An e-mail:

From: kmgates@fooledspace.org
To: jdroth@fooledspace.org
Subject: arrived
Date: Mon, 21 Apr 2003 23:35:14 -0700

Well, I'm here, only to find out that Grandmother died early this evening while I was in transit. I am majorly sad.

Some highlights of my travels:

1. The 7 or 8-year-old boy who sat next to me on the flight to Phoenix, telling me "Those are stratus clouds."... and he was right!
2. Seeing sparking on the wheels of the 37-seat propeller plane from Phoenix to Palm Springs, take-off and landing. Is that normal?
3. A man reading an L. Ron Hubbard book, wearing a surgical mask to protect against "other people's germs", or so he told the flight attendant. He removed it for the in-flight beverage.

The lowlights:

1. Mechanical delay in Portland made it seem like I'd miss my connection and be stuck in Phoenix. Turned out okay.
2. No tomato juice on the small flight to Palm Springs — tomato juice is the only acceptable in-flight drink.

How did the MRI go? Love you. Kris

And a reply:

Date: Tue, 22 Apr 2003 06:46:37 -0700
To: kmgates@fooledspace.org
From: jdroth@fooledspace.org
Subject: Re: arrived

I am so sorry about your grandmother, kiddo. How's your father doing? Your mother? The rest of the family? Will you be able to attend the funeral?

The MRI was fine, though the technician that administered it seemed skeptical that I needed one.

The woman that took my information at admitting was painfully beautiful: golden tan, long blond hair, piercing eyes. I couldn't look at her; it would have been like looking at the sun. She took my personal information and typed it into her database:

"Marital status?"
"I'm married."
"Does your wife have the same last name as you?"
"No. Her last name is Gates, G-A-T-E-S."
"First name?"
"Kristina. With a K."

She paused and looked up at me from her computer. Her eyes burned me.

"Is she a teacher?" she asked.
"Was a teacher," I said.
"Wow. I had her for physics!" she said, gleaming. "How's she doing? Tell her 'hi'. Etc."

The woman's name is Kelly Hall. She looks to me to be nearly the same age as Mac and Pam, so you probably had her early in your teaching career.

The MRI itself was uneventful. The machine is in a semi-trailer detached from the main hospital building. The technician had me lie on a platform and she immobilized my leg. I listened to NPR on headphones for half an hour while the machine made its jackhammer scans of my knee. The results will be available in about a week.

I stopped at Kentucky Fried Chicken on the way home because

• I wanted some barbecue chicken (though I actually ended up buying Extra Tasty Crispy), and
• I feel terrible about Toto's condition and thought she might like a treat.

When I got home, I took Toto into the TV room and shut Simon out. I tried to share the chicken with her, but she wasn't interested in eating. Also, the bozo that helped me gave me cole slaw instead of macaroni and cheese. Does "macaroni and cheese" sound anything like "cole slaw"? I could only eat one piece of chicken, though, so the rest is in the fridge.

I decided that Toto could benefit from a sauna, so I shut both cats in the bathroom with me, turned on the heat, and had a nice long soak in the bathtub. I'm not sure it helped Toto, but it helped me. I read more Proust. He's great; there's more discussion material in twenty pages of Swann's Way than there is in two hundred pages of most books. This is still my top choice for my next book group pick though, like Aimee and Joel, I worry that it is too dense for most people. The book isn't a traditional narrative; it's more of a meditation on time and memory. Because it's divided into four sections,though, I think it would be easy to assign the book but explain that only the first two sections need be read for the book group discussion (though readers would certainly be encouraged to finish the entire book).

Simon has begun sneezing again, so he's on the Amoxicilin, too. It's easy to give it to him. He's docile when I grab him by the scruff, and he swallows the pill easily. It takes only thirty seconds to administer the medication to him. Toto fights, though, despite her weakened state, and her breath is foul (I mean fouler than normal). This morning she spit out the pill twice before I discarded the little helper thingie and just rammed the pill down her throat with my fingers. She's cranky with me, of course. She's sneezing like crazy right now, though it's more like a cough than a sneeze. After one sneezing/coughing fit last night, she seemed to breathe more easily for a time. I haven't checked to see whether her breathing is labored and liquidy still this morning. I should do that now; it's nearly time to leave for work.

I'm sorry to hear about your grandmother. Give your family my regards, and make the most of the family fellowship. Let me know if your return plans change.

I love you!

--j.d.

And so it goes.

On this day at foldedspace.org

2005 — On Education   Lately I've been thinking a lot about education. What is it? What's the best way to obtain it? What part of my education has been most memorable?

2004 — Internet Radio   Here at work, I don't really have the disk space to house a lot of songs, so my best option for music variety is internet radio stations.

2002 — Central Oregon Weekend 2002   We drove to Bend Thursday to spend the weekend with the MNF Investments group, our annual Central Oregon Weekend. Here are some scattered observations as recorded in my keen new moleskine notebook.