A latchkey kid in 2022

 Wordle 293 2/6

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Woo hoo.

Yesterday it was once again too wet to bike the kid to school. My being-in-shape is declining.

At work I did my last bit of work on a certain SOP that had been in my inbox (so to speak) for a couple weeks and sent that out for review, and otherwise did cleanup and got ready for the vacation. Our flight is at 5 tonight. I'm planning to attend a one- or two-hour meeting later this morning, but other than that I'm taking today off.

The kid's music lesson was fine. Dinner was supposed to be a frozen risotto from a bag and a small salad, but T. suggested ordering pizza, and I did the math and figured we could use up everything perishable either way, so, yay, the kid got dinner she liked more.

We also had to pick up dry cleaning, right next door to the pizzeria, just two blocks away. It was several sweaters and a seasonal comforter, so carrying that, plus pizza, would be awkward for one person. The kid refused to go with me there, I assume because she was too impatient to walk two blocks or just wanted to be contrary. So I planned out leaving her home alone for the first time ever. I told her not to do any gymnastics and not to eat anything (at the time I was thinking because dinner was ready, but in hindsight, choking is bad too), but she could watch TV. Because this is 2022, I set a timer on our Alexa for 20 minutes and told her that if we weren't back by the time it went off for some reason, she should go to our neighbor on the corner or something.

T. had already got the pizza and dry cleaning and was just waiting for me to help carry. By the time we got back, we found the kid on our front porch, red-faced, with a different neighbor keeping her company. She had got scared and gone after me. There were still 12 minutes left on the timer. I shouldn't be mean, doing anything for the first time is hard, she didn't do anything wrong, maybe I should have prepared better... but still I thought it was funny she didn't even last 8 minutes home alone.

Musing

I was almost surprised to realize yesterday that this will be my longest vacation in more than two years. I'm not sure how I'd check this, but probably a lot more. We had a vacation planned for April 2020, so I was probably saving up time to get ready for that. Over the past two years we spent a lot of time with T.'s and my parents to cope with the pandemic, but we were still working. I've taken a lot of sick days or half-days, because a 6-year-old (or younger) can't look after herself when she's home sick for school and any little cough or sniffle has been a reason to stay home, but that's not vacation. 

I took a day or two off here and there for travel, or side trips for fun during those stays with our parents, but a whole week? Not since Christmas 2019, if that. Wow. And all this when I'm still taking a sabbatical from World of Warcraft - I don't know what I'm going to do with myself! (Jog because there will actually be good weather, go to wineries, go to at least one movie in theaters and probably two, read, play with the kid...)