Monday: Good Morning at Noon

My fever had gone below 100 over the weekend. Now, it's back up.

That would explain the way I feel, and why I slept until about 11:20. I don't suppose I can blame this on Monday.

I'll be back later.


One more thing: It's snowing. And, this would be St. Patrick's Day, except that it's also Holy Monday: so St. Patrick's Day happened on the 15th this year.

It kept snowing through the day: probably off and on, since there isn't much of an accumulation. About the only effect is that Sauk Centre's landscape has been touched up.

My wife and #3 daughter went to choir practice tonight. With the bug I'm playing host to, it didn't seem prudent for me to go. So, our son and I had some time with the house to ourselves. He spent part of the time practicing on an old electric typewriter. Apparently he has a typing class at school.

#1 daughter called, letting us know that there was a documentary on the Irish in America on the History Channel. Actually, she talked to my son. Then she called again, to make sure that the message had gotten through. It had, and the documentary was good viewing.

Now I've learned one of the distinctions among the Irish in America:

• Scots-Irish Presbyterian / moderately-to-well-educated
• Irish Catholic / barely educated at all

I've got a personal interest in this: Besides Norwegian, I've got Irish and Scots-Irish ancestry.

Some of my forebears don't seem to have believed in doing things the culturally-approved way.

For example, one of my ancestors made a famous-in-the-family remark. When a friend of hers had asked about the family of a young man who had shown an interest in her daughter, she explained that "he doesn't have family: he's Irish."

My wife and #2 daughter had a good talk this evening, quite a bit of it was about #2 daughter's roommate, I gather.

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.

Damp Autumn, Outdoor Grilling, Sunday Afternoon Naps, And Thanksgiving This Year

If the snow that came down early this afternoon had been rain, it would have been a drizzle. It was drizzle, a little later. The grass doesn't seem to be dormant yet: yards around here were a lot greener around sunset than they had been before.

Not that "sunset" was a very definite time. We've had one of those dark gray autumn days.

We went to Mass this morning, I grilled lunch, looked up outdoor gas grills at Wal-Mart, and took a long nap. I think my wife's serious about getting a new one. Those flames shooting out the bottom might have something to do with it.

I was up in time for supper, enjoyed supper for the family, and then settled down to get some reading done while my wife, #3 daughter, and son went to Soo Bahk Do. He was complaining about a stomach-ache, but it didn't seem bad enough to keep him from going.

He and the ladies were back in about half the time they usually take for Soo Bahk Do. I was talking with #1 daughter on the phone. She's been feeling under the weather lately, and wanted some company.

My first clue that the ladies and my son were back was the sound of the van pulling in. The second was #3 daughter scooting through the kitchen, and scooting back with a plastic bucket.

I'm just glad that I hadn't told him that exercise can help upset stomachs, before he went. Under the circumstances, he took the way he's feeling pretty well.

Aside from that, it's been a fine day.

Assuming that our son's actually got a bug, and didn't eat something regrettable, this will put a severe crimp in the family's Thanksgiving plans. My father, "Grandpa Gill," is almost exactly thirty years older than I am. That puts him in his mid-eighties.

He's using an oxygen generator, and careful management of his activities, to keep going, and adding a diseased family to his environment doesn't seem like the best idea right now.