6/22/2021: Up at 5:30 AM,
prayers and Bible, then cartoons. Today is Kameron’s birthday and he begins
going to a job. Gets off at 6 PM, I think. I’m to bake a cake and make Frito
pie, neither of which I can [should] eat. Called Parker’s Pharmacy again and made an appointment
for Thursday 9:30 AM. Contacted John and he readily agreed to take me. As it
turned out, Kam got off at 3 PM and stayed at the auto shop, coming home with
Susan. He did well at work (a food bank) and came home happy. As it turned out
I decided to eat with them, but moderately. We had a good little celebration.
Then Andy attached the new router. After a bit I figured out how to connect,
and on we go.
6/23/2021: Up at 6 AM. Wash
dishes, cook breakfast, cartoons. Think I must defrost the mini-fridge today.
And so I did, after I made one of my “big hamburger patties”, with hot sauce,
woost, onions, and black pepper. Didn’t take as long as I thought it would.
Prayers and Bible at 9:30 AM. The day toddled along, with me checking out a
noise for Kameron about 1 PM, starting supper at 3:30 PM, then in the evening
helped Kam look up the battery and charger for his computer, as he needs new
ones. Made it to 100100 tokens in DQ8.
6/24/2021: Up about 5:30 AM.
Prayers and Bible. Cartoons. Got ready and went out to wait for John a little
after 9 AM. He got there about 9:25 AM and we went to Parker’s. It didn’t take
long to get my feet measured, and then John took me to Walmart. Besides
groceries I got the complete “Rocky and Bullwinkle and Friends” and a
King Kong action figure for John’s early birthday present. I also gave John $20
for the lottery as both Morgandy and I had dreamed about him winning the same
in the past week. Home about 10:30 AM. About 4 PM went in and fed pets, cooked
supper, and Kam and I watched Phineas & Ferb. Went in and washed up
at 8 PM.
6/25/2021: Up at 5:30 AM.
Prayers and Bible. Started Rocky &Bullwinkle [which turned out to be
frustrating, as the episodes were scrambled out of order and mixed
higgledy-piggeldy with Dudley Do-Right and Fractured Fairy Tales],
then cartoons. The day went on as usual, with fried potatoes and fish for
supper. Kam had gone to work again today and was acting a little subdued.
6/26/2021: Day overshadowed
by the passing of Alfred, Donna Loth’s father. It had been expected for a while
but was still a bit of a stunner, as death always is. Kenny called me in the
evening. Still watching “The Barchester Chronicles” (1982), with Donald
Pleasance, Nigel Hawthorne, Clive Swift, and Alan Rickman, and I passed it
along to him.
6/27/2021: I had been
dithering yesterday evening about whether I would skip church today, but in the
end, reflex carried my onward. I took my insulin and other medicine before I
left. Afterwards the deacon’s wife gave me a ride home, so that really helped,
bless her. I spent the day finishing up Barchester, called John to see
how things were holding up, and so on. S&A cleared off the last bit of
brush from the side of the driveway. We kept expecting rain, but none here so
far. Kaitlyn and Ryan appear to have dropped in for music in the park. I have
discovered a new diet alternative: pork rinds!
6/28/2021: A typical Monday,
with clothes washing, egg boiling, and cucumber salad making. They say rain is
imminent, but none yet. At 10:30 PM made an HEB order.
6/29/2021: At about 9:40 AM
the delivery came. Struggled it all in. Got Big Red Zero and pork rinds, among
other things. I had also ordered Diet Sprite, but no go. It finally rained over
the afternoon, but mostly cleared up by 3:30 PM, when I went in to cook. Some
DQ8 after supper. When I went in to wash up, Susan got on my case because since
the new router was put in, her name has been turning up on MY E-bay page on my
computer (though I never tried to sign in) and then what I look up is put in
HER queue. So, I put it back in my name. Now if it turns up like that on HER
computer it will serve her right. I didn’t DO anything … although sometimes
that the worst thing you can do. Because of the rain I let my AC rest from
about 1 – 9 PM. June almost over, and then everything – birthdays, doctor
appointments, expected horrible heat – begins again. On the plus side, Kelsey
should be moving back closer. I wonder if the move is making Susan anxious.
6/30/2021: Last day of June.
Up about 5:30 AM. Prayers and Bible. Cartoons (on a musical theme). Very sore
and moving slow. Thinking about going to the library bookstore, but heat?
Soreness? Left anyway at 9:45 AM and back at 11:10 AM with 6 books. Read “Dogbert’s
Top Secret Management Handbook” throughout the day. Also got “C. S.
Lewis on Scripture”, his “Space Trilogy”, Thomas a Kempis’ “The
Imitation of Christ”, “The Thurber Carnival”, and a copy of The
Wee Free Men: The Beginning, being the first two Tiffany Aching books
combined (which I intend to give to Morgandy).
About 3:30 PM Susan brought Kam home from work while I was making
supper. He seems to be doing well at work. When I went out to wash up, I found Kelsey’s
dogs here, so the move is a go! They were staying here the night, but I missed
them as they went out to Dairy Queen. Bed about 11 PM.
Notes
Must get to the library
bookstore again soon as it’s been a while. Kelsey and Ryan had been living over by the seashore for a while; getting them closer meant we got to see them more often. My old AC was running on its last legs and had to be coddled along. I wonder if Morgandy ever read the Terry Pratchett.
FATHER WAS
Father was digging post holes
and barbecuing,
Killing snails and painting
cabinets.
Father was taking the hook
out of your jacket, and unsnapping
your line.
Father was building doghouses,
and letting you drink a little beer
while Mama wasn't looking.
Father was the guy that put up
pickles and slipped you some gum
on the side.
Father was forgetting to pick
you up at the party, and buying
you a sucker on the way home.
Father was planting potatoes
and letting you put the eyes in
the holes.
Father was who you asked
first if you wanted to go
grasshopper hunting, because you
knew Mama was scared of snakes.
Father was Superman until
you were thirteen, when he instantly
became Moses.
--Michael Babel, ARENA 1977
I have nothing but sympathy for my father now, when I more fully realize that he was trying to do a rather difficult job under trying circumstances with very little experience or example. He became a husband and father at the then rather late age of 34. Up until then he had been rather a wild man; in our earlier years he was still in the process of being domesticated. He had to deal with a wildly differentiated brood or 'pack' as we kids were often referred to; kids very different from him in personality, growing up in a world and social setting that were very different from his own upbringing. He kind of settled into being a dad as time went on, so that his relationships grew warmer the farther on down the line we were born, going from what could charitably called 'fraught' with Mike, the eldest, down to indulgent with Susan, who was not only the youngest but a girl to boot. Finally he became a rather good grandfather, which was perhaps his last best destiny as far as fatherly relationships went.
Did I love Pop? Did Pop love me? I was an odd duck, moody, fantastical, socially awkward, everything that Pop was not. Mike was seen as 'Pop's kid,' being the first; I was 'Mom's kid,' the surprise consolation prize following closely on Mike's heels. Mike got to be the trailblazer, the ice-breaker, the first experiment conducted with the most flaws; he garnered the most expectation and hence the most disappointment. We first three kids (me, Mike, and John) had to do a lot of self-parenting; by the time Kenny and Susan came along we were shouldering many aspects of the parenting (especially with Mom's health problems taking her increasingly out of the game), leaving the younger to benefit from the easier emotional atmosphere that remained, a condition that T. H. White might refer to as 'having white mice for pets, but having nanny to feed and clean them.'
In the end, as Mom's kid, I had to shoulder a lot of her duties, including taking care of Pop in his last years after she passed away. By then we really needed each other: me to have a place to live and he to have someone to care for him. During that time I drew closer to Pop than we ever had been before. We were alone for the first time ... ever. We shared mutual affections, like the grandkids and watching Perry Mason. But .. "Love? His affections do not tend that way." At least in no way that he ever expressed emotionally. Although he did leave me the house. Perhaps men of his generation didn't find it easy to express any feelings toward sons, at least in words. In actions, perhaps, or inactions, never expressing "by a sign or a word/ the disgust that appeared in his face."
But in the end I have to give the old man a pass, a solid C+ at least. Once again, difficult job, trying circumstances. And he meant well, I think, and at last 'settled into the traces' of fatherhood. I can even say I love him, but perhaps it will always be *love with an asterisk. Happy Father's Day, Pop.
Sigh. Ogres do not have
mammary glands; they are not mammals. A fact I could not convince the AI of.
Apparently, it thinks that if something is female, it must have boobs of some
sort. The distinguishing characteristic of an Ogress, is, of course, "a
type of scaly crest on their heads, analogous to hair in other races. When it
is down, it even somewhat resembles hair. It is raised in anger or to display
superiority." An individual Ogress lays four or five eggs. They are then
collected into clutches of about thirty that one female will guard until they
hatch. Only about 1 in 10 Ogres is female.
Update!
