Growth takes place in adversity

Conundrums of normal life.

We spent most of Sunday in a situation of cold-war with the Teen.  And now she knows that we aren’t going to give up on her that easily, but we also aren’t going to let her get away with murder.  This is probably the first real breakthrough in the year that we have known her, and ironically, after that helluva day, now we are starting to feel like we might have some basis on which to work with her.

Three years ago, the fuel efficiency of our car dropped like a rock from a reasonably economical 500 km a tank, to a tank-like 300.  We trawled it around a selection of workshops and garages, who charged us varying amounts of money in order to tell us that they couldn’t find anything the matter with it, so we lived with the problem and tried not to use the car for anything other than essential journeys.  The other week we took it for its annual service.  The guy did the usual stuff, and pronounced that he hadn’t found anything the matter with it.  And now it does 500 to the tank again.  The galling thing is that he has no idea what he has done to fix it, since he didn’t think it was broken in the first place. 

Security, or rather lack of it continues to be a growing issue both locally and nationally.  Yet another of our friends had his mobile phone stolen at gun point last week.  The police appear to be taking little interest, just write it up as another in the heap of cases unlikely to be resolved.  The general advice appears to be “be grateful you only had your stuff nicked”.  That said, actual use of violence remains a rarity in San Francisco, but of course no-one is going to play heroics for the sake of a mobile phone in the face of a bunch of scared, armed youths. 

And this week’s existential question….  Why is it that the call of “dinner’s ready!” is enough to scatter all occupants of the house to the furthest – out of earshot – corners, including those occupants who were hovering around the kitchen and getting under my feet while I was trying to prepare the food?  Is my cooking that bad?  Could I take up using “dinner’s ready” for the times when I want to guarantee an uninterrupted 10 minutes to myself?

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