Here's Jonathan!!

His little face still hasn't caught up with his ears but he's getting there. He's almost walking, has two bottom teeth, and crawls like lightning. He finally has some hair and he's going to be a redhead like his dad I think. He's finally decided he likes his granny. With Jim away so much of the time and Melissa busy with work, I haven't seen much him and he wasn't quite sure I was to be trusted.

And he's going to have a baby sister or brother sometime around Thanksgiving or Christmas. I'm not sure exactly when yet. I'll have to ask.

My son Jim had a 4 day pass this weekend and he, Melissa, Tim and I got together at their house on Saturday for card playing and laughing. Jonathan was the entertainment chairman. He's so funny. Earlier in the day I took Elcie to the store with me and then met Jim for coffee. Tim had already told me the news.

Jim and Melissa have 3 kids each from previous marriages; all teens. Each of their youngest is a little older than Elcie; Jim's oldest will be 18 this summer. Melissa's oldest has a baby of her own and her own home. The others will be leaving the nest in a few years. They decided after they had Jonathan that since their next 18 years were spoken for anyway, it would be nice for Jonathan to have company. If my math is right, there should be about 1-1/2 years between them.

Rebecca skinned both knees (at once). She's blaming it on Rochelle. I didn't see it happen so I don't know. She did all her own first aid; I went out and bought more gauze pads and anti-bacterial ointment and hoped for the best. She's never been willing to let anyone else do that sort of thing so as soon as she was old enough to do it herself, I let her. Rochelle is a stoic; Rebecca is not. She even knows how to put in her own eyedrops on the rare occasions pinkeye strikes around here.

She made gingerbread and scrambled eggs for all of us on Saturday. Ran me out of eggs and forgot to mention it. I'll get more today. I was too lazy yesterday to get out.

I think I mentioned somewhere that Jim has a motorcycle - Harley of course. He and I have had a running battle between Harley and BMW ever since I can remember. Not that I ride these days of course and I never owned a motorcycle. If I did though, it would be a BMW with all the accessories. They're beautiful.

Did I ever mention my former boss gave me a copy of a Neil Young cd because of the song Unknown Legend? It's about a woman and her Harley and he said it reminded him of me.

Tim's talking about buying a motorcycle instead of a car. He has never learned to drive. Kids who are raised in cities like San Francisco quite often don't. We had no need for a car there until the last couple of years before I retired and then it was almost more bother than it was worth. I used it on weekends to get out of the city but took the bus to work and almost everywhere else.

The CA Highway Patrol gives motorcycle lessons and will administer the tests on the spot after riders have qualified. Jim was showing Tim a little about riding over the weekend while he was here. It will be interesting to watch. He's talking about a small Kawasaki (more for running around town) rather than the Sportster Jim rides from the Mexican border here.


Rochelle's teacher called me on Friday to tell me that Rochelle will be Student of the Quarter for her class. She doesn't know yet. I'll be at the Assembly tomorrow morning to see her receive it. Her school year got off to a shaky start but after the 1st quarter, she's settled down to middle school nicely.

We were due for some good news for a change, weren't we. It helped and so did the beautiful weekend here. I did absolutely nothing that wasn't necessary.

For some reason, I woke up before 5:00 a.m. today (Monday) and decided I might as well stay up. I can always lie back down after the girls are in school if I want to.

We're expecting a stormy week starting this afternoon or tonight. I thought March was supposed to go out like a lamb. Evidently not. The girls will be out of school on spring break the first week in April so I hope it will be nicer by then.

Not much else going on right now. Thanks to all of you for the comments on my last post. I caught up with the replies through about Saturday or early Sunday and maybe this week I'll get back to checking up on all of you.

I'm feeling better, at least for now. A friend emailed me yesterday (still working on a reply) and referred to what was going on as "a perfect storm". That said it perfectly. Everything piled up at once and it all looked hopeless. It doesn't quite so much now although nothing has really changed. The sun still rises and I have much to be grateful for in spite of everything. (see post below this if you don't have a clue what I'm talking about).

It will probably be a while before I get back to posting daily but I'll be around.

Ant now it's 6:00 a.m. and I should start rousting out the girls. Elcie's already up and listening to music but I haven't heard from the other two yet.

Take care everyone.