Dave (if you're out there), I thought you might like this chick car link. No VW for me, I guess.

I wasn't sure how this new commute would sit with me. After all, later to work, later home. But it's nice to watch Töölö's ornate buildings rattle by through tram 8's scratched up windows. I like seeing Apollonkatu's little park, where skewed streets come down from a hill, past Olaus Petrin kirkko, intersecting with the straightlaced Runeberginkatu, making my heart ache for something I can't fathom. I like the packed aisles and blasé attitude reeking from my fellow commuters. And most of all, I like Matilda experiencing these things with me.

The teacher on yard duty rang a brass hand-bell and the seething schoolyard sprang towards the closed school doors. Matilda instantly joined the noisy river of children, as if a week had already trained her reflexes and this was all old hat. Turning in the current she waved to me, a smile on her face which radiated her still fresh excitement that she was a part of this system. I watched her flow away beneath the clean blue sky, happy for her joy, but sad that these steps are the formal beginnings of her independence.

The cogs churn on, for and not for the child.

I will fill the void with clicking keys.