How We Spent The Solstice

I feel compelled to talk about this eventful day, but not for the conventional reasons: first day of summer and so on. No, it's because it was such an eventful day. Who knows, maybe it was because of the solstice?
First of all, we went for a walk. Momentously, the sun was out. I'm putting "momentously" first because the sun has been so, well, neglectful of late. As in: we haven't seen it very often. So that was rather exciting.

In the distance you can see Dominic running. This is Dominic's M.O. He is usually either running or jumping.

Or both. He's a little springbok, this kid. Leap. Jump. Run. Leap. Jump. Run. Repeat.

My house may or may not be in this photo.

















Sun. Clouds. Blue sky. The smell of grass and warmth and lilacs and roses and green fields and little drizzling creeks and willows and weeds and dragonflies and bees.

What's not to like?

But here comes the really cheering, magical part of the day. We were in a local drugstore, a Canadian institution which shall remain nameless, with the sole intention of wasting much coinage on LEGO minifigures. We were squeezing and fingering and poking and conferring which package held which minifigure. And, truth be told, we're all disgustingly proficient at it.

FDPG had money with her.

Dominic had no money with him.

I had only my camera case with me.

Max had nothing (or so he says) with him.

Katie found her coveted figures. Dominic, who was not intending to buy anything, was horrified to discover the Elf (a figure he has always wanted), and so begged his twin to lend him some readies.

She played his game and pretended not to have enough cash, then, being the charming, kind, solicitous sister she is, relented before he could get really weenie and said she would lend him some money.

Here he is jumping for joy. He is a very literal sort of person.

But then (there always is a "but then" isn't there?) we got to the till and discovered that the usually meticulous FDPG didn't have enough cash.

Horrors.

We counted out all the nickels, all the dimes, all the pennies, and emptied our pockets, and we were a dollar short.

We all searched our other pockets, and came up with what we thought was an entire dollar. But upon a second counting, we discovered that we were nine cents short.

Nine cents short.

FDPG offered to relinquish one of her precious choices, but only if Max would go hide it in the store so we could come back in an hour and get it, her purse being in the meantime magically refilled.

Dominic offered to relinquish his choice. We all stood and stared at each other. It was an awkward moment, both as a parent and as a Potential LEGO Minifigure Purchaser. Not one I generally like to find myself in. I felt bad for them both, but insisted we make a decision before the three people behind me, who up till that time had been relatively polite about our, err, Deshabille, reneged.

And then it was that the cashier said "hang on a second!" and dashed away. She slipped behind a counter, rummaged in a bag, and came back with a dime.

"I've never done this before," she said. "Ever."

She gave the dime to FDPG. Who beamed. I donated the extra penny to the Karma Fund on the counter (aka the Penny Dish). The three people behind us, even the Eminem lookalike, all looked delighted. After many profuse thank-yous, we walked out of the store, purchases much intact, thrilled with what had just taken place. We were walking through the little mall when Max came upon a dime. "Look!" he said. "A dime! Isn't that what you need?" FDPG grabbed it and raced off, pursued by Dominic. A few minutes later they returned, grinning and feeling quite pleased with themselves.

"What did she say?" I asked.

"She said we were the nicest politest kids she'd seen all week!" chortled FDPG. "And she couldn't believe we'd just found a dime like that!"

So that was our first day of summer. Good auguries all round, I'd say.