A 2 sort of day

Just one of those quiet days devoted to domestic chores. I’ve been winterizing the house. Couple of boxes of weather stripping for the doors and pipe insulation for hot water pipes in the basement and weather stripping and plastic sheeting around/over the basement windows and door to the bulkhead steps. I’m making progress. Still have a bit of caulking to do. On the 1-10 scale of excitement, this has been about a 2 sort of day.

The roof guys came back, too. There was ONE nail put in the wrong place. One out of place nail will let a steady dribble of water through. It’s fixed, they said. If the leak spot doesn’t enlarge, then I’ll consider the matter closed. I’m sure it’ll be fine now. They don’t make their money by having to return to fix things for free, repeatedly.

In an hour or so, I’ll be taking off to do play therapy with little kids at the Crisis Center. During the school year, I usually do that two or three times a month. Same kids each time. They’re a mixed bag—some very withdrawn, some hyper-aggressive, some cloyingly sweet. Depending on their circumstances, they will adopt behaviors that produce the results they need, or at least hope for. Some will do anything for attention, mostly negative attention. In their world, negative attention is still attention. They learn what works. It doesn’t usually take too long for them to figure out that positive attention feels good for everyone. Just that they don’t have very much experience with it. Reinforcing positive attention every week is a reminder of an alternative behavior they can use—in places where it’s the norm. I don’t like what people and circumstances can do to children.