Journal Monday

Up before anyone, out the door, at work by 7:00. Staff meeting, return phone calls, jump in the car and drive north. Today's not far only up to Howland where I get out and walk in past a locked gate to a site ready for inspection. I walk to the land of a contractor hired to treat some soil hauled away from around an old gasoline station's tanks. The site is idle as evidenced by the locked gate. Enough progress is made to satisfy and I make a note to test the treated soil in the next week or so. Walking back under the sun I feel my too-big lunch bloating my stomach and wish I could wear shorts to work. After a couple more stops I am done for the day and go home to pick up my son for a visit to the allergist.

There are a lot of things to do to get a kid ready for the first day of fourth grade. At least that's the way it is with our kid. Food allergies and asthma keep us worried that he'll accidently eat a walnut and plunge into anaphylactic shock or come up short on breath after rounding third at the recess kickball game. The real worry is we won't be there if it happens. We train those who watch over him while we are at work but who can really look out for your kid better than you.

The allergist reads the test results from the summer's blood testing. Still highly allergic to walnuts, almonds, cow's milk is still high, seseme seeds and wheat moderate. What about the Goat's Milk I ask, he's moderately allergic to that. Damn I was hoping to be able to feed him that. I guess we will stick to soymilk. They work wonders with soymilk anymore. Chocolate covered frozen soymilk on a stick, soycheese that really melts on the grill, Soy ice cream with wheat-free cookie dough, all rather amazing. Compare that to the story a friend at work told me. When she was a kid 30 some odd years ago in Caribou she and her brother were both highly allergic to milk. But Dad would sneek them over to the dairy bar, buy them an ice cream cone, and they'd have to right away throw it up before going home and not say a word about it to Mom. I guess eating the soy ice cream is better than that.