The Day to Day

There seemed to be so much hope for a reasonable transition to normalcy in my last post, but sadly that has not come to pass. Daily here in Illinois, as they ramp up the testing to more and more people, the number of infected people continues to increase, as you might expect. However, the deaths continue to trend higher as well, which is not necessarily an expected consequence of more testing. I’ve been keeping a spreadsheet and following the trend line on deaths related to Covid 19 and the 14 day average continues to increase (now about 110 people per day). Daily I listen to two, three or four infectious disease doctors regarding what’s going on in: new treatments, old treatments being resurrected, idiotic things the potus says (the doctors really, really show great restraint when talking about him, it’s impressive), treatments for Covid, vaccine development, anti-body testing, and of course the current figures for those tested, those infected and those that have passed.

But I also read some stories online and one, which was a story from a few days ago on the news that just got onto the internet news feed revolves around potential positive impacts of vitamin-D, or more accurately, the NEGATIVE impacts of vitamin-D deficiency. Those two things are not the same thing. Patients with a vitamin D deficiency have seen notably worse outcomes, but it has not been tested, only observed, which means it could be a coincidence.

Remdesivir has also been observed to alleviate some symptoms of the most adversely impacted it appears, increasing recovery time by 3-4 days. So that’s promising, but still, best not to need it.

Vaccines have been in development and various stages of testing since January, while the potus still espoused that the virus was a democratic hoax. Good call orange man.

While I didn’t want this to be a political post, I can’t help but remind my future self of what Turtle man, Mitch the bitch McConnell said yesterday to reporters. He blamed Obama for the U.S.’s inaction to Covid 19. Somehow he felt that it was Obama who cut the infectious disease budget the last three years.

It was not.

That it was Obama who removed the infectious disease liaison in China early last year.

It was not.

That it was Obama who ignored the scientists and other countries under the belief that first the disease was a conspiracy and then that it would just disappear once warm weather arrived.

It was not.

That it was Obama who ignored Dr. Rick Bright and fired him for trying to warn us early on about Covid 19.

It was not.

That it was Obama who did not leave a 69 page National Security Council “playbook” on what to do in case of a pandemic.

He did leave one and it’s been ignored.

And just as bad as any of that, if Mitch or Trump thought our pandemic response was insufficient, they had three damn years to do something about it. Instead they were too busy repealing anything Obama touched and far too concerned about partisan politics. It’s much easier to edit than to create. Obama created. Trump just edits.

So now some states are opening up a bit and some are more aggressive. Already I’ve seen videos of bars in Texas and Wisconsin that are bustling, with no social distancing and no masks. You’d like to think, “Well, the rona will take them out.” But it doesn’t work that way. It may take out some of them, but more likely they will just be carriers and infect other people who may be following stricter guidelines but cross paths with one of these clowns. It’s really embarrassing how people can’t live a somewhat restrained existence for two months without freaking out. Their selfishness is overwhelming. But it also says something about our society and it’s not just about people wanting to get back to their normal. First, they have no knowledge of, or interest in, history. And that’s not even history back to 1918 that I’m talking about, though that pandemic should have served enough notice to all people to work towards solutions for the next one. Just go back to Swine Flu or SARS. Look what South Korea did and how they developed social tracing to isolate infected people and test possibly infected people more quickly. We do none of that. Sure, if you get someone terribly sick with ECOLI, they’ll trace it back to the Denny’s, but that’s about it.

Thinking on a lighter note, I’m hopeful that the football season will be played, with or without fans in the stands. I’m truly fine either way, though of course if fans are allowed, it means we have effective treatments and possibly a vaccine. Here’s hoping!!

Covid 19 April update

Another three weeks have passed in this shelter in place world and not much has changed. Well, the one thing that HAS changed is that the state is finally testing people in large numbers, but it's still not available to everyone. If you have significant symptoms, are a front line worker or know you have been exposed to someone with it, I believe you can get tested now, but it's not easy. One testing location yesterday stopped taking new people about 5 minutes after they opened because they already used their allotment for the day. Crazy. The state is testing like 15k people per day for the most part which means that the number of cases has jumped up (makes sense) to about 2k new cases per day but deaths are pretty erratic still. Yesterday I think there were only like 50 deaths in Illinois. Over the last 5 days actually, the deaths have dropped steadily: 123,107,79,59,50. The two prior days were 119 and 97 so we may be really bending the curve and buying ourselves some time to come up with a vaccine.

A study on 6 Rhesus Macaque monkeys heavily exposed to Covid 19 after given an experimental vaccine, have been symptom free for 28 days. Very promising!!

More people around the country, mostly in states where they believe gun ownership is a God given right and not just a constitutional one, are protesting businesses being shut down, especially as unemployment hits 20%. Their argument is stay home if you want to or are at risk, but don't force me to stay home. They don't really consider that potentially infected people will: go to nursing homes, go shopping, engage in social activities, etc which will jeopardize the employees there and, in turn, their at risk contacts. It's just more of the selfish, ignorant Americana we've come to know and love, especially the last four years.


Anytime there is nice weather, the family heads out for a walk. Our nanny still shows up 4 days a week and goes through e-learning with the kids while Laura and I work.  Not too much has changed there except the kids don't go to school of course or Daisy Scouts or dance. I don't go to the grocery store daily, or almost daily, like I used to. Now I go maybe twice a week and we stock up. Neither of us go into our office one day a week like we used to, so that's saved commuting time, gas and such.

Oh, gas! Let's talk about this whole pandemic and oil. Late last year, the Russians got pissy with OPEC about limiting oil production and went AWOL from OPEC meetings. So the Saudi's said eff you and flooded the market causing oil to plunge to depths we have not seen in some time. THEN the pandemic hit and nobody is driving. Nobody is flying. Nobody is producing things. Smog around LA has lifted. Venetian canals are hosting jellyfish. The world is a much cleaner place as its demand for oil dropped dramatically. Last I checked, oil was around $10 a barrel. If you actually had storage for oil available, you would have gotten paid a week or two ago to accept a contract. Crazy! Gas at the pumps around here are still $1.89 or so, but just 40 minutes south in Kankakee, gas was $1.35. I've heard it's even cheaper in Indiana.

The New World Order

It's been a really busy couple of weeks since I last wrote. My consulting clients (who are no longer going into the office and doing all of their day to day work) have been monopolizing my time with conference calls as we make progress on "other" projects. On the real estate side, I had one closing on 3/31 that had a hiccup on 3/30 that was resolved, but if it hadn't been, the closing would have been delayed. Another deal was supposed to close in late March and that buyer lost his job, so we went onto one of the other offers we received initially and have been trying to keep that on track for a 4/20 closing. And today we had pictures for a new listing going up on the MLS next week. Crazy busy!!!

Two weeks ago on a Monday, I went out with clients in Kankakee to look at some homes that were on the market and to get my oil changed and tire repaired. Later that week, the dealership would close due to Covid-19. My clients have a dog and some of the homes we looked at had dogs, all of which caused my allergies to flare up. Then the grass starting coming out as well trees, so my allergies hit with full force. Tueday-Thursday or so I had post nasal drip and my throat started getting sore. The coughing started Friday and has persisted. Wednesday morning of this week, I woke up and had several minutes of coughing while laying in bed (not unusual for the last week) but really hacked up some mucous from deep in my lungs. Again, not unusual for me in the spring. At no point have I had a fever (88% of covid patients have a fever) nor have I had fatigue, lack of a desire to eat, or lost my sense of smell or taste. It seems unlikely that I have Covid, but boy would it be nice to have enough tests around so that I could actually go get tested and find out!! That's not possible right now though, at least around here. 

After new cases of 900+ and 700+ the last two days, I was wondering if we were flattening out the curve here in Illinois. Unfortunately the number of new cases jumped to 1200, so that thought is out the window. Today Pritzker suggested that we wear masks whenever we leave the house, however he didn't say where we were supposed to acquire these masks. I have a drywall mask out in the garage, but that's about it. 

So that's about it. I'm hoping I don't have Covid-19 and am pretty busy with work. LL has likewise been very busy with work, but the last two days were supposed to be part of our vacation (a trip to St. Joe's with the kids) so she has been back to focusing on cleaning while our cleaning lady is stuck in Poland. Not sure when she's going to be able to get back home, but I think she's scheduled for 4/12. We'll see!

Sheltering at home

So we're under a Shelter in Place order from the Governor, which doesn't mean too much different than what we've doing all week: we're working from home, schools and "non-essential" businesses are closed. Non-essential is being thrown around loosely though as Binny's (a liquor store) is still open, Home Depot is open, restaurants are cooking and delivering/providing pick up, grocery stores are open, Starbucks has drive thru open only, Dunkin Donuts is open, so not much has changed for us personally.

Actually, yesterday, I developed a little bit of a cough, but it seems to just be seasonal allergy related as I definitely have post nasal drip, which doesn't seem to be a symptom of Covid-19. And I'm not feeling bad except for my throat sometimes being a little sore from the drainage. Keeping an eye on things!!

An unfortunate side effect of staying home more than normal is snacking more than I should. Throw in some drainage, which usually causes me to eat or drink, and I could be packing on the weight, if I bothered to weigh myself at least. I'd love to say the gym closure is the reason, but I haven't been going regularly enough to justify that excuse. The hospital did cancel my "elective" surgery on my torn rotator cuff which was supposed to have been done in December. Ugh. Now I'll be lucky to have rehabbed at all by the end of golf season. Ugh!

A very irritating scandal in congress is four politicians who knew about Covid-19 and how bad it was in China, selling stocks ahead of public awareness. Richard Burr is the worst of the group as he downplayed the pandemic and while selling stocks. Kelly Loefller didn't talk up the pandemic like Burr, but she made 16 significant stock trades, 14 were sales and one was purchasing Citrix, the teleconferencing and high tech company. Diane Feinstein from California had a mess of sales as well, but her assets are in a blind trust, which means she doesn't have control over what is owned or not owned or when something is bought or sold (obviously). Jim Inhofe sold $400k and doesn't seem to have any similar excuse, though he wasn't in on the Covid briefings like Burr was. Who knows what he knew or not, but there should be an investigation into the lot of them!

Quarantine: day 3

When the stock market rose significantly on Friday going into an uncertain weekend, I hoped some stability would come to the markets this week. That has not happened AT ALL.  Monday the Dow was down 3,000, followed by moving up yesterday 1,000 and now it's down 900 today so far. So, the instability continues as there is no clarity to the treatments and outcomes and duration of Covid-19 victims, or Sars Cov-2.

It's been a really interesting few days as each day, some new restriction was announced. First it was kids were going to be out for three weeks. Then all sporting events were cancelled including March Madness. They didn't happen all at once though, they sort of trickled out. First they were delayed, then delayed further then ongoing leagues were cancelled. It's nuts. The NFL capitalized on it by keeping their free agency timelines and such so the only sports news to talk about is the NFL. Then bars and restaurants were closed and only available for pick-up or delivery. The recommended group size went from no more than a thousand to no more than 250 to no more than 10. You'd like to see the restrictions just be definitive instead of ever creeping.

I still go to Starbucks in the morning for my coffee, but I can't sit there and relax like I was able to do even on Friday of last week. In the afternoon, I still go to Dunkin for my afternoon coffee and go to the grocery if we need anything. Berkots had plenty of toilet paper yesterday, but they have restricted you to one six pack purchase per trip which is very, very reasonable.

At the beginning of March, there were 6 new cases a day in the U.S. Now there are 1,600 new cases a day, in part because tests are starting to become available finally. They aren't readily available yet, but some exist at least. If you're displaying symptoms, then you can get tested. Otherwise they are reserved for those working with the elderly or government services (police, fire, hospital, etc).

So what are we going to do over the next few weeks? I'm hoping to write here for posterity, finish our tax return, make a decision on the whole home generator and organize the garage. We need to get stuff up off the ground and onto the walls. We'll see how much progress I make!!

Oh, and here's Trump's timeline of disbelief. February 28th he called it a Democratic hoax. March 6 he STILL denied it being a threat and that if you wanted to get a test, you can, which is still not true today. That's what happens when you surround yourself with yes men. Since you can't find the info on Fox, here it is on CNN.

Covid-19

Historical
It's an unusual time in our history, though not just the United States' history, but the entire world's history. And it's not JUST because of Covid-19 or the corona virus. It's the combination of that and the wide spread availability of social media. SARs in 2002 and the swine flu in 2009 really didn't have the same social media exposure. SARs was basically a TV and newspaper disease while the swine flu had more exposure, but not like today.

I KNEW about the swine flu, but really didn't know how many people it impacted (11-21% of the world population) and killed (150k-500k people). Apparently a follow up study said it was no worse than the regular flu though and the only oddity with this variation was that it didn't disproportionately impact the elderly and young.

Social Media and the Fools
So now we get to experience a pandemic in the age of social media. The disease started in Wuhan China, though some Chinese are claiming that American soldiers brought it TO them when they did some sort of military olympics in the fall of last year in Wuhan. I'm doubtful as the crackpot espousing this theory has led several anti-American theories in the past. But that's just the type of thing than any nut job with a keyboard and/or a Twitter account can throw out there, even though Twitter is banned in China.

For me, I'm tired of seeing fools on Facebook talking about how it was a Democrat conspiracy to take down Trump and they had these ignorant thoughts because of people (and I use that term loosely) like Limbaugh and Hannity and their soapbox, Fox News. In general, Fox will dupe their legions by disavowing science, providing opinion as fact and then sometimes just outright making shit up. Then you let those viewers loose on Facebook and look out. Even up to Tuesday or Wednesday of this past week, while the ENTIRE COUNTRY OF ITALY was on quarantine, they were STILL claiming it wasn't that bad and it's a media concoction and "even Dr. Drew" said the media should be held accountable. Well, Dr. Drew is a psychiatrist not a fucking doctor of infectious disease, so his opinion is about as valid as Cardi B's (my first Cardi-B reference in writing by the way). And if you want to believe these dopes, then you'd have to believe that all major sports organizations around the world, the government of Italy, Australia, Singapore, Hong Kong and China all want to negatively impact the POTUS at the expense of their own citizens, fans and wallets. Just ridiculous.




And the final bad part is that if we quarantine effectively (or implement social distance, etc), then we will flatten the infectious outbreak curve and not overwhelm the healthcare system which is what this all about. The virus is going to spread, there's no doubt, but we want to prevent an enormous spike that causes our hospitals to run out of beds, respirators, doctors, nurses, etc. And if the curve is indeed flattened, these dumb asses who are constantly espousing that this is an over reaction and we never needed to do it in the first place will, in their tiny, tiny minds, truly believe they were right. Since you can't prove a negative, we'll only have logic to refute them with and we know how that will go. Absence of evidence is not evidence of absence.

The Market
The broader stock market started declining in late February as reports of Covid-19 became more common and cases started appearing outside of China. Over two plus weeks, the Dow dropped from the mid 29k's to the mid 21k's. That's massive. Basically the Dow went back to where it was mid-2017. Since Wednesday the 4th, the Dow dropped: 900, 300, then cratered 2,000 on Monday, up 1,200, down 1,500, and down 1,300 on Thursday which left Friday to be a very important day. Was it going to be a third day down or a move up that would signal (possibly) a bottom going into the weekend. Friday moves in a time like this are really important because so much information can come out over the weekend and if investors don't want to take the risk of holding securities over the weekend, Friday will be a sell-off. If the securities are too much of a value, they will accept the risk/reward tradeoff. Well, the market soared 1,900 on Friday which is very good news in my opinion. Sure, we'll have up and down days for the next month or so for sure, but getting things under control can bring investors back into the market.

For the stock pickers out there, where can you find value? Not oil companies with the Russia/Opec dispute that's flooding the market and cut oil from $60 to $30. Not airlines or cruise lines either. Or Disney, despite their launch of a channel. One compelling play could be Home Depot ($205) and Lowe's ($96.5). As folks are quarantined, I see many a honey-do list finally getting attacked. Netflix ($336) could get a boost as well. Some super markets may get a bump, but I don't have enough info on any one of them in particular to list it here.  Stay well my friends and wash your hands!

Sports Changes

2020 continues rampaging our house as now I have come down with a cold. Ugh. LL came home yesterday from physical therapy on her foot and she was as white as a ghost (or as pale as Jim Gaffigan). She had to stop on the way home and throw up more than once. No fever, but she had had a headache.
Not sure what the root cause was, but we tried to eliminate things.
Food poisoning was an option.
What did she eat?
She had some hashbrowns from Burger King. Seemed safe enough. Oh and 1/4th of the sandwich she made for Marissa's lunch.
What was on it?
Salami, cheese, mayo.
Uh oh. Let me check the mayo.
It has a "best if used by date" of July 2019. That can't be good.
Call the school and get them to pitch the rest of that sandwich just in case. Make a new sandwich. Run it to school before lunch is over.
Mission accomplished.
LL is feeling better today, but I got worse overnight. And so the year rages on.

As usual, I've been thinking about my dad, especially when I hear of people passing like Robert Conrad. RC starred in a show my dad and I watched in black and white, The Wild, Wild West. It was James Bond meets spaghetti westerns and it was great. Pops and I rarely missed an episode (and this was pre-DVR mind you).

But the topic I wanted to write about was changes in sports that my dad has seen. We always talked about the sports news of the day when we spoke on the phone and often we'd discuss how we'd make a particular sport better. Many of those changes have actually occurred and I'm confident more of our improvements are to come (except quarterbacks wearing tutu's, which was more of an indictment on the lack of hitting and aggressive plan than a literally idea to improve football).

So I thought I'd list out the changes that my dad and I have seen in our lifetime, though I'm certainly missing some from his. These don't really include improvements in sports equipment. It's more about the rules or the way the game is played.

For baseball, he saw the DH introduced in the American League, but neither of us like that rule. We saw limits put on mound visits, automatic walks, screens put up in foul territory, phantom tags of bases and runners being eliminated by play reviews (all things we discussed frequently) and wildcard teams for the playoffs. Even lights at Wrigley qualifies I guess!

In hockey, TV review was a big one along with automatic icing being called, the trapezoid behind the net where goalies can play the puck, two line passes being allowed, and the addition of a second referee, not to mention the overtime shootout.

Football introduced challenges, 2 point extra points, moving back of kicked extra points, playoff expansion, the number of teams and divisions expanding, though we sort of went backwards on defining what a catch actually is. In college football, their overtime is one of the best things in sports and they have also created a four team playoff for the national championship.

In college basketball, they introduced a shot clock and the 3 point line at both levels. I remember many a low scoring game because a team went into the four corner stall. 

Two changes we didn't talk much about were the use of lasers in tennis for line calls and leaving the flag in now when you putt in golf. 

Changes I'm sure my dad would agree are still needed: actually be able to hit QB’s again, college football have to play in a conference tournament to be in playoffs, Super Bowl Sunday needs to be moved to Saturday, four pre-season NFL games reduced to two (starters don't  plays anyway), move the kickoff back to the 30, remove the DH in baseball and move to an electronic strike zone. 

Yeah, my dad (and me quite frankly) have seen a lot of changes, mostly for the better. Now though, I don't get to talk to him about the improvements left to be made or how "they" screwed it up.

A new year, a new decade, a bit of a flood

I guess every year and even every day starts a new decade, but this is my second entry of the more conventional decade: 2020. The year didn't start off well with LL breaking her foot and it's taken about 8 weeks to get to the point where she can walk without a boot or crutches.  She then developed a blood clot in her calf and pneumonia!! Just crazy. Then my sump pump and backup pump both failed during an unusual January rain storm and the basement flooded. It's been a crazy start. Here's what I wrote just after the flood:

I’m not much for astral plane creatures or ghosts and such. Luke 16:19-31 is a fascinating embodiment of why, religiously, it’s unlikely that someone would come back even to warn you about what’s on the other side. That said, this summer and again this fall, I had the urge to replace my aging sump pump (15 years old most likely). If something were to go wrong though, I do have a battery back-up pump just in case.

A week or two ago, something told me I should spend some time to get all of our framed pictures off the ground in the basement and organized to be put up. Framed were wedding pictures, kid pictures autographed stars and athletes. All sorts of wall pics that we just haven't figured out where they should go yet (even though it's been 3 years). I just had this nagging feeling that I needed to get all of these frames up off the floor at a minimum. 

Last night, while LL and the kids were at her folks’ house, I was weathering the storm at the house alone. Earlier in the evening, I had my company party downtown and had been at the office all day, so LL, with her bad foot, didn't join me. Though I didn’t hear the sump pump running, I figured it was on and I was just not hearing it when it flipped on. Still, I had this feeling that I really should go check on it. Turns out it wasn’t running and we got a LOT of rain.

This morning when I went down to see if my intuitions were accurate, I saw and felt the water immediately. Ugh. An hour later I had a new sump pump since I had been in contact with someone already. Another hour and a restoration company first responder was at the house assessing the damage. Two hours later and there was a crew of 6 stripping out the 15 year old carpet.

All in all, the whole thing sucks and I’m sore and it’s back breaking work to clean up. We had two shopvacs and another carpet cleaner picking up water for three hours. Getting the new sump pump working was key though as the flow of NEW water was halted at least. The pump ran pretty continuously for a few hours as more water from the drain tiles found its way to the pump.

So, this is not great but here’s why I’m writing about it: something or someone wanted me to get a new sump pump. Something or someone wanted me to get those pictures off the floor in the room by the sump pump so they wouldn’t be ruined. Someone, but who or how? Well, all I know is that this is exactly the type of thing my dad would want me to have taken care of in advance, just in case. And he would be pissed that I had not.

Sorry Pops!

Connect the Dots

Today was NOT the day I thought it would be; not even close. LL and I spent 5+ hours seeing various doctors and having tests run and images taken; all of them on LL. But if I told you that the events of today were the direct result of me trading in my 2017 Honda CRV for another 2017 Honda CRV, but for one with AWD, you might think that I'd be exaggerating or flat out lying.

But it's true!

The events begin back in August when I decided that with all the driving I'm doing to clients' and the office, and with winter approaching, I really needed to have a car with AWD instead of just FWD. The 2017 Honda CRV I had was the base model and a fine car in good shape with relatively low miles, but I knew I was going to get screwed on the trade in. As I told many folks, including a dealer or two, I'm okay getting screwed a little, just don't fuck me over! And so the search began. Some of the best deals were from dealers who didn't finance or didn't take trade-ins, neither of which I even knew existed. Eventually I found one car and was following it online. The price dropped about $4k one day so I hopped on getting a test drive. Turns out, the car was advertised as having 44k miles on it (mine had 31k I believe), but it really only had 34k! Boom! Did the deal and got the AWD version which also came with the sunroof I wanted, Apple Play for the phone, lane departure warnings, blind spot detection, cruise control that adjusts to the car in front of you, auto headlights including auto bright settings and heated seats for LL.

The car has been great and I've been very happy, until sometime in November, I started getting a low tire pressure warning light. Turns out there's a slow leak in the rear passenger tire and about every three days I need to fill the tire from 24 lbs of pressure to 32 lbs. Clearly it's something I need to take care of, but November was a busy month and I first had to get new tires for the mini-van (which I did) so that it was ready for winter. Since I had to fill up the tire every few days, I left the relatively small inflator (about the size of a shoe box) plugged into an extension cord that was plugged in near the door to the garage. Made sense to me as I had to use it so frequently.

And so it existed in this state for several weeks. Unfortunately, LL decided to hurriedly clean up one day and run things back and forth from the garage. You know where this is going don't you? Yep, she tripped over the cords and fell, breaking her foot. BREAKING her foot. Yikes. The doctor said three weeks with no weight bearing, lots of ice and we'll check it after that. Three weeks later the doctor says another three weeks, only now there's an infection in the foot too. Antibiotics, no weight bearing for another 3 weeks, we'll check it then. Today was the end of 6 weeks so we were planning to go to the appointment and hopefully have her just in a walking boot at worst.  Boy were we wrong about that.

LL had mentioned that her foot seemed discolored often during the last three weeks and that seemed odd. She also complained of cramping in her calf. Both things were mentioned to the doctor's assistant on Monday, but were dismissed and non-emergency details and just come in Friday (today) as planned. When discussing these things with the doctor, there was a perceivable change in demeanor of the doctor. She immediately applied pressure to the calf area asking if it hurt when she did so. LL indicated it did indeed. Well, the discoloration is normal and not a worry, but the calf pain could be a blood clot. Yikes! We need to go get an ultrasound on the calf and see what comes up.

Go to another area of the building, wait, have procedure, await results. Go to PCP instead of foot doctor for interpretation of results.

Yep, there's a blood clot. Now we need to go another section to have a CT Scan with contrast to see if there's any clots in the lungs.

Go to another area of the building, wait, have procedure, await results. Go back to PCP for interpretation.

No blood clots in the lungs. Phew. Oh, but there IS pneumonia in one of her lungs. WHAT? Yeah, pneumonia. She'd started coughing a bit earlier in the week and with her inability to really go outside, someone must have brought it in to her (I'm looking at you Thomas!).

All of that took 5+ hours. Now, I could be all pissy and complain about the time, but you know what I said thanks for at dinner during our prayer? I was thankful that there were no other clots. I was thankful that we have insurance. I was thankful that we have access to all of these types of doctors and their medical equipment so that we can get LL on the road to recovery.

It'll be 10 days on anti-biotics and blood thinners and two weeks of restricted walking followed by a week of easy walking before PT starts for gosh knows how long. Not a fantastic way to start the year!!!

And it all started because I needed AWD on my car......in August. Isn't that the way?

Favorite Smells

Lots has been going on around here including the non re-signing of Joe Maddon as Cubs manager. Much like the firing of Lovie Smith from the Bears after going 10-6 but failing to make the playoffs, I get it. Joe won the world series, but the Cubs have slowly declined since then. Most of that responsibility falls on Theo Epstein the GM for the type of players he has brought in…what they call three outcome players: home run, walk, strike out. They hit a lot of dingers but fail to do the little things to keep an inning alive, like making contact, advancing a runner, sacrificing. This year I yearned for a player like Rod Carew, Tony Gwynn, Cecil Cooper, Pete Rose or George Brett. They made contact….a LOT. Way too many unproductive outs on the Cubs and their pitching staff got old in a hurry.2020 will be an interesting year as there should be significant changes. I’d be fine dumping Bryant, despite his pedigree. We need more players like Zobrist or Hoerner who make contact and work counts. Rizzo does that as well and Heyward when he’s in the leadoff spot. Otherwise the team gets two strikes and just swings harder. Ugh.

670 The Score radio replayed an all-star game interview with Joe where they asked him a ton of questions. https://670thescore.radio.com/media/audio-channel/joe-maddon-answers-laurence-holmes-outside-box-fun-questions One of them was what are your favorite smells? That’s a great question. 

Two of my favorite smells are burning leaves and a gas/oil mix used for small motors like a boat. The former reminds me of nothing in particular, other than vacation and relaxing. You can’t burn stuff in the city, but when you travel to remote places, people there can!

The gas/oil mix smell reminds me of fishing with my dad up on Beaver Island Michigan. Not only was it vacation (though I was a kid so when is it NOT vacation really?), but it was great times with just pops and me. Mostly it was quiet time out on a lake, except for when he farted, but once in a while we interrupted the silence by accidentally catching a splashy fish. My dad was tired of me asking for help baiting my hook, (or did I just really want a lure?) so he put a huge Red Devil spoon on my line which was as big as most of the fish I had caught on any trip up to that point. Much to his chagrin, I caught a 19” Northern Pike using that spoon. Ha! I do remember catching a 16” Rainbow Trout at some point too, but those are the only two memorable catches.

Fresh blacktop has a particular smell that is always appealing to me. I remember when I was 5-6, the park district re-topped the small asphalt parking they had at the end of my street. I can’t pinpoint the other positive associations with that smell, and maybe that’s just the big one, but it was always a summertime smell and that meant fun!!

Late Father's Day

Father’s Day just passed and it was the first one since pops passed away. LL and the kids showered me with gifts and affection all weekend and that really took some of the sting out of him not being here. He was never big on celebrating Father’s Day, or his birthday or whatever, anyway. He just liked to get everyone together. Every Father’s Day, on Facebook, I like to post these pictures in a montage.

I need to find out my great grandfather’s name. For some reason, probably because I never met him, it’s escaping me. The oldest picture there is from 1936 and if there were a picture of my grandfather as a baby, it would have been from 1900! 

On a hot day like today, 90+ in the burbs, pops would be definitely not be going outside, so I'm sure we would have chatted on the phone about who knows what, but most likely what time the Cubs played (since it wasn't 1:20), the weather and if his joints hurt because of the weather, but we'd talk about the sports events of the day and what we were or were not watching. I'm sure he would have asked if LL and the kids got home from Michigan safely or not and to let him know when they did. It would have been a not overly complex or lengthy conversation, but boy do I wish I could have another one with him. 

*****Edit: More information from my mom through some old correspondence. My great grandfather's name was Harry T. Sutton, born in Cambria County, PA 10/26/1873. Son of David and Mary (Boland) Sutton. How about that?? Joseph Earl was my grandpap (that's what they call them in PA). The Sutton's "up the mountain" in Cambria County 

Harry was a carpenter by trade and a member of the union. He passed around 8/1948 and was survived by his wife Marie (Gutierrez), son M. Lee Sutton, Joseph Earl, Mary Schmidt, and Beatrice Eisenberg. Harry had 6 grand children at the time he passed and 7 great grandchildren. Harry had one sister, Molly Weakland. 

Harry was a member of Mount Carmel Church in Altoona and Knights of St. George. He's buried in St. John's Cemetery in Altoona, PA. My mom thinks Harry's parents were married by Prince Gallitzin (a Polish royalty member who gave it up to be a priest in PA). Cool stuff!

1949 Bowman

My dad and I were pretty different people, though we certainly had much in common as well. We both loved sports, mostly baseball and football, but I also enjoy hockey (including skating myself), skiing, tennis, racquetball, lacrosse, and during the World Cup, soccer. Pops called soccer “a communist sport” while we were growing up and ironically one of my sisters played on the first women’s high school team at my high school. Communist sport or not, he was proud of her.

Pops collected knives, watches and guns. He also really liked antique cars from the ‘50’s. I collected baseball cards….and that was about it. Oh, stamps for a little while. Not that I didn’t like guns, but it never seemed all that necessary to own one much less a dozen. Now I do own one though and will probably get a second. Knives just seemed a bit odd to me to collect and I was never a big fan of watches, though my dad collected pocket watches which seem to have some redeeming quality about them. Grandpa Sutton worked on the trains and I think that’s where my dad got an affinity for pocket watches. Some of the pocket watches he collected were actually pretty cool.

The Fox network received most of my dad’s attention, while I prefer actual news. Regardless of how much I loved him, he was always able to fall prey to the tripe they peddle and how they peddle it. I guess that’s the point (as to why they exist) and why they make money hand over fist. Nothing irritated him more than when I would send him a Snopes link that would completely dismiss a “fact” he heard on Fox as complete hokum. Though I took some joy in it, I really just wanted him to find another news source so we could have intelligent conversations about current events. But you weren’t going to change dad’s mind….on pretty much anything!

We both had great senses of humor though, enjoyed Seinfeld WAYYY too much, loved watching football, enjoyed a good baseball game, loved my kids and a good bowl of chili. Loved getting the family together at the holidays and giving gifts. Neither of us were too good at receiving gifts.

Speaking of which, I’m reminded of probably the best gift I ever gave someone and certainly the best I ever gave my dad. It was a Christmas gift and involved baseball. My dad was 13 in 1949 and he was collecting baseball cars, despite not having much money. Cards were not very expensive, but if you’re poor, everything is expensive. Pops collected just about half the set of 1949 Bowman’s, the second year of baseball cards printed in color. Fast forward to the mid 1970’s and my dad has a wife working the second shift, he has two jobs himself while taking college classes and oh yeah, they have three kids. Those roughly 100 baseball cards from his childhood fetched $100, which would make a wonderful Christmas for his family or buy food for nearly a month. There was no decision to be made and he sold the cards.

Fast forward again, this time to 30 years or so. While going through some papers, we came across a list of those baseball cards typed up by my mom. I asked what it was and they relayed the story to me. I was crushed, especially knowing how I felt about the cards I collected as a child. So over the next few years, given a list of the cards that my mom had saved, I bought every card he had sold, and then some.  I like to think that at least one of them was actually one of the cards that he owned. Until the day he died, it was the only gift I saw him open that made him tear up.

The Black Guy from Springfield

Now, I know I’ve jumped all around while putting down these memories, but that’s ok. It doesn’t have to be sequential. My memories of dad flood back all at the same time, as one point in time, so me organizing them into a particular decade or based on where we lived, is really just for the reader’s benefit. The past is the past and while it happened over time, it’s as much a point in time (the past) as anything.

Not many people know that while I graduated from the University of Illinois with two degrees, I didn't actually get into the business school right away. The application day snuck up on me and my family as we didn't have anyone have to meet an application deadline for college before. Even getting an application in at all was somewhat lucky as it was just casually mentioned to me at lunch in the cafeteria that the deadline was the next day. With a late application and acceptance into the liberal arts school, from which I transferred as soon as possible, I also got a late housing assignment. The late housing assignment came with a questionable classmate who turned out to be a very obnoxious person with whom I only had minimal contact in short bursts during my class days. But that's not all. I was actually in a "triple" that would later be turned into a "quad" with two other people! Yikes! One of those guys, a notice from the University told me, was Samuel Moore from Springfield. My dad was very upset, because he was positive "Samuel" was a black guy. It didn't bother me at all, but having TWO roommates, and later THREE, DID bother me. As it turned out though, Sam was not in fact black, and the worst roommate ever was the one I selected from my high school class. Sam and I moved into a double after our first semester. 

While I was in college, my parents came down to see me a few times pretty much every year. Those were great visits, filled with love, new shoes and food. Due to my academic performance in high school, making the honor roll every semester of every year, my dad lost a bet and bought me a car, albeit a used one (1977 Buick Regal in 1984). It ran well enough to get me back and forth from school as needed, so even if my folks couldn’t come visit me, I could go back home some weekends.

But sometimes my dad would want to make his presence known without visiting. On my 19^th or 20^th  birthday, he did just that. I was working my shift in the lunchroom, refilling beverages I believe was my main task that day, when in comes a belly dancer. Yep, my dad had conspired with my roommate to get me a belly dancer in front of everyone eating lunch that day. She had me sit in a chair in the front of the lunchroom and danced right in front of me. My dad howled on the phone later that day when I called him, and anytime we talked about that day in the years following. Ugh.

Pops knew Sam was a good guy and let him know it every chance he could. When my folks came down to take me out to dinner, Sam came with. Food for Joe meant food for Sam as well. And that was just fine for Sam, the second youngest of 13 kids and whose father had passed away. Sam would end up going to law school and we’d room together for my 5^th year as well, making it 3 of the 5 years that we lived together. He certainly could have asked for a better roommate, but I couldn’t have!!

Sam in his Adidas shirt with me standing in the doorway. 

This was me on the left of the picture, Sam in the middle and Keith (across the hall) on the right. 

We were dressed in our bathrobes for Halloween. 

Whistling Memories

Before cell phones and the internet, everyone played outside after school and all day during the summer. We’d wander around the little wooded area down the street, or play a sport in the street (softball or football usually) or ride our bikes around the area. It was glorious. The only problem was: when was it time to go home? 

One family, the Kibbys, had a light on their porch that we could all see and when it was turned on, they had to go home. My dad would whistle. That’s right, whistle. He could whistle really loud and not one of those stick your fingers in your mouth and make a piercing noise whistle. Nope. His whistle was melodic and unmistakable.  If we were playing within a two to three block area, we could hear the whistle or someone we were playing with would hear it. Normally that was the call for dinner, but sometimes it was also the “Hey, you’re out too late and I don’t know what the hell is wrong with the Kibby’s porch light but it’s time to come home!” whistle. It was truly a sound of summer.

Another sound of summer, though not relegated to the summer, was my dad farting. You may be appalled, but it wasn’t uncommon to hear farting around my dad. He honestly couldn’t care less and often thought it hysterical. One vivid memory I have of him farting is when we were fishing up on Beaver Island. Now, we’d go “fishing” on one of the lakes, but it was mostly just time for my dad to relax and do a whole bunch of nothing in the nice calm, serene environment. 

We didn’t get up early to catch the early fish feeding or stay until dusk to get them hitting at the end of the day. Nope, we’d securely lock in the late morning to early afternoon, sun directly over-head time slot.  The old 5 h.p. Evenrude motor would get filled up and we’d have the reserve tank as well all lined up. To add insult to the fishing injury however, he would often put an impossibly large lure on my hook, essentially ensuring that I wouldn’t even get a nibble. One year it bit him in the ass though as I caught a 19” Pike that he then had to clean so we could eat. But clean it he did, as with other fish of size that we caught over the years. He definitely had those basic “dad skills” down pat.

Memories from all over

Turning back the clock to the early 70’s, while we were still living in Pleasant Ridge, MI, there were several memories that stand out with my pops. He set up a Pitchback for me in the back yard for when he wasn’t around and I wanted to play ball. I used that thing all the time, but we spent a lot of time in the back yard throwing as well. There was a baseball field (sort of!) at the end of our street too and we’d go down there and hit and throw. Lots of ball playing growing up as you can tell.

One very memorable trip to the ball field at the end of the street ended in disaster. My dad put me on the handle bars as he rode the bike down the sidewalk. It wasn’t that far really, maybe a city block, though as a kid it really seemed further (as most places feel when you have little legs). Unfortunately I lost my balance or he hit something or maybe just bad luck struck and my foot found its way into the spokes of the bike! Yeah, sounds gross and awful and I’m sure it was, though I don’t remember much of the incident until I was in the bathtub at home. As no stitches were involved, I think it was mostly just skin torn off around my ankle. Poor pops. Just trying to do a good thing and it comes back to bite him. I can’t even imagine how bad I would feel if I did something similar (of course by accident) to my son. Ugh. Just awful.

But we did a bunch of other stuff around the house as well. Two shows we used to watch a lot were the old black and white version of Wild, Wild West and the weekly programming of Hockey Night in Canada. We’d sit on the floor, leaning up against the sofa with me sitting between his legs on his stomach and watch the episodes. The same position would be used for Hockey Night in Canada, which was one day a week and would involve usually Montreal or nearby Toronto. Inevitably, there would be hockey fight and then we’d start tussling and yelling "Hockey Fight in Hockey Night in Canada!!!" Great fun.

We made up games to keep us entertained as well. In Naperville, where we moved when I was 10, we would play Nerf Hockey in the living room. The living room was normally off-limits to the kids, so it was special to even go in there. Now, when you have 3 kids and a dog and not one, but two rooms (formal dining room) are off-limits, you don’t have many places to go to be alone and it can suddenly be cramped. It never really felt that way to me though I guess because we each had our bedroom and we spent a lot of time outside. Back to Nerf Hockey. It was just a game that we’d play on our knees where we would try to “slap” a small Nerf ball past the other guy with our hand. I’m sure those games ended up in Hockey Fight in Canada type events as well. Ha! 

The baseball card collection I currently possess and continue to build started early on with pops as well. He would trade samples of Schick blades and Listerine to the Topps salesmen and bring me home a box of baseball cards.  Those were awesome road trips for him to come home from needless to say! I kept them all in pretty good shape fortunately and still enjoy them. We worked on some sets through the years together (in the ‘70’s) by going to baseball card shows at the Hillside Holiday Inn as well as the national show periodically in Rosemont. One of his favorite stories is how I talked down Mad Dog someone or other, a local card dealer, to sell me a set of 1970 Topps for $60. It was quite the deal!!

Another great card collecting story happened much later while driving back to Altoona PA to see relatives (one of our two vacation sites growing up, the other being Beaver Island MI). We stopped in a nearby town where an auction was taking place that offered up a large selection of stuff including a big box of baseball cards. The guy running the auction let us buy the cards for $500 without going through a premium or the auction process. AND he let me look through the cards, which seemed only somewhat compelling until I came across I think 4 Reggie Jackson 1969 rookie cards and a bunch of others. That’s when I said we had to get it. While I was examining the cards, my dad was talking to the auctioneer. The guy said, “Wow, you look familiar. Are you from around here?” Turns out the guy went to school with my dad a few years behind him and he remembered my dad! Why? Because my dad could impersonate the school principal over the PA system and one day he dismissed the school mid morning. Caused quite the stir, but my dad didn’t get in trouble because the principal couldn’t prove he did it, even though he knew he did. Too funny.

I had another memory of us going to the Hillside Holiday Inn for a show one Saturday morning. On the way, while dad was driving his work Chevy Malibu (it was always a Chevy Malibu), dad asked me for a comb. Now I was in my young teens I’m guessing at this point. “I don’t have one.” I said. “How the hell can you not have a comb? Why aren’t you prepared?” he retorted. “Well, why don’t you have yours?” That earned me a knock across the chest, but what could he say? Can’t blame me for being unprepared if you’re not prepared yourself!! Ha! Really funny the stuff you remember when you stop and think. 

The memories continue!

Two relationship memories stand out involving my dad. The first, prior to getting married the first time at 23 after being engaged at 21, my dad talked to me in the driveway of the house and asked if I was sure about what I was doing. Not that marrying this particular person was a bad idea, but that I could be single, living in Chicago with a good job. Maybe I would be happier. Of course I was pretty pissed as any ignorant 21 year old male would be. That was one time that he offered sound advice.

The other relationship memory involved, ironically, the woman I started seeing after my divorce from the woman that my dad questioned me marrying. We had been dating for a while, maybe six months or so, and after one particular visit to my parents’ house, I noticed that my dad was basically ignoring my girlfriend. He wouldn’t talk to her specifically if he could avoid it and sometimes talked over her. The next day I called him up and said, this is bullshit. If you continue to act like this when I bring her over, I’ll stop coming over. Another month goes by, I go over to a family gathering at their house with my girlfriend and he pulls the same crap. When I get home, I call my parents and tell them I will not be coming home for Thanksgiving that year (the next scheduled family event). In 52 years, that was the only Thanksgiving I haven’t been home for. The next day my mom called and said my dad would be better for the next visit. I said if he’s not, I’m not coming home for Christmas either. Apparently she raised holy hell with him at that prospect after already being pissed at him about Thanksgiving. He’d done similar things with my siblings, but I was the only one to nip it in the bud. Ever since that holiday season though, we had a much different, better relationship dynamic. He seemed to respect me more and as women came and went in my life, he fully supported my decision with each of them. He was excited and happy when they arrived and lamented their loss when they were gone, exactly what I needed from him.

Other memories of my dad. There are so many it’s tough to narrow down. We played catch with the baseball and football out in the side yard in Naperville more times than I can remember. I would practice pitching to him, he’d throw grounders and we’d just toss the football. It’s tough to remember if we talked about anything at the time other than what we were actually doing, but I’m sure there was talk of the Sox, Cubs, Tigers, Lions and Steelers (I hadn’t converted to a Bears fan yet). Much of the reason I was able to play baseball and then softball until I was almost 50 was because of that time early on, getting reps in the side yard with pops.

My dad wasn’t always active though. He loved a cold house in the summer, well below 70 degrees, and I often had to wear sweatpants around the house to keep warm, despite oppressive heat outside! When the Cubs would come on in the afternoon, 1:20 of course, if his paperwork was done, my dad would take up residence in his favorite chair in front of our 1979 Magnovox that would be a staple for the next 40 years (ironically to be replaced on his birthday/Christmas by us kids with a new tv, but he passed away before getting to see it). Not long into the game, the sound of the game would be drowned out by the snoring of my napping dad. That scene was as much a part of my childhood as any scene I can remember.

Starting the memory posts of my great dad

Where do I want to go now with this entry and future entries? How about memories of dad? Sounds good. I could take a whole bunch of time and try to create some order and flow, but I'd rather just put these out periodically, for my own edification. 

  

Let me start with a memory that was brought up by one of the neighborhood kids (2 years older than me) at the funeral. After I read what I wrote down, breaking down repeatedly, my buddy asked if it was okay for him to say something (let’s call him DK). I nodded yes and he went to the podium. He started reminiscing about how my dad would come home from work and be the “all time quarterback” while throwing footballs to DK and me. DK said he was always a bit jealous of me because my dad was able to do these kinds of things while his father was working. Plus he had six brothers and sisters, so attention was in short supply. DK understood that his dad had to work, so that was fine, but he realized later in life that he would make sure that HE was the kind of dad who be the out there throwing the football around with the neighborhood kids. I honestly had no idea how important my dad was in his life. But we all have people like that in our lives that we have impacted and the more outgoing, giving and open you are as person, the more people you impact. I’m sure my dad impacted many more people in many more ways than I’m aware.

In baseball, for instance, he was able to bond with some of the kids who were “on the fringe” of attitudes let’s say. These players would use chewing tobacco during games for instance and their life outside of baseball was similar. But my dad was similar as a kid, so I’ve heard, and that allowed him to communicate very well with them. So if other coaches didn’t want to deal with them, my dad would take them. It didn’t happen often, but he was always open to it.

And I remember my dad around the baseball field all the time when I was a kid. In fact, in high school, when he wasn’t there, I sort of felt like I was missing a layer….a blanket of security. He was often the manager, but sometimes a coach, and always involved. We talked baseball quite a lot, something that would continue for the next 40 years.

Even when I wasn’t playing, we were around the baseball field together umpiring. I know umpiring together was one of my dad’s favorite things to do and I totally get that now as a father. While I remember us doing a lot of games together, of course the only specific games I remember is when there was some kind of controversy. Two games actually come to mind: one where I was behind the plate and the other when I was in the field. The game I was behind the plate umpiring a Mexican League game in Aurora, the pitcher for one team was throwing a late breaking curveball. Maybe unfortunately for him, I saw it as breaking TOO late and not catching the plate. Apparently from everywhere else on the field (and off) they looked like strikes, but not to me. What could I do? If I think it’s a ball, then I have to call it a ball. It’s possible though that I didn’t have enough experience with a good curve ball from behind the plate. So that wasn’t a fun day as one team was super pissed at me. The other game is a little less clear in my memory as it was an odd play that involved multiple runners on base. My position was behind the pitcher so I could see a play at first (straight on) or second. My dad was behind the plate and in some circumstances would rotate to make a call at third. Well that happened and there was a play at first where the throw beat the batter, but the team at bat thought the first baseman pulled his foot. Unfortunately, since my dad was covering third, we didn’t have a clear view of his foot coming off the base like you would from down the foul line. One team was chirping at us all the way into the parking lot.

Now mind you, those were two games out of probably a hundred or more that we worked, so the fact that I remember ANYTHING about them is somewhat remarkable, but also means that for the majority of games we had no issues.

Time to start writing about my dad

(Author's note: I started writing this a few weeks ago, got sick and wrote some more, hence the mis-timed first line.)

It’s been a month and a half since my father passed away. Finally, without thinking too much about him specifically, I think I can write about his passing and our life together without breaking down. That’s my thought at least; we’ll see if that’s how it works out.

Officially he passed away at 4:14 pm at Edward Hospital on December 7^th, the anniversary of the bombing of Pearl Harbor. To some degree that’s somewhat poetic as he was always very patriotic. In reality, he passed away the day before sometime around 12:30 I believe and in the driveway of their house, where I grew up from the time I was 10, coincidentally just down the street from the hospital. He and my mom were getting into the car to go to a doctor’s appointment for him at Edward. However, when he got mostly into the car, he just sort of slumped. My mom got out to of the car (she was the only one allowed to drive the last few years) and was just barely able to get his one leg into the car enough so she could close the door. They went straight to the ER where he was already unresponsive. After working on him for some undetermined amount of time, they did get his heart start again. Just recently, probably a month earlier, he had a pacemaker put in as his heart rate was around 40 bpm. The pacemaker bumped it up to 60 bpms and was supposed to increase his quality of life by circulating his blood a bit more. Some doctors had recommended this procedure a few years before and it was probably a good idea. We’ll never know how his quality of life would have improved over that last 18 months at least if he had received one a few years earlier.

Dad never regained consciousness and had no brain activity by the next morning. His grandson, my son Thomas (named after dad), was going to celebrate his 4^th birthday on Saturday the 8^th and I didn’t want to forever associate dad’s passing with Thomas’ birthday and the whole family knew two things: 1) they agreed with me about Thomas’ birthday and 2) knew dad would never want to be kept alive on a machine with no chance of being normal again. So we took him off the ventilator and machines around 4:00 or slightly after and he did not stay with us long.

Several priests came by to administer last rights earlier in the day. Dad was an altar boy growing up and went to school at Altoona Catholic, so he had been pretty religious growing up. Even when raising us kids, we went to church and attended a few years of Catholic grade school. His stories about nuns hitting him and such were common place. Apparently dad could imitate the head priest at the school and one day got a hold of the PA microphone and dismissed the school. Unfortunately for the priest, he could never prove that my dad did it. Years later, after the family came along, we stopped in a neighboring town to visit an auction house. The guy who would be running the auction got to talking with dad while I sorted through a box of baseball cards. Finally the guy remembered my dad and said, “Oh Lord, you’re Thom Sutton! You’re the guy who dismissed the school!” My dad was not very secretly proud of that moment.

So where am I now? Well, I don’t break down crying during the day anymore as I had for the first month. Periodically, I can talk about him without tearing up. I miss him a ton while driving home from work, the time we usually talked. Pretty much everyone else I know is filling that void: my mom, Laura, Joisey Ken and random work calls.  It’s not the same, though I appreciate people putting up with my extra calls, especially my mom. She even called me the day after a Bears game to see how I was doing and if I wanted to discuss the game. Pretty sweet of her! That’s part of why I’m trying to do more things for my mom and help her out more. She’s on her own now (physically) at the house, so all of us kids are helping out.

Where do I want to go now with this entry? How about memories of dad? That's where the next entry will pick up.