I'm going to a funeral today. A pastor who jogged regularly was hit by a truck. I'm in a bible study with his wife who makes me laugh often. She loves to laugh, be with her young family and praise the lord. She is coping really well and so many of us are in awe of her courage during this stressful time. Bible study was at church the same morning her husband died and I was not surprised to see her there. We could mourn together, share some thoughts, even a few laughs, one was that we all threw our boxes of kleenexs, napkins or what ever we were using to blow our noses, into the center of our circle of chairs so no one would be without a wipe. Judging from the can next to the kleenex we were pretty needy. I guess you would have to be there to see our pile to understand how silly it looked. Today we will be celebrating his life, I imagine with some humor too. Thanks for your story Ron, Humor is a good way to cope.

Well, DS#4 is our wild thing. He's only 5 now, so the worst might be yet to come. Couple years ago he cut the cat's whiskers off. I noticed the cat missing one side's whiskers and gasped "What happened to the cat?!" DS says calmly, "I cut his hair things off. Come here, I'll show you." And showed me the "safety" scissors and whiskers on his bed. I scolded him and explained the cat needs his whiskers. DS told me "You can get him new ones at Target." He came outside one day, age 4, covered w/band-aids. Must have had 15-20 stuck all over his body. The neighbor asked him what happened. DS went into a story, very dramatic, gestures and all, about falling in the driveway and bleeding, lots of details. The neighbor looked at me questioning, but I just shook my head and said "Didn't happen, he just likes band-aids." One afternoon the older kids shouted for me to come downstairs, that the youngest was a mess and smelled bad. They each told me something different, he smells like cat poop, he smells like puke, he smells like trash... I sniffed and said no, he smells sweet... DS said "I think I smell like pancakes!" Sure enough, he was covered in syrup and the bottle was tipped over on the kitchen table, leaking down the table, chair, pooled on the floor. Second day of kindergarten... the kids were lined up single file facing one direction. The teacher told them all to turn around, face the other way. Doing that put the kid who was behind DS in front of DS. DS was furious, yelling that the kid "cut in line." He also had a flush-it-down-the-toilet phase. Luckily, we did not have a tiny kitten! I think his best was one of those poofs for body wash.. it unravelled, it just kept coming out like a magician's scarf. The other kids caused trouble, too, though. DS1 and DS2 at ages 6 and 3 would build swords with, of all things, lego. One clash and legos would go flying to all corners of the room, behind/under furniture, everywhere. DH had recently discussed their behavior with me, saying I needed to be more strict with them. So when the sound of flying legos came from their room, DH went to "handle" it. For a couple minutes his voice boomed about respecting property and playing nicely, picking up after themselves, etc. Then a couple seconds of silence. Then the 3 y/o says "What-ever, Dad." I had to walk away I was laughing so hard! It was the fact that DH went in there to show me how to be more strict that did me in! When my brother and I were little, we sometimes stayed w/my mom's sister, who was unmarried and childless. I wonder if we maybe had some influence in the fact the remained childless! One visit she came in the room to find us throwing every crayon in a box of 64 against the wall with all or might. On the floor were all the broken pieces. As an explanation, we showed her the claim on the box, "Unbreakable!" We were just testing... and the claim was false! We know, we tested every crayon in the box. When I look at my kids and want to know "What on earth were you thinking?!" I try to remember those crayons and how it feels to think like a kid. ;o)

I've always liked him but I have become suspicious of media people who divorce their first wife and get involved with younger coworkers. Dave Barry, Christopher Kimball, Rick Steves, etc. For all I know, their first wives may have been horrible people but there does seem to be a pattern.

I called miele tech support early this week for an issue on my DW. Almost no wait time to get to the tech. After we chatted - I was immediately transferred to the parts department for a $27 part. The gentlemen was extremely helpful and very very nice. My part was shipped out the next day - arrives Monday. I can understand that some parts may be hard to get due to Covid. If you know what parts you need - I would call miele and ask them about availability and if you have to order a new pump. Was this a Miele Tech or independent repair shop? A Miele tech would be able to tell what parts are available and if a new pump would be required.