Commentary

We just got back from the culmination show of band camp. BC still has another half day to go, but they 'put on a show' the Thursday before the end, so that the parents can marvel at it. However, the 'show' comes after the band has practiced a specific piece over and over and over again, for intervals ranging from about fifteen seconds to about forty five seconds, over the course of two hours; sometimes the color guard is part of it, and sometimes not. The only way that you know that the 'show' is happening is that they do the piece all the way through, which is about ninety seconds, and then stop. And that's it. No explanations, no comments, no 'here's what we're trying to do', none of that. Good luck, that's our show. So the thrill, you might say, is somewhat muted. By the time they get to it, you just want to get the hell out of there.

On the way home, our daughter informed us that perhaps she will want to perform in indoor color guard next year. What about karate, we asked, and she said she'd probably be able to squeeze that in once a week. Pause while both parents think we're paying for the chance to go three times a week, and now you're saying that MAYBE you'll go once a week? What will I say, my wife asked, in a neutral tone; exasperated, the daughter replied School, and karate, and color guard. I can balance them! Pause while both parents think of how well she balanced school and color guard last year, also, how well the school keeps us in the loop regarding how she's doing. This isn't decided yet, my wife said. Goddamn right, I thought.

I am starting to see an upswing in the blood sugar numbers. Remember I said that I wouldn't be able to explain it, but I knew it was going to happen? Well, here it is.... and I can't.

I went to the hospital volunteer office today. As I expected, the woman who runs it, who is somewhat of a flibbertigibbet, thought that 'experience in computer systems' meant that I was volunteering to do word processing for them. Fortunately, the fellow she asked in turn asked me what it was I'd done at IBM and EDS; when I said 'mainframe systems programmer', he looked surprised and said Oh, then you're not looking to do data entry, are you? Ah, no. The volunteer woman was quite surprised. She asked if I'd be interested in occasionally teaching a class to hospital people on some PC software -- Word, Excel, that kind of thing -- and I said sure, I could do that on occasion. But let me help you out -- if its got something to do with technical work relative to computer systems, or medicine, I'm interested. If it's administrative, or word processing, I'm not. She seemed puzzled. Maybe I should get to you to meet the IS people, she mused. Gee, you think? I get the feeling they don't get very many people like me, in the volunteer ranks.