Role reversal

I'm not even going to try staying up this year. I've been getting up at 3:30 all year so I can get to the gym on time, and that means I've been ending my day just after 7pm. Not necessarily going to bed, just making sure I'm done with everything so I can.

It's been working.

But I stayed up until 9 the other night, and it wasn't easy. I was nodding off where I sat, so I decided that I just wouldn't bother. The party isn't a big draw for me any more. Meanwhile, my kids (some of them, anyway) are planning their own party.

My youngest son already fell asleep on the couch. His nearest brother didn't bother, he announced he was going to bed and settled down already. My oldest son, and my tiny daughter are both committed to making it to midnight. My wife, meanwhile, is going to give it a try.

I'll find out how everyone did in the morning. Good night.

Merry Sickmas

Two days ago, my youngest son came down with a case of pink eye. At the same time, his sister was throwing up. I instructed my kids in quarantine measures to avoid spreading pink eye, and kept watch over the nausea. That spread quickly, but didn't last more than a few days. Meanwhile, the pink eye has spread to only my daughter.

The older boys held tight to my instructions in avoiding contagion, but their sister (bless her 8 year old heart) wasn't so fortunate. 

What this means is that we're not going anywhere this Christmas. My parents are aware, albeit saddened by this development. My wife, always able to roll with the punches, expressed a bit of relief at having less to do. Meanwhile, the illnesses aren't debilitating. They don't require much extra care, just quaranting.

It's oddly relaxing.

Herbal hideaway

Just once I'd like to be in a hedge maze. Is that so weird? You know, walking around completely lost and unable to figure out where I am while surrounded by immense greenery. Is that so strange?

It's not, it's perfectly normal.

RainCember

Last year I bought a snowblower, and as Murphy's Law dictates, it barely snowed much at all.

Well this year, I still have it. I got it out, set it up, gassed it up, and it's been rainy all season. 

Rainy. Not snowy, like you'd expect in December. Rainy. Look, I don't mind *not* having to clear snow all the time. People tend to forget how to drive when it snows, so every other car becomes a hazard. It's just weird.

Necroplant and ivy

Back in the summer of 2003, I bought a small ivy plant. It was in a cheap plastic pot and had three leaves. It's moved with me five times. Meanwhile it's been in, if I remember correctly, three different pots. At its largest, it spread ten feet. It's always filled the space it's been given, so its only constraint has been, well, space. It occurred to me that I've had this one plant for over twenty years now.

I wonder how long a houseplant really lives for.

Meanwhile, my wife got herself another small plant. I honestly don't know what the species is, but that never mattered much to me. She tried to care for it, but it withered down to a mere stem, all leaves lost. She was going to get rid of it, but I took possession instead. A little soil nutrition and a fair amount of water, and the stem turned green and started to stand upright. Then a leaf pushed out of the dirt next to it. Right now it's about four inches tall and has eight leaves all reaching for the light.

Necroplancer.