Home and Deranged

Rex has hand-foot-mouth disease, which produces sores in the mouth and throat, and on the soles of the feet and palms, plus fever, and he's pretty miserable. But we got through what we think are the worst couple days, and he's sleeping well now.The boys' merger at night has gone beautifully, with two full weeks under our belt until last night, when Rex woke miserable at 8-something. Ben slept through it. Rex spent the night with us, and did sleep a 6-hour stretch (as did we). H-F-M passes in under 7 days, and based on the symptoms tomorrow might be day 4 or 5, even. Poor guy. Jello and pudding is in his future--tomorrow! I spent the evening with Rex while Lynn took Ben off for a haircut and dinner. Sort of like a mommy-date. You wind up in a close relationship with your kids (if you're lucky), so you do things that you normally do while dating: buy them dinner, hold them close, comfort them, laugh at stupid jokes together, go on long walks holding hands. I suppose that's part of the parental bond that kids who are raised in a loving way ultimately look for in their romantic partner: they take this agape and transmute it into eros. Rex and I had a fine time. He ate frozen blueberries, and was covered in purple by the end, but had a decent meal. He was only unhappy about 20 percent of the time, which was a big drop from the 50 percent he was experiencing earlier today. I put the family A/C unit, formerly mounted for the summer in the parental bedroom, into the kids' room. That's how much I love my children. We're slated to hit 90 by Sunday, and our house doesn't shed heat quickly at night. When we had our heating system replaced last year, we had a heat-pump coil installed alongside the gas furnace, as that lets us easily add a heat pump without having to have the furnace setup rebuilt. It's a tricky situation, as you can save money in the winter with a heat pump in a mild climate like ours, and that can offset A/C in the summer. With 90 to 100 degree days seeming more typical in Seattle, and with our interest not in keeping the house at 72, but really cooling off the house from 90 to 80 at night, it might not be a vast expense. I just have a hard time living in the Northwest and thinking about home A/C.