You’ll never believe me… but first:
Bright, bright sunshine with fierce sunshiney beams pierced my eye mask (I’m that sensitive) and so, I was awake at 6:58. Saturday mornings are simply the best – so filled with potential. I chatted with a few folks, made my apologies for missing an upcoming series of Hips shows and prepared for the day.
The kids were a bit sluggish, but eventually I managed to get them up and out with Lizzie by…one o’clock? I had promised Deb’s Frosty (of which I could not partake) and there I saw another student from Union Mine which was fun. She is a senior now – so many changes and she is planning on college (which thrills me). We headed to get fill up the bus when I saw smoke – just getting started but within units it was billowing strongly, literally pouring upwards in waves. We filled up as crowds began to gather (it was directly across from the gas station) and I did something I have never done before. I pulled to the side of the road with many others, then Maggie and I crossed the street and joined the people watching the firefighters. The smoke was so strong yet it was unclear what was on fire. We soon saw it was a wildfire and no structures had been lost.
We continued on to the river where for about 20 minutes I sat in frigid water and numbed 
my back. It felt incredible. We headed home where I dropped of Maggie, then Ethan and I gathered ourselves to head out in the bus and I was going to teach him how to drive a stick shift. The local college has a nice parking lot, so I slid into the passenger seat (imagining him losing control and hitting a light pole of course, but this soon passed) and coached my son as he slowly grasped hold of shifting from first to second and how to maneuver the clutch. He did very well, but suddenly the bus (which has been dying lately though the battery is fully charged so it’s a connection issue) died. Eventually I popped the clutch and got her home, where we switched cars.
Now we are in the Mazda with a shopping list and back in the parking lot. The automatic is exceedingly easy for for this kid who rides dirt bikes and drives tractors so we practiced parallel parking. He did very well here, too and began left-side parallel park (my first such experience was 2 weeks ago in SF) when the light comes on and I hear something. The tire had a screw in it and was losing air quickly, so I drove us to Safeway and called Triple A. Ethan, however, managed to change the tire on his own, so I cancelled the call as the truck was pulling in. The driver, Tim, 
verbally high-fived Ethan (who learned how to drive a stick-shift, automatic and changed his first tire within a 3 hours period). I’m proud of my boy.
We did our shopping and drove uneventfully home (no fires, dead cars or pierced tires), where the three of us enjoyed some delicious food and Ethan and I watched “Dope”, a cool movie he had told me about as he learned to drive. We had an incredible day, he and I; some incredible serious discussions about important topics and I feel so fortunate to be able to share days and events with him the way I did today. Now to try to get my bus moving (‘cause I made the mistake of driving her down into the garage) and get the tire plugged.
Pictures: Mags watching the plane dropping fire retardant; The goings-on amongst El Dorado County folk: from one extreme to the other; This kid had quite the day.
tribeoftrio.com 