I remember when Aspen and I were living in Tucson and Callahan was still in her belly. I remember sitting outside the house on the front porch, looking up at the sky, watching father Jupiter cross the night sky. I felt really blessed then. And I’m still blessed now, what with my three boys.
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I’m flowing more easily with the school’s weird schedule this year. It’s back to “early to bed and early to rise” for me now.

But tonight, I should be going to sleep right now, but I just smoked (I’m medical) and it woke my creative side. “Stay with it,” Ariana would say, did say earlier today. Actually, I am in bed now, with the lights turned down low. I’m writing on a small note pad. Sometimes, when I do this, I can barely read my writing the next morning.

Maybe I’m starting to write a new book now, one about my many blessings, about my wife, my three boys, and my daughter Ariana. It would be another Wanderer book, The Blessings of Wanderer perhaps.
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Callahan is back into skateboarding. He started this afternoon at the skate park. He skated better than ever. He showed a lot more confidence than before. Ric, his skating teacher, said that Callahan had taken it up to a new level, a small but definite quantum leap.

Callahan’s a member of the skate club at the YMCA. We’re all members there. Aspen and I lift weights there, and she and Callahan are in a Karate class. They’ve both earned their purple belts a while ago and are ready to move up a notch next month.

Jake was suspended from school today, and tomorrow too. He got into a fight with another boy on the playground earlier today. The schools today are so uptight. Besides being fearful of boys fighting, they have gotten rid of all the teetter-totters and those little merry-go-rounds. The schools have forgotten that little boys like to be daring, like to take risks and have adventures.

Jake’s friend at school was asking him earlier today, before he was suspended, about his enlarged calves. His friend told him that they looked unusual. They are for most of us perhaps, but for kids with MD, they are quite usual, being one of the first visible signs of the disease. Jake was upset by this. He didn’t want to hear his friend focus upon his unusual calves.

We went with Zane to his school this morning. He’s going to Head Start. It doesn’t start for a week, but he got to meet his new teacher. And Aspen got to fill out more paperwork for the next year. Always paperwork. While we were there, he was shy in a cute way. Both of his friends from last year have moved away. He’ll have to make new friends. He will. Zane blesses all of us with his innocence, his fierceness, and his incredible love.

Later, when we were all home for the evening, the boys, anticipating Halloween perhaps, got out their old masks, their Nerf guns and their light sabers. They costumed up and went running around in the backyard, yelling and having a great time, until I realized it was way past bedtime for a school night. They didn’t want to come in, of course, but eventually they did. They don’t like the school schedule anymore than I do.