Caught with my flag down

We were pulling up to Zoe's school this morning when she remarked that the American flag was "half-way down."

"It was like that yesterday, too," she said.

"That's called 'half mast,'" I told her, "and they usually do it when somebody dies."

Last week our lieutenant governor died of cancer, and her funeral was today. I launched into a civics lesson about the people in charge of the state and government and politics and flags and flagpoles — blah blah blah — as we drove through the drop-off loop and waited our turn. I found it a little challenging to cram such a complex subject into 60 seconds with a 7-year-old shortly after dragging myself out of bed, but I did the best I could with my limited knowledge. It still must have sounded like I was bullshitting her.

"Mom, I think the guy who is supposed to put the flag up just keeps sleeping in."