• Contradictions.

    All at once I’m overjoyed for my sister, yet down in the dumps over our own situation at home. So there you have it. I don’t know what to think about it either. Run and hide before the dark cloud of my mood spreads.

    Thank you.
    For Conner’s good health, for the friends we’ve made, for a wife who knows how to fix bad situations, and for a perceived ability to soothe her nerves (I could be wrong on that last one, but I like to think I help at least a little bit).

  • Things break.

    Sure things break, but do they have to break all at once? Here’s this week’s tally: Cheryl’s car (twice), our DVD player, the microwave oven, and my patience. Oh, I forgot to mention the rotting trim on the front porch. Cheryl’s car is not a surprise. I’ve regretted that purchase for 5 years now. The other things are relatively new, so they shouldn’t have broken. Appliances should last at least five years, in my humble opinion, but we’ve been lucky to get two. Oh well, things could be worse. They could be better too.

  • Trouble.

    Things with Beth have not been easy lately. Beth has been spending time with the school administration all too often, and I’m beginning to get a little worried. I’m not sure what we’re supposed to do about it, but I’m hoping that some of the folks that we’ve arranged to speak to in the near future will have some good advice.

    You hope that you are doing a good job raising your child, and then they behave below other people’s expectations. Perhaps some of it is normal; after all, no one is perfect (neither parents nor children nor their teachers). For a long time I took it all in stride, or as best I could. Lately though, I feel as if we’ve begun to slip down the slope towards failure. Surely it is not so final as that, but it’s sometimes hard to remember.