This Is How We Roll

Big things poppin' AND lil things stoppin'

Friday was an all-out conference fest at school. 8 hours of parent conferences. I am happy to say that no one was assaulted...not even verbally, which was kind of a bummer, but I digress. Tomorrow, our new floor is getting put in. Will I post pictures you ask, maybe!

Let me see, let me see, what else. Ah, so we've started weight training with the girls varsity team at school. The first few days we had to walk them through the workouts but now they pretty much do it themselves. Basically what that means is that while they are doing their thing, I get to lift, which is nice, and healthy. So I look hot now. (Pictures to come!!)

And, next Wednesday we find out if our baby is a boy or girl. Do I care? Good question! Not really, healthy is really all I care about. My wife thinks it's a girl which means it probably is a boy.

And also, I am going to be here for Christmas and New Years. Yeah, in Florida. My wife will be far to pregnant to travel and so we will not be going to Michigan for Christmas this year. I was talking to Dave on the phone and I remarked that I could not remember ever missing the Christmas get together. I always made part of it at least. So, think of me when you're wiping the board or throwing down that timely Holy Day.

Things are going really well. My beard is full and lush, my eyes, blue as the whale whose name they inspired, and my...well, you get the picture.

I am not handy. I don't really want to landscape my lawn or spread seeds around or build an addition to my lanai. Oh, but I will. I'm growing and changing every day. How bout you?

Reflections on the AuSable or My Brain as a Trout Stream

Cool and clear
Like a swift stream
That’s the way the mind flows
Bubbles and gurgles and shallow waves
Thoughts bob by in a spray of foam
Floating and spinning
Whirling and rocking
Fuzzy ideas follow feathered flashes
Like a mallard’s ducklings
While the shiny thoughts
The brook trout thoughts
Swish their dappled tales and rise
Only occasionally to the surface
For a brief splash in the sunlight
Then back to the deep holes
The dark holes where the big ideas live
Someday I’ll catch me a big idea

Changing Clothes

I was physically shaking when I approached my brother's casket. I was in the back of the procession. We were coming up through the church basement and I stopped in my tracks. My wife tried to gently pull me forward up the stairs and into the sanctuary. I just stood there and shook my head. I was terrified. I wouldn't move. After about thirty seconds I started walking again and we moved up out of the dark stairway into the narthax and then through the doors into the sanctuary. I could see my brother's body from a distance but as I neared the casket the strangest thing happened.

I felt relieved and a little confused. The body in the casket looked nothing like my brother did in life. It was ludicrous. I smirked. I looked around as if to say, "Who is this in my brother's casket?" For sure, there was some resemblance to the man I knew and love and certainly it had to be his body, but without his spirit, the thing that is Dan and that will always be Dan, it was simply a form. I was relived because I knew that my brother was not there anymore.

At the cemetery I was not sad when they lowered the casket into the ground(I could barely stand I was so sick) because I knew that my brother was not in that box. I had seen his form, the thing that housed him for 25 years, but I could not see him. No matter how hard I stared, no matter how long I looked at that body I could not see him and I was relieved because I knew he had gone.

U of M Debacle and Other News

First let me say that the University of Michigan has really done every fan and everyone who watched the game today a diservice. I only hope that through this lowest point in the school's football history the Wolverines can grow stronger. That aside, the Wolverines have definitely made my weekend in Miami less enjoyable.

Being the ONLY fan of Michigan sports among my inlaws I am harrassed everytime the Wolverines, Lions, Pistons, Tigers, Red Wings or sometimes even the Shock, lose a game. But the worst, the absolute worst is when a team, most notably the Pistons and Wolverines, is perpetually in the hunt for a championship. Pistons vs. Heat in the playoffs can get down right nasty. Thank goodness the USA just beat Puerto Rico in the FIBA World Championship, a loss there might have been unbearable.

So far this weekend has been pretty relaxing. Today (Sunday) we are having some kind of party in the afternoon. Should be fun.

I need to go grade some schoolwork. I'm trying to get everything caught up before school begins again on Tuesday.

I'll write more later.