… than giving a grinning, cherubic infant a warm bath. Cat went off to someone’s baby shower this morning — apparently the women in our neighborhood can be in the same room with a single wily sperm and catch preggy… I can’t tell you how many expectant mothers and new babies are literally sprouting up from nowhere — so Julia and I had some private time. We went for a walk to the coffee/bagel shop with her dangling in front of me on the Bjorn, then back for a little nap (her, not me), then baby bath time.

She loves baths. Loves them. She hasn’t quite reached that age where baths are “get every square inch of bathroom area wet” times, but she still creates a little bit of havoc. She generally just grins and splashes and eats her hands. It’s just too fun washing all those little baby rolls of blubber.

She and Cat are my salves against some things going on that, quite honestly aren’t the greatest. Remember back in May I told you about my friend and coworker who was diagnosed with “a fatal, progressive neurodegenerative disease”? Well, that disease is ALS, or Lou Gehrig’s Disease, and its an evil, malevolent motherfucker. Being the type of person I am, I want to kick the shit out of it, but there’s nothing to kick. Yeah, I’m not being too eloquent today, but I react pretty strongly and far from intelligently. I don’t know whether he even knows about my site or not, but I hope he wouldn’t mind me sharing my feelings about it. Frankly, it angers me how rapidly this thing attacks.

Back in May, when they told us he was diagnosed, I couldn’t have told you that I had noticed anything untoward… he seemed like the same guy that I’ve known and worked with for the past five years. Now here it is in September, 4 months later. He has more and more trouble with speech, he has muscle spasms in his arms almost constantly, he seems to have started to have difficulty breathing and walking. Yesterday my heart ached when I heard him laughing at a joke a fellow coworker made, and how labored the laughing was. But by God he was laughing, and enjoying it. Cat worked with him in her last job, and I keep her up to date with how he’s doing, and we both just lose it occasionally. He’s such a strong damned individual, he never complains, never bitches, has the same witty approach to life as before… it’s amazing, really. He’s a different kind of person from me, that much I know. I know myself pretty well, and I’m fairly certain I could not handle myself with one tenth the grace that he has and still does. I’m nowhere near strong enough in that way.

Then there’s my Mom who had another piece of nose removed due to cancer. She has a graft in place and is just now getting the stitches out. Thankfully it still hasn’t entered the cartilage. Had it done so, she would have had more extensive surgery than she did, but it’s still not minor. I get mad/sad when I think of my Mom hurting too, but luckily it hasn’t been anything truly serious.

Sorry this turned so maudlin. Like I said, I’m just very glad that I have Cat and Julia to build me up some.

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