back from my dad's for a while; he's actually better. and this is actually a miracle of the modern world, one which i'll tell. it's late afternoon and i'm enjoying the afternoon sun & puppy on lap.

so he was on fourteen separate meds, and we took him off them all when we brought him home for home hospice. the idea of home hospice is this: you get meds for the pain, but nothing else, and they figure you're about finished, so they take care of you, and make sure you're comfortable all the time. at home, his girlfriend can come over whenever he calls, and he has ice cream in the fridge. in the morning, he wakes up to sunrise over the organ mountains.

but i think it was going off the meds that did it. his body had been shrinking; there was less of him. there was not enough blood to thin, and what was in there was too thin and eventually became more meds, less blood. took him off all that stuff, and now he's himself again. he may not last forever. but he has a big appetite, every day - he has ice cream for breakfast, every day, and then three square meals. he gets out of bed to do the pictures himself. he shows every sign of getting better.

so meanwhile, my wife needs a new knee, and that's happening on wednesday. it'll be one of those knees that sets off metal detectors. it'll cause a little hanging around the house, hobbling. might be tough to get up the icy steps, and out of the house. i'm busy collecting wood.

tell you where we're behind, it's the tree. i went out in the woods to haul one in last year, got the best one i could find, and it looked miserly when i got it in the house. everyone tried to make me feel better, but it wasn't my best tree, that's all i could say. i'm not sure how to spot a good one, out in the woods. what does one look for? where does one even go? all this i have to deal with, maybe on monday or tuesday. we're a little late. most people have had them for about a month.

lots of driving, across the white sands. coming through the migra, and letting the dogs sniff out my car. you're about forty years late, i feel like telling them. forty years, and about eight cars ago. you would have found something back then. not now, it's so clean, i don't even have a memory.

the air is clear here in the winter. people say the snow is good, we need the moisture, we get more moisture through the snow than through the rain, which just washes off. but we've only had a couple of inches total. ice rink hasn't opened, that i know of. unusually warm, which is the usual, i guess.

global warming is coming, gonna cook us up in one big frog stew. dad's getting out just in time.