December Week 4

A good laugh and a long sleep are the best cures in the doctor's book.

Irish proverb

Monday December, 24 2001 Christmas Eve

... Tired... and I still have a lot of shopping to do...

I am angry at the kids, trying to suppress it, but it's hard. It's Christmas Eve and they are acting like delinquents. "B" was angry and said "Christmas Sucks, I never get anything I want... Mike did the same "I may not even get up, I won't get what I want so what's the point". Just what you want to hear after you have been shopping and spent... too much... wrapped presents till you can't stand up any longer... children are by definition ungrateful self absorbed little tyrants in training... it all blew over after a while but still, it's a shame they can't be a little more considerate of Christy and I, the girls are all wound up, Autumn is still a little bewildered by it all.

Mike is a 14 year old boy with a psychological disorder, I need to wrap my mind around that and not take anything he says personally, he really can't help being who he is.

Cindy is a 12 year old girl that sees the world through a 5 year olds eyes, she is not really responsible for what she says either....

Autumn is progressing but at a glacial pace, I have such high hopes for her... I am optimistic about her being able to progress faster now that the Phenobarbital is no longer an issue.

Calie has a problem controlling her emotions, I know she needs help, but I don't know where to get it. She is not radically involved emotionally like the others but she is a handful sometimes

Monica is an emotionally sensitive, almost fragile... no brittle is a better word, she is tough and game for anything but she is not as tough as she thinks she is...

Christian and "B" are exasperating, both smart in different ways. They had an pretty bad fight at about noon today... "B" probably started it, I am not sure what he said, but Christian over reacted like gangbusters.. I yelled at them to stop and rushed to break it up but before I got there Christian threw a heavy text-book and hit "B" on the left side of his face... It scared me, "B" went after Lumpy with a vengeance, I held "B" and told Christian to go to his room, he wouldn't go and attacked "B" again, so I let go of "B" and shoved Christian toward his room. He threw himself to the ground like I had hit him and ... ahhh SOS, he got all theatrical trying to convince Christy that I had picked him up by the neck and threw him to the ground. She got upset with me then I showed her "B"'s face... damn, things just went down hill, everyone got upset, "B", Christian, Mike too, not sure how he got involved... he started mouthing off and it just got ugly.

We got things calmed down after an hour or two,

I went shopping for some last minute stuff... food, Kaiser for medicine, Wal-Mart for some shirts for "B" and Mike, I tried to find some shoes for Autumn and DaMoke but the shoes were so picked over there was nothing there Mokie would wear and none with Velcro for Autumn so I passed.... Traffic was ridiculous, every register at Albertson's was working, I never saw that before, the parking lot was full, people in line waiting for a space to park, two accidents at the mall made maneuvering there a pain in the ass...

I went in to help Christy wrap presents and she bailed on me and went to cook for tomorrow, we have to take pies and Corn Casserole and deviled eggs We finished at about 2300, the kids were in bed, we put out the presents and filled stockings and went to bed at 0020

Tuesday December, 25 2001

Christmas

... Kids woke us up at 0432...

We actually got out of bed at 0650,

Opened presents, an obscene amount of presents... I took a picture of the tree, when you stop to consider that each kid got about ten presents plus a couple gifts for me and Christy that's 80 or 90 boxes.

Every man is a damned fool for at least five minutes every day. Wisdom consists in not exceeding the limit.

Elbert Hubbard, author, editor, printer (1856-1915)

I couldn't find my car keys, I drove to the 76 Station and discovered that I had forgotten my wallet, droved back up to get it and discovered the house was locked and Christy was already 20 miles down the road with the only house key, Mike broke into the house through his window, got the keys. I actually remembered to pick up the kids medicine. After all the fits and starts we drove to Riverside... absolutely awful traffic... worse than I have ever seen it it took 2 hours to get there. Not a particularly big crowd at Karen's this time, Suzie and her family do Thanksgiving, Pat and Mike are in Pennsylvania, the whole deal is getting pretty ritualized, that is not a bad thing, it's sort of comforting actually, Blaine and I drink too much beer, Blaine cooks the turkey, Karen cooks a pile of food, she apologizes for what a lousy job she did on something or rather and the meal is always delicious, Broccoli with cheese topping was not particularly wonderful, but the rest of the meal was terrific. Christy brings Creamed-corn Casserole and pies... We watch a little football talk about this and that pack up and go home. I was so damn tired I'm afraid I wasn't a particularly good houseguest... more like a Zombie...

Wednesday December, 26 2001

... I tried to get out to run errands early but events conspired to spoil my plans, nothing dramatic just 'pain in the butt' stuff, the house is really getting to me, it is getting harder and harder to keep up with it and I am getting virtually no help at all from the kids and Christy seems to be gone most of the time...

I got out to run errands at about 1600,

	Library to return an overdue book
	Kaiser to pick up my medicine (Medicine wasn't ready)
	Cost-Co primarily for batteries but I had to get some groceries too
	Kaiser (Medicine was ready)
	Best Buy, I was going to buy some software but the lines to return stuff and to buy stuff curled around the store
	Staples so that mike could spend some of his money on games
	Albertson's to return some videos and buy some stuff Costco didn't have and home by 1915

Have got to find some time and a place to be by myself, it is now 2300, I am sitting here with headphones on listening to Strauss to tune out the TV and the computer games Mike and Christian are playing Calie has a friend over and Christian has a friend too, the din is even getting through my headphones. My philosophy is that if Christy is not bothered by it I won't get involved. I am going to have to go to bed soon, I can't keep my eyes open, Bach's Brandenburg Concerto is on now is on now and even he can't keep me awake... well... actually it is, I will keep writing till it ends... then to bed... for sure!

I got a new digital camera for Christmas, a Canon Power-Shot A20, It is really nice...

The picture on the right was taken with the Canon the one on the left (And most all the other pictures on this web site) was taken with the 5 year old Kodak DC210...

It will take me some time to get used to the new camera, there are only about nine buttons including the on/off and shutter but each button has two functions and that doesn't include the menu options... it's about three times more complicated than the Kodak... but that's not saying much, I still like the Kodak, it was the easiest to use (good) camera I have ever had.

Thursday December, 27 2001

... Today was pretty laid back, we have two of the Holmstrom kids here today. They are good kids, not sure why Carol lets them come over here, my kids are little horror's by comparison.

I have been trying to to figure out what is sucking up all the memory on my PC... The programs these days are huge and that's part of it, Mike has been downloading "music" and that was taking up a lot of memory too but not 14 Gig... I had a cool little program that sorted things out by size and gave a neat little spreadsheet about how all the storage space is being used. I will check tomorrow to see if there is an upgrade

From my Hippie Pal, RLR:

A Visit From St. Dubyalas - in the nick of time?

Upon one stimulating Christmas Eve,
who'd dare take away what you'd best not receive?

By H. Bruce Miller

'Twas the night before Christmas. Things looked pretty bleak.
My boss had just sent me a pink slip last week.

Mom was working at Sprawl-Mart to earn a few pennies
Without any vacation, fringes or bennies.

The market was sagging, and my 401(k)
Was as flat as a beer that's been open all day.

In quiet desperation, I crept into bed,
Where visions of bankruptcy danced in my head.

I had just fallen into an uneasy doze
When up on the housetop, a clatter arose.

Out of my bed I drowsily tumbled,
And scratching my head, to the parlor I stumbled.

As I rubbed my eyes sleepily, gazing around,
Down the chimney Tom Daschle came with a bound!

He was sprightly and small, a real cute little elf,
And he carried a sack twice the size of himself.

He spoke not a word, but just set down the sack
And opened it up. I was taken aback!

The most glorious whiz-bang that ever I'd seen!
It was golden and purple and crimson and green!

It sparkled and twinkled! It gleamed and it glittered!
It buzzed and it whistled! It honked and it twittered!

It had buttons and switches and a great big brass bell.
Turning to Daschle, I said, "What the hell??"

"It's a stimulus package!" he exclaimed with a grin.
"To get the economy perking again!

"You've worked very hard and you've been a good boy,
So I brought you this present! Enjoy it! Enjoy!"

And giving a wink and a nod and a whistle,
He flew up the chimney like a human cruise missile.

As I stood there a-quiver and bursting with glee
Another wee elf crept from under the tree!

His eyes were so beady, his smile so smirky,
His nose was so pointy, his speech was so quirky,

I knew him in an instant, without even a thought.
"Saint Dubya!" I cried. "Look what Tom Daschle brought!"

"Good gracious!" said Dubya, "Oh brother! Oh boy!
Such presents are not for the hoi and polloi!

"They're for billionaires, zillionaires, big corporations
the truly deserving in our mighty nation!"

And with no more ado, he snatched the gift back,
And stuffed it inside of his huge bulging sack.

"Saint Dubya!" I moaned. "You can't leave us this way,
With no stimulus package for our Christmas Day!"

"Of course," said Saint Dubya, "you get something too.
Here's a stimulus package designed just for you."

And reaching deep into his fat bulging bag,
He pulled out an object that looked like a rag

And handed it to me. It was an old sock,
With a thing in the toe that felt like a rock.

"Here's a nice Christmas stocking, with a fine lump of coal,"
Saint Dubya said, grinning. "Now I've gotta roll.

"Lots of houses to visit, lots of people to see!"
And he dashed out the door (after snatching our tree).

But I heard him exclaim from his pickup truck:
"Happy Stimulus to some, and to others 'good luck!'"

Friday December, 28 2001

"I love boxing, where else do two grown men prance around in satin underwear, fighting over a belt? The one who wins gets a purse. They do it in gloves. It's the accessory connection I love."

John McGovern - comedian

... It is now 0100, I am tired, I just loaded my first XP product, FrontPage for Windows, it imported my webpage flawlessly but it is much pickier about stuff than the old FrontPage... It has taken me from 2100 till now to get it loaded... I also loaded Norton SystemWorks 2002... twice... I tried to load it on my "D" drive but it bombed. It apparently needs to be on the "C" because it loaded fine.

Saturday December, 29 2001

"Let them call me a rebel and I welcome it, I feel no concern from it; but I should suffer the misery of demons were I to make a whore of my soul."

--Thomas Paine

... I am still having a hard time committing my ideas to print... It seems like the hardest part is remembering what my ideas were when I have a moment to sit and jot them down... I am still carrying around my tape recorder but I either forget to use it when I have my epiphany or I have my consciousness shattering revelations at a time that is inconvenient to be seen talking into a tape recorder.

Sunday December, 30 2001

... Just saw this on a site called http://www.bartcop.com/ I find myself agreeing with a lot this guy is saying... not particularly thrilled with his in-your-face style but he does have a way of getting his point across convincingly... I don't imagine he plays very well in Arizona.

Example:

"The" seven powerful people, says the ad. Apparently there were exactly seven, whose "inspirational leadership united our nation." Throughout the promo, American flags, blue skies, and gauzy slow-mo clips of the Inspirational Seven are shown, set to triumphant music.

So who are they? Let's take a look:

1) George W. Bush (Republican)
2) Dick Cheney (Republican)
3) Colin Powell (Republican)
4) Condoleeza Rice (Republican)
5) Rudy Giuliani (Republican)
6) Laura Bush (Republican)
7) Donald Rumsfeld (Republican)

Yes, all seven of the inspirational leaders of our country are Republicans.

Speaking of Republicans... <grin> I talked to Susan last night, she says Leigh is fine... Katie will be in Salt Lake City for the Olympics working for a catering company owned by friends of Sue and Ross, Ross is in Milwaukee, Christine is gotten artsy craftsy (She didn't say that I just figure that if Christine reads this she may get irked enough to write to me)... I have given up on Katherine... Leigh too for that matter... Susan picked up another "used dog" from some where... Saint Bernard I think... it's deaf... she assures me it has all four legs though.

Mike has been at Scotties since Friday night... He just called and said he wants to stay another night... I guess it's OK... seems wrong somehow but I can't articulate why...

Mike came home about 2030... said he was bored...

Autumn has a rash on her chest, one of the things we need to watch for with her new medication...

Cindy is verrrrry touchy today and "B" is jerking her chain every chance he gets... Poor Cindy is on the ragged edge, she lets out screams that can shatter glass, I am sad to say I barely even respond any more... most times it's it is something so trivial it is hard to figure out why she is upset... The last time "B" made a face at her..

Christian is still ducking and weaving, as near as I can tell he has done nothing except vacuum the living room twice in the last two weeks. He is fun to watch, he will pick up a soda pop can and take it to the trash and keep right on walking outside, he will go to the bathroom and never come back, go to get a drink of water and never come back... what a weasel... "B" does the same thing.

Been trying to get caught up on my correspondence... it's midnight... I have to give up... I will try to compose a New Years E-mail tomorrow... there are some college games on tomorrow and a Marx Brothers film festival on TMC... I will be torn...

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