March

March 99

3/1/99 Monday

... I decided to go back to The Hovel. I went down early to visit Mom, Leigh showed up about 11:00 and she and I went to lunch at "Chilli's". Leigh let me buy lunch, it was the first time I was able to take my wallet out since I arrived. Leigh and I had a nice chat and a pretty good meal. Leigh is a good listener and is pretty insightful about people and life in general. Leigh and Sue are both more adept at sizing up a situation and doing the right thing than I am. I'm pretty slow on the up-take, I need to be nudged with a hammer sometimes.

The drive home was uneventful and I made it in about 2000.

Christy said Cindy tried to open the car door on the way to Art Therapy and she decided that she would just turn around and go home. Maybe Cindy learned something, she was pretty upset about missing her therapy but seems too understand it was her behavior that caused her to stay home.

3/2/99 Tuesday

... Christy took Mike to Therapy in Canyon Country, she was not as impressed with the Therapist as I but said she may be tolerable in a pinch. Perhaps since I am a guy and the therapist is a cute young girl who smiles politely at my pathetic witticisms I was not as tuned in to the subtle nuances as Christy. I do recollect being a little disappointed in her perceptiveness but wrote it off as being first impression jitters.

The therapist asked Christy about a recent time of conflict. Christy told her about the night before when she stepped between Tim and "B" and Tim hit her on the arm. Not exactly intentionally but not exactly an accident either. The therapist asked what her punishment for Tim had been. She said she hadn't decided yet... Christy said they tussled over their punishment philosophy for a while. The therapist said she taught parenting classes and she thought that it was crucial that his consequences be immediate, if we delayed then the effect of the punishment would be lost, plus Tim would agonize (I wish) over what his punishment would be. Christy said she teaches parenting class too and she wanted him to agonize for a while, Tim had hit her and she wanted the punishment to be worthy of the crime. Wish I had been there, the therapist didn't stand a chance....

3/3/99 Wednesday

... Christy Taught MAPP in the morning.

Christy took Autumn to Kaiser in Panorama City for Speech Pathology. This was an evaluation appointment. They said we need to make a picture board for her, yup, a picture board by golly. We need a picture board for the short term, it would help a lot, but ... I want her to learn to talk, not to point.

3/4/99 Thursday

...I took Calie to dance, no problem. Calie had fun and was anxious to show me "her moves" when she got home. Christy said she had fun the week before too. My experience with her two weeks ago must have been an aberration.

3/5/99 Friday

...Mike had a dentist appointment, he had to get a filling and he needed a "baby tooth" removed. The dentist said he was " a good boy" He asked if I could leave him so he can show the grown-ups how to act at a dentist office.

3/6/99 Saturday

... We got word that Grandpa and Uncle Bob were coming up to see us. Both of them are hard of hearing, so they both yell a lot. We got the house cleaned up to the point it was ...well ... cleaner than when we started. Don't laugh, that is quite an accomplishment when you have eight (8 because we had Christopher, one of Carols kids, here) little kids trying to undo everything you have done as soon as your back is turned.

I guess the geezers bit off more than they could chew. Grandpa left Riverside for Yorba Linda where Uncle Bob Rodgers was staying with Delmar Rodgers (AKA Uncle Pete). The plan was for them visit for a while then they were going to take off for 'Sawtell', the VA Cemetery in Westwood, then to Simi Valley Cemetery to pay their respects to their parents then they were going to try to make it out here. That's about 200 miles not including the Riverside leg. Well, as predicted they didn't make it. The VA Cemetery was so overgrown and poorly kept up they couldn't find their fathers grave either... too bad.

Tim and his cohorts were plotting again and thought they had a plan whereby I would take Tim to Austins house till 17:00. At which point he would call me and ask if I would let him stay the night then I was to pick him up at 10:00 Sunday morning and take him to Jesse Holkum's house and leave him there until about 20:30. I wonder how he got the impression I was his personal chauffeur. I picked him up at 17:30 and brought him home...

3/7/99 Sunday

...Today is "Donut Day" I have made up my mind that if it is at all possible I will take any kid, that wants to go, into Palmdale to the Donut Inn. I don't care how bad they are or what is going on, they don't have to earn it, or be good or, anything, I get all the kids donuts just because I want to. I do it for me, it makes me feel better some how.

I bought Mokie a bat, ball and glove at Wal-Mart. She is pretty bad but she is only six, and she has a lot of enthusiasm. Calie, Da Moke, Christian and I played ball for about an hour.

I saw Jimmy Smith in Wal-Mart, quite a surprise. She and I worked in Canoga Park. 'Jimmy' is the correct spelling of her name by the way. At work, about 10 years ago, she told us about her sister named Arthur. Her father wanted boys. I thought she was pulling my leg when she told me about her family. She had the whole room in hysterics. Years later, at her retirement party, I asked her husband and her two brothers about Arthur. They rolled their eyes said, "Oh yeah, Arthur is for real, she's a long-haul truck driver with an attitude. Anybody with a brain is afraid of her". Jimmy thinks it's her name that made her mean... probably so.

Getting late. Time to post this.

There are only two lasting bequests we can hope to give our children. One of these is roots, the other, wings.

Hodding Carter

3/8/99 Monday

... Autumn had another fever, it got up to 103.8^olast night. Tylanol & Dimatap eventually got it down but she scares me. She is just muscle and bone, it seems like virus's hit her especially hard.

Christy and I spent the morning at Kaiser with Autumn, Christy went to a meeting at AVC and I took Autumn home, she slept a lot and was feeling better by evening.

3/9/99 Tuesday

... Christy taught this morning, she got home about 12:40

We kept Autumn home she still had a little fever.

Geezers finally showed up. They got here about 12:15. Pop is 75 and Uncle Bob is 77. They are both hard of hearing and their conversation sort of frightened Autumn for a while. Uncle Bob and My father-in-law Frank .. Pop .. look a lot alike. Uncle Bob is bigger by half and a little banged up. He says he fell off his tractor and has fallen a couple other times. He seems pretty sharp though and he more than held up his end of the conversation. He's a Georgia Boy, he has some pretty firm opinions about most everything... but so does Pop, must make for some hellacious discussions at the dinner table.

"B" was put into Detention today for failing to do his homework again. We try but with 5 kids doing homework you have to trust them sometimes. This detention business is more a punishment for the parents than anything else, I think "B" likes detention, he gets special attention there. I drove to Agua Dulce and picked him up about 15:30. When I got home the Geezers were gone. Christy

3/10/99 Wednesday

... I had a Doctor's appointment in the morning and five or six other errands to run. Christy had to pick up the kids because I was tied up at Kaiser

We sent Autumn to school all medicated for a runny nose. She was just barely awake when I put her on the bus. Autumn only has 2 more days of school left before getting the next four weeks off.

Christy taught again today but we should be able to do some tiling tomorrow.

3/11/99 Thursday

... No Tile work today. Christy taught all day today. Christy got home from Palmdale soon after I got back from dropping off Calie at Dance Practice and I went to the ROF, I had a pretty good time, nice to get out. Here's the "Minutes" if you're interested click the link:

http://members.tripod.com/padagge/ROFGrid1.html
If it doesn't work, cut and paste. Hell, this is a free page so I can't complain if things don't work.

3/12/99 Friday

... Federal Income Tax got direct deposited today ... paid off some bills. What a wonderful world .....

Christy and I went to see Calie do her Johnny Appleseed presentation today, she was so cute my face ached from smiling. She had on overalls, barefoot, a bunch of apples in her lap, a shovel for planting seeds, and a tin (aluminum) pot on her head. She was interviewed by another kid, coincidentally, he had been Johnny Appleseed last week.

She had a little 'stage-fright', probably because Christy and I were there.

Last night Calie and I read on the internet that Johnny Appleseed was born in 1775, and she said "No he wasn't!!!, he was born in 1774!" We checked her book and she was right, further research indicates that he probably was actually born in 1775 and the book was wrong, but she had the facts nailed down. She knew everything that book had to say and more. When she had brain-fade on two of the questions it was hard for me not to speak out and tell her teacher, Miss Nora, that she knows the answer. She got a B+....should have been an "A"

3/13/99 Saturday

... At 12:00 yesterday I bought a State-of-the-art digital video camera that can do anything with (No, I couldn't find the toothbrush). I took it home and read the instruction book for 45 minutes, after about 20 I had figured out how to turn it on, after 45 I could take a picture. It was so complicated and tedious to set the camera up to do anything I started to get pretty exasperated. I went to bed before I figured out the video . At 12:00 today I took it back and said "I'm too dumb to own this camera." I went back into the store and did what I should have done yesterday. I selected another camera by shooing away the sales people and picking the cameras up one at a time and fooling with the buttons. I decided that if I couldn't tell what the buttons meant without a manual I put it down and moved on to the next one, I found one that worked intuitively (for me) and bought it, I did the same thing selecting the Video Camera. I picked up a Kodak DC210 still camera and a Sharp 8MM 40X Zoom "ViewCam" and took it back to the "Returns" counter. I traded the expensive camera in for two other cameras and got $407.00 change back

3/14/99 Sunday

... Jeff is coming up to trade me his VW Super Beetle for my ISUZU Pick-up. My truck is worth about $3300 his VW is ... not. I haven't seen it but I can imagine...

Well, I wasn't even close, it's actually in worse shape than I thought it would be.

The interior looks like ... well, it looks awful

the horn is disconnected

the heater fan is on all the time but the heater doesn't work, gonna be fun to drive in the winter time

the reflectors are pried off the side

the bumpers are both bent

the passenger seat is chewed up ...literally..

and the worst thing ... someone painted it Penitentiary Orange

Jeff said, "Paint a big black grin on the hood and it will be a hit on Halloween..."

I learned all that in the first five minutes. I hadn't even driven it.

The engine has been rebuilt and it has several new parts. Carburetor, distributor; etc. But it doesn't idle at times and the steering wheel tries to jump out of your hands making left turns. The gear shift is so sloppy it's hard to tell by feel exactly what gear you're in.

I used to drive my mother's Bug back in '60 and '61, it was a novelty car in Milwaukee back then, I loved it, I've got to admit the sound and feel of Jeff's VW brought back fond memories. I think I will try to resurrect it, I will take it down to the kids at Affordable Tire tomorrow and see what they can do about the front end ... probably needs a bearing or two here and there.

Jeff seems to be thrilled with the truck, we have worked out an equitable arrangement where he will bring me some money monthly, he is an electrician apprentice and I will definitely find some work for him to do up here too...

Christian Quote

Christian said, "I'm having trouble figuring what I want to be when I grow up."

Christy said, "Well what are you considering."

He said, "Well, I don't know if I want to be a "Regular Dad" or if I want to work in a store."

Christy asked, " What do you think the best thing about working in a store would be?

" Getting all that money!!!" Then he stopped and thought a second and... "or does all that money belong to the boss?"

Christy, "It all belongs to the boss."

Christian: "Ahhh Maaannnn!!!"

Calie Quote

Calie got a paper airplane in her goodie bag.

She said "Look at this. " in a disgusted sort of tone.

I said what is it.

She said "It's a model Plane."

I asked if she wanted me to put it together for her.

She said "No, it's a boy's toy, I'm a girl"

I said "But don't you enjoy flying them?"

She said "Well... yes, but I'm just not that kind of woman" (She is seven)

The universe is full of magical things, patiently waiting for our wits to grow sharper.

-Eden Phillpotts-

	3/15/99 Monday
	... I can't find my keys again...damn-it. They are hanging on a florescent pink canvas strap about 6 inches long, you'd think a fella could keep track of a thing like that...
	Christian has a fever, so we kept him home from school, he perked up almost as soon as I got back from taking the kids to school.
	Autumn is off track (Vacation) for the next 4 weeks.
	Christy is having a bad time with Asthma, and she can hardly talk without gasping for air. She took some medicine and took a breathing treatment. Asthma is a crappy thing to have to deal with...
	Autumn has an appointment with Orthopedics' at Kaiser in Hollywood so we took off at about 10:00. It was raining all morning and it was real cold, there is no snow but it's cold enough, about 28^oin the shade.
	We had lunch at The Spaghetti Factory in Hollywood, I really like that place, the Lasagna is spectacular.
	Tim had an appointment at Probation at 1600. Apparently there are two Michele's in the Probation Department one in Palmdale and one in Lancaster. The secretary screwed up sent Tim's case to the one in Lancaster, mean while the court sent the papers to the one in Palmdale... we had two appointments. The Palmdale Michele called and went to her boss and won the right to see Tim. She was very nice and we had a good chat, but I suspect I would not want to get crosswise of her. She scared the blue weasels out of Tim...

Cindy has her last session at Art Therapy at 1700, I don't believe this class has had any impact on her at all but she had fun. I wonder what sort of a readout we will get from Sylvia...

Christy had to go get a shot at Kaiser for her Asthma. She felt a lot better by the time she got home. The shots she gets are steroids, kind of scary to me for some reason.

3/16/99 Tuesday

... Tim has a Therapy session with the Russian, she seemed a little leery of me, I think Christy may have tempered the relationship.

Christy is teaching MAPP till 12:30...

Tim had a Dental appointment, for a cleaning... he really enjoys going to the dentist...he's so strange, I break out in hives just thinking about Dentists.

Lunch at Denny's, not fun, Autumn was a little rambunctious. She was all over the place, and giggling a little loud. I looked up and I got "The Look" from two little old ladies. Most people tolerate Autumn fairly well but some are obviously of the mind that disabled people need to be kept away from places where "Normal" people congregate. I just flashed my most dazzling smile at them, ..... something I learned from my sister.

I went shopping at CostCo, I love that place, I can't think of any other place where I can spend more money in a shorter time, not even Fry's Electronics.

Found my keys down behind the couch ... beats me how they got there ... Autumn likes to play with them ... so I have my suspicions.

The kids wouldn't go to sleep. It only takes one kid to decide that they don't have to listen and then the others feed off him/her, the situation gets sort of tedious for me after a bit, about the only thing that gets me really mad is being dismissed as irrelevant or ignored...

3/17/99 Wednesday

... Tim forgot his books so I took them to school Christy and I went to see Cindy get an award for Citizenship at Acton School. She was one of the first ones... Christy almost missed it, I did manage to get a video of the whole thing...

Christy went to teach at Antelope Valley College, I took Autumn to Albertson's. Christy had promised we would get some cupcakes for Cindy to hand out at school, it is almost her birthday.

I have something to confess, I flipped someone off today... I haven't done that since 1968... I was on my way to Albertson's and pulled off the freeway at Ave S. I pulled up behind a fella in a brand new, dark green, Jag-YOU-arrr. I waited behind him and no cars went by, and I waited and still no cars went by, I honked and he put up his hand as though to say "I hear you. Hold on" I waited then I noticed, through the tinted glass, the antenna from his Cell-phone protruding. I backed up and pulled up beside him and the *** was talking on the phone, the waving hand was just an animated gesture from his conversation he hadn't a clue that I was there. The intersection was clear so I pulled on to Ave S and as I made my turn my hand flew out the window of it's own volition, signaling what I thought of his self-indulgent indifference to the world around him.

I came home to clean the house because Miss Louise (I forgot her last name) a speech therapist was coming up to work with Autumn. Christy came home with some burgers about 1300 and Louise got here about 1330. She is the regular therapist at the Yucca School in Palmdale. She is really taken with Autumn, everybody is, but she is convinced that she can help Autumn and that Autumn is much higher functioning than the diagnosis indicates, Autumn can make the Ma, Da, Ka, Ki, N, Ba, &Th sounds. She says "Right There" sounds like "Aye 'dere", She has several signs "I love you", "I want" "More", "Drink", "Plate", "Cup" and some others that she taught herself that no one can figure out, One is the letter "C" and the other is repeatedly making the "Drink" sign. It makes her and us very upset that we are too dumb to figure out what she is trying to say.

I left to get the kids before the therapy session was over and Louise was leaving just as I got back. Mokie has an ear infection so Christy took her and Calie to Kaiser, Calie just wanted to go.

I spent about an hour with the video camera and the VCR trying to show a video I had made of nothing particular. I finally managed to get it working.

3/18/99 Thursday

... I got "B" to school late, he couldn't find his backpack. "B"'s school starts at 08:00 Calie and Da Moke don't start till 08:20 and the other's, Mike Cindy and Christian don't start till 08:40. So if "B" wants to lollygag for a while he is only spoiling his own day. The trip from "B"'s school to the little girls school is about 15 minutes so I have some leeway but not much.

Out of idle curiosity I got on the internet and looked up Joe Rizzo, number seven or eight on the list was 'Joe Rizzo from Milwaukee'.. so I called and got Mrs Rizzo (who I really wanted to talk to anyway, nothing personal Joe) It was nice to talk to her. Joyce was "the girl next door" when I was in High School. Joyce Harrop, she is a year older than I and there for infinitely wiser ...and funnier ...and wittier ...and everything else 'er. Joyce was my idol, I lived vicariously through her exploits, she was "cool". She memorized Gilbert and Sullivan, she had Harry Bellefonte, Kingston Trio and Theodore Bikel records. We would sit in her den and eat 'Harrop Pizza' (Cheddar cheese on crackers with ketchup) and listen to music and talk for hours, she took me to beat generation coffee houses soooo cool. I got Joe's e-mail (Joyce has a mild case of CyberPhobia) and sent him a bunch of emails and haven't heard from him since.

Chris and I had to take Autumn for an 11:00 appointment in Panorama City with Doctor Wieder, the Neurologist. He used a term, Static Encephalopathy, http://www.come-over.to/fasstar/static.htm . I was trying to get some feel for what we can expect from her developmentally. He said that we could expect that she will be able to take care of herself, she will have an unusual gait, her speech will be hesitant and strained.... I have much higher expectations.

We went straight from Panorama City to Lancaster via the Agua Dulce School to pick up '"B". We had to get him to the "Talking Doctor" (Rupp). We got there with about 5 minutes to spare. '"B"'s medication was changed again. His aggressiveness has diminished but he is still angry and grumpy just about all the time. '"B" needed an EKG for the new medication but I needed to get home to get the van to pick up the other kids. So after we got home Christy got her car and took '"B", she picked up Calie and took her to Dance Class, got '"B" in for his EKG, picked up medicine went to the bank, grocery shopped and came home. I got the kids from school and came home. I had to load them up a half hour later to go and pick up Calie at dance class at 16:30...

I called my sister and we talked about Mom and about going to Milwaukee. Mom's house sold and we need to be back there to get it emptied out for the new owners, escrow closes on the 9th.

3/19/99 Friday

... I finally took the Van into the transmission shop, there was a rather pronounced leak at the rear seal. The mechanic found a few more things that needed fixing too, Ouch$.

Christy picked me up at the transmission shop and she and I took Autumn to speech therapy at her school in Palmdale. She seemed to enjoy it quite a bit for a while but tired of the attention after about 25 minutes. The therapist is very nice but she is pretty hyper, she is all over the place. She has a lot of enthusiasm and makes me tired just watching her.

Christy dropped me off back at the Transmission shop and she went to get the little girls and I picked up the big kids.

At about 1900 I took Calie shopping for Cindy's Birthday Presents and to get a present for the little boy who's party she is going to Saturday night.

3/20/99 Saturday

...Raining and cold today,

Christy took Calie shopping again to get more presents for Cindy,

We had Cindy's Party about 15:30 because I had to take Calie to a birthday party for Joshua, Calie's classmate, at the Discovery Zone in Palmdale. The party lasted from 17:30 to 20:00. I asked some friends to point out Joshua's mother so I would know who was in charge, they pointed to a girl in the back wearing a red shirt and coveralls. I tapped her on the shoulder asking if she was Joshua's Mom when she turned around I suspected that she ether gave birth to Joshua when she was 11 or this was not Joshua's Mom. I was right, she was his 18-year-old sister.... embarrassing.... I met some new people though and heard some interesting gossip... nuf said

3/22/99 Sunday

"Donut Day"

(But first a rant)

I watched "Sunday Morning", the first segment was "A crisis in Religion" about Gay's Vs. The Church, then some stuff about "Art" "The New Primitives" ... I think... What I saw of that segment were just someone's psychotic nightmares, hard for me to call it art, (Sub-Rant) the definition of "Art" has gotten watered down to describe just about anything anybody wants to deem Art to be. The LA Times showed a picture of an empty room that had a bucket with a mop in it. Someone had titled it "Bucket with Mop". It seems like ever since Jackson Pollak, and Andy Warhal Art requires less and less talent and more and more Chutzpah. The next segment was a Russian Opera director / producer / innovator who is noted for staging "Carmen" with the title character as a street whore who gets killed by her lesbian lover after seducing a cop. At least they didn't find a way to talk about Monica Lewinski again. I think Sunday Morning has lost it's focus. I liked the homey-ness of "Postcards from Nebraska", and interviews with interesting artists and personalities. Originally it was a weekly respite from the harsh reality of "hard news", an hour and a half of beauty, sensitivity, articulate critiques, wit, and a reverence for the human spirit. Hmm... Kind'a like church. There has to be another Charles Kurault somewhere.

I can't relate to the Hip Hype from New York or the Chic shallow glitz of LA. I am so tired of petulant over-indulged celebrities agonizing about their inability to find relevance and motivation for their artistic endeavors. They need ... more... More ... MORE ... to be able to elevate their self-image and perpetuate their irrelevance.

I have a cop friend who pulled over an actor. My cop friend hates Movie People. A quote: "Not one of them has ever created a single worthwhile thing in their entire live, but they get paid like they had solved world hunger."

The actor says "Can we hurry this up, I'm late for an important meeting."

The cop says "What sort of a meeting?"

The Actor said "I'm an in the Entertainment Industry"

The cop says, feigning interest, "Oh, what do you do?"

The Actor said smugly, "I'm an entertainer."

The cop says, "Oh really, so where's your *#@!%$ monkey?"

......you had to be there....

I guess my chosen life style has relegated me to a sort of Never-Never Land. There isn't much in this world I can relate to anymore. My kids are too young and my body and mind are too old to be able find a comfortable niche. Most guys my age have sent their children out into the big wild world and are playing golf, traveling, raising horses, grooming their gardens, and taking off for Vegas on the weekends. The fathers of the kids in my children's classrooms are working all day and playing hard all night.

Do I resent having 7 little kids, possibly, a little, would I do things differently if I were given the chance... probably. Would I give up the kids if I could and go play golf? Nope... I have so much of myself invested in these little guys I would go out of my mind without them. I get seven kisses in the morning and seven kisses at night and lots of hugs in-between, it's hard to do without. When I am away from them for over a day I get an empty feeling.

There are a few people out there who can relate to what I am doing ... there must be ... I think ... I hope.

.... back to "Donut Day" the kids and I didn't get going till late in the morning, I took all seven munchkins to the Donut Inn and then we went to the park. We only stayed for about 45 minutes but they had fun.

I just puttered on the PC for the rest of the day like a real nerd but I got some genealogy stuff done. I scanned a bunch of old Wills from the 15 and 1600's that my uncle found and some other stuff. I am going to have to go to work on the kitchen tomorrow... There is so much to do and so little time (especially when I spend 4 hours screwing with the damn computer). Oh well, kitchen tomorrow... for sure!

Why does a slight tax increase cost you two hundred dollars and a substantial tax cut save you thirty cents?

- Peg Bracken -

Journal for the week of

3/22/99 - 3/28/99

	3/22/99 Monday
	... Started on the counter top as promised , I managed to get the first bunch of tiles cut and we were ready to go but after laying them all out we were 6 "L" Piece tiles short... We had to be at a teachers meeting at Acton School for Tim and Cindy at 12:15 so we decided that it would be too difficult to get it all done in the time we had left ... so ... Christy, Autumn and I went to lunch at Don Cuco's instead.
	Christy took Lumpy to get a hair cut and she also picked up the tiles we needed. Lumpy got a flat-top, he still looks cute but he looks like a stranger...
	3/23/99 Tuesday
	... Christy teaching and Tim had a meeting with the Russian...I dropped Tim off and Autumn and I went out for a breakfast at McD's on Bouquet Canyon and Soledad Canyon , Autumn eats very slow and is an incredibly messy eater. I had already given her her morning donut so she wasn't particularly hungry anyway. I spotted a Bagel shop across the parking lot and snagged one of their foulest smelling bagel with cheddar cheese melted on top and cream cheese inside ... it wasn't very good, the cheddar cheese was a mistake. When we out back Tim was waiting outside. The Russian let him out early, I wish she hadn't, I will talk to her next time, if I'm not there I want him to stay in the waiting room till I get back.
	Anthony called and invited Lumpy over to his house, Lumpy begged and pleaded to be allowed to go, and Christy finally offered to take him over on her way out to dinner with Carol. About 3 minutes after she left Anthony called and said he couldn't come over because it was too late. I called Chris and she just took Lumpy to dinner with her. Anthony seems like a nice enough kid but he has stiffed Lumpy about three times now...
	3/24/99 Wednesday
	... Kids to school
	We had to clean house to get ready for Louise, who was coming to do speech therapy with Autie. Christy was teaching all morning so it was up to me to do the house, I don't mind cleaning but I like to have people around to help.
	There was an unusual flurry of phone calls last night, Tim and his buddies set up a birthday party for a friend of his... I don't know all the details
	I took Christian to Anthony's.
	Tickets firmed up for Milwaukee on the 6th
	3/25/99 Thursday
	... Worked on Damn Kitchen all day. Tiled the counter top will try to grout tomorrow
	3/26/99 Friday
	... I hung the last three cabinets and two "end shelves" this afternoon, Christy and I tiled the back-splash, her sister is coming over Sunday for me to do taxes and Chris wanted the kitchen to look nice, we were planning to grout on Sunday but, one more day for the mastic to cure wouldn't hurt.
	Miss Louise came for Autumn's Speech Therapy, I took off for the
	Home Depot to buy some more tile mastic. We decided we are going to tile the back of the base cabinets that face the dining room.
	Ben, Tim's friend, came over, they are sleeping in the Motorhome tonight. It makes me nervous when they are out there ... no reason, it just does...
	3/27/99 Saturday
	...I put doors on the cupboards and put the handles on. Christy and I finished laying the tile behind the base cabinets, we will grout on Monday I guess...I am still trying to figure out exactly how I want to do the floor. I have some really nicked and torn linoleum and I don't know whether to put leveler (Thinset) or pull it up, I think I need to pull it up but Christy is leery of the work involved...
	3/28/99 Sunday
	"Donut Day" I Cheated and went to get donuts early before anyone was awake.
	I came back and watched Sunday Morning, It was a little better than the last one, but not especially memorable. I had told myself I would have to scratch this particular ritual from my schedule but they redeemed themselves a bit today.

Mission Statement

(Don't you hate that phrase?)

It seems like I should try to figure out where I am going with this Journal / WebPage / Rant Venue / whatever... I started this page just for the hell of it back before last Thanksgiving, then I decided I was going to do a sort of Mini-Bio on all the kids and myself, and then I included a Diary / Journal just to keep in touch with friends and relatives.

I had no rules then and I have none now, but I have decided on a few guidelines...

I have decided that I would do very little editing. Which is why this rambles and wonders around sometimes ... most times ...

I will speak my mind being as truthful and honest (Naive and deceived) as I am able.

I will only "put down" myself or unnamed others (Unless I'm really angry)

If I can't say something nice, I will say nothing.

... if there are more I can't think of them now ...

I have a hard time with deadlines, but up till now this has been a lot of fun. Due to some incidental events taking priority in my life and a trip to Milwaukee and ... in a blink of an eye I have gotten three weeks behind... I had hoped that by now I would have a clear direction and be able to pump these little WebPages out as a matter of course but that hasn't occurred. I am as direction-less now as I was when I started. This Journal probably says more about me than I should be letting on, but, ultimately, like Bill Murray said in "Meatballs" ... "It doesn't really matter".

Revelation:
(Pete's Chinese Relativity Axiom: No matter how great your triumphs or how tragic your defeats---approximately one billion Chinese couldn't care less.)

I spotted a Tintype in a pile of pictures my sister found under my mothers bed. It's a picture of my Great Grandfather Henry Dunn and my Grandmother Clara and her two brothers it was taken in about 1892 judging from their apparent ages in the photo. The two boys were Ray and Fred, Fred died in the Great War. My Uncle Ray was a bigoted old potato farmer who died alone and not missed by anyone that I have ever talked to. My Grandmother led a full life, and except for her descendents ..about twenty-four other people and counting... nobody really cares.

The point of my bringing this up at all is that in the 'Great Scheme Of Things' by any standard you can devise their lives were virtually irrelevant. When I apply that revelation to myself... Instead of sad, I find it strangely liberating. I accept the fact that my existence on this planet is ultimately less significant than that of a grain of sand.... to strive to be important, unique, make a difference, affect/effect the lives of the people around me, putting my stamp on the world seems pretentious and probably delusional ...

I'm going to keep on writing in this Journal in the anticipation that, one day, I will say something meaningful. Until that time, I will join the faceless millions on the internet hoping to prove the theory that an infinite number of monkey's on an infinite number of computers will eventually discover the meaning of life. I suspect that though that may very well happen the chance that anyone will read it is infinitesimal...

Have more than thou showest,

Speak less than thou knowest.

-William Shakespeare

3/29/99 Monday

... Shopping all day, Home Depot, Wal-Mart, Albertson's, Blah Blah, waste of a day... Not going to have time to grout the tiles today... tomorrow for sure.

3/30/99 Tuesday

... Finished tiling ...finally...It really looks pretty good. Now we have to:

Rip up the carpet in the Dining Room

Pull up the old linoleum

Put the new tile on the floor

Install the kick boards

Install the molding

Put up the drywall in the Dining Room

Replace the sliding-glass door

Remove the ceiling in the Dining Room

Install ceiling in the Dining Room

Install the light fixture's

Paint the walls

"B" punched out his best friend Scott at school today. Gave him a bloody nose, hope he didn't break it. His punishment will be to be kept after school for an hour. Which means I have to drive to Agua Dulce School after I pick up the kids at Acton School

3/31/99Wednesday

... I set up an appointment to go to Young's RV to get the MotorMonster checked out finally

Took Lumpy to the movies with me, we went to see one movie but the schedule I looked at in the paper was wrong and it didn't start for another 2 hours, we went to see Mod Squad instead and it was pretty poor. What it lacked in plot and dialogue it made up for with sex, violence and volume. It would have made a tolerable TV movie with out the sex and bad language though it would have only run for about 35 minutes.

Lumpy and I went to Don Cuco's after the movie and had a late dinner.