Last-Minute Preparations

Dearest Rachel – As embarrassed as I may be to relate this to you, at least I can take comfort in the fact that you wouldn’t be giving me grief about it, as you were every bit as prone to procrastination (on a regular basis, I might add) as I have been this Christmas season.Continue reading “Last-Minute Preparations”

When Everything is Trivial…

Dearest Rachel – While the crisis has passed for now – Dad is settled in a nearly convalescent home, and undergoing physical and occupational therapy, such that he neither requires nor necessarily event wants too many people around him for too long thereafter, as he’s too tired to socialize, and will say so – thereContinue reading “When Everything is Trivial…”

The Important Out of Focus

Dearest Rachel – Given the situation that’s been more or less dominating our lives for the past two weeks, even overshadowing the Christmas season and its attendant hustle and bustle, you would think that I would have more to say about Dad at this point. If nothing else, I’m pretty sure I’d given you the impressionContinue reading “The Important Out of Focus”

A Fever Dream of Dream

Dearest Rachel – I think I may have the bed piled with too many ‘reindeer skins.’ Oh, it’s a comfort in the evening, when it’s just a little too cold to just sit around in, but by two o’clock this morning, I was waking up in a sweat. Then, again, it may have been theContinue reading “A Fever Dream of Dream”

The Call in the Middle of the Night

Dearest Rachel – It seems silly to marvel at the accuracy of scripture sometimes. I find myself reminded of some after-dinner speaker who is said to have begun a speech by pompously intoning, “As God said, and I think rightly…” One can only hope he was joking with such a line, but it’s just plausible that itContinue reading “The Call in the Middle of the Night”

Life vs. Existence

Waking up to another dark morningPeople are mourningThe weather in life outside is storming… Superchick, “We Live,” from Beauty From Pain (2005) Dearest Rachel – This song wasn’t the first thing in my head this morning. To be honest – and you’ll hear about it in a minute – there wasn’t much of anything goingContinue reading “Life vs. Existence”

More Time At the Office

No one on his deathbed ever said, ‘I wish I had spent more time at the office.’ Arnold M. Zack, labor and management arbitrator Dearest Rachel – Well, this is certainly one quote that I never needed to learn through experience. Even going back before turning into the worker drone that society expected me toContinue reading “More Time At the Office”

Side Quests

Dearest Rachel – On what I expect to be my last walk through the corridors of the Hyatt convention center, I found myself pausing at the sight below: It might be a more common sight at an anime convention than most times and places, but it was a new idea on me. I decided thereContinue reading “Side Quests”

from Rachel: Baby’s First Year Calendar

Dearest Rachel – Thirty years ago this evening, I came home to find you standing in the tub, mildly perplexed, with water running down your leg. Unlike your mom, you hadn’t had some sort of catastrophic breaking of your water; indeed, it was so minimal that you assumed it was no more than a prematureContinue reading “from Rachel: Baby’s First Year Calendar”

Zombies

Dearest Rachel – I’m sure you’re wondering about the title; all those apocalyptic movies and television shows (World War Z, the Walking Dead) all came out years ago, during your lifetime. These can’t still be popular to the point where I’d comment on them, are they? Especially since it was you who were into thoseContinue reading “Zombies”

Even Magic Can Only Do So Much

Dearest Rachel – I already had a topic to write you about today – in fact, it was already a day behind, about yesterday’s events – but when one wakes up with a certain song in one’s head, and fragments of a dream lingering in one’s mind, one needs to get that written down beforeContinue reading “Even Magic Can Only Do So Much”

No Footprints

Dearest Rachel – It seems that I should write you about today’s (or rather, this weekend’s, since I get to listen to it three times over) sermon, because it hits fairly close to home, especially for the two of us. Not that it isn’t common to all mankind, but given where you are, there’s aContinue reading “No Footprints”

Ready Or Not

Dearest Rachel – There are days when life comes at you fast, like a tree at the bottom of a hill. Other days can just seem to creep along, like the one when the remodeling crew is supposed to be arriving – it’s been pushed back yet another day, wouldn’t you know, to Tuesday (edit:Continue reading “Ready Or Not”