Sad Tidings

Sometime between evening on October 5 and morning on October 6, Maurice 'Red' Neverman, my grandfather passed away. It was not a real surprise that he did, but it is always shocking when someone actually does.

He had been battling bad knees, diabetes, high cholesteral, and high blood pressure for years. Grandpa is the man who taught me how to discuss politics and challenge other peoples thinking. He taught me how to play pinochle - our family card game. It is partly from him that I get my love of games.

I will miss him deeply. The picture is of my cousin Sonja, my grandfather, and I playing pinochle - and me getting trounced soundly yet again.

Cocoabutter

I promised a couple weeks ago to tell this story, so here it is...

My lovely bride Ka'Senne and I have been told by many mothers that the way to avoid stretch marks from childbearing is to liberally put cocoabutter on the mother's stomach area. This keeps the skin supple and it will stretch back into place earlier.

Now I, being a good husband, went and got three good sized bottles of cocoabutter and applied some to her.

The next day, my hands were red and swollen, and I broke out in hives.

You see, while cocoabutter is named for the cocoa bean, one of the main stablizing substances in cocoabutter is coconut oil.

Guess what. I'm allergic to coconuts.

It's been a month, and I'm still breaking out in hives if I stop taking a tiny dose of the steroid prednozone. (spelling?)

Yeah, it's funny. It's okay to laugh.

grumble grumble stupid coconut grumble grumble