Three Days and counting!

Hunters Hospital Visit

This past Friday evening Hunter and I had the pleasure of a late night (early morning) visit to the emergency room.

He had been running a fever off and on for a couple days and periodically it would spike into the 'oh crap' zone but the lovely and competent Kris and I had been able to moderate it with childrens Motrin.

Kris had had a girls-night-out and I had put the boys down and was sleeping soundly when I heard him plaintively calling from his room. Paaaapaaaaaa. So I stumbled my way down, felt his head and face and satisfied that he was not feverish, I rubbed his back till he fell asleep.

a little while later...

I heard him plaintively calling from his room. Paaaapaaaaaa. I stumbled my way down the hall again, felt his head and face and again sure that he was not feverish. I rubbed his back till he fell asleep.

a little while later...

I heard him plaintively calling from his room. Paaaapaaaaaa. I steep staggered my way down the hall again, felt his head and face verified for a third time that he was not feverish. I rubbed his back till he fell asleep.

I am not sure how many times this reoccurred but after one of them and just before the final I got him up and went ahead and gave him his Motrin dose, reasoning that if he was sleeping this fitfully he must be uncomfortable.

a little while later...

I heard him plaintively calling from his room. Paaaapaaaaaa. This time I thought I would let him cry a bit and, hopefully, conk out.

However, this time Kris heard him, she did her version of my 'stumble', 'check' and 'rub' but to her dismay, his fever had spiked and was now hovering around 104.7. In our house, that is go see the doctor time.

I pulled on my street legal clothes, bundled up the Hunter and off we went to see the fine folks at Doctors Hospital.

Thank God it was a quiet night. A nurse actually met me in the parking lot and asked if she could help. I explained what was going on and by the time I got inside the emergency room all I had to do was fill out a single form and zippppp we headed to the back for his wrist band (which was not well received) " offff Papaaa Oooofffffff!". Then the (really nice, laid back) emergency room doctor came by, took his vitals and eventually administered a good deal of children's Tylenol.

One Popsicle and a few more general hospital approved indignities, weathered with the usual aplomb of Hunter, and his fever was down and we were on our way back home.

love and Peace all,

Jer

December 2 2009

Yesterday was my 43 birthday.

It snowed here in Dallas and it was the first snow of the season.

My day was a good one. My friends Patrick and Jim and Daniel took me out to lunch.

They burned my tater tots.

Work was work.

I wrapped up at five-oh-three and took the elevator to the ground floor.

It's gotten cold in Dallas and on the way to my garage I wore my hat and gloves.

When I got home, the kitchen was warm and smelled heavenly.

Kris had put up birthday decorations and cooked a delicious Italian dinner.

The pita chips in hummus was an awesome touch.

I had a glass of dry red wine with dinner.

The boys were loud and I think Kris and I had the same thought on that.

'life was quieter before kids.'

My wife and I spent some time together after we put the boys to bed.

Wilder didn't get up once he was down.

That was nice.

Later Kris watched Top Chef and I played a little online Warhammer 40K with my friend Jeff.

He tells me I make a damn fine Space Marine.

Eventually, Kris and I went to bed.

My birthday.

Jer

A Proposal ... not modest.

Would I be considered 'radical' if I were to propose a couple of basic guidelines for modifying our political topography?

I wonder if it might be possible to make a change here or there in our approach and attitude toward the privilege of voting that could, if handled properly, increase the likelihood that the citizens of the constitutional republic of the United States of America might continue to elect political figures with more than two brain cells to rub together. I wonder if there could be some basic qualifiers we could put in place that might assist us in electing people who are not necessarily the most popular but who may be the most qualified and representative of our true needs.

Could we mandate an IQ test and a minumum IQ of, of say, 95? Alas, upon consideration I think not. That would effectively eliminate 45% of the population of the United States. They are citizens and despite that many of them are unable, unwilling or disinclined to actually understand the current political landscape, they should have a voice.

Perhaps we could require something more specific and useful. We could have a simple ten question quiz that covers the absolute basic concepts of governance, foreign and domestic policies, federal budgeting and current national priorities. A brief, bipartisan vetted pamphlet could be included with the open book quiz. The voter could skim the quiz, read the pamphlet, answer the questions and then move on and vote. This would, at least, insure that in the final analysis all voters in the US would have been, at least one time, exposed to the true platforms and actual relevant concepts necessary to cast a responsible vote for the president of the United States.

Never happen.

Too much work.

Too many individuals or special interest groups would call it socialist, or communist, of fascist or some other -ist that they don't actually understand the meaning of. There is too much benefit to be had (for the status quo) from an ignorant, uninformed, scared population of 'Consumers' or 'Taxpayers'.

I guess we just keep muddling along. I have to believe that for the most part we are all trying to do the best we can. That we are all, for the most part, decent people who want good things for ourselves and everyone else. That we are sane and have a good enough idea of what we are doing to not shoot off our collective foots.

/crosses fingers.

/and toes.

peace and love all,

Jer

Wilders Dream

So Wilder comes rolling out of his bed this morning all aglow with the details of his dream last night. To be clear, the Wilder-ism for a dream is 'sleep-story'.

Apparently, from what Kris and I could decipher, he and Lea (who often figures prominently in Wilders sleep-stories' along with Luke and Micah were embroiled in battle with a trio of antagonists.

There were aliens, who were apparently no match for Super Wilder. (This was how he referred to himself and yes, you could hear the capital letters when he said it.)

There were some Kubla-blochs (or something like that) which splattered goo when they were defeated.

Finally there were an assortment of birds who apparently began the battle as very pokey-in-the-back-ey but they must have been weak or ineffective because 'it didn't hurt.'

As far as I could make out, eventually Wilder and the gang won the birds over to their side because by the end of the dream the birds were helping out our intrepid 'good-guys', the birds had become' friends'.

According to the hero of the story, IT WAS AWESOME!

love and light all,

Jer