The Eyes Have It

May 4, 2008

I have scrubbed my hands more times in the past three weeks than I have since Erin's original diagnosis and treatment. Cleanliness may or may not be close to Godliness, but it certainly helps to soap your hands up before dealing with eye infections. Willie is much better now, but it doesn't look like dirty hands are in my future. Erin's right eye got pink and crusty last night. This amateur doctor is making the call early. . .conjunctivitis. I'll try an over-the-counter remedy until Monday when we can see Dr. Parr and get some antibiotic drops. Looks like I'll be in the hand wash/eye drop biz at least another week.

On Friday, Erin, Nico, Adam and Jesse got into the spirit of the weekend on Friday by doing some dewberry picking, then some tart baking. Not satisfied with a simple dewberry tart, they got creative and added apricot jam, crushed pineapple, mandarin oranges, and apple bits to their tarts to multiple the taste and diversity of their creations. The entire process (INCLUDING CLEAN UP) was self managed and adult free. In fact, we were relegated to the deck with liquid libations to await the final product. Let me assure you that the tart's butter crusts were the tastiest pastry I have had in a very long time and made completely from scratch.


The Mystic '97 brought home the silver medal from South Texas Cup play yesterday and qualified for the state tournament in two weeks. We were three minutes away from the gold, having taken a 1-0 lead early in the first half and held it, but a tying goal at the end of regulation threw us into overtime, where we ran out of steam. Erin played bravely, despite her back injury. She has made it through just one complete practice in the last six weeks, and usually goes until her back pains her, then sits out and ices it down the rest of practice. With only two substitutes yesterday (the other team had seven), the team needed her to play as many minutes as she could. She managed to space her time out across both halves and the two extra periods, starting both halves, with a midway break, then going back in. It was tough to keep her back warm and loose when she was out, but I ably served as masseuse in between, and we kept her from tying up.

I want to end with photos and Erin's own explanation of her recent invention project for school (made from balloons, papier mache, and assorted detritus from around the house):

My invention is called the P.A.T or the personal air transportation. Everyone will soon have one after it becomes popular. It solves several of the world’s problems:

• gas usage;
• legs tiring on long car trips; and
• driving when tired

A P.A.T is a ship that has balloons inflated on the bottom. These balloon’s work like hot air balloons to float the car up into the air. The difference is that instead of using some sort of flammable gas to heat the air to inflate the balloons, the P.A.T. depends on solar power to create heat to fill the balloons. Heat, of course, rises making the whole ship float. To propel the P.A.T. forward, there is a large fan array attached to the end of the ship which is also powered by solar power. On the inside, the driver and the passengers ride in comfortable seats. The driver can turn and face the others in the car because the P.A.T. flies it self. It comes equipped with sensors on the outside, so if it spots anything in motion coming toward the ship it alerts the driver. There is also an alert if the moving car is approaching something stationery. Another feature of the P.A.T is that each seat is equipped with different exercise machines: tread mills, bike pedals, etc. My model only shows the bike peddles, but each machine allows the person to do something useful while traveling.