Happy Birthday Sweet Boy

Today is my boy’s birthday. Hard to believe it was 6 years ago God blessed us with him. He was our first, and quickly stole our hearts and changed our lives forever, in very good ways. And now, as he grows and continues to develop, he keeps amazing us with his personality, his skills, his sensitivity at times, and his interest to learn lots of new things.

I am very proud of you, son. Happy Birthday, sweet boy! We love you more than you likely know.

It ain't right!!

I am in a quandary right now. Faced with a situation that in my opinion is just simply not right. A decision was made, and in my opinion it was a less than stellar one. Likely not done vindictively (trying to give the benefit of the doubt), but with hurtful outcomes that the decision makers may or may not be aware of.

So what should I do about it? How hard do I push to make my feelings known? Do I simply inform the decision makers of the (hopefully) unintended outcomes of their decision? Do I try to work to right the perceived wrong? Or do I just simply let it be and do my best to move on?

If I do say something the strength of my feelings will likely taint the conversation. I often have a hard time with this when there is a clear principle that has been violated. How can the person not see that their decision was going to have this effect? Or maybe they did see it coming, and just don’t care. I don’t like thinking about people that way, but have had enough times getting burned by those very kind of people that I have to admit it is possible.

If I don’t say anything, it will continue to fester inside me. Until I can get things like this out, I have a hard time just letting them go. But will anything good come from talking about it? The pessimist in me says nothing will change, so save your breath.

Of course I also have to admit that my attitude might need to change in this regard too. The problem is not always ‘out there’ or with someone else. Sometimes, often times, I also need to shoulder some of the responsibility for the way things are. And it is also possible that the perceived wrong is not as big as it seems right now. I need to be careful to not overreact. I also need to be careful to not drag others into the situation unnecessarily.

Do, do, what shall I do?

Discombobulated!!

That’s about how I feel today. My cold is still holding on in some ways. Yesterday was worse than today, though.

I just feel out of sorts. I have that drugged up on anti-histamines kind of feeling, but I have not had any in a few days. My stomach does not take kindly to almost any kind of food, and as a result I have not eaten much in the last few days. I sometimes describe this feeling as ‘disconnected’. Bordering on an out of body like experience, where at times it feels like I am in the corner of the room watching myself act out this moment in time.

I really don’t like feeling this way and hope it passes on soon.

Sometimes when I feel all cruddy like this I have to remember that I actually have it pretty good. It could be that I am in the hospital with a much worse condition or injury, or even worse with some kind of sickness that has no cure. Yes, things could be much worse.

So buck up, little camper. This too, will soon pass and you will be back to normal – well . . . . . . . as normal as you’ve ever been. Not that normal is a work usually ascribed to me.

I hate being sick!!

Being sick is not something likely to be high on most people’s lists of favorite things. Me? I just plain hate being sick. And I am not good at it either. I am not a good sick person – one who suffers quietly and endures the misery of a cold or the flu without letting many others around know what is going on. No, not me. Just ask my wife. With a roll of her eyes she will tell you I am a miserable person to be around when I am sick.

I often say I have a high tolerance for high level pain. I can break my leg and keep on going with whatever I am doing. However, I also have a pretty low threshold for low level pain. A paper cut can render me useless. Ok, maybe a slight exaggeration, but you get the point.

The last few days my son was sick with a fever and cold kind of thing. Apparently he was kind enough to share. Not surprising since he slept in my bed with me most of his sick nights.

The real onset was yesterday. I had to go to a lunch with some colleagues here and some guests who had come from the US. By the time I arrived at the place I was already feeling pretty cruddy, and it got worse by the minute. I had a pretty good fever going, and had no desire to eat anything whatsoever. The worst part of this time was the constant (and that is not an exaggeration) running of my nose. Like a faucet with a steady drip.

By the time lunch was over I was in full-blown misery mode. I drove home, and even stopped at one point and pulled to the side of the road, contemplating calling my wife to come get me and drive the rest of the way home. I walked in the door and she immediately recognized my pathetic demeanor and stayed out of the way while I got some aspirin and Dayquil and headed to bed.

Massive doses of Tylenol and Dayquil later, and a mostly restless night of sleep behind me, I don’t feel as bad today as I thought I would. Hopefully a good night of sleep tonight will leave me feeling much better by morning.

Did I mention? . . . I hate being sick!!

In a hurry? Try the 'jumping' button!

I got a call today that no parent likes to get - the school calling to let me know my son is sick and needs to be picked up. While this is nothing new to being a parent, in our case it becomes a little hard because any time after 10 am it takes a solid hour or more to drive to the school, and even longer to get back. This is mostly caused by massively overcrowded roads combined with lots of road construction along the way, making for very slow going.

As we got going down the road and began hitting some of the heavy spots of traffic, my daughter began her coaching of my driving skills. The conversation went something like this:

Her - “Daddy, you should use the jumping button.”
Me – “The what?”
Her – “The jumping button, so you can just JUMP over all the cars.”
Me – “Our car did not come with that option honey. Sorry.”
Her – “That’s ok, daddy. (pause for a few seconds) . . . . Then you should try the bouncing button.”
Me – “The what?”
Her – “You know, the bouncing button, so you can just bounce on top of all the cars, trucks, autos, and buses. But you can’t bounce on the scooters and bikes and motorcycles. They would get hurt if we bounced on them.”
Me – “Our car did not come with that option either, honey. Sorry.”
Her – “That’s ok, daddy. So, I guess we have to just sit here and wait our turn.”
Me – “Yes, unfortunately we do.”

Thankfully we made it to the school in record time – 48 minutes from here to the school, inside to get the boy and back out to the car. Not bad me thinks.

But just remember, next time you are in a hurry and find yourself stuck in a traffic jam, try using the jumping button or the bouncing button – if you have one. If only it were that easy sometimes.