Royce's Random Thoughts

Georgia: (watching MST3K on YouTube with Daddy) "Why is everything in black and white?"

Daddy: "Well honey, this was before colors were invented. Everyone looked like that."

Mommy: "Daddy!"

My daughter Georgia as a ferin from chaypeta's Terinu webcomic, sketched by Neziha Zahed.

So Friday, myself, moonshadowed, Thomas and Georgia, plus Tracy's mom and Aunt Donna, all piled into my minivan for a trip to Cleveland so Tracy could meet with a couple of online friends and run in a local half-marathon.

Things happened thusly:

1. About halfway down the PA Turnpike [1] my minivan jerked to the right a couple of times. My best guess at the time was that since we were going through a relatively high and rocky section that it was wind. Turned out it was my left rear tire about to blow out.

At 75mph

On the fucking turnpike.

Fortunately after the initial THUMPthudthudthudthud I was able to pull off safely onto the shoulder and change the tire, which was completely shredded. Doubly luckily a cop came along less than five minutes later to keep traffic from smashing me while I changed the time (and for once the time shop hadn't tightened on the nuts so hard I couldn't undo them myself).

2. Finally got to the hotel around 4:30pm to find it being rapidly occupied by a fish fancier convention. I didn't even know you could have conventions about that. Though if you're going to have it anywhere I guess Cleveland is the place.

3. First night of sleep didn't actually happen due to a variety of circumstances. Fortunately I managed to nap in the morning while Tracy dragged the kids to the hotel's swimming pool.

4. Saturday (after my nap) we picked up Tracy's race packet and visited the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. Only saw the first floor of exhibits, due to Tom going into sensory overload and Tracy's mom feeling ragged out and annoyed because they didn't have an items related to a really obscure rocker she wanted to see.

5. Sunday was Race Day. Most long races Tracy has done started at 7am or so, for some stupid reason this one began at 9am, which meant I had to drop her off and rush back to help her mom and Aunt pack up and check out before returning to the race course with them. I left them in the car with the kids while I met Tracy, since it was a half-mile walk from the parking lot to the race course.

6. Despite having the flu earlier in the week and still getting over a case of bronchitis, Tracy managed to finish with a time of 3:07 and ahead of at least nine people in a field of a thousand.

7. Then it was time to drive home. Didn't get back to our house until about 8:30pm after dropping off Grandmom and Aunt Donna. Thomas started losing his biscuit the last couple of hours, but given how much driving we'd done over the past three days I wasn't going to blame him.

8. Back to worrrrrrrk.


[1] And who's idea was it to make a state so damned large?

Definitely need to see this one when it comes out.

So, yesterday she starting limping at school, complaining her leg hurt. It was visibly swollen when she got home, so I took her to the doctor today to get it checked out.

It turns out she may have Lyme disease, so she'll have to get bloodwork and an x-ray done just in case. She also tested positive for Strep Throat of all things, so she'll need to stay home from school tomorrow.

She also has a cold, but at this point that's the least of our worries.

So this morning I woke up Tracy early and we all headed down to the Baltimore Harbor Tunnel Walk/Run, which is a 5k course going through one of the bores of the I-95 tunnel running 90 ft. under Baltimore Harbor. Tom had a blast jogging beside Mommy, while Georgia and I held back a bit and just walked as fast as she could. We were perhaps ahead of the last thirty or so people who were bringing up the rear. Everyone had a good time though Georgia was disappointed that we didn't hit the moon bounce before we went home.

Along the way I got to thinking. We weren't in the last place, but we could have been if Georgia's legs or my knee had given out on me Furthermore, exercise is Not My Thing, so I came up with an idea that would let me go as slowly as I wanted.

Next time Tracy drags me to something like this, I'm going to dress in a ripped up old shirt, green makeup, and bring up the rear muttering "Brains!" Because then the person ahead of me, no matter how slowly they go, can at least be assured they outran the zombie...

Besides, isn't there usually some kind of booby prize for the person who comes in dead last?



Thank you! I'll be here all week! Try the veal!

Yesterday was my 42nd and Georgia's 5th birthday, so I celebrated primarily by taking the day off. Nice most of the time but it got a little weird at the end.

Morning: Wake up usual time, fool around playing Batman: AA. Bundled the kids off to school and Tracy to work, since she had to do her morning story times. Played more Batman, then napped until 11:30, whereapon I got cleaned up and headed up to Tom's school for Part Two of his IEP meeting with his teachers.

Got to the school to find all the kids shuffling out because someone decided to try and get the afternoon off by pulling the fire alarm. Culprit was caught and it worked out since Tracy was running late anyway, catching up just as everyone went back inside. Meeting went well, no new surprises, just making sure everyone is on the same track.

Afternoon we went to Red Robin for lunch, then headed over to Toys R Us to buy Georgia's birthday present, a bike that I hadn't been able to get earlier because Tracy had worked Mon. and Tues. night. Brought it home and put a nice ribbon on it. When Georgia walked through the door her face just lit up in happiness. After some adjustment with the training wheels she took it out for a spin along the sidewalks. Turned out this was enough to get Tom interested in the his bike, which he'd been ignoring the past six years. Of it's too small now and the tires are flat, so we're probably going to have to buy him a new one as well, not to mention a helmet.

( Photos of smiling Georgia behind cut. May cause blindness )


Evening we had leftovers and ice cream cake, and I stayed up past my usual 9pm bedtime because I was chatting with chaypeta, whom I caught on Facebook for the first time in several months. She emailed me hte working sketch of her b-day present to me, which I'll post once its complete.

10pm I finally went to bed.

10:15 I woke up again as a cop knocked on our door. Turns out our kitchen phone died during a brief thunderstorm, and in its death throes it autodialed 911. The cop being dispatched because the 911 operator just heard a dial tone and it rang as busy when they called back. We sent the cop on his way, I blew a half hour calling Verizon to troubleshoot, and I ended up going back to bed at 11pm.

Naturally I only slept for five hours. sigh

Family: We took Georgia out to the Chuck E. Cheeze in Frederick for a meet up with three other families that adopted from the same orphanage. She had a blast and Thomas was reasonably well behaved. Though I am coming to the conclusion that the Chinese government tends to, ahem, shade the truth a tad when they're matching orphans to families. I thought it was a rather amazing coincidence when Georgia just happened to have the same birthday as me, and thought she was rather big for her age when we got her. This pales however, to the one young lady who was adopted at the tender age of twelve last year, and looks a whole lot more like sixteen. Her parents aren't complaining, and it actually doe help her with cathing up in school, but it was still a rotten thing to do.

Oh, and when did Chuckie's get rid of the creepy animatronic performers? I missed 'em.


Nano: I've still got a chapter or so to write on this story, but I'm burned out from my big push towards the end, so I'm letting it lie for a bit. Looking back what I've written, I can see I basically chopped out a big section of what should have been Nafir training at the Council Island and bonding with Shaffa and Chizoba. I could easily add at least a third to the book in that section alone. Meanwhile, while the primary crisis is resolved the plot certainly isn't. There's an investigation to be had to find The Man behind Lord Gacheru, Shaffa's Mysterious PAst (tm) to be relvealed, and maybe this time around I should actually think of the plot if that tale before I start writing.

Last night Georgia apparently woke up feeling uncomfortable (she still wear a pullup at night). So she got out of bed, went to the bathroom, pulled off her pullup and wiped herself, dumped it in the trash, then got the step stool out of the bathroom so she could reach the pack of fresh pull ups in the linen closet and get a new one for herself, putting it on and then going back to bed. All without bothering to wake Tracy or I up for help.

Lord help us when she learns how to drive.

Georgia had been coughing a bit the past couple of days, so we figured she had a summer cold. In the past hour though she's suddenly developed a very persistent cough and fever spiking up to 103.5. Treating her with children's ibuprofen, cool bath and snowball for fluids (to be followed up by pedialite)

Update (8:00pm): After 1 1/2 bowls of crushed ice and ibuprofen, her fever is down to a more acceptable 100 degrees and the cough is slowing down. Just have to keep an eye on her through the night until I can get her to the doctor tomorrow.