Again on Bald Mountain

Ellie, Hannah, Margaret and Mark on Bald in Camden

Margaret has been looking for a job for so long and so fruitlessly, that I avoid the subject entirely when I talk to her.  Eliza said last week that Margaret had a "prospect" and I was hoping she would have good news for us when we met for the hike.  Her "kids" scooped her announcement, by giving us the news while she was out in the woods answering a call of nature.  She has a job, only an ed tech, but full-time and in the South Portland School District-- her top choice and an easy commute for her.  John and I were gratified to know that the contacts she made while substitute teaching were helpful in the interview process-- we had often assured her that this would be the case EVENTUALLY! but she was dubious.  She is in a special ed resource room and mandatory training starts on Monday.  

The kids were great and enjoyed the hike with virtually no whining.  They apparently found it very strange that I put small pieces of sweet gherkins in both the tuna and egg salad sandwiches but tolerated the oddity very well and made short work of the chocolate wafer cookies that we had for dessert.  They came up to our house after the hike and had ice cream before heading back to Yarmouth.  

The kids and Margaret on the trail-- a lot of work has been done to make a stony staircase.

I started listening to In One Person by John Irving but I HATED it and for the first time took advantage of Audible's offer to exchange titles.  The book was like an unpleasant return to John Wheelwright's family in A Prayer for Owen Meany:  the fatherless boy, the pretty mother, the strident aunt, the private prep school, the theme of amateur theatricals, the obsession with breasts, the great stepfather and in one case a good grandmother (PFOM) and in the other a good grandfather (IOP) but there was so much masturbation and transgender stuff that I found myself repelled by the whole thing.  So now I have Pillars of the Earth instead.  I read it years ago but since I liked Giants of the Earth so well, I am looking forward to the audio experience of POTE.  In the meantime I am enthralled with the audio version of Jonathan Franzen's Freedom.    I have read that in bound book form as well but we are doing it for the book club in September and I really couldn't remember much about it.