wheel at a dinner with Em and one of her friends last night.  It was Em's dinner # 1 as she had another dinner scheduled later in the evening.  I think this was the consolation dinner.

Ohio provided the usual entertainments, tent caterpillars, massive amounts of road kill.

Current two day count; 

4 skunks
18 raccoons
1 Canada Goose
1 bunny
5 'possums
1 deer 
1 unidentified greasy spot on road with fur.

Oh, and there was corn too. Plus lots of beautiful old barns that tempted me to stop and take pictures.

Mamas don't let your babies grow up to be......college students.

9 comments:

nick said...

It must be a dreadful wrench when your kids barely need you any more and are out there happily living their own lives. As you say, a fifth wheel (hadn't heard that expression before - nice one!).

The colossal toll of roadkill is heartbreaking but it's hard to see what can be done to stop it. Unfortunately animals crossing roads recklessly don't have a chance against vehicles moving at massive speeds. That won't change until the day we can all fly and cars go out of fashion.

JelliDonut said...

I'm hoping I live long enough to see my kid get to college. So far, it's not looking promising. She just got her drivers license and the stress is killing me. I understand how you feel though.

Scott from Oregon said...

Well... there is always Shasta in September...

Taradharma said...

perhaps you may console yourself with the knowledge that you have brought up a child who wants to fly free! This is the best thing any parent could do. When she's in her 30s she'll come back to you, transformed into your best friend.

xxoo

luckyzmom said...

Awwwww...
You gotta do what you gotta do but you don't have to like it. I don't like not having them in my life everyday, so I keep them in my heart every second!

heartinsanfrancisco said...

Ohh, poor baby. (You, not Em.) Been there, done that. Feeling obsolete hurts, and in some dark, cobwebby corner of my heart, I am still waiting for them to give up this grown-up nonsense and come home to Mommy.

peevish said...

The mind reels at the future which lies ahead. I can barely imagine it.

It's awful, isn't it, when you know you should feel so relieved and happy for her, instead of feeling sort of extraneous to it all. I'm reading Bill Bryson's A Short History of Everything. In it, he tells a story of a physicist working on determining the age of the universe. When he finally gets close to solving this puzzle, and the age is staggeringly old of course, the guy drives all the way back to his childhood home in Iowa to ask his mommy to take him to the hospital because he thinks he's having a heart attack.

She'll always need you. Even after you're gone. Score!

The raccoon population is not shrinking said...

Parents try to instill a semblance of self-sufficiency in their children and, what you know? they don't need you in the way you want them to need you....until they become boomerang children in their thirties and forties.

Sabra said...

Junior. Did you say JUNIOR? That just isn't possible. Where did the time go? Zounds.