Friday  February, 1 2002

Mike had a short day... out at 1115, I took home over to his girlfriends, he stayed there about 2 hours...(yes, her mother was home... I met her)

Cindy had no school today but she had an appointment at Kaiser Mental Health for an evaluation with Dr. Berglund... He tested her for over an hour ... it was primarily a battery of questions, getting 12 "positives" is a strong indication of Autism she got 23 positives. There are still more tests but if she were to have to give a diagnosis now she would be 90% certain that she is Autistic... the problem will be to convince the world that the simple, smiling, seemingly serene little girl has any problem at all... no blank stares... none of the traditional symptoms... Oh well... it's just another bridge to cross. This is a significant milestone in her life with us... it will affect her medication and the methods used to instruct her... I hope we can make some progress now... she will probably always be a little 'out of it' socially... at least now we know what we're dealing with

Autumn seemed weakened (for lack of a better description) when I got to school. She just laid her head on my shoulder when I picked her up. Sue, the afternoon aide, said she looked pale and seemed to have trouble keeping her hand steady enough to eat lunch... no fever... no other problems... she seemed weak. My guess is that she had a seizure... she had one a few days ago, lasted about 30 seconds and only seemed to affect the left side of her face and jaw... had we not been at the dinner table we would probably have missed it.

Calie and Cindy had a fight... it was pretty intense... Calie was fine in a few minutes and Cindy went to bed ...at about 1830...

Septic needs to be pumped... damn, bad timing...

Saturday  February, 2 2002

I took the kids up on the mountain and let them slide in the snow and ice. There wasn't a lot of snow but there was a section of steep road where there was no traffic... one four-wheeler came down in the hour we were there. A friend of mine in Idaho sent me a picture of her house... about all you couls see was the chimney... I sent her this picture she said; "Get serious boy.  That ain't snow.....its frost."

THE DOCTORS

Nowadays there's little meaning

For a person to be gleaning

When a man attaches "Doctor" to his name

He may be a chiropractor

Or a painless tooth extractor

He's entitled to the title just the same.

Or perhaps he is a preacher

Or a lecturer or teacher,

Or an expert who cures chickens of the pip;

He may keep a home for rummies,

Or massage fat people's tummies,

Or specialize in ailments of the hip.

Everybody is a "doctor,"

From the backwoods herb concocter

To the man who takes bunions from your toes;

From the frowning dietitian

To the snappy electrician

Who shocks you loose from all the body's woes.

So there's very little meaning

For a sufferer to be gleaning

When a man attaches "Doctor" to his name.

He may pound you, he may starve you,

He may cut your hair or carve you,

You have got to call him Doctor all the same!

What The Queen Said, And Further Factious Fragments

by Stoddard King, 1926

I found a copy of the book this was taken from at a place out in Ventura, I will call tomorrow and see if I can pick it up... I found only three copies of it on the entire internet...  Bibliofind was bought out by Amazon.com and I really miss it it is practically impossible to find antique books any more, Amazon.com gave me over a thousand hits on George & Sydney Doggett, not one single one of them was a book by Doggett, but they gave "Curious George" 5 stars, it's really exasperating trying to find anything there... they bombard you with stuff you wouldn't pick up if you found it laying on the sidewalk.