Yesterday, before I headed off to the funeral that I had mentioned, Lavina called to let us know that, once again, Jobe was not feeling well and to ask if Margie could come and spend the night and care for him Monday, today. Naturally, we agreed - we would do anything for little Jobe and his big brother, Kalib.
So I dropped her off before I went to the funeral.
As recent readers know, my plan for today was to delve into "contemplating the future of this blog, part 3" and to let three parts do it.
But I have a huge amount of work that I want today on what for me is a most important projectand I do want to be distracted from it any more than necessary, not even by this blog.
So I am going to keep it short and simple. While I will still be working on that project tomorrow, if I can get enough done on it over the next 12 to 14 hours I think I will feel okay about taking a couple of hours in the morning to nail down part 3.
And, as coincidence so often seems to happen in my life, the funeral - or rather my history with the woman for whom the funeral was held - ties into this theme in a way that I had not even considered until mid-way through the services for her.
So I will use a few of those pictures as I contemplate.
In the meantime, here is Margie and Jobe.
Even when he is feeling under the weather, Jobe tends to be optimistic and pleasant.
He is a very rare and wonderful little guy.
He did cry though - he cried when he saw me start to leave. He reached out his arms toward me.
So I did not leave as quickly as I was going to. I went back, took him in into my arms, retired to the couch and held him for a bit and did a self-portrait of the two of us.
The thought occurred to me that in so doing, the bug that has got him might come and get me, too.
But what the hell. I've been got by lots of bugs in this life. I have always gotten better. Should this one get me, I am certain that I will get better again.
Before I left, I also had to find Kalib with his spatula. I looked into the TV room, that will be his bedroom when the time comes for him to move out of mom and dad's room. There he was, watching TV. He had his spatula with him.
And this from India: Banu and Ravi
Banu and Ravi - parents of Soundarya, Sujitha and Ganesh. It is the morning following the wedding of Soundarya and Anil.