Wednesday: Morning, Afternoon, and Evening

My wife and our #3 daughter were out this morning, afternoon, and evening for music teaching, learning, and practice. In order, they got together with my father-in-law, who's learning keyboard from my wife. #3 daughter's guitar lesson is in the afternoon, and this evening both of those two went to practice with a band.

Since I've still got an open schedule (optimism-speak for still without full time employment), I was home when our son got back from school. This is a day when he doesn't have practice for that Christmas thing.

He and I talked a bit after he returned. He's got a new kind of monster dreamed up: and is pleased with how gross it is.

My wife cut my hair: I don't remember when's the last time a member of this family got a profession hair job. Mine had grown out to about two inches, overdue for mowing. Now, it's back to about a quarter-inch. As usual, the beard is up to me.

I've seen these 'typical' American household budgets, with a hundred dollars a month set aside for clothing, another hundred for entertainment: that sort of thing. My first thought, back when, was that the people who thought them up were crazy.

No so, my wife said. This family's finances and living style are nowhere near the fiftieth percentile. Since we've been married, I haven't had a job that required a zoot suit with reet pleat, three-piece with button-down shirt, or whatever outfit is required for "serious" business.

Can't say I'm sorry about that.

Enough of that. If I keep thinking about cash flow, this post might get depressing.

I talked to my father on the phone today, letting him know that we had a particular item that had been in his household for a while. He'd handed it over to us some time ago. There's a lot going on at his end, right now, and I suspect that his memory is starting to develop gaps.

That's life.

The two of us had a good talk. One thing I'm grateful for is that my father and I never had the sort of late-adolescence falling out that so many people experience. That's not to say we got along famously: We're very much alike, and have the sort of temperament that seems to work best when distributed on a one-to-a-household basis.

Two of our kids are a lot like me. My father once referred to the phrase, "I hope you have a son/daughter just like you!" - and added, "the curse works!" As it happens, #1 daughter and son are the two who are like me. So far, we're getting along about as well as my father and I did. Maybe a little better, since I had a little help from my father in learning how to deal with having another 'me' in the house.