Odds & ends

• Today is the first day of school hereabouts! 
• Little Great-Nephew (the older/original one) is starting Grade 1 today!!  (eeekkkk....)  The one back-to-school photo I really wanted to see, lol. ;)  
• I heard a startling statistic on CNN on Labour Day morning:  I've always traditionally thought of  the day after Labour Day as the first day of school -- and I think that's fairly common in a lot of places across Canada (although in a few places we lived, we went back for at least a few days, the week before that). 
• I know that's not always the case in the U.S. -- but apparently only 15% of schools in the U.S. start after Labour Day -- the other 85% start before (i.e., in August). Wow! 
• (Of course, the school year ends in mid/late May for many U.S. schools too. Most of our schools go right to the end of June.) 
• I had proposed to dh that he & I mark the day by going out for brunch (because, as an older/childless couple with no kids to send off to school today, we can!).  
• However! Younger Nephew & his wife recently bought a house (and sold their two-bedroom townhouse near us). Moving day is actually tomorrow/Wednesday -- and dh is on call to help with that (although they have hired movers) --  but they take possession of their new home and get the keys today, so he's gone out with BIL (who has taken the entire week off work to help!) to move a few things over there today too. Sigh. 
• He's promised me brunch later in the week. 
• Recent related back-to-school rant here. 
• We watched "The Thursday Murder Club" movie on Netflix the day it was released (last Thursday, Aug. 28th). I enjoyed it hugely. (Dh enjoyed it too.)  Obviously, there's a lot from the novel that it left out, but it captured the flavour nicely, and you can't beat that cast! (or that setting!)   
• The school/church (church!! FFS...!!) shooting in Minneapolis last week (where I have a number of close relatives) brought back memories of other school shootings in the U.S.  Columbine, Parkland and Sandy Hook were mentioned frequently in the media and in social media posts I saw. 
• For parents of other children killed in school shootings, each new shooting obviously stirs up painful memories. On Threads, Nelba Marquez-Greene, mother of Ana Grace Marquez-Greene, a first-grader who died at Sandy Hook, posted sadly, "Why does Ana always get erased in people’s Sandy Hook talking points?"
• At the time Sandy Hook happened, Mel wrote about focusing on remembering just one of the young lives among the many snuffed out prematurely on that terrible day. As I wrote in a blog post at the time, I chose Ana.  As this article explains, Ana spent spent about half of her far-too-brief life in the city of Winnipeg in my home province of Manitoba, and had only recently moved back to Connecticut when she died. Her father is a jazz musician who taught at the School of Music at my alma mater, University of Manitoba.  I still think about her whenever Sandy Hook comes up. 
• Many in the comments assured her they had not forgotten Ana -- including me. "Dear Nelba," I posted, "when Sandy Hook happened, someone in one of my online communities pointed out that while it's sadly hard to remember the name of every child who died, perhaps each of us could pick one child to focus on & remember. I chose to remember Ana because I'm originally from Manitoba and learned of your ties to Winnipeg. I thought of her again yesterday. ❤️" 
• My comment has received almost 800 (!!!) likes to date.  
• Ali Hall at Life Without Children has assembled a great list of resources for childless and childfree people, including online communities, therapists, books, podcasts, movies, Substacks, social media accounts, notable dates and research/science. that she updates regularly  Many of the sites listed were familiar to me, but others were not, and they might be new to you too. I've added it to my own list of "Childless/free boards, sites & other resources" on the right-hand side of the pages here, near the bottom. Check it out! 
• Sue Fagalde Lick has signed off from her "Childless by Marriage" blog with a farewell post after exactly  18 (!) years of writing there (since August 27, 2007).  Luckily for us, she'll still be writing and speaking about childlessness in other places online. Go thank her for everything she's done to draw attention to a less-understood part of our community.