Weekend Update

So how was your weekend?

It rained here. My wife tells me it rains here every year at this time, and I just don’t seem to remember that. I don’t remember a lot of stuff.

Every Memorial Day weekend I attempt to smoke a large hunk of meat for dinner. That is, I haul out an electric smokehouse and set a beef brisket inside it and let it smoke for the better part of the day. It’s something I’m trying to establish as a tradition, just so my kids will have something to laugh about amongst themselves and share to their children and grandchildren later on in their lives. So far, so good; I’ve provided plenty of fodder for laughter.

Last Thursday my wife was diagnosed with pneumonia. She’s pretty much been coughing non-stop for two weeks now, the poor thing.

But this of course means she’s out of action, and I am left alone with only a lethargic older sister to help care for Michael, who was beyond wild for the last three days.

I’m not sure what’s in his rice milk, but the kind of energy he’d been sporting could easily allow him to leap into a low Earth orbit if he so desired. He’s been up at around 6:30 every day, rarin’ to go and making demands.

In an effort to help curb her coughing, Sunday night my wife tried sleeping on the couch so she could sit upright. The cat did her level best to ensure that sleep was not to be had, coming in from outside and applying her damp fur to our faces and tromping around on our midsections every thirty minutes. And of course she ignored the very active and loud mouse that was scurrying around under the stove (we think she figures she’s made her quota of critter control by bringing two birds into the house last week, so she should be exempt from mouse duty). And as kitty and mouse settle down to relax after a hard night of keeping the people awake, Michael clocks in at around 5:45 AM and begins his shift, climbing up on his mom’s face and demanding Reese’s Puffs.

Yesterday I’d had enough of his tearing around like a Jack Russel Terrier on his fourth espresso and bribed his sister into taking him to the park for a little while. The clouds had been spotty at best and it was dry all morning, with very little wind.

I drove them to the park and told his sister to call me when they were ready to be picked up. Then I headed home in peace. The first peace I’d had for days.

As I pulled into the driveway, the clouds burst forth in a torrent.

“It’ll pass,” I told myself. “It can’t last long.”

I had barely gotten into the house when the call came: Michael says it’s too wet to play, and he wants to come home.

Sigh.

To add to the fun, my wireless router upped and died on me, forcing me to buy a new one. I had a Linksys router before, a real solid system that just plain worked from the time I first plugged it in until the time it sputtered its last packet. It was easy to set up, easy to use, and came with a nice interface that stayed out of my way until I needed it.

Then I bought this Belkin “Play” router, and was taken in by the hype of “just plug it in and you’re ready to go!”

Not so much.

The bottom line is, the Belkin wireless router is a diva. It demands constant attention, and will spontaneously go into sulk mode and drop the internet connection if it becomes offended for any reason. You have to gently, carefully coax it back into service. It also has a feature in which it automatically restarts, on schedule. I think it’s the equivalent of a “spa day”, because it’s out of commission for forty-five minutes during this time, and it’s going to happen whether you like it or not. Trying to set up a wireless connection was impossible. I know, it’s a wireless router and all, but there’s obviously more to it than just having another wireless system nearby and using the same security protocol and all that. No, there’s a pin involved, and timeouts, and security checks, and registrars, and handshaking, and synchronization, and antidisestablishmentarianism… anyway, like a true paranoid-schizophrenic, this Belkin wireless router would refuse to acknowledge any such capability as routing things wirelessly.

This morning I have carefully sealed the Belkin Play router back into it’s snug little box along with the cables, disk and power supply for its return to Costco. It went without a fight, but I believe it must have angered the modem during its two-day tenure, as the modem now refuses to connect to the internet.

By this morning, I can report that Michael’s mom is recovering, thank God, since she’s scheduled to be at work tomorrow. She got some new cough medicine and actually slept all night long last night, in our room, away from creatures. And Michael didn’t get up until after I’d gotten dressed and was ready for him.

So… I’m glad the weekend is over. Thank God for the men and women who’ve given their lives for their country, so we can be free. I don’t think we observed this fact much this weekend. I had my own battles at home to deal with.