Tales from the Steppes

2005-09-06

5:12 p.m.
Tuesday, September 6

I think my update is mostly a non-update. Slowly treading water. With no music.

• My father is still sick - no improvement and no diagnosis. Even though he is eating, he continues to lose weight. He goes back to the doctors tomorrow and perhaps they will have a blood test back that gives them more information.


• My mother continues to act like my father is dying. She sends out melodramatic emails, alluding to his pending death. I do admit that when it appeared that he had pancreatic cancer, death seemed likely but right now it just seems premature and counterproductive. My brother dared to say something about the doom and gloom and she did not speak to him for 2 weeks for his pains.


• My sister is visiting from Belgium this week. Partly it is to see my father. Partly it is to be trained so she can go someplace nasty and hot. Now my brother carries a gun at all times and I am ok with that. But the thought of my sister with a gun is just plain scary. She is not exactly "mechanically gifted".


• I have made no progress on subtly influencing the SU into seeing his cousin, who really really is dying. I sent flowers to brighten her room and have suggested movement but no luck so far.


• The stress associated with my job still grows. I had an engineer so upset with me (because I would not sign off on something that was WRONG) that he had the lawyers both call my boss and show up in person on Thursday. Of course, when I was done explaining to the lawyer just why I was not signing off, he left with the understanding that it was the engineers that were incompetant. To brighten my mood even further, the same set of engineers wasted my Friday morning on a preconstruction meeting on another incorrect plan. They did not even bother to show up, leaving me to explain to the client just why they were having to be delayed for perhaps another month. The client was so pissed they gave me the name of the particular engineer's boss. I am sure we will have an interesting conversation.


• Yesterday we went to the Ren Faire, which was ok, I guess. The only major point of interest to it was that we bought the YM a doumbek. Ok, I bought the damn doumbek. It seems to give him quite a lot of joy. And he really doesn't suck on it - I've heard worse at Pennsic. He carried it around for most of the day and gave an impromptu concert while waiting on the other mongols. He got up early this morning so he could play it. (I wonder if that is why the MM woke up in such a bad mood.) He took it to school, as today was his show and tell day. We had a talk about no doumbeks on the bus and he seemed to agree. I did not get a call from either the principal or his teacher so I am assuming he put it away when directed. I am sure the MM will tell on him if he did something unspeakable.


• I have actually gotten hooked on a tv show. This is very rare - I have never even seen a single episode of "The West Wing" or most other popular shows. I like "Battlestar Galactica" but I have missed so much already that it is hard to catch up. But HBO's "Rome" - now that is an excellent production! I am sure there are inaccuracies aplenty but I find myself more entertained by this show than anything else I have seen for years. Normally, I am at least reading a book, if not also eating dinner, or exercising but for this show, I dropped it all and watched. Wow.