Rainy gray this morning when I saw the inside of the
gym for the first time in weeks! Ran a mile and my foot
pain was tolerable. The sauna felt fine, and all three
treadmills are operational again!
Phone calls with family. Background - the four
brothers (including me, #2) had made sketchy plans
to rent a beach house this summer, with other family
members invited to come too. But my older brother H
announced at Christmas he's made other plans, and
now his summer's full - can't go, let's do it next
year. (Making any plans for next year seems dubious
to me. <1>)
Foreground - my brother J recently
sent my parents this huge email of
complaint with a plea for more communication,
and me Dad just answered it with his own reactive
apologies and explanations. I called him up and we
talked of lighter issues only. I could tell
he was expecting something related out of me, but
I was merely sounding out his summer travel schedule
and otherwise talking about trees.
<2>
Next phone call, later in the afternoon, with
my younger brothers and their wives - they put me
on the speakerphone down in his Richmond rec-room.
They are gung-ho for the beach plan without
H (maybe he'll find a way to show up anyway, and they're
hoping niece R can show up anyway). Discussion of
how I should word the announcement. Then J opened
his present from me (a gift-pack of
Trader Joe's
one-pound nut-pouches), for tomorrow is
his birthday; hence their get-together
at his house. Tomorrow J can expect a
birthday call from our parents, the
first time he'll have actually spoken
with them since this email exchange.
And so it goes in my family.
The end of this cycle has arrived. Hard to believe I
won't be writing like this tomorrow. In fact, I don't
think I'll be able to restrain this odd compulsion to
post I developed a year ago. I may even be planning a
slick new layout for a similar project, one with less
quotes and gossip, and more visuals. It won't be this
daily accounting, however, and it won't live here - good-bye, GeoCities!
Thanks everybody for the compliments - now you know
What I Do!
Email me for the new URL.