Saturday Already?

When I first came back from the hospital, one of the things that was most irritating was the difficulty that I had getting into and out of bed. Out was particularly bad -- I flat could not get out on the left side -- even just swinging (pushing) my leg out was painful. Eventually, I got that ability back, and then the focus would shift to 'I'd like to get on the laptop, but its way over there, and I don't want to make the effort to get out, stagger over via the walker, and come back'. At least once, I stood halfway between the bed and the bedroom bookcase where the laptop resided, reached and lifted the laptop, turned and flipped it onto the bed -- and then thought Oh no, don't let the damn thing bounce right off the bed!' Which fortunately, it didn't. I needed an alternative, and found one; I ran the power cord behind the bed, pulled out the deep drawer on the side table, and that became where the laptop resides. And it actually works out pretty well, to the point that in my 'this is how I'd like it to be' thoughts about a side table, I now think 'it needs to allow me to park the laptop there'. Sure, a better answer would be 'have staff; get them to bring it as needed', but this is good. The only things I need to watch out for are the brightness of the screen (my wife says it doesn't bother her, but still), and making sure that the speaker is off (thank you, web sites that feel the need to blare your presence).

So here I am, its about seven thirty, and I'm still in bed -- but obviously, I'm on the net, messing around, reading sites. One, of course, is CaroLINES. Yes, Carolyn Anne, your site has become one of those Of course I read that site sites. How you can put words together so lucidly is a source of delight, even when I don't understand the subject, or it doesn't resonate with me; I'm always impressed and frequently intrigued. An additional benefit is that you mention other sites that trigger me to go and look at them.

Another of course I read that site is Midwest Neurotica, which can be found here. I came across this site several months ago, and started reading it for an odd reason: the woman who writes it looks a lot like the woman who at one time I thought I would end up married to. (Note the phrasing: I never thought I would active voice marry her; I thought I would passive voice end up married to her.) She was a nice enough person, and all, but not only didn't it work out, it didn't work out explosively; in one year, she went from joy and delight in my presence in her life to rejecting me out of hand, saying she just didn't want me around any more. It startled me then (to put it mildly); heck, it startles me now. But as it cleared the way, so to speak, for my marriage to the person I did marry, who has delighted and thrilled me for twenty three years -- I guess it was okay. So, the writers resemblence is an odd reason for stopping and lingering, but it turns out that I do like reading what she has to say, even when (and sometimes because) all she'll do is put up links to articles she's come across, no comments, nothing, just heres something I found interesting, maybe you will too. And every so often I do.

And Questionable Content . I love that strip. And Harvard Science. Such bright people, such interesting material - and written so well. And Michael Yon's Online Magazine. Who would have thought that a blog entirely about the Iraq war would be fascinating? And Telstar Logistics, which has got a heck of a sense of whimsy. And...


I hear my daughter moving around. Yesterday was her birthday; she is no longer a tween, but an honest-to-god teenager; she's foureen now. I used to joke that when she got to this age she'd be a biker chick, all black leather and studs (both kinds) because as a kid she was so delightfully terrific. Well, as she comes into her personhood she's not always delightful, but she's always and still a pleasure to have around, even if it does scare the bejeezus out of me to think that four years ago she was very much a kid, only ten years old, and in four years from now she'll be legally independent. Wow. She and I need to talk this moring; she gets ongoing progress reports from her classes (she has to manually maintain it as she gets tests and whatnot); I'd told her that as part of focusing on her grades, I wanted to start seeing those on a weekly basis. Its taken three weeks to get them (she'd bring home one and express surprise that I wanted the other ones, too); and this week I had to contact her teachers directly, because somehow she'd neglected to write in some grades (which to me is very much of an oh-oh warning signal). But it turns out that in two of the three courses I was most interested in, she's doing pretty well -- has a low A in one, and a high A in the other. I guess I don't like this checking-up aspect of our life, but I think: next year she starts high school, and she needs to take it seriously from the get-go; this is how I reinforce that message with her. So this morning we'll going to discuss that; also, I need to push her to do her homework this morning, because she's got color guard today and a small birthday get-together tomorrow. Not a birthday party, oh no, just two or three girls over for pizza and a cake (the aforementioned devils food cake), at which she'll show off the MP3 players we finally got her. Not the shiniest, not the slickest, but a reasonably priced one that does what she wants. Now all she has to do is figure out how to get the songs into it.

Guess I'd better get up. Hey, it's snowing!