Day 350

The black dog pretending to be a bear. 

Another cold day but with a shining sun.  I waited until noon to get the full benefit, but this sun does not so much cross the sky anymore, Helios driving his chariot pulled by the solar steeds.  Instead it just climbs a little imaginary knoll and then strolls off into the distance again. 

However, running in the meadow I could feel its little friendly glow on my back and it was good. 

The first hill just about killed me and I actually had to stop at the top, fling off all my warm clothes, unsure whether I was suffering from a hot flush or just the running.  I was wheezing and coughing until I cleared my complaining lungs and started off again, slowly, then gradually gained my second wind, and then off I went!  I decided only to run for 30 minutes, but ended up doing about 35, quite slow, 4.39 km at 7.58 minutes per km.

I have decided that the application process for college in America is crazy.  Parents basically have to do so much research, it's like a whole extra job!  How is the child supposed to spend time looking up schools, deadlines, scholarships etc., and still manage to keep up with all their schoolwork, extra-curricular activities, work, and friends?  Every college seems to require something different, each college has different deadlines for different things, and then there is the college essay, of which there are numerous examples on the college websites of "essays that worked", after reading which you immediately can think of nothing but what was in that essay!  And then way in the fine print somewhere on the website is the dreaded title Tuition and Fees, which you click on with some trepidation, only to find that for most colleges which are not state schools, (all the schools your children want to go to) the total cost per year is around $45 000 to $50 000 per year!  Which is just ridiculous, actually.  Incomprehensible, really. 

So there are thousands of kids going to college on loans, some ending up with debts of $200 000, and no hope of a job which will help them pay this back quickly, so that they begin their working life with this enormous gigantic millstone around their necks!  What sense is there in that?  The whole system is absurdly overblown, like the housing bubble of a few years' ago, threatening to burst. 

I went upstairs to fetch something this evening and ended up trying out my new pastels on a clean sheet of paper for about half an hour, until Nick called me to ask about supper, as he had to be at school in 45 minutes to sing in the Winter Concert. 

It's called Dream of Water.