Parent of the Year Material

After sliding all over hell and back yesterday while trying to drive, I figured a snow day was a drop shot. So when I woke up this morning and saw this scene out my office window:



I figured, um, yeah, snow day.

Figured wrong. The attendance office called around 1 pm, wanting to know why the boys weren't in school. Best reason I could come up with was that the plow guy hadn't arrived yet to clear a path out (which he hadn't. Not that it would have made any difference.

D'oh.

Made a bit of progress on the day job front today. Did a very good job of minding the diet -- granola with skim, strawberries and banana for breakfast, salmon and eggs for lunch, salad and homemade cracked-wheat bread for dinner. The bread came out pretty well, considering I left the ground flour in the fridge for a couple of days before getting off my butt and dealing with it.

Made it to the gym a little late, but still swam a mile and ran 3.1 on the treadmill and elliptical. The pool had four or five kids running wild, but their dad was at least trying to control them somewhat. I figured it's just training for open-water swimming.

Got a call late from my older brother. Our dad's not doing too well. He's had a rough 15 years or so. Mom died of leukemia in 1991. Got remarried in 2001, didn't work out so well. I spent most of last fall in Texas with him while he was going through medical hell (two kinds of cancers, a heart attack, a few major surgeries and some chronic issues that decided to announce themselves at age 74). So I'm worried as hell. Had a long talk with Dad tonight, and felt a little better. But I guess that's what dads are on the planet to do.

I'll have to remember that.