23:51 - 11.02.08
Pax
When I heard number five son's request on the phone this morning I had a moment of panic. He was asking for his health care card number. Last time that occurred was when he ended up minus his appendix. Remember? I calmed down momentarily, as I reminded myself one can only have one's appendix removed once in a lifetime. They don't grow back. But then the question of what would make it urgent now replaced the relief with worry again. As it turned out, his girlfriend forbade him to go to work before seeing her doctor with respect to the evil chest cough I could hear as we talked. I've mentioned before I really like this young woman. She makes my son very happy and keeps him toeing the line too. Respect in a healthy relationship is critical to its success - right?
Dug through my old paperwork until I found the correct son's information. Turned out that the doctor felt it was a viral infection, but he did take a throat swab to rule out a strep or staph infection. The lab promised to have the result in about 24 hours. The two of them stopped by around the supper hour to drop off kitty litter, so I had the opportunity to do my own quick check of his symptoms too. Mr Mel took one look at the bag of clean litter and climbed up to give him a hug. It's been too frigid for me to walk over to the store and carry one of those big bags home, so those poor old cats have had to make do with potting soil for their business. Apparently they don't fancy it all that much. As we were talking, we could hear honking outside. Looked out the door to see the neighbour who lives to the west trying to force my son's girlfriend, who was parked directly in front of my house, to move her vehicle so he could park there instead. What a jerk.
On the work front, no feedback from earlier interviews, but a voicemail from one agency asking to set up an interview with another employer - temp to perm assignment. I didn't catch that call until the late afternoon. Called back to respond in the affirmative, but the agent had already gone home for the day. Call again tomorrow. There was one interesting email from another employer advertising a writing position available. "Please send an essay on one of topics listed below", if one wanted to apply. Looked like some of the final exam topics I had back in high school. I'll give it a try. Writing for a living would be one of my dream jobs, after all.
A lot of email coming in from friends today that was a bonus. I think that everyone is just starting to emerge from that post-Christmas/solstice haze, as daylight nears a more reasonable length of time. Hibernation is over now that the weather is picking up too - at least here and now. Temperatures are now above 0 degrees C /+32 F. Good thing, since the power went off for a good chunk on the south part of the city. No train service from early morning until the mid-afternoon and no traffic lights either. Bad way to start a work week.
Started reading out loud to the cats - the Bible - because the longer days mean they are feeling cabin fever. Not that they are outdoor cats, but all those nice birds and squirrels are back taunting and tempting them, you see. I thought "The Rules" might calm them down. Not. Mr Mel's ears did prick up for an instant when I read about the King of Salem after which he was named - Genesis 14 verse 18, according to my Scottish Presbyterian (�����������) Grandmother's "Good Shepherd" Bible, printed and bound out of Texas, yet copyrighted to an English publisher. I think that it must be a version of the King James I's translation, with quaint words such as "wot" interspersed with the begats and the thou's. The cats particularly appreciated all those begats. My parents gave me all the Bibles the family had, because I'm the only one of my sibs who actually read them. Means I could choose any number of translations from a number of different branches of Christianity, but the connection to the language of Shakespeare is too hard to resist for me. I like the gnostic works, because they hew more closely to the original writing - the Nag Hamadi especially - but do I want radical, non-conformist cats? I already get in enough trouble over faith issues without their assistance. I do have copies of the sacred texts of most of the other major faiths as well, but I think I won't confuse them with the subtleties of spiritual debate. Don't want to give those felines the edge in an argument with my conclusions. Might read Gore Vidal's epic, "Creation", to them so that there is context to the emergence of those philosophies, of themselves and in relation to each other. No, I'm not crazy either - just thinking out loud - I'm suffering from intellectual sloth, more like. One of the great sins, eh? My secret ambition has always been to park myself in the religion and philosophy department at our university, the Pearson Peacekeeping Center on our east coast or at the Dalai Lama Peace Centre on our left coast. Maybe I'll dream about wish fulfillment tonight. Good night dear diary.
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