Regular Life

I dusted off the seat and knocked the spider egg sacs out of the spokes. It was Ride Your Bike to Work Week, and I was going to join the fray.
My physical conditioning, it turns out, was not up to the task.
Later that day, after I leaned my bike against a tree to make the [...]

Survivor
On Thursday, from my Aunt J’s place, Ben and I went to visit my grandfather at a retirement community/nursing care facility. The seeing Granddad I give a 10 out of 10. Taking the boy along without someone to help manage him? I give that about a 3.
Ben wasn’t particularly problematic, but every time I leaned [...]

Easter thrust itself upon our family and refused to let go for five straight days.
Normally a tame affair consisting of a whirlwind weekend trip to my parents’ house, this year was different. The tradition for our entire marriage, and many years prior to that for me, was two days of egg dying, catching up since [...]

This is an update on Shannon’s eyes, but let me start by saying… can we keep doctors out of our lives for just one week, please?
Last month, Shannon reported to her LASIK surgeon to have her right eye checked. The enhancement on that eye had gone okay, and her vision in it was much better [...]

(notice and name for points Ben’s toys near the wall)
I’ve always heard people warn against dramatizing every little boo-boo, but one can go too far the other direction. The child needs to have reassurance that the parents are there in times of crisis, but also be given room to develop coping strategies.
Frankly, I’m offended anyone [...]

Saturday morning, Shannon and I decided she and I should take care of number one, respectively. Her mother agreed to come watch Ben while we dragged ourselves to the nearest recommended clinic for adults.
Told we had a 30-minute wait, we hung around the packed waiting room, standing-room only. Most of those present were parents with [...]

Ben spiked about a 105 fever the day after we had our outdoors adventure. An uncomfortable swab up his nose later, and he received his diagnosis.
Influenza.
Now, I don’t know whether it was “A” or “B” or some other denotation for the strains of the season. I just know that they sent Shannon home with a [...]

(Note: It looks like when I upgraded my blog software, it wiped out the e-mail subscriptions — unless everybody unsubscribed, which I hope isn’t the case. If you can use an RSS reader, then subscribing to the RSS feed might be better for you. The link for that is just above the top right corner [...]

This eye looks with love,
This eye looks with judgment.
Free me, take the sight out of this eye.
- Edie Brickell, This Eye
A girl, about 16, burst into the waiting room from an interior door, wearing brightly colored polka-dot pants that looked like pajamas. Her hair was part blonde, part pink. She walked quickly to a [...]

We brought a puppy home Tuesday night. A co-worker whose dogs have produced several litters brought her to me for a “test run,” and said I was welcome to bring the Shih Tzu mix back if things didn’t work out. About midway through the first night, the question became, “How long until we decide whether [...]