I’m down sick with a head cold and have been in a fog all day. Even lost my voice for a bit this morning, which seriously confused the little man. I was feebly gesturing and croaking, trying to indicate that he should go downstairs to eat breakfast. Thankfully the husband stepped in. He packed the lad’s lunch and drove him to the bus stop. I am in no shape to be driving. And since the guys appear to be healthy I suspect I picked this crud up the other day when I went to the clinic (for an unrelated health issue). Grrr. The weekend is officially shot. We’ve had to cancel plans we made for this evening. But it’s not the end of the world, even though I’ve been on a post-apocalyptic kick all week. Monday night I watched Shaun of the Dead. Wednesday night I watched 28 Days Later. And last night I started re-reading my trade paperbacks of Y: The Last Man. I’d say the Evil Dead movies should be next but I have to admit, I don’t own them. Perhaps I’ll just stare at the ceiling some more until I drift back to sleep…

It’s been a day of firsts. First day of August. First break in this heatwave in quite a while. First real rain in ages. First time I took the little man to Intelligent Nutrients (for vegan cake, and tea for me). And the first eye exam for the little man. The good news - he was fantastic during the appointment, totally listened to the doc and followed her instructions, and it turns out he has 20/20 vision. The bad news? He was so disappointed. He really really wanted eyeglasses.

Unfortunately it’s still hot enough inside the house that the little man is camped out in our room (with its window a/c unit), crashing on his old toddler bed mattress. As he was drifting off tonight he asked “who took a bite out of that apple?” It took me a moment to get his meaning. I thought he might be talking in his sleep, but he was actually looking up at the top of my glowing powerbook. Nope, nothing wrong with his eyesight.

My last little man anecdote for now…after spending a night on his grandma’s sailboat the lad has decreed that, when we sell our current house, we should move into a houseboat. But we live in Minnesota. It gets cold in the winter. His solution? When it’s cold we can live in a treehouse. Another local yokel came up with a different idea…a riverboat condominium project, one that relocates to warmer climes over the winter. Weird.

Note: A number of folks have asked why I’m not blogging about Lebanon. That’s a tough one. This isn’t a political blog. While I feel very passionately about many issues, I also feel a sense of futility…combined with an inability to articulate my positions as well as I’d like. And today, after I spent a while catching up on some news coverage, I realized my jaw was aching from clenching my teeth. For now I’ll just point out a few of the folks who can articulate this complicated mess more clearly. Top of the list, Robert Fisk. And a great story in the NY Times, describing how far Lebanon had come in recent years, and showing just how much they’ve lost and how surreal this all is for them. And this, a tale of two friends - one from Tel Aviv and the other from Beirut. Lastly, the American University of Beirut Medical Center is running out of fuel for their generators. The most vulnerable will suffer.

Like one of the writers, who is also observing from a safe(r) distance, said “my own despair is more of the existential angst variety” but it is all so very overwhelming and disheartening.