July 00

Saturday      July 1, 2000

… I worked on the pile of clothes and did laundry while Christy was a church with Cindy and Autumn, I need the kids with me to do the sorting, I can’t tell one piece of clothing from another… Christy does it all the time, I have no idea how she does it… it mystifies me.

 I got a collect call today, they almost always mean trouble… not this time… it was Calie calling from camp, I asked if she was OK, she said “Yes” I asked if Monica was OK She said “Yes” I said is something wrong, she said “No” I said Why did you call, she said “I don’t know”. She’s having fun and is a little homesick I think.  We will pick her and DaMoke up tomorrow…

 Sunday        July 2, 2000

…We took off for Camp Cedar Falls at about 0930; we got onto Pearblossom Highway and came to a stoplight. Christy said, What’s that smell and then we both noticed smoke coming from the right front tire. We had just had the brakes don on Friday. We turned around and I took the Buick home the smoking stopped but I didn’t feel like risking it… I loaded everything and every body into the Van…We got to the camp about 11:30… Calie and Monica were playing with some of the counselors, they seemed glad to see us. Autumn was especially glad to see K-K that is how she pronounces Calie…Incidentally I am no longer DA! I am now DA’-Eee… she is really trying hard to communicate.

 We promised the kids we would stop in Riverside, they had figured we would go to grandmas and swim in the pool but Grandma and Grandpa were away… so they settled for the sprinkler at Grandpa Blaine’s. It was nice just sitting and talking with Karen and Blain, most times we’re there for a holiday, a birthday or some other occasion and there are so many people present it’s impossible to get much of a personal conversation going…

 Mike stayed over at the Landis house with his best buddy Austin… they do seem to get along well. I like Austin’s parents, They are always up to something, I mean they always have projects going on, every time I go over there, there is a fence moved, new plants in the garden, fieldstone walkways laid or dug up… Every time I leave there I want to kick my lazy butt and give myself a real talking to…it’s amazing, I lie on the couch for hours trying to contemplate how come they are so industrious and I am not.

 Everyone was Folding and putting away clothes till about 2200… well everyone but Autumn, Monica, Christian, and Cindy …I should have said Christy and I did most of the work and Calie helped.

Monday,      July 3 2000

… Went to get "B" at Devereux at about 0930. Its long drive to Golita, just under 5 hours round trip. It’s really a problem that he is so far away, I know, it could be worse, I wish he was closer so we could visit more often… "B" is hard... he is hard to love, he is hard to understand, he is just hard… If “"B"” were a subject in school I would dread the class and probably be getting a C- in the course… "B" is worth the effort though. I think we will both be stronger for trying to love one another, even if we never succeed… I can only intellectualize what he is going through. I can’t experience it, I can’t even really understand it, I just have to accept him for what he is. I have been his father since he was 13 months old, we have been through a lot of tough stuff in 9 years… watching "B" learn about the world and try to relate to it has been tough for me too. I want to help him, I want to explain what is happening, and why the world is so cruel and unfair, but he can’t let me do that for him, he just can’t… some things you have to learn by yourself… Unconditional love is a beautiful concept but a harsh taskmaster. Nothing else in my life is as hard as Unconditional love, and paradoxically sometimes nothing is easier.

 Tuesday      July 4, 2000

… Tuesday was a pretty busy day, it’s now Wednesday and I am trying to recall all that transpired. Mike, Cindy, "B", and Calie were in the Acton Independance Day Parade… They had to be there at 0830 to get ready for their part… I got them there at about 0805. There was a lot of traffic and the reserve Sheriffs and the real Sheriffs were being imperious and exercising every ounce of their authority… so tedious. When all you want to do is relax and enjoy the day it’s a bit of a pain to be accosted by some boob in a uniform who’s job it is to direct ‘through traffic’ to the next off-ramp and Parade Traffic to the parade…These guys were acting like it was the Middle East Summit Conference. The Wannabes wanted to know if you are authorized to pass through their blockade… the authorization being a verbal “Yes” or “No”… we waited for our interrogation and apparently we answered correctly and were eventually passed through to staging area. We moved about 20 feet. The cars were backed up to Sierra Highway… "B" was a last minute addition to the Dancin in Acton entry so he rode on the float with Cindy and Mike, Calie danced in the entourage following the float… We dropped them off and then drove down the road to get a good place to park. I set up the chairs about a hundred yards north of the school; we were almost alone there…

 Again this year they had “No Parking” signs all along the first 2/3^rd’ of the route… Now, the No Parking signs say “NO PARKING” but they actually mean that you can’t park on the street but as long as you park off the pavement it’s OK. Nobody gets it…practically everyone drives past all the signs and parks on the side streets around Acton School, so this means that the kids march past a bunch of sagebrush and a few small clusters of people in front of their homes until they get to the Acton School where the crowd is… by that time they are pretty pooped… it just irritates me that no one has taken the initiative to either remove the damn signs or reword them, maybe I will sneak down there in the middle of the night next year… I asked a parade official, “Who put up the signs?” She said “The Sheriff’s” I asked the Sheriffs “Who put up the signs?” “They said “The Town Council wanted them put up” I asked the Town Council when they went by “Who put up the signs?” they said the Parade organizers… Typical…

 I walked back up to where the kids were and looked for Calie, I found Cindy, "B" and Mike, all the kids had their hair sprayed with some sort of blue dye. Even though she was the only black girl dancing she was hard to pick out… they were real cute… The parade ended about noon and we headed home and made some lunch.

 At 1730 Christy and I loaded the kids into the van and drove to Golita, the plan was to join the rest of the kids in "B"’s dorm on a walk to UCSB to watch the fireworks… I got out Autumns Jogger Stroller and loaded it up and noticed that they weren’t walking they were driving, Buddy the “Staff Person” had told me they were walking… apparently he changed his mind… I disassembled the Jogger and piled everyone back into the van. We followed them over to a parking lot and were waved in because of Autumn’s Handicap placard. Buddy didn’t have one so he was turned away, we never saw them again… too bad, we didn’t get to say goodbye to "B"… Oh well… the fireworks was dramatic but anemic, it lasted less than 20 minutes… We waited in line about 30 minutes to get out of the parking lot and got back on the freeway in time to hit traffic in Santa Barbara when their show let out and again in Ventura when theirs ended… We made it back to Acton about 2330

Wednesday July 5, 2000

…Kids went back to school today… I actually got them there a little early, I have no idea what went right. Christy had two Dr. appointments, one for her foot and one for her leg. Autumn and I geared up for the ride down to Therapy West… Just before I got there I noted a “THUNK” noise coming from the transmission and immediately after that I saw warning light was in. Not a happy moment for me… I can’t afford to get the transmission fixed again

 Autumn had her first session with Janet, her new therapist, They seemed to get along pretty good, I went out in the waiting room and did the crossword puzzle and agonized about the transmission… Autumn and I drove all the way home and the warning light stayed out … I called the place that rebuilt it and told them what happened… They said to take it in tomorrow morning… Unfortunately I have to leave it… damn.

 Thursday     July 6, 2000

… Christy followed me when I drove the truck down to TransTech and I talked to the owner, he said that I need to let the error code come in “hard” I have driven the truck about 150 miles since the warning light came on so I guess it could have been a “phantom code”. Oh well, it was a wasted drive…

 I got back and saw the neighbor out with his Caterpillar Tractor, so I went over and bummed some old railroad ties off him, Mike and I (and Christian sort) went over and loaded up the truck… I want to use them as a framework for a deck out front… the one that’s there is a deathtrap (exaggeration). I took the kids down to the 76 Station for ice-cream after… I think I overdid a bit with my shoulder it hurts… tomorrow will tell.

Friday          July 7, 2000

… Woke up this morning thinking it was Saturday… threw my whole psyche off into Never-never-land. It’s almost 2200 and I am still feeling out of sync.

 Have to get Mike and Cindy ready to go to camp… Mike says he doesn’t want to go… that’s what he said last year, then he begged us to stay another week… Mike is the most fickle person I have ever met… the slightest breeze will send him off at a 90 degree angle… 12 year olds are the most incredibly self-centered people in the world…

 Saturday      July 8, 2000

…I took Christian, Calie and Monica to see “Chicken Run”. They loved it, Christian has seen it twice. I was a bit bored by it to tell the truth… probably my state of mind (Tired and Grumpy) played into it… and the fact that it’s Claymation and technically amazing didn’t help… there were a few chuckles but I can’t honestly say I enjoyed it… it was just “The Great Escape” with clay chickens, Steve McQueen’s character was a hen… sacrilege. The trouble with having expectations is they set you up to be disappointed. If things don’t turn out the way you expected you’re bummed and if they do turn out the way you expected, then it’s just sort of boring… expectations are not all they are cracked up to be… but … like I said… the kids really enjoyed it… at least in that respect the money was well spent…

 Sunday        July 9, 2000

…We drove Mike and Cindy to Cedar Falls… then stopped off for a visit in Riverside… I tried to load QuickBooks (A business software program) on my nephew’s PC and it bombed… some file is missing… I will try to figure out what’s wrong… I can check out Christy’s old PC and see where the damn file is supposed to be…

We stayed for dinner, it was very good, Karen is a pretty good cook… we had told them we were just going to stop by for a short visit and stayed for about 3 hours… typical.

Monday,      July 10 2000

… Today worked out ok but… what a chore. Christy had two Doctor appointments; Kids were in school by 0750 (that’s a record for Summer School). I got Autumn dressed and drove to Pasadena to meet with Mrs. Doolin at Solomon - Smith Barney… I like to visit the person who is managing my money at least twice a year. Diane is a real sweet young lady and she lets me nod my head and pretend that I know what the hell she’s talking about. I am not totally clueless but damn close to it. Autumn made an impression… Diane was quite obviously not prepared to entertain a child… (Nor should she be) let alone a child like Autumn… I must say, she did well, considering the fact she has a lot of very nice stuff, not to mention expensive stuff in her office and Autumn is not exactly a model of decorum… I could see Diane’s eyes get big when Autumn reached for a crystal statuette, I kept a tight rein on Autie, I would have felt awful if Autumn had broken something and except for leaving a residue of Captain Crunch cereal on her carpet Diane’s office escaped unscathed… It was an amusing tableau, and I am glad I went, but I really should have canceled the appointment.

 Diane mentioned that I need to see a lawyer and get a trust set up or at least get a decent Will written up, as it stands, if anything happens to me, it goes to Christy, if anything happens to both of us it goes to Probate, the State will most likely rip it all off… What I want is for my portfolio to go into a Trust for the kids, who ever we decide should care for the kids will get about $500 a month per kid until they move out and then the kid will get about $500.00 a month for the rest of their lives. Everybody’s covered… but I have to get it set up… I want to have a dispassionate third party handling the money… It’s just too big a hassle for someone who hasn’t been educated in trusts… Finding someone to care for the kids is a major concern… most everyone we know has enough going on in their lives and they don’t need the added responsibility of small children… I think we will have to end up splitting them up… they need a lot of attention… especially Autumn and Cindy. Christy is adamant about not splitting them up but I don’t see any way, it will be virtually impossible to find some one to take one child, talking someone into taking seven would be like winning the lottery only far les likely.

 I had to take Autumn with me to Smith Barney because I screwed up when I made the appointment. I was thinking that Autumn’s therapy was on Thursday when in reality it was today at 1300… There is no way Christy could get through with both appointments and get Autumn down to Culver City… and I couldn’t be assured I would be back by noon to pick up the kids at noon anyway… so I left Smith Barney and went to Therapy west… we got there an hour early so I took Autumn to Denny’s for lunch… I had some real bad Eggs Benedict... I got her in to see Janet and was told that they were trying to get us “vendored out” to someone closer to where we live… that’s cool, the drive down there is real tedious… not to mention expensive.

 Christy finished up her Dr.’s appointments and picked up the kids, at noon and worked on the house for a while then she loaded all the kids up to meet me at the dentist office in Valencia because Autumn and Monica had appointments. Autumn and I were early and played in a park across the street. Autumn spotted that was across the street from the dentist’s office… I had never noticed it before… we played on the swing and the slide for about 25 minutes…The dentist said that Mokie needs three fillings and that Autumn does too but he would be unable to work on her… she needed to see a pediatric dental specialist because of her disability… i.e.: Autumn won’t cooperate and she needs someone with time and patience… they will probably have to put her ‘out’.

 What a busy day… I am really tired…..

 Tuesday      July 11, 2000

… Not as bad as yesterday logistically thank goodness…

 I went to Best Buy with Calie… I bought a battery for the home phone and Calie looked at books… I talked her out of buying one and took her to the new Barnes and Noble next door… she was impressed… “Daddy, look! It’s all books!” She bought a copy of Black Beauty, I bought (What I thought was) the new Harry Potter book, I got it home and discovered that it was the first one… the one we have on audiotape… After Barnes and Nobel we went to a do it yourself car wash, she had never seen one of those either… after that I took her to the new Children’s Library in Palmdale, the only library she had ever been in is the one at Acton School, it’s pretty small. She said, “You mean I can take these books home?” I got her a library card and she picked out two more books.

 I had to take Monica in to get two fillings in her teeth… she is so cute… and funny. She has never had a filling before… Novocain has really got her mystified… she said “the Doctor put my tooth to sleep, but my nose is asleep too… is that supposed to happen?” “Why can’t I smile right?” “Is it two hours yet?” (The dentist said she had to wait for the medicine to wear off) she asked this every ten minutes, starting as we left the parking lot. All the way home I got a nonstop running commentary on exactly what she was feeling.

 We stopped at Costco for groceries I bought the right new Harry Potter novel… damn.

 Wednesday July 12, 2000

…Summer School, Autumn’s Therapy, Calie to church, Shopping… lots of tedium… in a perpetual motion sort of way.

 I like to go to the Acton Market and listen to the banter of the people that work there and feel that they are real people who care about the place they work and the people who shop there. I guess I am just too old to fully appreciate … the Interstate, Frequent Flyer Miles, Television, and Corporate sprawl have homogenized the whole country. San Francisco, Denver, Chicago, Philadelphia, New York City, makes no difference Well New York is a little weird, but the stores are the same, the people talk the same, everything from their shoes to their haircuts are the same… the country used to have character, every place you went had it’s own flavor, it’s own integrity… now it just has Style

 Thursday     July 13, 2000

… Went to the Dentist this morning… been a while… three years, to be embarrassingly precise. The tools they use have improved… the sonic vibrating tarter remover gizmo is pretty slick, what used to take 45 minutes and unbounded agony takes about ten…

 Today’s quote from Mokie. As she was running toward the microwave… “Don’t worry about the smoke, it’s just chicken”

 I went down to Lois Taylor’s house for the ROF, Jim Milewsky, Jim Somsul, Jeri Posner, Scilia Perez, Lois Taylor and I were the only ones there… sometimes it’s like that. Lois brought out some old photographs, mostly group shots of Phone company people… I borrowed them and scanned them; I plan to put a couple onto the ROF WebPage…

 Friday          July 14, 2000

… I took the truck down to T&J and we put it up on the rack… we couldn’t find a fuel leak anywhere… exasperating… the consensus is that when the truck is drawing gas from the rear tank that some return fuel (unused fuel) is leaking past a valve and flowing into the front tank… this builds up so much pressure when the front tank is full that some vapors leak past the vented filler cap… the solution is to always use the front tank up first.

 I picked up the kids from school, fed them and took them to see the new movie, X-MEN. We got there for the second showing but it was sold out so we bought tickets for the third at 14:35. I think I would have enjoyed the show if I weren’t sitting next to Mokie. She didn’t get her medicine (Either did Christian, I forgot… unfortunate) and she was a dervish, she was bored, then she was hungry, then she wanted to leave, then she had an itch and wanted me to rub her back… I have no idea what the damn movie was about… Christian and Calie liked it a lot… it seemed to be pretty well made… Tomorrow I am going to an Estate Planning Seminar put on by Smith Barney… It starts at 08:45 at the Ritz Carlton Huntington Hotel in South (Ritzy) Pasadena… the last time I dressed in Jeans and a Hawaiian Shirt… I stood out like I was a wino at a Coronation… I won’t do that again…

 Saturday      July 15, 2000

…I got to the seminar on time, I looked around for a familiar face and only recognized Diane and Laura and a couple people from the office. Ed Beardshire showed up and I said Hi and shook hands, but I couldn’t remember his name to save my life… embarrassing, I faked it and eventually got a glimpse of his workbook, it had his name printed on it, I mentally smacked myself in the forehead. Victor Flores came in a little later but that was it for familiar faces…Victor and I talked for a minute or two about people we used to work with, I think Victor is probably one of the nicest guys I have ever met… I listened to three very good speakers scare the bejesus out of me. I need to get my “affairs in order” as they say… being 57 and not having a will is just stupid… Diane is sending me a fee schedule for the lawyer who spoke at the seminar… I will feel a lot better when that is done.

 Sunday        July 16, 2000

…We all drove up to pick up the kids at Camp Cedar Falls… Cindy was glad to see us and Mike wanted to get home… he was being kind of a jerk about it too… Mike can really be annoying when he puts his mind to it…

I received e-mail from Ashland clearing up some questions that had come up earlier, she mentioned people who had inhabited my grandfathers house over the years… it brought back lots of memories. I was born there and though I left when I was only four I returned with the family almost every summer until I was 16. Over the years my Grandfathers house has taken on a pristine shrine-like existence in my mind, the concept of other people living in it, though a reality in the real world it is inconceivable in my minds world. I remember sitting in the bedroom window with a .26 cal single shot rifle and decimating a family of skunks that were living under the garage, I was about 15... Getting sick from eating too many green apples off the 'Winesap?" apple tree. Picking wild strawberries in the meadow with my Aunt Shirley and picking raspberries from the brambles behind his house, rhubarb/apple pie fresh from my grandmother’s oven. Hollyhocks, roses, the scent of lilacs... so much to remember, I never had a bad time in Maine, even the vacation trip that started by me tripping in the hayfield and slicing 4 inch gash into my calf on a broken whiskey bottle was cool... I could go on and on, bore you to sleep...

 I last saw the house in 1968, a year or so after my Grandfathers first stroke; he had almost completely recovered from it by then. I shot pool with him for the first and last time, I introduced him to his great grandson, but aside from that I virtually squandered the whole visit. Though he lived another five years I never saw him again. I wish I had known him better…

Words to live by

"We must all hear the universal call to like your neighbor just like you like to be liked yourself."”

Governor G. Dubya

Financial Times, Jan 14, 2000

July 17 2000

…I took Autumn to therapy, Culver City seems to move another mile or two away every time I drive down there, it is getting real tedious.

Christy took Christian to Kathleen for therapy, the last time Kathleen intentionally annoying and provoked Christian to the point we had to almost hold him in his seat… it was really interesting. I can set him off just by asking him “Why?”  Kathleen pretended not to understand what he was saying and asked him to repeat himself and be more precise. This time Kathleen was very attentive and solicitous and he had a good time … She is learning a lot about him…

 We are not nearly as impressed with the new Psychiatrist, he seems very aloof and preoccupied. He has no rapport with us or the kids, as a matter of fact he seems to ignore the kids completely, he talks about them when they are in the room and is very abrupt, to the point of being rude.  Christy has written a letter to the Director of Mental Health at Kaiser, and found out today one of her friends is preparing to do the same…

 Christy took Calie, Cindy to church to finish up their instructions for getting baptized. The Pastor, Rudy Salazar, is leaving this church for another in Ridgecrest. Ridgecrest is a nice place to live, but its about eighty miles North and East of nowhere… it’s a gas stop on the way to Death Valley… literally.

 Tuesday      July 18, 2000

Christy had Physical Therapy on her foot again today… I picked up the kids at school, I took Calie to dance class but it was closed for the week… We went to Wal-Mart for some essentials… what a ho-hum day.

 … I read an internet commentators column about her suspicion the government was over stating the danger of hackers and maybe even going so far as to manufacture incidents. The motive being that they can more readily convince the gullible public (us) that it’s now time for the FCC to take over the Internet. I thought to myself; Oh Jeeze... Dueling Conspiracy Theories... Who's right, this article, The Media saying that there is an army of psychotic hackers trying to create havoc just for the pure joy of it, or the government saying that there is an army of anarchist hackers out there bent on destroying the economy.. or the Internet saying that they are only a bunch of pesky kids, no harm has been don… nothing more than pranks really. I suspect, that like always the reality will probably end up a ho-hum mixture of all three. It is just another reporter trying to get some mileage out of the innate paranoia of the unwashed masses. Now this article will flush even more conspiracy theorists out of the woodwork on all sides to preach anarchy or freedom or protectionism or lord knows what…  

Some hackers are Robin Hood types and some are they irresponsible sociopaths… and the rest are malicious scum. Not all government types are power-mad egotist, some are genuinely concerned… and the media? Well, the media is a business first, even though it has pretended to be, it has never been socially responsible. The Media just wants to make a buck, they do that by getting readers, listeners and viewers, the easiest way to be seen, read or heard is to scare the pants off the public. That’s how Limbaugh and his ilk stay on the air, that’s why the 6 o-clock news is so focused on crime and catastrophe. The inferred fact that we are being manipulated by our government, the media and business concerns is probably true to some extent. I would hope that they have the brains to keep their hands off the Internet… with all its problems and it is really the last truly democratic forum left to us. Once the Internet is regulated, taxed, mediated, moderated it will be another entity entirely, and probably bordering on worthless. Imagine the Internet being controlled solely by AOL or someone who homogenized and “cleansed” it. Controlling the Internet is a risky business. You may get a tiger by the tail… or a dead cat…

 Wednesday July 19, 2000

…Autumn to therapy, Autumn has been accepted in Lancaster therapy group, “they are hiring a new therapist so that they can take her in”…That seems sort of far fetched that they would go to that much trouble but we’ll see… Hopefully we can get her up there by the middle of August… the traffic was so bad today it took an hour and thirty-five minutes to get down to Culver City. No accidents, no construction, just a lot of cars on the road…It takes about 20 minutes to get her to Lancaster CCS… maybe they will even be able to see her at school…

 An elderly gentleman (57-my age) from Christy’s church was admitted to a hospital for observation and the first night there they observed him so well he choked on some food and died. The funeral was this afternoon, Christy took, Calie and Cindy to it… Calie wanted to see the body so Christy, after thinking about it for a second or two, took her up, When they got back to their pew Christy asked Calie what she thought, Calie said “He didn’t look like anything…<pause>… he looked like he was painted”… another little girl said “I touched him” and Christy asked “And what was that like”… She said “He didn’t jiggle.”

 Thursday     July 20, 2000

… Christy and I had Optometry appointments at 0950, I got the kids to school and we got Autumn ready to go.. Christy took off ahead of me because she had a Dental appointment at 1100 in Valencia. She has an impacted tooth… Christy was in and out before I was seen, Autumn was very well behaved and no trouble at all… I need new glasses so I was there for a while… I finally got out at 1115 so I had to hightail it to get the kids, I had promised Autumn an Chicken McNugget Happy Meal I had hoped she would forget but she yelled Maaaa! And pointed at the arches so I was busted… There was only one car ahead of me so I dove in line… what I didn’t realize was there were about six people in her SUV and apparently they ordered No Mustard, no pickle, extra onions, or something because it took about ten minutes to get them out of the way… I was on time to get the kids but not by much…

 They have a crossing guard named Ms Judy, apparently her duties begin at precisely 1500 and end at 1507, there were still kids coming down the sidewalk Calie was one of them… pissed me off when Miss Judy went back into the school yard… People who were born to be bureaucrats shouldn’t have jobs that require character and responsibility for others… Karen, the lady that does it during the regular school year stays there till all the kids have gone, and she smiles and talks to all of them. I have never seen Miss Judy smile or heard her say a kind word to anyone…

 Christy called and said that they had injected her 6 times and they still couldn’t fix the tooth because the nerve was exposed, she needs an extraction or a root canal… meanwhile she feels woozy and faint… damn. She made it home OK and we have a call in to the Kaiser Advice Nurse…

...That was an amusing adventure in telephoning…

I called Kaiser and went through their follow the bouncing ball phone system and got an operator, I told her I needed to talk to an Advice Nurse she said; “Hold on…” The phone rang again and a lady said “May I help you” and I started to tell her about Christy and she said “Would you like to talk to a Doctor or the Advice Nurse” I said; “I thought I was talking to the Advice Nurse”, She said; “No I am the Referral Operator, would you like to talk to the Advice Nurse?” I said; “Yes” She asked if I wanted to talk to the Advice Nurse in Panorama City, Hollywood or Woodland Hills?” I said I don’t care, She said; “You have to pick one sir.” I said; “Which one gives the best advice?” (starting to enjoy myself now) She said, a pained inflection in her voice; “I wouldn’t know sir, would you select an area please.” I said “If you don’t know which one gives the best advice and I don’t know either, what difference does it make?” She said “What area do you live in sir.” I said; “Acton.” I was determined to be a pain in the ass now… She said “Is that in the Hollywood area sir?” I said “No, it’s in the Lancaster Area Madam” she said we don’t have an Advice Nurse in the Lancaster office which area would you like me to refer you to?” Christy had made it home by then and I saw that she was really feeling bad so I let the lady off the hook and said; “Panorama City please”, thinking she would transfer me over there, but noooo she said “May I have your number sir, I gave her my Medical Record Number, she said; “No sir, your telephone number please.” I said “Why” she said “I will have the Advice Nurse give you a call, She should call you before five o-clock, it was now 2:15 pm.” What a deal… I said; “Thanks, that’s a comfort” and hung up.

Christy laid down and took a nap she felt better when she woke up… the Advice Nurse called about 5:45… She said “If you still feel bad in the morning call Urgent Care for an appointment.” Something smacking of an oxymoron in that suggestion, but I let it go. Sometimes I believe that am living in the Kingdom of the Red Queen, and the Mad Hatter is really in charge of the world.

 Friday          July 21, 2000

… Not much happened today of any consequence… Christy had PT for her foot in the morning and I picked up the kids, Christy came back and picked up Calie and Cindy and took them to Kathleen. Calie was a little witch all the way over and all the way back but a perfect angle in the Doctor’s office… Calie is still acting out in the afternoons and we were hoping that she would put on a show for the therapist… Oh well…

 Saturday      July 22, 2000

…Calie and Cindy are getting Baptized today, they are sort of excited but not as much as I had anticipated…I worked all morning getting the house ready for visitors. Mike was a big help and Christian and Monica were not… I can’t figure out how to motivate them…  Christy got home with the girls at 1230 about 1300 Karen, Grandma, Suzie (From Henderson, Nevada), Suzie’s son Mike and his two kids Tyler and Tori (Short for Victoria) arrived… Pat was going to come over but her back is giving her trouble so she didn’t make the drive, plus she and Mike just spent all day moving. They had originally made plans to come over when the baptism was to be in the morning but the church called and changed it to 1900, they couldn’t change plans to accommodate that change, and Suzie had to work on Monday so there was no way they stay that long. They all stayed for lunch and chatted till about 1630 and went home. The baptisms went predictably and the girls were very pretty in their white gowns, I videotaped the affair…

 There was a Spanish Vespers service prior to the baptism that took forrrrrever… I was not enjoying the affair at all, not only was it in Spanish to begin with, everything that was spoken was translated into English making it twice as long, and when they started grouping every one of the pews into teams of five to do some sort of inane activity I walked out… It was a pretty passionate bunch, it seemed strange to me that they felt the need to be so fundamental in their preaching. There were a lot of sort of bored, “Well Duh!” expressions on the faces of the parishioners as I walked out.

 Sunday        July 23, 2000

…My access to the Internet has been down most of the day… I couldn’t get hold of anyone at my ISP…they are down on Sundays even though their recording says “All of out technical support personnel are busy with other customers” I watched Tiger Woods blow away all contenders and saw Armstrong (Tape delay) get his second in a row at the Tour De France

Christian said “We can’t” I asked “Why not” Christian said “Because they left…” Now that’s cool, that is the slickest way to get rid of a puppy I ever saw…

Above, The Bird

 Notice: Spelling mistakes have been left in intentionally as a public service for people who are compelled to correct others to give their lives fulfillment.

 Monday,         July 24, 2000

… Today was the real first day of vacation for the kids.

I took Autumn to Therapy, Calie came with me… Calie is a real pleasure to be with, most of the time. I like to be one on one with the kids… I wish it were easier to arrange.

 Tuesday          July 25, 2000

… … Christy had a PT appointment so she went to Kaiser, I took the kids to the park across the freeway from Kaiser (The kids call it The Grassy Park), when Christy was done with her therapy she came over to the park to watch the kids while I went over to Kaiser to get my Sunglasses, the other ones weren’t ready yet. When I retired I was told I could have a Dental Plan or a Vision Care Plan, with 7 kids I chose dental, it was a no-brainer. Last year we found out that Kaiser has added vision care to the plan. Cool…

 Wednesday   July 26, 2000

…Cindy and I took Autumn to therapy, Cindy can be so sweet. We had lunch at Dinah’s, she ordered a milk shake and drank less than ¼ of it… Grrr.

When I got home Christy said that my other glasses were ready so we all went to the Park again, I picked up my new glasses. The lady that fit them was the same one who took care of me yesterday, she didn’t recognize me until I showed her the sunglasses she gave me the day before… she apologized… there is no reason, she must deal with 30 or 40 people a day.

 The kids toilet is screwed up… it won’t flush, it acts like it’s plugged but I took it outside and flushed it out good, it’s not. Perhaps it’s a bad seal… if the seal is broken there won’t be a vacuum and flushing won’t siphon the water out of the bowl…

Thursday        July 27, 2000

… Well, the damn toilet leaked all last night, apparently when I hooked the water back up I didn’t tighten it down firm enough, the carpet in the front hall is soaked. Bought a new toilet… opened the box to the tank and the hardware was missing and the lid to the tank was broken… no excuse for that… The box had been opened and marked “Inspected” I don’t know what processes are in place to deal with “Returned” items but I think they need to be reviewed… This is my third experience with defective merchandise at Home Depot… granted, I go there a lot but this seems excessive to me.  

I went with Calie to her first soccer team meeting. I am going to try to say this concisely… First, I am very envious of the coach’s ability to muster up enthusiasm for a team of 9 year old kids. He is a real Knute Rockney, the kids all think he’s the greatest. I think I will have to stay way in the background with this guy and with Mikes coach too, both appear to be cut from the same cloth. I have a hard time with this sort of thing, I don’t know why. Too much of a cynic I guess. I would love to be able to coach, I can’t get my kids to the dinner table for ice-cream, how could I get a bunch of strangers to focus on one goal… I just can’t convince my self I have any credibility and if I can’t convince myself, how can I convince anyone else.

 Reminds me… Two years ago Christian’s team was getting it’s clock cleaned 9 to zip, we hadn’t even managed to get the ball past the center line. At half time the coach got the team together and said, with a straight face, “We kick off in the second half, and we’ll be defending the opposite goal. That means that we’ll have the advantage because the wind will be in our favor” I said to the fella beside me “Whoo-boy, we got em now, the wind is in our favor.” We both had to leave the field because we couldn’t stop laughing.

Christian has the same coach this year, a real nice guy, his team tied for first place last year… Christian and I both think he’s pretty cool.

 Friday              July 28, 2000

… We have kept the house reasonably clean all week but last night we were a little lax and the house is a mess so we spent the morning cleaning, I repaired the TV console/entertainment center, it has wheels and when I moved it last time the weight of the TV snapped off the brace where the wheels are mounted. I hooked up the new toilet, and replaced the lock on the front door that Christian broke…

 Saturday         July 29, 2000

…Christy took the girls to church, she took them to sing at the rest home after church. I took Mike to Thomas’s house, they live in the foothills overlooking Palmdale, they have an awesome view. The road to their house is aptly named “Rough Road”. Rough Road is rutted gravel, it is so steep that you can’t stop on it or you will have to back down and start all over again. When you get to their place and stop, the truck slides back about three feet, packing up requires a delicate touch on the brakes, you have to keep the wheels turning or you will just slide straight down the hill. Christy’s Buick works fine, it has front wheel drive, I will have to remember that the next time I take him over there.

I had planned to watch a pre-season football game at 1700, but I read the ‘guide’ wrong because it was only playing on the East Coast… I was not a happy camper. I turned on a movie called “Straight Story”staring Sissy Spacek and Richard Farnsworth. It’s the story of an old man who drives a lawnmower across Iowa… Christy said it was very good, I got a call from my sister in Arizona about 30 minutes into it and missed the end of it. We taped it but we forgot to turn it off and the tape kept on rolling. With our VCR it will rewind and keep on taping… so we lost it.

 Sue’s call was about some old letters she found in a box of stuff Mom had. A letter from my Aunt Dorothy talking about her Aunt Christine, there was a lot of interesting family stuff, we talked about an hour. I added some stuff to my genealogy database.  Sue promised to Xerox off the whole batch for me when she has a chance. She is alone at her home because Ross is back in Milwaukee with his dad.

 Sunday            July 30, 2000

… I went over to pick up Mike at 0930, they had to wake him up, apparently he stayed up late playing video games. Mike was not very happy to come home, I took the kids over to the 76 Station to get ice-cream. They aren’t serving ice-cream in the mornings any more… seems strange. We got ice-cream bars from the cooler and went home. I wanted to watch a motocross race on ESPN. There’s a kid named Ricky Carmichael going for the 250cc championship, he is probably the best motocross rider I have seen since Bob Hannah and Rodger DeCoaster. I have been watching him ride for about 4 years, he is not a risk taker, he’s just good. He makes the rest of the field look like they have training wheels.

 I would really like to get back into dirt-bikes, I really enjoyed riding out in the Mojave. I quit riding seriously back almost 20 years ago, I kept bikes around for years but never really did any serious riding after I broke my wrist in 1979. I rode my street bike for a while but I quit riding it every day in 1988 when I got promoted to management… I think I had sold or given away all my bikes by 1992.

Monday,      July 31 2000

… This is Autumn’s last day of therapy at Therapy West. I took Cindy with me again. Autumn and Julia played for an hour, since it was Autumn’s last day, there was no real reason to work her very hard Getting Autumn’s therapy nearer home is a plus. The therapist’s that I have met at the county facility seem very motivated. The girl that evaluated Autumn, Regina, seemed very competent. We know what Autumn needs now and we have seen the treatment she is getting now so we will bee able to make informed decisions about her ongoing treatment.

 I took Calie, Cindy and Autumn down to the Children’s Library in Palmdale. We got Cindy a Library Card, she is thrilled. She picked out about 5 children’s books. (books appropriate for a 5 or 6 year old actually) She can read at grade level but her comprehension and interests are on a par with the books she selected… She will continue to progress and grow but I am resigned to the knowledge that these aspects of her intellect will always be lagging.