Strings

A friend at work is struggling with a custody suit. She has 3 children. The oldest, a girl, is 16 and lives with her full-time. Her 2 youngest are both boys, ages 14 and 12 (or so). The boys must live with their dad something like every other week. When the dad recently was served with papers wherein their mother is suing for full custody, and the papers included letters from all 3 children to the judge asking to be able to live with their mom (the boys desperately want to live with their mom full-time), well... one can imagine the dad was not happy. My friend has talked about the whole situation quite a bit, and she told me that her sons' father has now forbid them to call him "dad"; instead they must address him as "sir" or "yes, sir". I know parents do awful things to their kids, but for some reason this just made me very, very sad.

Another friend has a beautiful little daughter, about 2 years old, who has cancer. I try to keep positive thoughts about this wonderful little girl's future, but unfortunately, the Internet provided a massive amount of information for me to read about this type of cancer... so mostly, I worry about her. I worry so much that Gabrielle won't be around much longer to call her mom, "mom" or her dad, "dad".

Electric Guitars Are Really Loud, Too

But thankfully, it has a volume control. And I have control over that!

Today our daughter became the proud owner of a new-to-her black and white, shiny, beautiful electric guitar. Plus, of course, a new amp and a cable, plus a strap, and oh yeah, it came with a (free!) case. She had an opportunity to earn some money these past 3 days, and so was able to make her most-recent dream come true (with a little help). And I am truly glad. She plays beautifully. Thankfully no Smoke on the Water. She likes some songs that we also like, BoDeans, S&G, Led Z., Tom P., Lynyrd... Yes!

Aw, turn it up!

Treefrogs Are Really Loud

This evening I caught 2 Gray Treefrogs at the pool at my son's best friend Cody's house. One is bright green and the other is a yellowish-green. I did not know that they do more than trill LOUDLY -- they also bark. It sounds more like a puppy bark than a full-grown dog bark. It's very odd seeing/hearing that sound come out these little frogs. At Cody's home, they have what must be a very large population of treefrogs (judging from the chorus we heard). And the treefrogs seem to love their swimming pool. But not nearly as much as the boys do.

My plan was to release these 2 "volunteers" on our property because, though only a couple of miles away from their former home base, we seem to have no treefrogs. But now I am imagining an army of treefrogs serenading us nightly..... I think these 2 will just visit for the evening.

Sam and Reilly's Fort of Fun

Today my son made his very own fort. We can gain entrance, after filling out a Membership Registration Form (with such pertinent questions as "Favorite Kool-Aid Flavor" and "If you have a nickname, enter it here") and, after review, receiving a Sam and Reilly's Fort of Fun Official Membership Card.

It's actually quite a wonderful fort. And it's now very cozy and comfy with a sleeping bag, a bean bag chair and several pillows, plus 2 small battery-eating, I mean battery-operated, lanterns. Plenty of room for both boy and dog to sleep. Which I've heard is the plan for tonight.