The one day I come back from office early (5:30), I am immediately rewarded with having to bring Niki from the horse farm, get Tasha prepared for her math tests, move all the furniture out of the arbor, file taxes….. Okay the last one is unfair since that is why I came home early to begin with.
But the following conversation with Niki as I drover her back from the horse farm completely made it worthwhile:
Niki: “You know dad, I am afraid of other cars on the road. I think I will not learn how to drive”.
Me: “Really? How do you figure you are going to go from one place to another when you grow up? ”
Niki: “Ummmm…. I think I will make my husband drive me everywhere”.
Me: “Okay. And how are you going to find a husband without visiting places?”
Niki: “I will marry somebody from my office”
Me: “And how do you propose you will go to the office to begin with?”. (I was fairly determined to see where she would logically end this conversation)
Niki: “Oh! Once I have money, I will bribe somebody to take me to office”
Me: “How did you get the money to begin with if you have not been going to office”?
After a brief pause, she admitted “You know, I think then I have to steal from you and mom”!!
That was as good a logical endpoint that I could draw as any!!

In sports parlance, this is called “cooling down”. After four intense days of sleeping with a drink in hand in the shade of an umbrella on sunny Florida beaches, Sharmila is taking it easy after coming back home…. By sleeping with a drink in hand in the shade of an umbrella on a sunny Atlanta spring afternoon by our pool 🙂