Friday night we all went over to Mom and Dad’s to visit with visiting Patsy and Debbie. Shane couldn’t make it because of his medical duties in the army.

“I guess the war affects him even back here.”

“Yes,” Debbie said. “He gets to take off earlier because his boss is in Saudi Arabia.”

Was it a war? Or merely a crisis? Or an operation? Only historians will tell what label will last.

Nicole got a fun stationery and sticker set from Patsy. She used them to create a lovely birthday card for her Uncle Chris, who didn’t turn 19 this year because of the absence of his February 29th birth date. She drew a hollow lettered birthday greeting. I didn’t discover hollow letters until 5th grade. She included a remarkable forgery of my and Kathy’s names. I guess she’ll soon be writing herself excuses to get out of school.

“Dear Mrs. Lindsay, Pleas let our doghter out of school erly today at 1:00 to go to the moovies. – Jeb & Kathy Cashin.”

Danny has been whining morning, noon and night. In between he’s a pretty good kid. Dad brought out the official Whiny Willy belt. He took a cloth belt and stuck straight pins through it. Danny was impressed.

We had 3 couples look at the house this weekend. Kathy thinks we will be selling the house pretty soon thanks to Sharon Apple Bomb.

Friday night the four of us went over to Bob and Carol’s to see Eric. Eric was sleeping in his billiruben lights wrap. I wish Danny could have used one of those instead of having to be put in the tanning incubator at the hospital.

When Eric’s skin turns from yellowish to pink, he’s done. He is a much quieter baby than my memories of Danny.

Saturday morning we all cleaned up the house in anticipation of potential buyers. The couple didn’t show. House looks nice, though.

Saturday afternoon we went to the new park to meet Nancy and Ted. We ran a bit late and ran into them as they were leaving. Brittany was tired and Shawn was crying. Nancy and Ted didn’t seem to enjoy the new park.

At a sunny 65 degrees, it was hard for us not to have fun. We ran into Becky Amacker’s boyfriend, Monte. I had seen him going down the slide earlier, but not recognized him. He recognized me and kept saying to himself, “I know that guy.” Kathy was pushing Danny on the swings as Monte was pushing his girl, Betsy. She thought it was funny that Monte kept saying this over and over. She didn’t know who he recognized until she recognized his voice.

So we all had a laugh. Monte tried to sell us a coupon booklet so we tried to sell him some girl scout cookies.

Later that night two of us enjoyed watching Hunt for Red October while two more of us fell asleep in their sleeping bags.

Today Ted climbed up on top of Mom and Dad’s 3-story roof to help feed a hose down a clogged down spout. He climbed barefoot because he left his sneakers in Richard’s car.

Dad and I worked the clog from the bottom. Our tools included a snake, several hoses, a coat hanger, a gutter nail, several sticks, and our bleeding hands.

Eventually the clog gave way, and three stories of water almost washed Dad away by surprise.

Interviewed with Sales Technologies, a Dun & Bradstreet Company, today. Sound like an interesting position. Just remains to see if I’m an interesting filler.

Parked in the underground garage of the Lenox Office Building. Turned on my lights as I left. Forgot I had them on as I parked in the sun at Harland. The Fox was completely dead when I left work late at 7 pm. Kathy and the kids came to the rescue with Mom’s jumper cables. We all had a very late dinner.

First chance I get, I’m going to buy one of those buzzers that lets you know you left your lights on.

***

Yesterday, as Kathy worked and I lay on the couch absorbing all the Sunday morning news shows, Danny did his best to make a rabbit come out of his hat. He propped his magic book on my stomach as he attempted to follow the “directions” (3 instructionless drawings showing a boy pulling a rabbit out of a top hat.) He tried and tried to pull a rabbit out of his baseball cap. He would vigorously stir his magic wand (a Marriott ball point pen) inside the cap saying “Abra Cadabra!”

No rabbit.

After a bit, he went away and came back with two more magic wands. He tried waving three wands at once. “Abra Cadabra!”

No rabbit.

Then he went away for a while and came back with several pennies. He put those in his cap and waved his magic wands. “Abra Cadabra!”

I started scanning the book to see if there were instructions on pulling a rabbit out of a hat. There were none. The cover page of the book, showing a rabbit coming out of the hat, was misleading. Danny was learning a valuable lesson: You can’t judge a magic book by its cover.

***

Later that night, I called Kathy Hildebrand to make my contribution to the tape she is sending over to my MBA classmate, Major Brian Zahn. He has 1000 men under him. Artillery. Right on the front line. His two biggest concerns, he told Connie, are 1: Making the right decisions when so many lives are at stake, and 2: How will being in a war change him.

I babbled some things I had been thinking about all day. Kathy said David Nelson was on right before me and that he babbled. So I don’t feel so bad. Hope it helps Brian in some small way.