Stayed home from work with a bad cold and Danny. Learned the maxim: “Black holes have no hair” in Stephen Hawking’s A Brief History of Time. Ted let me borrow it.

As Nicole came to tell me good night, I told her not to kiss me because I was sick. “I’m going to hug you good night,” she said, giving me a germ-free hug.

And this made her think.

“Dad, if you’re sick, and a well person drinks from a cup, then you drink from that cup, will you get better?”

“I’m afraid not. You can get germs from a sick person’s cup, but you can’t get cured from a well person’s cup.”

She was a little disappointed, because it seemed like a good idea.

And of course, it was a terrific idea. In fact, as she sleeps in the other room, I wish I had said, “Let’s try it and see!” I think she would have enjoyed curing her Dad.

She’s thinking a lot. Good sign. The other day she asked me if I had ever flown in a spaceship. How could I resist letting her down. “Sure,” I said. (“In books,” I didn’t say.)

“Wow! What kind?” she asked.

“I’ve been in several, but my favorite was the Millineum Falcon.”

“Have you been on planets?”

“Some,” I said. I had just taught her the song, My Very Educated Mother Just Served Us Nine Pizza Pies (Swanee River), to help remember the order of the planets. She had been to Fernbank and learned about some of the planets. That’s where I learned the song.

So she went through the list asking had I been on each planet and what was it like. Kathy was grinning in the corner of the dining room. Nicole’ eyes just got bigger and bigger. She even acknowledged that Pluto would be too cold to go to.

“I wish I could go to other planets,” she said.

“You can. Do you know what you have to do?”

“Oh yes, you have to spin around in one of those big spinning things. Right?”

“Well, astronauts do that. But all you really have to do is read. That’s how I went to the other planets. I read about them in stories and books.”

She didn’t seem as disappointed as I thought she would. Instead, she just asked more questions.

Maybe you can get better drinking out of a well person’s cup.