It took me 5 minutes to get this
program (Microsoft Word) working. When I
first tried to type, nothing happened. I
let my fingers tap-dance on the keyboard, hoping to see a long line of
gibberish, but the screen remained blank.
“What’s going on here?” I wondered.
I exited Word and tried another program.
Microsoft Schedule+. The same
results, at least initially, on the screen.
OK, let’s try Word again. And as
you can now see, it’s operational as I’m already at the end of the first
paragraph of his letter. Sometimes
computers get temperamental; it’s hard to explain.
My workday was abbreviated today,
which came as no surprise. Before
driving the boys to school, I repeatedly asked Andy how he felt. He looked a little peeked and had a phlegmy
cough, but he insisted that he was OK.
Today happened to be a late start – kids don’t have to be to school
until 10:10. On these once-a-month
occasions, the boys’ After School program offers a “before school” program. Simply stated, Andy wanted to play. The school nurse called me at 10:15. Andy must have walked into his classroom and
immediately announced to his teacher, “I don’t feel so good.” He had a temperature of 104. When I picked him up, he looked drained of
color, but, surprisingly, still seemed to have a bit of zip in him. He had a bounce in his step as we walked to
the car. As soon as we got home, he
sacked out on the couch in the family room, watching RV for awhile, but, once
he had a bowl of chicken noodle soup, took a nap at my request. Although I had brought home some work from
the library, I ended up doing some housework – folding a load of laundry,
unloading the dishwasher, cleaning up the kitchen, -- and then finished the
book I started to read on Sunday. I’ve
assigned myself the task of reading the complete works of Russell Banks, who
will be the keynote speaker at this fall’s Wisconsin Library Association
convention at Lake Geneva. Since I’m the
one who’ll be introducing him, I thought I should be familiar with his books. It’s finally stopped raining. I heard the pitter-pat of rain on the roof
when I got up at 6:00 this morning and dodged raindrops when I ran a quick
errand at 3:30 this afternoon. In
between, the precipitation was relentless.
Both Andy and Eddie had soccer games scheduled for later this afternoon,
now canceled, to be rescheduled at a later, hopefully drier, date. Andy couldn’t have played anyway, even though
the color is now back in his face and he’s out from under the covers. Right now he’s playing a solo version of the
board game Payday.
The boys and I are sure glad to have
Mom home. The Manthey-Lazich match-up
was a tough race, a disappointing outcome, but not a surprise considering the
district’s severe Republicans leanings.
Adelman had obviously built up some very strong name recognition, not to
be matched by a rookie politician.
I think JoAnna’s ten days away from
home made her realize how important her family is. Personally, I wouldn’t mind if she found
herself a less stressful, demanding position, something that doesn’t require so
much of her time. We went through the
same thing while she was on the County Board and working for Broydrick.
JoAnna returned home last Wednesday
absolutely exhausted. It took her five
days, and numerous naps, to recover from the string of 18-hour vacation days
she experienced in Milwaukee. What a
strange couple of weeks that was. First of all, the boys and I traveled to
Pennsylvania – great road trip – spent 3+ days with my family, had a great time
in Chicago (visited the Field Museum, Shedd Aquarium, top of the Hancock Building,
the Children’s Museum on Navy Pier, the Museum of Science & Industry), and
returned home to an empty house. We saw JoAnna Saturday evening and all day
Sunday and then on Monday she returned to Milwaukee. By the end of the week, I had to remind
myself – Yes, I do have a wife – No, I’m not a single parents – Don’t worry,
we’ll all be back together in a few days.
And now we are. But during those
first five or six days, I couldn’t help but observe – Well, Mom’s back in body
but not in spirit. Isn’t she lucky to
have such an understanding husband? as I break my arm patting myself on the
back.
It’s not even 9 o’clock, but I’m the
only one yet stirring in this house.
JoAnna fell asleep an hour ago, shortly after I gave her three aspirin
to zap a headache. Andy still feels
warm; I think he’ll be missing a second straight day of school tomorrow. Eddie’s in fine fettle; I just finished
reading him three stories, Andy listening in instead of trying to fall asleep
as I suggested. I’m feeling rather tired
myself. It looks like an across-the-bard
early-to bed kinda night.
