A day out

The timing of Biscuit's arm break wasn't ideal. Of course, if it had been even earlier in the summer it would've been even worse.

The problem was that we had to cancel the rest of his summer camp weeks. It's not like he could swim and play golf and tennis with a broken arm.

So then we had to figure out what to do with him.

My first thought was to look for another summer camp. I put out an all-call to local friends to see if anyone had any suggestions. But every non-active camp I could find was completely booked up.

Then I thought about a babysitter. But babysitting is a lucrative business around here. That was going to be about $10 an hour. I know it's been a long time since I did any babysitting, but I didn't make anywhere near $10 an hour! So you figure at eight hours a day, five days a week, that would've been $450 a week. To put that into perspective, we were paying less than $200 a week for his summer camp.

Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday are production days for my section, so I really need to be in the office on those days. And Jeff's schedule is completely unpredictable, so he never knows from one day to the next what his hours will be.

So Biscuit ended up coming to the office with me, sitting at the empty desk next to me, watching DVDs and playing on his tablet.

He did socialize a good bit. He knows everybody in the office, and they were all very gracious about taking up time with him. And we went out for lunch, too.

A friend met us for lunch one day, and she said, "If you ever want me to take him for a few hours, just let me know."

And I told her I would.

A couple of hours later, I got a text from her. She said, "When I said I would take him for a few hours, I wasn't just being a polite Southern girl. I really meant it."

And I thought, you know, I should take her up on it.

And I did.

We met her for lunch, then Biscuit left with her.

First, they went to the movies to see the latest superhero film. Then they went to the library branch near us. Biscuit checked out a couple of books, then the walked on a trail that goes out behind the library. Then they got doughnuts. Then they went to a local park to walk around.

There are two parks across the street from each other, but they couldn't be any more different. On one side, you'll see sidewalks and flowers, trees, manicured greenery and benches. On the other side, it's completely shaded and completely green. It's called the bog garden, and it looks a lot like home for me. It certainly doesn't feel like you're in the middle of the city when you're there.

You start out on sidewalk. Then the deeper you get into the trees, you step up on a boardwalk. And the boardwalk makes a big circle all the way around the park.

When you get to the farthest point away from the front, there's a pond where you can watch some ducks and cranes and fish and turtles.

And there's a little side path that goes up to a small waterfall.

Looks like he's staking his claim.

If there's moving water, you have to drop something in it to watch it float down the stream.

And there it goes, floating out of sight.

Biscuit really enjoyed himself that afternoon. And I got so much work done because I didn't have worry about him. It's really nice to have good friends, and I just need to remember that when they offer to help, let them.