M and the boys are finishing the latest Indiana Jones as I write. I’m tired…this was a hellspawn of a week. Where do I start? How about with Wednesday? I went into work early, came home to hang out with T, who was home sick, went back to work in late afternoon, met S at his football practice, then came home and got the kids to sleep because M was sick. After everyone was asleep I went on a mad, stress-induced cleaning jag. I felt like I was totally in action/reaction mode, and I was kind of loud and spazzy by the end of the night. On Thursday morning I hit the coffee shop because I was afraid I wouldn’t get anything done in the office before class started if people kept coming in to talk with me. M called near 7:45Am and said the doctor called and said T had strep. So I picked up T and took him to work, where I taught assessment while he played Nintendo DS in my office. I don’t think I strung together a coherent thought throughout the entire session. Later T and I picked up strep medicine for both of us, came home, and collapsed. By the way, if there was any advantage to T’s stretch of sick days it was the fact that he and I watched the entire Lord of the Rings trilogy together. Anyway, by about dinnertime last night I was ready to collapse. By this morning I had been up in the middle of the night two days running.

I decided, not long after waking, that I needed a calm, mellow day in Port. After everyone left for school I burned some discs and gathered a few packages together. I hit the post office, sent the packages on their way, and returned home to work out. I lifted (up another five pounds) watched the last episode of the first season of Weeds from the elliptical. A quick shower later and I was on the road. First I hit the hardware store (full spectrum bulb, figured it was worth as the light wasn’t working, but the light appears to be broken, not the bulb), Michaels (white construction paper for N, charcoal and charcoal paper for me), Kohls (nothing), and Costco. Oh, I also picked up iced tea (snow buds) and loose tea (snow buds as well) at the downtown coffee shop. Clouds filled the sky, with the sun peeking through at intervals, and I felt calmer than I had in a week. M and the boys returned home not long after me. They peeled apples with this weird apple peeler device and made faces on plates with the apple slices. I ate a sub (Costco sub bread) for dinner and later discovered the bread had a shitload of calories. Oh well, I was hungry. After dinner Shadow and I walked through the autumn woods (see pics below). We returned home near dusk. M and the boys were watching the latest Indiana Jones, but I wasn’t in the mood, so I took a bath with Bill Bryson’s book on Europe before firing up the computer for the journal.

The boys seem wired now, but I’m pleasantly tired. You can smell autumn in the air. I have more to say, beyond the day’s blow by blow, but I’ll save it for tomorrow. Good night.