Back from the Hospital

I picked my son up at the hospital after Mass this morning. He won't be doing any heavy lifting for a while, and it hurts to laugh: but other than that, he's doing okay.

Appendicitis isn't what it used to be, for which I'm grateful. I remember the 'good old days' too well to want them back. The surgical procedure went smoothly, and involved three remarkably small incisions.

My son and #3 daughter are playing a board game in the other room. Yesterday evening they were talking, using his laptop, my daughter's computer, and Skype. I love living in the Information Age.

I wouldn't mind having no more major surprises before Christmas.

More-or-less-related posts:

• "Appendicitis and All That"
  (November 30, 2013)
• "Good News, Bad News, and an Antibiotic-Resistant Infection"
  (November 22, 2013)
• "I Got What I Asked For"
  (September 29, 2013)

Remembering Giol

Giol, #1 daughter's pet rabbit, died this week.

My wife came in Tuesday evening, worried, and told me that Giol was lying on his side and not breathing. She wanted me to make a closer inspection, and I can't say I blame her for doing so. We all liked that little furball.

He was in his pen, lying on the grass, on his right side, eye open, and definitely not breathing. His death probably came some time during the afternoon or early evening: and was, from all indications, quite peaceful.

My daughter had found him, years ago, at a animal clinic/pound in Alexandria. He was one of a number of rabbits recovered from a botched breeding operation, and was nervous: even for a rabbit. I gather that he had not been treated well by the humans or his fellow-rabbits.

#1 daughter thought he was cute: nothing unusual there. There are very few critters she doesn't think are cute. She named him Giol, and took him home with her. Giol was something in the neighborhood of a lop rabbit, with ears drooping and a lovely fur coat. A grayish fuzzy patch on the back of his neck gave him 'character,' and was a legacy of his less-than-happy experiences at the breeding operation.

Giol calmed down rather quickly, under the circumstances, and lived at various times with #1 daughter, in our house, and in a portable rabbit run we built for him. My daughter was moving back to Sauk Centre, having found a place where she could keep pets. We liked the little fellow, but several members of the household are very sensitive to pet dander: which made life a bit more complicated.

I wish that Giol could have lived long enough for #1 daughter to take him back to live with her. But he had a long (for a rabbit) and rather good life. At least, I hope so. We made a point of moving his rabbit run periodically, giving him several square yards of fresh grass to supplement his rabbit kibble. Then there were the occasional apple cores and other treats. He was particularly fond of mint.

I picked up #1 daughter around 10:00 p.m. Tuesday, driving her back to Sauk Centre. We picked up a styrofoam cooler and several pounds of ice on the way, which we used to preserve Giol's body until the next day. #1 daughter and I stayed up rather late, distracting ourselves by watching a few episodes of an anime series we like.

By early Wednesday afternoon, #1 daughter had picked a spot under some lilacs in the back yard and dug a rabbit-size grave. It had been Giol's favorite spot on those occasions when she had him out of the rabbit run. She and I laid him there, still looking as I'd seem him Tuesday evening. She set an apple core by his head, and plans to plant mint there.

Sentimental man that I am, I'm weeping while writing this. I miss that little fuzzball.

These photos, taken a few years ago, are from earlier posts.

---

(September 28, 2009)

Giol, #1 daughter's rabbit, under the back stoop: his new favorite place outside.


Giol has this "cute" thing down cold.


As #1 daughter observed: from this angle, Giol looks like a fuzzy eggplant. With ears.


Caught in the act! The infamous "chips" incident.

---

(June 23, 2009)
My wife came up with an excellent idea for keeping Giol out of the way.


Simplicity itself: Place laundry basket on floor; place rabbit in laundry basket. Result: instant rabbit playpen.


Then, the rabbit realizes how easy it will be to jump out.


Putting another laundry basket, upside down, on top of the first worked quite well: until Giol learned that he could push the top one off. #1 daughter eventually used duct tape to fasten the top on.

---

(April 10, 2008)

#1 daughter brought her rabbit, Giol, along with her. That was a treat, for me anyway. Our son likes the rabbit too. Giol likes to nap behind the couch, and under the chair I use in the living room. It's a bit of a treat, feeling his whiskers when he sniffs my feet.

Related posts:

• "A Rabbit This Time"
  (June 17, 2013)
• "Big Hail, a Rabbit's Fox Hole, and Sunday"
  (May 20, 2012)
• "A Mouse? A Really Big Mouse?"
  (April 3, 2010)
• "A Rabbit, a Vest, and My Family"
  (January 29, 2010)
• "Another Day, More Posts; Some Research; and a Rabbit"
  (January 12, 2010)
• "Giol, #1 Daughter's Rabbit; and 'Just Your Average Small Town America Household' "
  (September 28, 2009)
• "Tuesday: A Rabbit's Playpen, and Sunset"
  (June 23, 2009)
• "And Now for Something Completely Different: Cat and Rabbit Meet"
  (February 3, 2009)
• "Wednesday: Back to School, and a Little Spring"
  (April 10, 2008)

Popping a Lens: Twice

I've been short-changing myself on sleep this week: far from a good idea.

That might be part of the reason that I dropped my 'task' glasses today. Twice. Actually, the first time I brushed against them, tried to stop them from falling by pushing on them with my arm: at which point the right lens popped out and bounced - - - elsewhere.

I tried to get the lens back in, using tools we have on hand: without success. A few minutes at the eye doctor's fixed the situation, though.

An hour or so later, I managed to slide the glasses off some papers and onto the floor. This time the left lens popped off. Back to the shop, where I learned that these frames don't play well with the lenses. Not with my prescription. The solution is for me to be really careful about flexing the frames.

That, I can do.

#1 daughter and I made a trip down to Cold Spring, near St. Cloud, to drop off a state-government-agency-related document. That was fun: nice weather, no road construction to speak of, and about two hours to talk. That was between the two 'fix the glasses' jaunts.

My son had questions about high-definition programming through our cable provider: and wound up saving the household a tidy sum in reduced rates. In the process I gave the provider authorization to talk with him about technical issues: he's the best techie in the family.

Now, I need to get some sleep.

Related post:

• "New Glasses: For Me, a Big Deal"
  (May 2, 2013)

#1 Daughter's Car: or, Now What?!

As I've said before, I think that being a parent is a permanent occupation.What's changing, now that my wife and I are easing into the 'empty nest' phase, is what sort of issues come up.

For the last few decades, 'being a parent' has involved changing diapers, getting up in the small hours of the night, and dealing with education and larger sets of clothing.

Now that more of the kids are out of the house, we keep in touch by telephone and correspondence (e- and otherwise): and occasionally get more-or-less distressing news. The latest medical crisis obliged me to spend a week in North Dakota, filling in for the boss at a candle factory. (September 16, 2012)

Yesterday, #1 daughter called, using her cell phone. She was less than a thousand feet outside West Union, just west of Sauk Centre. Her car had shuddered, the motor stopped, at which point she lost power steering - but could coast to a safe stop.

After letting us know what happened, she called a towing service and got the car and herself to a garage on the north side: where the automobile was declared DOA. Metal shreds in the oil indicated that something had gone catastrophically wrong with the engine.

That's the bad news.

The good news is that the chap at the garage said that it definitely wasn't her fault.

In principle, the engine could be replaced: in practice, that would cost about as much as the car is worth, so we're looking at alternatives. #1 daughter and I spent most of this morning looking at used vehicles, and have a half-dozen or so 'possibles' to consider. Next step is to figure out what she can afford.

The good news is that my life hasn't been boring. Ever.

Vaguely-related posts:

• "Another Month, Another Unexpected Drive"
  (September 16, 2012)
• "An Unexpected Drive"
  (August 13, 2012)
• "A Quick Trip, a Factory, Candles: and Home at Last!"
  (May 25, 2012)
• "The Case of the Capricious Cruise Control"
  (December 8, 2011)
• "Candles, a Spreadsheet, and a Really Long Week"
  (December 5, 2011)

An Unexpected Drive

This has been an interesting several days. Among other things, I mixed up my posting schedule in another blog (A Catholic Citizen in America (August 13, 2012)); nearly missed a post in another; and had a far-from-adequate night's sleep.

Then, this evening, #1 daughter calls. She fell while at work, and needed a ride home. She's okay: just too shaky to risk driving.

No problem: I got a nice drive during sunset and twilight on the 20 miles between here and Alexandria; had a nice chat with #1 daughter; and have been relaxing, back here in Sauk Centre.

'It was Only a Small Fire'

First, the good news: Nobody got hurt.

My son-in-law had gone into the garage to get some chicken feed out of their Buick. Since the car hadn't been driven in a while, and he & #2 daughter were planning to use it later in the evening, he tried starting the engine.

He heard a "POP," and saw smoke coming out from under the hood. It's a wood frame garage, attached to their house - with a propane tank on the other side of one of the walls.

My son-in-law called #2 daughter to come and help, hooked a logging chain to that burning car, and pulled it out of the garage- - -



- - - before it got to this point. Then he told #2 daughter to call the fire department.



It only took them about five minutes to get out there - which is pretty good response, considering they're on the other side of an Interstate from the town. I'm told the fire fighters commended the young couple on quick thinking and cool heads. When they got the call, for a garage fire, they figured there wouldn't be much left of the house by the time they were through.

#2 daughter and son-in-law had a fire extinguisher out there - but they decided the priority was getting the vehicle away from flammable materials. I haven't heard of a logging chain and towing hookups being standard home emergency equipment - but it sure came in handy this evening.

I spoke with my son-in-law an hour or so ago. He figures the most likely explanation for the fire is a critter getting under the car's hood and chewing on wires. When power was applied, a short circuit could have ignited plastic, melting more insulation away.

I'm just glad he and #2 daughter are okay.

Photos by Aaron McWilliams.

Late last month, #3 daughter got promoted to 1st gup in Soo Bahk Do. Which is a pretty big deal - it's the last step before black belt. Except it's more of a midnight blue belt. Soo Bahk Do is a sort of karate, except it's from Korea. Which is why my wife and #3 daughter are learning Korean.

Also, in my wife's case, Latin - and that's another topic. She's teaching for another home-schooling family we know. So, for that matter, is #3 daughter.

Me? I spend most of my time writing posts, and nosing around the Internet to find something to post about.

A Disgustingly Perfect Day, a Grill, and Hummingbirds

I checked. It really is "room temperature" outside: 69° Fahrenheit.

There's enough of a breeze to discourage mosquitoes but not bother people, the sky is clear, bright blue - it gets a little better around here, but not by much, and not often.

My wife and #3 daughter are off, doing errands. I'm here, by the now-superfluous air conditioner, getting the day's work done.

Right next to the window where, if I lean back, I can see the birdbath and hummingbird feeder. (So can you: I've got a webcam looking out the window.)

Speaking of hummingbirds: I took the feeder in yesterday afternoon, for routine cleaning and refilling. While I was doing that, I looked across the kitchen and north room, and saw a hummingbird flit in from the east, turn back maybe a foot from where the feeder usually is, head eastwards maybe two feet, go through a horizontal loop, and flit back the way he/she came.

That motivated me to get the feeder read and in place in what may have been record time. Those hummers don't, I've read, work with a really big safety margin when it comes to food/fuel supply.

The critter, or one very much like it, was back within an hour. I think I've got regular clients now.

I ran out of propane/LP gas on the grill Saturday, just in time to get the burgers done. At least, I thought I was out of gas.

I was going to refill the tank Saturday afternoon - but took an all-afternoon nap instead. My body probably had the right idea about that, although I couldn't get to sleep that night until an insanely late hour.

Where was I? LP gas, right. Sunday, after Mass, I went to the Holiday station on the south side, to pick up a full LP gas cylinder. I found out, in the process, that at least one person in town knows the thing as "propane," but not as "LP gas" tanks. Interesting: I learned something new about the language.

So, I swap out the tanks, and find out that the grill still won't light. No grilled burgers on Sunday. And, as a bonus, I get to figure out how to dismantle and clean the grill. My hope is that there's a fairly straightforward job of unplugging a gas line ahead of me.

#1 daughter was here for the weekend, visiting her pet rabbit and us.

And I think that brings me more-or-less up to date. The day's tasks won't do themselves, so I'd better get to work.

Maybe there'll be time later, for a walk. Or something to get me outside.

Freezing Fog, Long Weekend

Freezing fog early this morning left frost on the trees - and encouraged #1 daughter to postpone a trip she was going to take, up to the Red River Valley of the North. Prudent decision, I think. Looks like she'll be staying here for President's Day weekend.

I've spent the day writing - and doing a bit of research / creative work for a story. Not that I 'felt creative.' If I waited for that, I'd produce even less than I do.

Now, I need to decide what to do with the rest of the evening. Garfield and song with my son is a given, of course.

A Rabbit, a Vest, and My Family

My wife's fitting a new harness/vest onto Giol, #1 daughter's rabbit just now. The rabbit chewed through part of his old one: which was pink and a sort of bright yellow-green. This one is a tannnish brown. Giol looks like he's wearing a vest now.

#1 daughter came home for the weekend, arriving a little before supper. She's been researching towns in this general area, looking for the optimum place to live after Tech. school.

Back to the rabbit.

As #1 daughter said to Giol, "now you're very stylish: and your butt looks big." Well, it did before: Giol's a rabbit, you know. The new harness does look a bit better on him than that, ah, brightly-colored one did. And, seems to work quite well as an attachment for his leash: which is the main idea.

I'll be reading Garfield with my son, soon.

Three-Day Weekend

A three-day weekend is over for #1 daughter. She spent it with us. I rather liked that. She's now back in Alex, and is scheduled for classes as usual tomorrow. I learned that she's planning on taking an 'extra' course in animation next fall: pretty good idea, I think. Particularly considering some of her interests.

#2 daughter & my son-in-law are (or were, up to yesterday, I think) in Colorado. Skiing. With his parents. #2 daughter was quite impressed with the scenery. Good for them: it's great to be able to travel. There's quite a remarkable world out there.

I heard a guitar earlier today: I suspect it was #3 daughter, but I haven't confirmed that.

Giol, #1 daughter's rabbit, has had two apple cores this evening. That's quite a treat for him. He'll get up on his hind feed and reach for them.

My son and I read Garfield tonight, as usual, and I sang the tune that I've sung for each of the kids. It's pretty close to something my father sang to me.

Baby Shower, Eye Exam, Digging Out a Car, and Brainstorming

My wife and #3 daughter went to a baby shower today, for Our Lady of the Angels' choir director. The choir director's husband was there (brave man), and maybe four others guys from the choir. The invitation had been to all choir members. I guess this is another indication that it isn't the fifties any more. Can't say I'm sorry about that.

My wive and #3 daughter made a baby-size choir robe for the choir director's new son. I'm told it was something of a hit. As were the other gifts, of course.

#1 daughter came home for the weekend around supper time - which is roughly 5:00 p.m. in this household. She needed some help getting her car unstuck, I gather. Apparently it got mired in snow when she drove it in the 'other' driveway.

I got my eyes examined today: an annual process, now that I've got diabetes. Good news: I've got two, and they both work. No problems. Between the pupil-dilating drops, and the ones that anesthetized my eyes for the pressure test, though, I'm having a bit of time focusing. Oh, well: that will, I trust, pass.

Good grief: I checked my task list, and I've got two posts left to write. And no clue what to write about for one of them. Both, actually: but I can fake it for one.

The other? That's the Loonfoot Falls Chronicle-Gazette blog. I think I'd better pull in #1 daughter and do some brainstorming. Our brains - God help both of us - work about the same way, and we've been able to help each other out on creative projects before.

My son? He and I will, I think, be doing the same sort of thing as he gets older. Not about the same things, though: he's more like my inner geek than my inner writer and artist.

Giol, #1 Daughter's Rabbit; and "Just Your Average Small Town America Household"

Just your average middle-class small town American household: nothing out of the ordinary about us.


Giol, #1 daughter's rabbit, under the back stoop: his new favorite place outside.


Giol has this "cute" thing down cold.


As #1 daughter observed: from this angle, Giol looks like a fuzzy eggplant. With ears.


Caught in the act! The infamous "chips" incident.

Wednesday: #2 Daughter's Off for a Day or Two

#2 daughter left today. She could have slept another night here, but that would have meant a lot more driving. She's visiting friends, I gather, and getting some sort of preparations done. She plans to be back - Friday, I think.

If I seem a bit vague there, you're an astute observer. I haven't been following a great deal of the activity around here lately.

I did, though, spot some dishes that needed washing. That put me in a position to see shifting colors in the dishwater's soap bubbles. That's something I like about the way the world works: if you're looking for it, you'll see beauty just about anywhere.

Monday: Bright and Clear; and #1 Daughter Moved Out

#1 daughter wrapped a wedding present for my wife this morning - for #2 daughter's wedding, actually. She and I had a good talk, then #1 daughter took her rolling suitcase and headed back to Alexandria.

We were in the kitchen while #1 daughter wrapped the gift, and I fixed my breakfast. Sprocket stood between us, whipping his head back and forth, as if in an effort to give 100% attention to both.

It's the start of school, soon, and it's very reasonable for her to be up there. Still, it's been very good having her under the roof.

Between #1 daughter moving back to Alexandria, and #2 daughter getting married in less than a month: there are a lot of transitions going on.

#1's rabbit is staying here, for the time being. Which is okay: He's a quite creature.

Where Did the Last Week Go?

It's been over a week since I posted anything here. Quite a bit has gone on, but it's hard to pin down details in my memory. #2 daughter's upcoming wedding might have something to do with it.

My son had a friend over on a few successive days, after which he went up to the Red River Valley of the North, to spend more time with my son-in-law-to-be.

He nearly wound up in Montana.

#1 daughter drove him and her rabbit Giol up to the Valley, and was unaware that she needed to get on Interstate Highway 29, northbound, after passing Fargo. As some point, as she and my son past across the vast expanses of North Dakota, she realized that they hadn't reached their destination - and that things weren't all that familiar.

Prudently, she called home. (Cell phones: ain't technology great?!)

I calmly (for me) explained exactly what she needed to do, and had her repeat the instructions. Slowly. I had visions of the next call being from the vicinity of Brandon, Manitoba, or Sioux Falls, South Dakota.

Or maybe Billings, Montana.

As she put it, "there's a lot of 'not much' out there - it took a while to notice that things weren't looking familiar."

They got to their destination without further incident. Then, the next morning, the rabbit Giol escaped. #1 daughter woke to my son informing her that the rabbit had escaped, and that he and my son-in-law-to-be thought he might be outside.

They were right. By the time #1 daughter was dressed and downstairs, Giol was found - in the vicinity of 'the hill,' a mound about seven feet high near the northwest corner of the homestead.

Sprocket, my son-in-law-to-be's dog, found him. That was not a serene rabbit.

Giol was also a bit damp. Sprocket had licked him.

Sprocket likes Giol: but the rabbit doesn't seem to appreciate the affection.

Before #1 daughter returned, the three of them had rigged a rope to an old cottonwood tree - and my son had swung upside-down from a rather elevated portion of the rope.

#1 daughter had a ride on the rope (it's a sort of zipline affair, I understand) - but probably didn't enjoy it as much as my son did. She tells me that she took a minute or so to release the rope and unbend after being lowered to the ground. My son, at one point after she'd been deposited on the grass, said "she blinked!"

My wife and assorted daughters helped the Soo Bahk Do class at a fund-raiser at a horse show's food concession over the weekend, I've been to a Knights of Columbus meeting, and #1 daughter and my wife finished building a rabbit run for Giol. It's a wood frame and chicken wire affair sitting in the garage: Giol seems to like it. He can see out now, and has a bit more floor space to work with.

Thursday: Back Online, Finally

I had a one day, 21 hour, and about five minute, 'vacation' from the Internet.

Not by choice.

Tuesday afternoon, about ten minutes after four, I was writing a post for another blog. A little after that, I noticed that I couldn't get a web page to load. It didn't take long to discover that I couldn't reach anything on the Internet.

I checked this household's telephone and television connections: they were fine. We get all three through one company, and the signals come through one line.

Just the same, I called the company.

Or, more accurately, called a company. After a while, I discovered that I was talking with the wrong outfit, and opened a dialog with our Internet provider.

The good news was that there were no service problems in our area: and that my modem seemed to be in good shape.

The bad news was that we got a 'communication error' code from my computer's network card. Which meant that the problem was something I'd have to fix.

By now it was Tuesday evening.

Wednesday, I called the local Wal-Mart and had a talk with Ron, in the electronics department. He gave the opinion that it might be my router: which was likely enough, considering its age. So, I went in and bought a router. It took me a few minutes to find one, since the design has changed since I got mine. (I'd been looking at the photos on the boxes, not the lettering.)

Technical digression: this router is a device that connects all three working computers in the house to each other, and to the Internet. I set it up so that the kids wouldn't be asking me to use the 'business' computer for getting online. Quite as often.

Back home, I opened the box, read the instructions, and started the installation process. The first message I got, after acknowledging the standard software agreement, was that the setup program couldn't find a working network card.

So, it probably wasn't the router, and almost certainly was the network card. I didn't return the new router, since I wasn't convinced that two pieces of hardware wouldn't stop working at the same time.

I went back to Wal-Mart, had a face-to-face talk with Ron, and discovered that they didn't have any network cards in stock. That particular store had cleared out their stock. If my card had failed just a little earlier, I could have gotten a bargain.

A phone call to Computer Specialists, up in Alexandria, told me that the "network card" in my computer was an integrated part of the mother board. It couldn't be replaced, but if I opened the computer, I'd find slots available for a new network card. One of which they had.

Happily, #1 daughter had to go to Alexandria Wednesday afternoon, so by yesterday evening, we had a new network card.

That we couldn't fit in the computer.

We'd gotten the case open, vacuumed out a little dust that had accumulated, #1 daughter removed a sticker that would soon have fallen off one of the internal fans, and determined where the new network card should go.

It. Just. Wouldn't. Fit.

So, #1 daughter suggested that we take out a card that had been used for phone and USB connections, but was not now in use. The new card should fit in its slot.

The operative word there is "should."

It didn't. The new card almost fit, but there was a less-than-a-millimeter's difference between part of the new card, and the slot it was supposed to fit into.

Today, Thursday, we tried again. More accurately, #1 daughter tried again. I prudently stayed out of her way and didn't try to "help."

She called Computer Specialists, had a chat with one of the technicians there, and learned that any of the open slots could be used. Also, that the slots, although they looked alike, didn't all have the same dimensions.

A few minutes later, she had the new card in place.

Skipping over more technical details, and the process of putting the computer back where it's stays on this desk, at 1:15 today we got our first working connection to the Internet.

The elapsed time since the network card's failure, once again, was: one day, 21 hours, and about five minutes.

Then, we discovered that #1 daughter's computer couldn't find the Internet.

Two of the cables weren't attached the way that they had been, before. That was a quick fix, and now we have a working system.

And, I've got almost two day's worth of work to catch up on.

That 'vacation' was probably a good thing, though. I spent quite a few hours of it up in the attic, getting re-acquainted with the book collection, admiring the re-organization that's being done by #1 daughter and others, and doing some long-overdue book-and-notebook research and creative work.

My wife, bless her, told me that seeing me in the old lazy boy up there was a "Father Knows Best" image: all I lacked was a pipe.

Now, back to catching up.

Tuesday and Wednesday Weren't Like Monday

#1 daughter made another sale yesterday, despite having one person call to re-schedule a sales call, and another simply not being there. She observed that the universe seemed to be conspiring to keep her at one sale per day. #3 daughter pointed out to her that she was making one sale each day - and so was doing quite well. #1 daughter perked up a bit at that.

#2 daughter and my son are still up in the Red River Valley of the North. We got a call today, around supper time, from #2 daughter. Things are going well up there - and my son-in-law-to-be discovered that he'll have to re-test to get a valid North Dakota driver's license. That won't be difficult, but it's one more thing that he has to do, that won't be (directly) helping him set up his business connections there, or get a food-on-the-table job for the immediate future.

Of course, being able to legally drive himself around will be a big boost.

Yesterday, #1 daughter showed me a charming little house she found, one of a set of buildings that started out as year-round cabins on Shady Lane, on the north side. She's jumping the gun a little, looking at a house before she's graduated. But, it was fun.

Today, #1 daughter took my wife and #2 daughter to see the place. I think the ladies had a good time. One of the good things about house-shopping is that you aren't expected to buy each place you look at.

#1 daughter's being quite sensible about the place. I think she'll find something more suitable, after she's graduated and gotten steady work. Much as I appreciate what she's doing with Cutco, I don't think she intends to stay in sales for very long.

Ridiculously Early Thursday Morning: #1 Daughter's Back

#1 daughter drove up about a half-hour ago. The sales meeting/meal/pep rally ran rather late - as anticipated.

Sprocket and I met her at the front door, and we talked. Actually, #1 daughter and I talked, Sprocket grunted a few times and panted. He also got patted, and scratched behind the ears. After which he lay down at my feet. Over my feet, rather. He makes a very effective foot-warmer.

And now, I have got to get some sleep.

Sunday Afternoon: Sunlight and Music

I'm told that #3 daughter played guitar another time, recently: but this afternoon is the first time I've heard her do so, after the accident. At this moment, she's singing, too.

#1 daughter has left, with her rabbit and my son's probably-defunct laptop. We're hoping to at least get data off its hard drive: the laptop, that is; not the rabbit. She'd have stayed later, but she and my wife thought it would be best for her to go a bit early, then rest, drink tea, and apply warm cloth to her head. She's got a sort of cold in her sinuses. Par for the course, this season.

I did much better than I expected to, in Soo Bahk Do Thursday, and plan to go again this evening.

Last night, watching a Bleach episode on my computer, my daughter wondered why I didn't use the headset outlet on the speakers, instead of switching plugs each time I wanted to go from headset to speakers and back.

It was a 'shazam!' moment for me. I'd never thought of it. I've got the headset plugged into the speakers now, of course: Makes all the sense in the world.

Wednesday: Of a Defunct Laptop and Some Guy on a Bobcat

#3 daughter was out, helping my son shovel, last week. She's definitely feeling better. That wrist is very much on the mend: she's down to wearing a brace 'as needed.' Like when she's shoveling.

I'm assured that she took it easy. She's sensible.

And, I learned that "some guy on a Bobcat" (a brand of snowmobile) has been by twice, now, when she was shoveling - and did quite a bit of the work both times. She doesn't know who he is, she tells me.

My son is not a happy camper today. He's got a fever - not much, just a degree above normal - and we kept him home from school. On the up side, an external CD drive he'd been waiting for came. Then, when he plugged it in, his laptop went dead. No lights, no fan - nothing.

Right now, it's a large trivet.

My son is not a happy camper. I've called the place in Alexandria, up the road, where we get our servicing done, and will be having #1 daughter drop it off Monday. (Unless something unusual happens, we'll be seeing her this weekend.)

My wife comforted the laptopless lad, and made arrangements for him to work this summer, and save up enough for a new laptop. He's been putting money away for a while now, but a thirteen-year-old's income, in this household, encourages patience when it comes to large purchases.