Monthly Archives: December 1991

Where’s Ted?

Posted on by
Reply

Yesterday we went on a train trip with Mom, Dad, Ted, Bob, Carol, Ted & Eric. It was fun, but I’m not sure it was worth $10 a piece, N&D $10, & E Free ($90.) Note: Make sure your window isn’t fogged before you grab a seat.

Santa came throught the train and gave candy bars to all the kids. So that was worth about $3. Carollers came through the train and sang a couple of songs. That was probably worth $3, too. That leaves $84 to account for. Ted thought it was a neat thing to do. I think all of us going to see Star Trek VI would have been neat.

That night we had our Christmas eve dinner at Carol & Bob’s since they are driving to Cinncinati on Christmas Eve. The highlight of the evening was Ted’s gift to Carol, a pop up book called “Where’s Ted?” Carol read it to the whole family (Denise, Grant’s girlfriend was also there) and cracked everyone up. Ted cracked up the most. Ted had pasted a picture of himself eating a racquetball in the place where the little girl finally finds Ted (her teddy bear.)

Bob filmed everything with his new Sony video camera. So if you want to see all of this, it is available in the Etensohn video library.

Devilishly Quick

Posted on by
Reply

1991-12-22-touch-football.pngDad, Ted, Grant and I played the annual touch football game. After a humiliating and painful loss last year (Ted and me), we decided to change up teams. The long-winning Ted & Jeb team had been brought down by Grant’s growing up and becoming a devilishly quick football/ultimate player.

So this year, Grant and I stood Dad and Ted. This was decided based on Ted’s boast, “I’m better than Jeb, so we should put the worst with Grant.” Playing to 6, Grant and I quickly went to 5 to 1. It took a bit of doing, but we finally put them away 6 to 2. I scored 3 and Grant scored 3. I had a good year this year in both passing and receiving.

Dad came up with a plan that he shared with me and Ted. Next time we play, we’ll play 3 rounds with one person playing each round with Grant. Whoever plays with Grant will intentionally play terribly. That way Grant will lose each time, and we can determine that Grant is the worst player.

Danny came along with us while Nicole stayed home with Mom. He rode his bike around the park parking lot, cheered his Dad on, threw rocks at the fence, and played in the dirt. He had a good time.

I tried stretching before we played this year. I hope that will help. Last year I could hardly walk for 3 or 4 days.

A Good Shot, Otherwise

Posted on by
Reply

Yesterday Bennett and Alice invited us all over for pizza. I’m glad they did that, because I had wasted much of the day away sleeping late and then dozing off in the living room.

Bennett made a huge pizza with pan-fryed sausage and roma tomatoes that had less juice than regular tomatoes. Much of the evening was spent discussing pregnancy and birth since Alice just found out that she is pregnant. She told Bennett that I would hassle her because she had so adamantly professed “no more children” to me in the past. But I did no such thing. Didn’t have to.

Nicole, Tayler, Danny and Robert ran circles around us having a great time. They were still running when we left at 10:30. For the adults, it was like having a picnic on the beach. After a few minutes, you quit noticing the crashing sounds of the waves.

Bennett got a new rifle. Some kind of reproduction of an old west single shooter. Shoots the biggest bullets he has. He confessed that was one reason he got it.

As Kathy pet one of the two cats, Jack, Bennett told us about shooting a vicious bully neighbor cat. As it came to attack Jack or Jill, Bennett carefully aimed his pellet gun with the intent to “take the cat out.” The pellet hit the cat in the cheek bone. The owner later told how he discovered a metal glint in the cat’s face and dug out a pellet. “Someone shot my cat,” the neighbor told Bennett. Bennett just shook his head, regretting he hadn’t used live amo. It was a good shot, otherwise.

***

Mom, Bob, and Bennett want me to go to the doctor about my eyes. I haven’t had a problem since Friday afternoon. Alice told the most convincing story, however, about a woman who was dizzy, and didn’t experience it again until a year later when doctors found a massive tumor in her brain. Yuck.

To the Attention of Robert Beres

Posted on by
Reply

Greetings friend, oh long lost friend! Hail and howdy! Thank you oh most generous one for the Christmas book from the Land o’ Bloom. I was verily stricken when I learned of the demise of Bloom. Here had been created the most perfect place for characters in search of a cartoonist. I feel that Berke Breathed had a moral obligation to sustain the Land o’ Bloom. Just as I am obligated to nurture Nicole and Danny through life, so Breathed is so obliged. He should be jailed for cartoon strip abandonment.

But the children do not know of my loss. So I will bury my pain deep in my chest, and read them this Christmas story, much to their delight. They will not miss the ducks that sat on Gramps head. “Ack!” will not ring in their ears. They will not yearn for the innocence of Milo’s Meadow- a Walden’s Pond hidden in the funnies.

We haven’t read the book yet. We read slow. About 30 minutes is all they can take before bed time. And I only work in 1 or 2 readings a week. We’ve been reading The Hobbit for the past 9 months. You see, little kids like to ask you lots of questions and interrupt your reading. Used to bug me. Then I read or heard somewhere that getting to the end of the book is not what is important. Hard thing to realize for a guy with an English Lit Major.

They also like to act out some of the better scenes. One of their great performances was when Bilbo (Danny) fought off a giant spider (Nicole), escaping from its web (Nicole’s jump rope.) Danny likes any scene where he can use his plastic sword.

The best scene was just about a week ago when Bilbo (Danny again) snuck down the secret tunnel to Smaug’s (Nicole’s) lair. A red light bulb provided the red glow as described emanating from Smaug.

Coming to you, by the way, on a Macintosh PowerBook 100. This little lap top is a full-blown Mac in a small package. Great machine! Watching candid camera here at 11:30 pm, and I need to head off to bed. No bed time stories tonight.

Spotty Vision

Posted on by
Reply

An annoying thing happened on Friday the 13th.

I went up to Commerce in the morning to visit with Resource One about a business partnership. I had half a cup of coffee with Coffee-Mate. Stopped by home on the way back to have lunch with Danny and Kathy. I fixed Danny and myself some sandwhiches. One of mine was peanut butter and orange marmalade.

About 1:30 at work, I sat down to do some work on the computer, and I realized I coudn’t see the screen very well. It was like I had stared at a lightbulb, so anything directly in front of me was spotty. I tried blinking my eyes and shutting them. I could almost make out the bright light with my eyes closed.

Sid came in to talk about a project. I told him I couldn’t see very well, but that I could talk to him. Then Eric came in to ask about an invoice. I had to scan it a couple of times to make out what it was. Only parts of the invoice were in focus.

After about 10 minutes, it cleared up. Then I noticed that I didn’t feel very well. I had a slight headache and felt a bit woozy. Jerone told me to go on home. I got progressively better, though, and didn’t leave any earlier than normal.

My first thought was I had stared at a computer screen wrong. Then I thought I might have been poisoned. Bad coffee-mate and orange marmalade are the leading suspects. Then I thought that it might be some kind of virus.

The only other thing I know of that messes with your optic nerves is a tumor. Would it affect both eyes?

[Update: Probable ocular migraine.]

Dear Jim and Andrea

Posted on by
Reply

12/11/91

Dear Jim and Andrea,

Thanks for the first day of issue postcard, Jim. I wonder how it gets decided that Notre Dame gets to be on a postcard vs. getting a stamp. A stamp is better because it can be put on a postcard or a letter or even a package. In fact it could even go on a coke can like the one I mailed my brother Ted when I was at Notre Dame, just to see if it would work. Ted still has the bent can and the small letter I rolled up and tucked inside.

Notre Dame Notre Dame… you are always on my mind. Kind of like whatever is always on Willie Nelson’s mind… which reminds me of Father Dave, our Father Dave, who art in Indiana (or was.)

The Macintosh has become an integral part of my family. Most of what I have to do at work depends on the things I know that a Macintosh can do. Kathy writes her papers on a Mac. She also puts out the best elementary school newsletter in Atlanta on it. Danny creates amazing drawings with a Mac. Nicole plays games and occasionally makes entries in the family diary (which is on the Mac.) I have two in my office. I have two at home. And now, since last week, I have one on my lap. It’s called a Macintosh PowerBook. Smaller than a calculus book. In fact it is 1:00 am, I can’t sleep, and I’m sitting in a rocking chair using a PowerBook to type a letter to two of the greatest American’s on earth, James and Andrea ColvinFriend.

There’s a freedom here. I couldn’t do this before, because I would have to turn on a Macintosh in either our bedroom or the kids’ bedroom. Now I am free to stay up all night typing. Hmmm… Free at last. Free at last.

I mention the Macs, Andrea, because for the past month or so I’ve been getting the following reminder every time I turn on our home Mac: “Little Colvin Due.” A reminder calendar opens whenever we start our Mac, and Little Colvin is set on December 15. So I’ve got my whole family rooting for your whole family.

I’m looking forward to you two having kids. I think it will force you to settle down a bit. No more of this traveling all over the world to show people artificial body parts, or rehabilitating old body parts. Time to start getting together with the likes of Kathy and me for a round of bridge. I don’t know how to play bridge, but Jim being a civil engineer and all…

Speaking of civil engineers, my brother Ted is working for the GA DOT building massive roads and bridges. He is in a training phase right now. Most of his life revolves around concrete. Testing, calculating, and pouring. Cashin Family project #1 is to get Grant a diploma by next spring. Project #2 is to get Ted a girl. My sister Carol is coming up on her first year anniversary as a mother. This date coincides with the first birthday of my godson, Eric Ettensohn, son of Bob Ettensohn of Cincinnati, Ohio.

What goes around, comes around. Especially with Ohio which goes around on both ends.

I’ve had at least two striking dreams this year in which I’ve moved in and begun a new semester at Notre Dame. Maybe it’s one of those return-to-the-womb things. (Don’t you like how themes can be fused: Notre Dame, pregnancy, Ohio, Willie Nelson, etc.) In many ways Notre Dame was a womb. Not a lot of room, but safe, warm, and comfortable. Didn’t have to worry about food. Staying clean and laundry were easy. We were nurtured by “Our Mother”, Notre Dame. Instead of bodies, our minds grew. Those we were closest to are now very much our brothers and sisters. And upon birth, we all got a special diaper called a diploma.

And of diapers, at the age of 4, Danny’s single greatest life accomplishment has been learning to go to the bathroom. Learning to ride a bicycle has been only a distant second. Thought I would share that with you, Andrea. Make sure you share it with Jim.

In 9 years, Nicole will be going to college. Tuition is increasing at 7% per year. She’ll start in the year 2001. Notre Dame will cost at least $35,000 per year. I put it on a spreadsheet. It’s scary. May explain my desires to return to the womb.

Jim, when we started Notre Dame, did any of us have a 39 year old father?

No wonder I can’t sleep.

Recessionly yours,

Jeb