Girls-Only Camp

Last week it was the boy's turn to be out on tour; this week, the girls head to Girls-Only Camp.

Cheryl and I drove them down to the camp after dinner, listening to Harry Potter on CD all the way down, which made the miles pass by very quickly. The girls needed the distraction. They have been excited about going to camp for weeks now, looking forward to doing all the fun things they get to do at camp (swimming, sliding, playing, hiking, buying junk food at the Canteen), seeing all the counselors they remember from last year, and, most importantly, having lots of fun without any boys around.They were ready to dump the parents the minute we drove into the place, although they were kind enough not to urge us to hurry up and leave. We first took them up to their cabin so they could drop off their things, then let them play while we stood in line waiting for Registration to begin. They finally rejoined us a few minutes before we entered the building to get all the paperwork turned in, and then as soon as all that business was taken care of, they were off and running to see what kind of mischief they could get into before the official start of activities.


I did manage to corral them for a moment to get a couple pictures. These are just some shots of them standing in front of the camp building, looking all happy to be there.And they were, indeed, very happy to be there, and happier still when the Parental Units got into the van and drove away in cloud of dust and a hearty, "Hi, ho, Homeward!". No doubt they forgot all about us the moment the van was out of sight, thoroughly engrossed in making new friends and seeing how much fun they could have before the Counselors called them in for the Orientation meeting.Now we will spend the next few days in a silent house, where the only noise is an occasional tapping of keys as the boys work on their summer assignments or take breaks with video games, or the sound of a piano as Adam practices something classical, or the sound of a guitar as James tries to figure out the tablature of his latest favorite rock song.

Or the sound of sighing, as Dad realizes yet again that his little children are growing up far too quickly.

Rob's Brain

The medical report finally came through; the doctors have figured out what is causing all my headaches. The enhanced MRI shows it all, all the twists and curves and misaligned synapses which transform normal thought into random gibberish.As you can see, the nerves are dotted with yellow mineral deposits; these are concentrations of sulphur ions which interrupt the normal synaptic flow, causing fluctuations in memory retrieval, difficulty in recalling names, symptomatic of senility. The twists and curves alter the normal path of the nerve impulses, causing delays and short-circuits. This explains my inability to complete a normal conversation without losing my train of thought and sputtering something pointless about the weather (my only safe conversational point).

Apparently this malady, called "Chihully Syndrome", causes intense pain due to its spring-like qualities; when under stress, the curved coil-like structures, normally compressed like springs under tension, expand against the inside of the skull and against the sinus cavity. The nerve impulses from these areas then feed back into the brain, causing additional recursive expansion; this cycle repeats endlessly until either the subject's head explodes, or the sinus cavity is reduced to its minimum size (about the size of a pea). Relief is only obtained by performing a complete brainectomy, which involves extraction of all brain tissue through the nasal cavity using a tool called a 'spoon'.

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Just kidding.

Actually, it's a close-up photo of the following glass sculpture by Dale Chihully, which is currently set up for display at the Meijer Gardens here in Grand Rapids.Cheryl took Mary over there on Thursday while Deb was at her baby-sitting class. They had lots of cool glass sculptures, many of them floating in the lake.That one looks kinda funky. Like a big, spiky puffball.

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But that first picture reminded me of one I'd seen somewhere of the inside of someone's brain (post-autopsy) after they'd been complaining for years of headaches. Their brain cells were like tightly-curved springs instead of the undulating curves of a normal brain, and totally unlike the brains of Altzeimer's patients. It was like their cells had gone crazy, continually growing in tight spirals, which apparently resulted in cross-circuit epileptic 'storms' and caused intense pain. These storms didn't result in spasmodic impulses to the musculo-skeletal system, which is what often happens in a traditional epileptic seizure; instead, since the circuits were interconnected to each other, the impulses fed back into themselves in a positive-feedback cycle until they reached some maximum level, at which point the only recourse for the patient was to take massive doses of narcotics and pass out. Then the patient had to be very careful to not think too much (!) or become mentally stressed, or the symptoms would re-appear.

Reminded me a bit of today. We did our usual bit at church, then went down to attend an Open House for a girl who had just graduated High School. My headache had been getting gradually worse as the day went on, not really that bad compared to the past three or four days, but by the time we got back home around 4 or 5, it had gotten bad enough that I had to lie down for awhile. And I slept hard. For the first hour or so after getting up, my brain felt like it was still non-functional, unable to focus. But then I was able to watch Harry Potter and play a game of Heroscape with Adam, so it apparently was almost back to normal.

But now that it is getting late again, my brain is tired and ready for more sleep.

And you know what? Even though I've had a pretty good nap, it'll take me all of three minutes to fall alseep. And then I'll sleep so hard that nothing, not even a summer thunderstorm, will wake me up.

And I'll be up bright and early at 6 am to let the cat out and get the coffee going.

South Bending Again

We travelled down to South Bend today to visit with Mrs. Rice and her delightful daughter, Alice Altizer. That's two visits to South Bend in two weeks!

We didn't stay very long, for we had to go up to camp and pick up Adam, but we had a nice visit and enjoyed the conversation. And we're thankful that Mrs. Rice will soon be up on her feet again!

Waiting for the Boys to Come Home

I really should be heading off to work now, but it's been a week since the last post and there's a feeling in my head that too many days have passed since something was written here. So many thoughts have been going through my mind, most of them not really worthy of wasting time on, but since this is supposed to be a place to put thoughts, I don't want to leave the impression that I have no thoughts at all.

Although you may already be convinced of that.

It's been a struggle to think straight these last few days. My head has been aching incessantly, and it continues regardless of the medicines taken. Surely some of it is due to renewed stress at work as we are struggling to meet another virtual deadline; yet there is also the environmental issues of late spring, early summer, blooming plants, changing air pressure, and the ever-present cat hair.

Speaking of cats - Alfred did not enjoy his little cataquarium; in fact, he hasn't gone into it at all. One can only assume that the smell of the plexiglass is offensive to him. It certainly was overpowering right after the protective sheets were removed, so it wasn't a complete surprise. The catnip wasn't enough to mask the odor.

Meanwhile, we found another solution, although it can't be a permanent one. He now spends the night shut up in the downstairs bathroom (next to the laundry). He has access to his food and water and the litter box, and so far, he has been good about using the box instead of the floor. I have no idea why this was such a difficult concept for him when he had access to the garage. But it is a relief to know that there will no longer be any problem keeping my garage floor clean.

Of course, there's the added task of cleaning up the bathroom floor every morning. Obviously, the litter box can't be left in there all day, and the floor has to be swept up, and the food put back in the kitchen. We found years ago that we can't leave his litter box out where Erin can find it, because once she uses it (and she will if it's available!), he won't touch it any more. Something about male/female marking issues or something. So first thing in the morning, his litter box goes back to the garage, and he gets put outside (after a spot of breakfast) so he can mark territory to his heart's content without destroying the house.

As I said, it's not a permanent solution. When winter arrives, he won't be going outside as much, and then we'll have to figure out a way for him to do his thing without doing it all over the house; but I'm hoping by then the noxious fumes from the plexiglass will have dissipated, and he'll be comfortable going into the cataquarium. Perhaps I'll replace the plexiglass with wooden dowels like a play-pen. But they'll have to be set very close together so that he can't squeeze through them.

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We're having a big push at work over the next two weekends to get all our pre-testing done before the formal testing begins. Naturally, we had plans this weekend. James gets back from his East Coast trip this morning at ten; Adam finishes up his week at camp down in Niles around 4; and we are going down to South Bend to visit friends. Or were. Now it looks as though Cheryl and the kids will be travelling while I'm working.

The bosses promised pizza at the office for those who work the weekend, but that's never sufficient compensation for losing out on family time. And I've lost my taste for pizza lately. Along with many other things.

Having adopted my "don't eat unless hungry" diet, I've dropped nearly ten pounds and am feeling much better energy-wise, at least during the day. And my clothes fit a bit more comfortably. But my appetite has really dropped. This is due to a little switch in my head labelled "FOOD" that is either On or Off, with nothing in-between. I find myself being turned off by the thought of food, even snacky food. Sometimes it seems like there is a perverse pleasure involved with denying the body what it craves. And once that ball is rolling, it's hard to stop.

Especially when married to someone who is such a good cook.

Still, there are a few pounds to go before my target weight is achieved. It would be nice to get rid of the 'spare tire', too, but that doesn't seem to be receding even though the weight is dropping. Probably due to the fact that the first ten or twenty pounds is not externally visible, and scattered throughout the body.

Well, now, must be off to work.

Flood O' Fun

I had a lot of plans for Saturday, starting with the wiring down in the basement mechanical room. Then there was the insulation in the basement bathroom, some organizing out in the garage, a solution to the cat-poop problem, cleaning the lime from the shower doors, and maybe even some time to run down to the Secretary of State office to sell a car.

But it was not to be.

I had been up for about an hour, preparing the morning coffee, setting the breakfast dishes, reviewing the morning Internet news, greeting the family as they woke up. Finally started the wiring job down in the basement. Pulled the step ladder in to the mechanical room and set it up right under the light where the work was to be done. Noticed that the floor around the sump looked a little darker than normal.Noticed that the reason the floor around the sump looked a little darker than normal was that the floor around the sump was wet.

And the sump was overflowing.

Obviously, there was a problem with the sump pump. Oddly enough, the sump pump has been on my mind these last few weeks as we've been hit with our spring rainy season. When the rains hit - and they tend to hit with a lot of water all at once - the sump pump gets a hard workout; coincidentally, the large volumes of water are typically accompanied by these other side-effects called 'wind' and 'lightning', which tend to play havoc with public utilities such as electricity. Unfortunately for us, our sump pump is powered by this self-same public utility, so when the utility is negatively affected by the wind and lightning, it is often also the case that our ground water table rises to the point where we need this public utility to prevent the flooding of our basement.

(It still makes no sense to me that houses in this part of the country are built with basements, when this part of the country is basically a waterlogged swampland; it's like begging to be flooded out every rainy season.)

There were big, fat, dark clouds covering the sky, threatening to rain again, so after showing James how to bail out the sump with a Tupperware bowl and a bucket, I hot-footed it over to the local Home Depot and grabbed another sump pump ($179!)and ran back home and installed it and turned it on and waited to see what would happen.

After about ten minutes, the level of water had sunk down to the first ring in the sump.Another ten minutes, and it had gone down quite a bit more, almost reaching the bottom of the sump.That water was really a-gurgling down there!
For the rest of the day, the pump ran lickity-split, and water spilled out of the yellow pipe (which is the main drain into the sump from the entire foundation) and the pump cycled on-off-on-off and neither one seemed to be getting an advantage over the other; but at least the floor looked like it was starting to dry up a bit.I'm hoping this pump lasts a bit longer than the last one. Our first went out after only six months; the one that just died lasted only five years. But I must admit, it surprises me that any kind of motor can keep working like that while submerged under water for that long!

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Cataquarium

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Even though it isn't the most important item on the agenda for today, taking into consideration all the varied projects throughout this house, it was the most important to me, since I'm annoyed past the point of reason by the cat's continuous disregard for the sanctity (and hygeine) of my garage. I've been complaining about it for years now, so it was time to try something different in my campaign to stop the cat from using the garage floor as his private litter box.

Presuming that part of his problem is due to his dislike of being in a confined (or seemingly confined) space, I modified the basic design of the Litter Box box (that is, a box enclosing the litter box, which allows the cat to go out into the garage but does not give him full access to the garage itself) so that it encases the litter box in a plexiglass cover. This gives the cat a full view of the garage, but does not allow him to actually set foot in it, other than the area set aside for his use.It remains to be seen whether this is successful or not. Should it be the case that he is still opposed to the idea of using the litter box in an enclosed space, I'll have to come up with something else. But that something else will not include allowing him to wander freely through my garage, dropping his waste products randomly throughout the area. I've had enough of that nonsense.

(Note that the children suggested it might be good to put some catnip within the box, as a way to soothe the cat's nerves when he detects his inability to go beyond the confines of The Box. It was quite helpful of them to suggest it, so this also is being tried.)

I Am In So Much Trouble

She's growing up so fast. They're all growing up so fast. Adam is just a couple years from going off to college, James is going to be a freshman, and the girls are ...

They're starting to look more like "Little Women" than little girls. Not sure if I'm ready for that. We were just looking at their baby pictures the other day, and I can still remember those days when I could hold three of them in my arms. Wasn't that just a few days ago? Oh, it was a few years ago. Back when there were still so many things to do, places to go, people to see, goals to accomplish.

It's true that Life just keeps getting faster. Does the Internet help? Or make it worse?

A Wonderful Birthday

Thanks to everyone who called, sent cards, sent Facebook messages, or even thought about me for a moment. We're all so busy and so connected, and there are so many distractions in our lives, it's just fantastic to know and have known so many wonderful people!

The day started out with one goal achieved: I stepped on the scale first thing in the morning, and realized I'd achieved my Phase 1 target weight. Not an extraordinary thing, really; it wasn't like I'd lost 40 pounds or something. But it meant that I'd been able to maintain a specific lifestyle of cutting out all the extraneous eating for a month. I have never been able to fit an exercise regimen into my daily routine, at least since high school, and I'm convinced that it won't happen until some other things change in my life; but I figured at least it wouldn't be too difficult to restrict the caloric intake as some kind of compensation.

The day was overshadowed by one of those all-day headaches which lurked at the top of my head and distracted me from getting anything done. It took me all day to realize that it wasn't allergy-related; those meds had no effect. It finally went away around six p.m. after taking some ibuprofen, which pointed towards a stress issue. Which doesn't surprise me. I started a new assignment on Monday, and there's always a bit of stress related to new things.

The family was waiting out in the front yard when I arrived home from work, but they weren't there to greet me so much as they were there to fulfill one of my birthday wishes: to get the garden weeded. It's been a bit neglected since Spring started, and there were lots of weeds. Two of the bushes had also been hit with some kind of white fungal blight, and they had to be trimmed back quite a ways.

After the kids had gone back inside, fully worked-out for the day, Cheryl and I stood outside and cut up the branches and put them into the leaf bags, and talked about Stuff. That was an awesome time, probably the best time all day.

James (and Cheryl) cooked up a nice spaghetti dinner, and then we had strawberry shortcake and whipped cream and dippin'dots and Girl Scout cookies, and opened cards and presents. Wonderful cards! (And there was even an electronic one from Joe and Betty!) Got a really nice (and hilarious) T-shirt from Dick and Jean, along with a very useful car tool, pictured below:

Then it was time for some Buster Keaton, which always amuses me; then Bible reading time, then getting-ready-for-bedtime.

And now I'm feeling much loved, and ready to face the rest of the week.

Thank you all!!

Piano Recital 2010

I know, I know, the recital was a million years ago. But I haven't had a chance to edit the footage until just today. And even that was dicey, since my familiarity with the Kino editor is not where it should be.

Here it is, though. First, Mary's performance. By herself, and with Cheryl.



And now Adam's performance. By himself, and with Cheryl.



Aren't they wonderful?

Capville & Field Day

It's that time of year again, time for the 6th graders to learn about owning and operating their own little business.

Yes, it's time for "CapVille".

The 6th graders look forward to this week all year long. For two days, they get to sit out in the hallways selling their wares or running their stands, while all the other grades wander up and down trading bottle caps for trinkets or face-paint or bookmarks or games of skill or games of chance.

Each CapVille student has to come up with a business plan and a marketing plan, and they have to keep records of sales and things like that. There is a lot of creativity involved, and everyone has a great time eating the candy that is passed out for prizes.

Deborah is not the type to do anything ordinary, so of course she picked something unusual for her shop. Instead of creating a little crafty toy or setting up a game, she made a movie. Two caps per view.

Since it was a little different than everyone else's, most of the kids were a little confused by the concept. They read the signs - "Fun 'N Fuzzy Studios" - above her shop and saw the laptop sitting on the desk, but many either just didn't get it, or weren't interested in sitting down for a minute to watch her creation. She was a mite disappointed. The teachers (and other adults) were the majority of her customers.

It bothered her a little bit that it wasn't as popular as she had hoped, but we had already talked to her about it, the uniqueness of her project, and how sometimes these things take a while to catch on, and she was stubborn enough to soldier on with it regardless. And she really believed in her project.

At this stage in her life, she doesn't take advice very well, and it probably won't get any better as she moves on into the teen years. Once she's got an idea in her head, she'll go with it, and most of the time it doesn't pay to try and change her mind about anything. We had tried to help her with some of the mechanics of the movie production, like putting in the titles and fades and things like that; but she didn't take kindly to any criticism of the movie itself. Like her stories, she's not as interested in what her readers (or viewers) think of the product as she is in the act of creating it.

Perhaps this summer we'll spend some time on that little issue.

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The elementary schools in the district had Field Day on Friday, and Mary was all dressed for the occasion in a t-shirt and hat and a nice set of running shorts. She ran the 400 meter relay as well as participating in some of the other team sports (tug-o-war, for one). She was pretty tired by the end of it all, but seemed to have had a great time.

Please note that she is NOT missing an arm; she just crossed one behind her. I didn't notice that til the picture was on the computer. Now I can't look at it without getting a shiver. But she still looks cute.

A Day at the Ball Park

Mary's class went on a field trip to the baseball park to watch the Whitecaps play. They lost. She was bored. But we still had a great time!

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The video of the recital is still not done yet. Since it contains two video streams from two different cameras, the Microsoft Movie Maker doesn't handle it, nor does the open-source Kino video editor; my favorite editor, ZweiStein, which does handle multiple streams, isn't working on the Ubuntu machine yet. Having a bit of an issue installing it.

It probably won't turn out anyway. The cameras were too far away to pick up the sound correctly, and there aren't any face-on shots, just the backs of the players. One of these days, they'll have a camera up on the stage pointed at their faces as they're hunched over the piano. Maybe. Until then, just be assured that the kids did well, and the refreshments were yummy!

Speaking of videos-in-work, it's June now and the 1989 reunion video isn't done yet. I was really hoping to have it completed by the time we head down to Bloomington in July, ready to distribute on DVD. But there's a time-crunch issue: too many other priorities, not enough time to be off by myself, working on the videos. Oh, well, maybe next year.