Nothing happened, but everything did

Did my best to make this a productive day, but all pretence got stopped around 9:30 a.m. when Mrs. Ottawacker demanded she be driven into work. Well, she maybe didn’t put it like that, but the glint in her eye made it clear.
 
Earlier, we had decided that it wouldn’t be financially prudent for me to take Ottawacker Jr. to Victoria. Belt strings have to be tightened somewhere. Nonetheless, it is still important for him to go… so we looked around and managed to get him a ticket for his first solo-flying venture. He is over the moon about it, naturally; the idea of HIM being able to FLY ALONE on a PLANE across the WHOLE COUNTRY has been repeated numerous times, and there are still 80-something days to go before he leaves. It is a direct flight—we’ll put him on at one end and our friends will pick him up at the other—so there is little chance of his getting lost. We are a little apprehensive about it, but he has shown he is exceptionally mature for his age and deserves the opportunity to adventure alone. I am sure in his mind he thinks this is it – now he can travel the world alone… I hated to disabuse him of this notion, but it’s a one-off. He’ll be busy enough over summer (with soccer and camps), so a rest will do him good.
 
In the afternoon, Odalia popped over the road to cut Ottawacker Jr.’s hair. He has a streak of vanity in him that I am not sure I ever had – or maybe it is just a manifestation of the self-confidence I also never had. Either way, I hope it keeps on working out for him. This wasn’t helped by Odalia’s leaving comments – during which she refused to take any money for cutting his hair because the boy “is lovely and it’s a pleasure to cut his hair and chat with him”. You see? How do you cope with this? I get a clip over the ear and my wallet is emptied before I have even sat in the chair.
 
Ran a few errands and then, in the evening, had an Arthritis Society workshop to attend virtually. I was a little sceptical before doing it – but it was free and I’m still on the hunt for information to manage the pain in my wrist. I’ve had plenty of ribald advice about which actions I should stop doing, none of which has really helped because it is in my left hand and I am, erm, right-handed. Anyway, apart from feeling completely out of place (I was the youngest in the workshop by about 25 years) and wondering why one of the participants seemed to be hitting on me (she was in her 80s and it transpired she had had a stroke that left her eye and mouth twitching – so I felt a bit bad about it afterwards), there was some useful information to be had. It’s all basic stuff though. There was none of the “rub Windex onto your wrist, it cures everything” and plenty of the “don’t do too much in one go” and “icing helps”, which I sort of knew anyway, but was happy to have it repeated to me.