Things are going very well with the air drop of an entire family into
my LZ, that being my daughter, hub and two kids that I haven't seen
for years.

The twin-sized air mattresses for the kids arrived just in time from
Amazon and they're perfect.

I am thoroughly enjoying all of my company. Man, it's gonna be hard
going back to solo after this but I'm going to fully enjoy this joy in
real time and worry about the comedown when it happens.

Kevin, Kelsy and Nigel the Dog joined us this evening. Kelly cooked
up some wonderful chow. I paid close attention to what she did and
how she did it. My kids are all foodies!

Kelly can mess up a kitchen more and faster than a fraternity food
fight, and I purely don't care. I keep a pristine kitchen but I do
KP just fine and I am learning some really good stuff and enjoying
some eyewatering-good grub. Kelly's cooking is imaginative, healthy,
and wonderfully delicious. The local grocery is gonna have a very
good week. So will the wine shop. Am I having fun yet?

The kids really are amazing, every bit as neat as Kevin (and Kelly)
keep telling me. They are polite, well-behaved, cheerful, energetic
of course, bright, warm and very easy to be and have around. They
could each and both charm the sox off a centipede. They truely are
beautiful children. We have activities and experiments planned for
tomorrow, along with a trip to the library. Felix, 5, made a robot
today from a kit. This easy-going cheerful kid focusses like a laser
and uses small hand tools with amazing adeptness after reading the
instructions and getting it right.

We had a "music hour" tonight, as we did every evening as a nuclear
family so many years ago when they were small. I played some
favorite material from opera to ragtime and disco, including one that
we played back in the mid-seventies (vinyl then, but same music). It
was the New England Conservatory Ragtime Ensemble playing Scott Joplin
ragtime, very happy music. Kelly danced and pranced, as did the
kids, like they did back in the day.

I played a variety of stuff. One selection was "Comin' around again
.... and itsy bitsy" by Carly Simon. Carly is an innovative musician
as well as a singer. She wrote most of the material she performed.
I'd played itsy bitsy (spider) earlier in the day on the piano for
Katja and she loved it. It's my arrangement that I freely
acknowledge is strongly based on Carly's very interesting treatment
of that song, using flatted blue notes and quick discordant seconds at
times for bite like pepper in the stew. Carly does it with vocal
slides but it also works on the piano. Sometimes I played along
with the CD, now that the piano is tuned. If the sweet-voiced Everett
piano agrees with a digital CD, it's in tune and joy is inevitable.
Kelly, the PhD ethnomusicologist, was flabbergasted. She hasn't
visited me for many years because she and Mary were like cesium and
water, open flame and black powder, sparks and accumulated propane.

"Dad, you have perfect pitch!" "Well shucks, I don't know about
that." "You do! Every time you go to the piano you're immediatly
in sync with the music."

"Hm, that's nice!"

"No, it's amazing! I've always thought I got my interest in music
from Mom, but it was you! I got it from you!"

I managed to skip saying "good morning, Kelly!" Her mom liked music
too and she was more facile at the keyboard than I, but she lacked
emotional involvement and ability to create.

I and we are having a hell of a good time. Good family is a wonderful
thing.

Kelly tried to advise me on how to proceed with Annette. I listened
politely. Kelly noted that if something as one-on-one intimate as a
lunch spooked her, maybe I could suggest a more public activity,
saying that I planned to attend with or without company but would
welcome her company if she'd like.

That does sound like a good approach ... but I'm not buying it. I
noted that I took exactly the opposite course with Mary. I invited
her to be my guest on a company-sponsored boat ride with dinner. Man,
she was skittish about that. I later learned that she was
interested, but concerned about how socially consorting with the boss
might become a problem with the job she needed to support herself and
Annie. I didn't learn that until much later. She had a lover in
another town at the time, comfortably distant, so she really wasn't
seeking a suitor at all.

Next day, I asked her if she liked chicken. She said yes, why? I
said they'll be serving chicken on the boatride, and then left her to
think about that. A day or two later when we were working with my
calendar, I said "add lunch with Mary at 11:30 on Thursday." She
was a bit nonplussed. "Mary who?" "Mary you. Maybe if we had
lunch without mishap, a company boatride with a group where dinner is
served might not seem like such a risk."

That worked. Lunch for two in an open restaurant was the first
social encounter. Casual encounters like that happen every day. Check
any restaurant on secretary's day.

I think Annette just isn't ready though she's longer bereaved than I,
and I will respect that. I am definitely not ready for love in all
the wrong places as the country song goes, but I am up for
companionship in occasional encounters with a pleasant fellow
traveller. Maybe Annette isn't yet. She did seem initially
interested so she didn't find me repulsive that day.

I may be pulling myself up by the stacking swivel better than most,
Fitch. I communicate very openly with my few close friends. Guys
aren't supposed to talk about feelings and emotions, but I do with my
few friends. They all know I'm a very good shot with a .45 and an
even better shot with a scoped .243 if they seriously **** me off.

I'll say again, I am having one hell of a good time with my visiting
family. I really am blessed with family, I had no idea how blessed.
Perhaps Mary 'n I were too self-sufficient. We were about a perfect
small team, self-contained and self-sufficient. Being a survivor of
such a situation is a pure-D bitch, but that's my job now.

One day at a time. I am having a very happy time now and for the next
few days.

I still cried tonight for my loss of my Mary.