Dan Among Den

My father remains with one foot in the grave, though a phone call today made it clear that the remaining foot was slipping. No one knows when it’s going to happen, but it will be soon. I’m guessing one to two weeks.

Ironically, I’m actually scheduled to go visit them in another week or so. I have a business trip out to the California office, and I planned to stop off in Phoenix both coming and going. We’ll see what happens.

Work is… well, work. There are plenty of fires to deal with, and this time, I’m actually on one that’s at least somewhat my own fault. I didn’t do anything really wrong, but every now and then a project just hits a brick wall with no way forward and no way to have really seen it was going to happen. I guess it was just my turn. We’re in the process of finding the alternate path to achieve the same overall goals, and it’s looking good.

The twins continue to do pretty well, picking up more words at a decent clip. They’re still behind, but speech delay is common in twins since they learn to communicate with each other very well without words, or perhaps, with their own words. Tommy, in particular, is doing quite well. You may recall that he was hospitalized just before Christmas for low weight, vomiting, and dehydration. He has now doubled his hospital weight and now weighs more than Catherine.

Some of you know that our eldest son, Sam, has had extreme speech delay. The jury is still out on whether or not he’s technically autistic or just “within the autism spectrum”. The neurologist has just ordered up a new battery of tests. In the meantime, we got a new nanny, and Sam is responding very well to her. He’s also started with a few more words. In the spring, all he had was “noooooo” and “NO DON’T!” along with an approximation of “dada”. (Hmmm, put in that context, I must sound like a terrible father. “No, dada, don’t!” “Well, your honor, what happened was…”) But lately, he’s started counting and even making an approximation of “E-I-E-I-O” in the Old McDonald song. The counting gets a pretty rough after “four”, but the “ten” is fairly clear and at the right place in the sequence, so I can only assume that the other mumbles are valid attempts at five through nine, just poorly enunciated. Of course, we’re very excited about this, but attempts to get him on tape have proven difficult.

Personally, I’ve continued my render work over the summer. Partly I’m enjoying, and partly it’s just taking my mind off of my dad. Recently, I also bought an airbrush setup and some really good bodypaint – Hollywood effects quality stuff, so very good, very safe, and annoyingly expensive. I’ve always liked to see bodypainting, so I’m going to see if I can do it. I’m going to practice some on my legs, but if MAW’s skin can handle it, I’ll be pining away to paint her. “Ok, I’ll take out the trash, mop the floors, dust the ceiling fans, clean the toilets, and fold the laundry. Then will you let me paint you?” If any of you are interesting in being vandalized by me, let me know. I’m just hoping to get in enough practice before Orfunner (Labor Day). If various schedules (work and funerals) let me go there, I should get the chance to embarrass myself with strangers.

I had a good time playing pool one night last week. In California, my boss and coworkers usually go out for an evening of pool, and I usually suck big-time. I don’t mean “oops, you didn’t nudge the four ball hard enough” sucking, but “wow, you managed to miss nine balls and then scratch” sucking. Since we tend to play in teams of two (more conversation around the table that way), I feel bad about it. So, after the last time, I decided I’d get in a little “off-season” practice back home. This time, elements of the game finally clicked. While I’m still light-years from trick shots or a strong break, I can now usually hit the ball I wanted, and I understand when you want the cue ball to hit hard, and when you want it to hit softly. I used to think it was all just the angle – right? Now I know better. I also ran into a trio who were looking for a fourth to round out their table, and I managed to play two or three games with them fairly respectfully. They then invited me to a “divorce party” which kept me out until about 1am. But that’s another story.

A nice thing that happened recently is that MAW and I finally finished watching the Babylon 5 series DVD’s. In the original airings, she dropped out either late in season 4 or early season 5 – probably because of how much I was obsessing over it – and never saw the end. So seven years went by with me holding my tongue on the spoilers. Seven years of listening to her make an off-hand comment about something in the B5 universe and NOT saying, “Actually, it turns out that G’Kar…” or “No, what actually happened with Londo was…” Don't even get me started about Sheridan. Instead, I would just pause, take a deep breath, and tell her, “You should really see the rest of season 5.” Now we’re done, and I can finally relax. Of course, she still has to finish reading the Psi-Corps and Centauri trilogies before I’m completely off the hook, but I think that will go fairly quickly. Oh, and yes, we are both total nerds, thankyouverymuch.

I’m still working on that webcomic idea some, but I guess I’m still fine tuning my skills with the rendering tools before I try something that will require me to be able to grind them out. So, I’d say, “see you in the funny papers”, but not quite yet.