Life, death and baseball

The baby is two months old now and today was shot day. He was very happy through the whole appointment. Then the doctor left and sent the nurse in. The baby was on the exam table smiling at the nurse as she readied the syringes. She gave him the first shot and it took a second to register but then he screamed. By the third shot he was bright red and screaming and shaking. Within a minute he was calm again and he even smiled and cooed on the way home. We'll see how the next few days go.

I can't complain, he is a very content baby. He is now sleeping through the night (9:30pm until 6:30am) so I've been getting some rest lately. He has to have an operation in a couple weeks so I'm a bit worried about that. I know that doctors are doing these operations on kids every day but it is a little scary to think of him going under the knife.

My sister-in-law who has a week old baby and a two year old had a stroke and is in intensive care. They were not sure if she was going to make it but she seems to have stabilized and is now showing signs of improvement. I kept thinking of her kids. How terrible it would be to grow up without a mother.

We also had sort of a family reunion. Not under the best circumstances but it was nice to see everyone. My father's brother died so my aunts and uncles and some cousins were all in town for the funeral. I had not seen my one cousin since she spent the summer with us in 1976. My uncle from New Jersey was there, I hadn't seen him since I ran into him on campus during my junior year of college.

It was nice to hear some of the same old stories from a different perspective. My dad always tells us the story about how he was so poor growing up that the family dog hung himself. Well, my uncle told the same story. He said that they kept the dog on a long rope attached to the clothesline and one day the dog got into a tree and the rope got wrapped around a branch and then it jumped to its death.

Then there were the baseball stories. My uncle who died was a very good ball player for the local team in the 1940s and 50s. In fact, three of the four brothers played baseball and my grandfather was a local celebrity in the 1920s and 30s because of his baseball talents. My dad was the only brother who did not play organized baseball. He was sick for most of his childhood so he did not play but he always loved the game. My grandfather and my uncle were both catchers and my brother played catcher on the high school team.

My playing days ended after Little League. I could hit but my eyesight was already at 20/800 by then and there were no plastic or lightweight lenses back then. After Little League my playing was limited to games with the neighborhood kids. One game I was pitching and I caught a line drive in the sternum from about 40 feet. I had purple stitch marks on my chest for a week.

Anyhow, that's what has been going on in my life. Political ranting will resume with my next post.