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July 21, 2005
"Walk 10 feet, plop. Walk 10 feet, plop."
Jack's now walking to where he wants to go about half the time. Jack’s balance and coordination are improving and he’s mastered turns pretty well. His recipe for disaster seems to be when he gets excited and starts moving too quickly. Sure enough he starts tip over and then does a face plant. Jack usually manages to catch himself with his hands so the ratio of falls to contusions is pretty light.
Of course all of these mobility moments have simply been yet another heaping on the cat’s litany of misery and suffering. Aida already runs when Jack crawls after her. The ability to walk at an even faster rate has led to Aida getting more exercise in a week than she’s seen in a year. I swear she’s already starting to look thinner.
To make things more interesting we’ve begun to phase out the ubiquitous Jack accessory: the bottle. This has led to a few dicey moments but nothing too fierce. Nighttime has been a challenge with the last bottle of the day the most likely candidate for the longest retention.
Otherwise it’s been one of those weeks where the time seems to just slip past. Between Mr. Snicklebritches and work neither of us have been up to doing very much in the evenings.
“Honey-do” list for the weekend is starting to look big: The Miata’s brakes are acting flakey so the baby car needs to go into the shop. I have to finish off the office and the spare bedroom for an impending In-Law arrival. I’ve sworn I’ll get to the regular tour of bookstores this weekend and I have some other plans in mind. Of course, to paraphrase, no plan remains intact after initial contact with the Red Hot Baby Jackness.
So it’s time to do your $2.50 good deed for the month. A while back I mentioned the blog of Captain Chuck Ziegenfuss. He’s at Walter Reed right now and the recovery is going pretty well. That being said he could use some get well cards so it’s time to get off of your lazy butts and do a nice deed for a total stranger. Send them to:
Captain Charles W. Ziegenfuss
P.O. Box 59051
Washington, D.C. 20012
USA
I would suggest finding “Thank You” or “Get Well!” cards that border on the risqué or mildly offensive. (He could use the laughs.) His wife is there with him but between the skin grafts and the other things it’s going to be a bit of a long haul. The odds are I’ll send him some water wings, to help out the next time he goes diving into a river with full kit.
It seems to be the week for sick call. I received word from my brother that a mutual friend of ours has an inoperable brain tumor. Babar is a nice guy and certainly doesn’t deserve this sort of thing. Chemo is on deck and will be the first step to see if they can shrink it. He’s already losing motor control of his right hand. *sigh*
I was talking to Archaeon tonight and he told me that Brother Ray, one of our former co-workers, is undergoing a scope of his heart to see the extent of his problems. Perhaps this is all just proof of how old we’re all getting but it’s still scary to hear. Brother Ray was one of the funniest people I used to work with and inspired the Brother Ray song: “Brother Ray, Brother Ray, Brother Ray, Brother Ray, Brother Ray, Brother Ray, Brother Ray!” There are more lyrics along a similar nature but you really have to consume an astonishingly large amount of cold Newcastle to understand the genius of the song.
Brother Ray’s also astonishingly good with a song so politically incorrect and offensive I can’t even type its name. I will however provide a link to it if asked but you’ve been warned. (That reminds me of the fact that despite great effort by everyone we were never able to come up with a rhyme for duck billed platypus.) Brother Ray’s married with two wonderful kids and I’m praying all goes well.
I talked to Moose as well tonight. He’s good. His company was recently purchased by another and, in a pleasant twist on what he had told me previously, they’re keeping him and the rest of the staff. Huzzah!
Website stuff is almost done so soon you’ll either sing praises or delete your bookmarks. I’m also working on the first podcast over the weekend and am trying to decide what children’s book to read first. I’m leaning to Cowboy Bunnies but we’ll see.
Posted by Jim at July 21, 2005 11:14 PM