Augh. It's hell to discover that your 80-year-old, Parkinson's-riddled father, has been using your blade razor instead of his own electric to shave with. Understand me here; first of all, not only have I not ever seen my father use anything but an electric razor my entire life, he chooses now, when his cognitive and motor skills are in decline, to try and change. Never mind the fact, of course, that this alienates. This is nothing like what I have ever known my father to be, and it is genuinely distressing. I mean even more so than when he bought his friend's BMW, the one with 125,000 miles on the clock when he purchased it; and then followed that up with a red Camaro. Who are you, and what have you done with the man I knew? And depended on, little as I like to admit it? And then of course.....is this what I can expect for myself in my old age? All the more reason to try and make the good progress now, I say.

Speaking of good progress, I subbed in a Latin class last week. Yeah, I was wondering why I was there, too. But it was nice to see students being diligent, acting with intelligence, and seeming like they really wanted to learn. I probably could have learned a lot from most of them. What amused me most was one little item one of the students had apparently created for the teacher; the kid took a Staple's "Easy" button, modified the top of the button to say "Facit," and then modified the electronics to do likewise. Creativity is unquestionably not dead, but boy, it sure looks different than I've ever known it to be. It's all about the age, I suppose. Come to think of it, of course, all this comes from a school with a varsity Lacrosse team, so make what you will of it. I'm most happy to see kids who want to learn.