”In the middle of the night, Miss Clavel turned on the light and said ‘Something is not right!’“

I don’t know if it’s the dawning realization that I really am going to drop my first born off at college in a few short weeks, or the state of the world in general, but lately the literary figure I most resemble is Miss Clavel. I must have read this book hundreds times when I was a kid and a few hundred more to my own kids and I think I hardwired in my brain this idea that one must always be alert to potential impending disaster. It is kind of exhausting. I suppose it could be worse – I could resemble a donkey who accidentally turns himself into a rock or a hen with lazy housemates who won’t help make the bread but want to eat it (wait…that does sound familiar…). Maybe I’m just in a Miss Clavell time of life and this too shall pass. I will be glad when it does because I’m really looking forward to the Frog and Toad time of life.