As I mentioned last week, 2024 has been a crazy year filled with big distractions—the most debilitating of which was my ankle getting carved up like a Christmas ham. Another distraction, no less huge, was that my boy headed off to college.
I know, right? That wee little fella, best known as my Semi-Annual Blog Raffle Winner Picker Outer, somehow grew up and graduated high school without me noticing.
All right, I did notice. How could I not? There is just so much to do when a kid is college bound. The applications, the scholarships, the campus visits and the jillion other things that take up way more time than you could possibly imagine.
And then there’s all the things you gotta buy. Expensive things. Like a $195 online textbook.
Yes.
A $195 textbook.
That’s online.
Call me old fashioned, but if I’m gonna spend $195 dollars on a book, I want the creation of said book to be a big rigmarole. It should involve the murder of trees and the noisy operation of an offset printing machine. A $195 book should be big, heavy, hard to find, and exist in three dimensions.
Not gonna lie. I feel a little violated here.
We bought other stuff, too. Clothes, for example, because Alex thoughtlessly decided to grow again. And he didn’t just grow, he grew taller than me, which is disrespectful.
And we bought luggage to hold those big clothes.
And we bought a fridge and a footlocker and all the other whatsits and provisions that everyone says you can’t head off to college without.
Then I had to buy a big thing to strap to the roof of my car to carry all those things.
Okay, I’ll just come out and say it. I consider Alex’s desire to further his education both selfish and cruel to his old father, who finds him much too fun and interesting to leave home.
He’s my good boy.
And I think I have a little dust in my eyes.
My eyes have been getting pretty dusty these days.
Allergies, I’m sure.
Hey, Look! A Writer Fellow! 