Return of the Redeye

Well, the puppy is on my lap again today, and my 5-year-old is gently playing with her and very helpfully preventing her from chewing on the laptop.  These are the moments you live for.

I still think putting a puppy in the lap of everyone in the California state legislature could go a long way to help them cooperate.  Everyone seems to smile when they see a puppy.  (Everyone, that is, except the manager at Target.)

My wife, Laurie, got home last night at around 10pm from her conference.  I had already fallen asleep in Peter’s bottom bunk, after putting his older brother, Isaiah, to sleep in the top.

(Ok, the gentle play has officially ended, and now Peter brought over the chew toy and is jumping on the chair.  Those peaceful moments are fleeting.)

This morning, Isaiah is in the other room listening to a book on CD on the old laptop I repaired.  It works well enough to play a CD, at least.  You know, most people don’t really need the top-of-the-line computer to be satisfied. Isaiah certainly seems to be enjoying the story – he’s cackling and saying something about air conditioning.

Anyways, the puppy is still in my lap, even though Laurie is home, because she barfed in Laurie’s lap a few minutes ago.  Coming home is always challenging for Laurie.  On her trip, she caught a cold, her feet swelled up, and  she had trouble sleeping.  Then, driving home from the airport last night she had trouble staying awake in the car, and I didn’t leave the house in the best shape – papers all over the kitchen counters, so it’s been a difficult morning for her. We all try to tread lightly on the first morning of her return.

I guess I’m not the easiest person to live with, but I try to do my best to be tolerable.  I do the dishes, wash the floors, read the mail, pay the bills, and so forth.  Laurie does all the cooking and shopping.  While we were dating, I got a fortune cookie at our favorite restaurant that read, “You are domestically inclined and will soon be happily married.”

I guess that worked out pretty well.

The Ageing Xperience – Approaching 40 as Gen X

the puppy

Here I sit with my laptop and a six-week-old puppy on my lap, starting this blog that I’ve been thinking about for quite some time, to I explore the shallow and deep waters of ageing as a Gen Xer.

We got the puppy because my wife needed another female in the house.  We have two boys, 5 and 7 years old, and a 10 year old schnauzer, and sometimes the maleness can be overwhelming.  My wife can’t seem to appreciate the excitement that hot wheels cars and tracks engender in the male child (and many adult males, for that matter).

So, we got this girl puppy just in time for my wife to go out of town to a conference for three days, and I am on full-time puppy duty (pun intended) until her return.  If she wasn’t so beautiful, I  might be resentful.   But luckily my wife really is that beautiful.

This blog is going to be  on these very themes just mentioned – marriage, parenthood, pet-ownership, and just general life experience, counting down to age 40.  I may continue the blog after that point, if I make it that far, but I’ve learned to take things one step at a time.  It’s always good to have a plan to depart from.

I think there must be a lot of Gen Xers out there like me who are approaching the big four-oh, but I don’t see many people writing about our experience.  It seems like a lot of other areas, people just sort of forget about us “in betweeners.”

So here are some questions to see if you might want to follow this blog:

Do you really expect to get any social security at retirement?

Do you consider yourself spiritual but not religious?

Do you have kids using language like “snap!” or “that’s sick” to describe things that are either good or bad, but can’t quite determine which refers to which?

Do you sometimes feel like part of “the janitor generation,” cleaning up after selfish messy boomers, but still seemingly just preparing space for someone else younger to occupy productively? (ok, now I’m preaching. . .)

Are you a self-employed musician and minister, with two active, intelligent boys, a  wife, and a puppy warming your belly as you type on a . . .(oh, wait, that’s me.  Ignore this.)

I was just thinking yesterday, though, that if somebody put a puppy in the lap of every person in the California legislature, maybe they would soften up enough to finally agree and pass a budget.  But then, maybe they would just try to sell them to balance the budget.  Still, I’m glad to be living in California and not Illinois right now (for reasons of weather and politics).

Well, I’ve got to go take my son to school.  Time, to go, puppy.