Follow these directions:

Select any three digit number such that the hundreds digit is at least two greater than the units digit. (For example: 672) Call this number w.
Reverse the digits of w. (For example: 276) Call this number x.
Subtract x from w. Call this remainder y.
Reverse the digits of y. Call this number z.
Add y and z.
Multiply the sum of y and z by 100,000.
From the product obtained in the last step, subtract 8,685,432.

This number is the final answer. However, it is in code. To produce the message, substitute a letter for each digit according to the following key:

0 – o
1 – l
2 – f
3 – m
4 – i
5 – r
6 – p
7 – w
8 – a
9 – g

If your work is correct, you should be able to read the decoded message.

Thanks to shinydome

Last night wind rattled the blinds covering wide open windows, and then the sky lit and the thunder clapped and by gosh if we didnít have an old- fashioned midwestern storm. However, it didnít last long, not even waiting for me to fall asleep. This morning the air is damp and much cooler, but I still have plans to move Helen outside for a spell, as was suggested by her visiting physical therapist.

I have been pretty darn helpful, if I donít say so myself. So far I have helped my father fix the driverís side window on my truck and Iíve helped him change the front brake pads. I had to change the oil myself as my creaky body creaks less than his in the slide-under-the-truck way.

Last night, armed with a box of Chicken Thyme Soup and directions from Diane, I proceeded to create this healthy and way-hearty soup Diane made here on our last visit. I started with one pot, began adding what the recipe called for, plus what Diane suggested I toss in – more chicken and more vegetables – but ran out of room. I grabbed a bigger pot, poured everything into it from the smaller one, added more of what I had cutup, but ran out of room again. If there were a bigger pot, Iída grabbed it, but there was not. For dinner we had delicious Chicken Thyme Stew, and afterwards Tupperwared about a weekís worth. That is, if we have it every day.

I do miss Diane.

Yesterday

Helen leads off:

ìMy grandmother hung on so long because she was afraid to die. She was in the nursing home for ten years and the gals there knew her very well. Anyone else wouldnít have lasted so long, but they said she was afraid to go. Thatís the thing with Joan, she thinks I can move in with her; she doesnít know how much is involved. My fatherís sister had pernicious anemia, and his father died in our house. I know what itís like to care for people, Joan doesnít.î

ìHere is the way I see it. Joan doesnít have a thing to worry about because I donít see you hanging around.î

ìNeither do I.î

ìIt is so obvious. Youíre just waiting for the opportunity to see what is next. You get this cold or whatever it was and itís check out time. Your not eating is the same as packing your luggage.î

We are both laughing pretty hard at this. Helen thinks Iím funny or finds my laugher infectious, or she is laughing along with me and plotting ways to cut me out of her will. Could be any of the above.

ìThis is why Iíve put you in charge of me at the end.î

ìIím your health care proxy?í

ìYes. I know youíve worked with dying people before and I know you … .î

ìYou mean you sat down and thought which one of my kids do I want to consign a lifetime of torment to? ëGee, I really thought she was dead, but now that I said pull the plug, I do remember a twitch..oh, dear god, I killed my mother!í

**************
Today

It is only noon and already we have had a full day. The cable guy installed broadband, the visiting nurse popped in to give Helen a quick checkup, and I called a plumber to fix the clogged sink drain. We are having lunch, right before departing to visit the dentist to have Helenís crown re-glued.

HO. ìMy blood pressure is good today.î

Mack. ìGood for what?î

Me. ìGood to keep her alive another day.î

HO. ì I wonít be joining Terri Schiavo today.î

Me. ìIf my prayers are answered youíll die the same day as Paul Wolfowitz, and youíll ride his soul for all eternity.î

HO. ìWho?î

ìWolfowitz. Or Cheney or Pearl or Bush or Powell. Pick anyone of them. If you donít go on the same day you might never find them.î

ìOooo, Iíd love that. Iíd ride ëem.î

Matt and his cousin, Emma, taken Easter Day.
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Itís 4:30 AM, Matt and Diane are fast asleep, my truck is packed and Iím about to jump in and drive to Indiana (Peter Finlay refers to all those interior states as ìSomewhere in the middle.î) to visit my parents. A planned trip that follows my sisterís visit where she was able to provide comfort to my mother who is a bit under the weather. Anyway, I figure the blog needs all the commenters it can get, and her absence the last two and a half weeks has been glaring. I hope I can help move her back in front of her iMac; sheíll love la Chicaís baby pictures.

**************************

I have Dianeís permission to have, for the purposes of a non-boring blog entry, a clinical, no strings attached, one night stand with a middle aged, marriage-on-the -rocks, bleached blond named Brenda. Iím pretty sure Iíll meet her tonight in the Motel Six bar just outside of Dayton and sheíll be from Brownsville. Thatís usually the way these things work. In Dianeís exact words, ìIf even Chris is no longer sending witty and poignant stories, well heck, Mike, you gotta do what you gotta do.î

Hil at one with her mom and her older sister, Laura.
The Big Picture

Hil at four.
The Big Picture

An observant reader sent me this link to compare with the the sandy toes picture below. She asked, “Separated at birth?”

My crop of this photo prompted Diane to say, “My God, it looks like they set her out to sea.”
View larger image

In many ways, those first days at school are not unlike being set adrift.
View larger image

This week’s mystery child. Who is she?
View Entire Image

Diane’s birthday dinner at the Hopkins.
The Big Picture

Closer Look

Thin

How anything
is known
is so thin-
a skin of ice
over a pond
only birds might
confidently walk
upon. A bird’s
worth of weight
or one bird-weight
of Wordsworth.

Kay Ryan

Subway Seethe

What could have been the big to-do
that caused him to push me aside
on that platform? Was a woman who knew
there must be some good even inside
an ass like him on board that train?
Charity? Frances? His last chance
in a ratty string of last chances? Jane?
Surely in all of us is some good.
Better love thy neighbor, buddy,
lest she shove back. Maybe I should.
Itís probably just a cruddy
downtown interview leading to
some cheap-tie, careerist, dull
cul-de-sac heís speeding to.
Can he catch up with his soul?
Really, what was the freaking crisis?
Did he need to know before me
if the lights searching the crowdís eyes
were those of our train,or maybe
the train of who he might have been,
the person his own-heart-numbing,
me-shoving anxiety about being
prevents him from ever becoming?
How has his thoughtlessness defiled
who I was before he shoved me?
How might I be smiling now if heíd smiled,
hanging back, as though he might have loved me?

J. Allyn Rosser

There are many more on this Finlay wall, but this is all I could capture in a single pic.
Huge View
After we (inlcuding Patti’s long time friend, Sally) finished hanging new pictures on this wall, Emma ran to her room to retrieve her favorite photo of her mother.