Ward Words

Admittedly, Kelly and I seldom watch the nightly news. We primarily rely on something called "the world wide web" or "internet" for news. So, today we were surprised to hear that a tropical depression had formed off the gulf coast of Texas. The storm rapidly advanced to puberty and will arrive as Tropical Storm Humberto, or as the National Weather Service likes to say, Teenage Hurricane Humberto. He is moving ever closer at 6 mph, meaning heavy rain in Houston overnight.

Six miles per hour doesn't sound fast, but in college I had this class that allowed you to test out of the early morning gym portion if you accumulated enough points in a number of events/exercises. One of those was a timed 1 mile walk. I had heard that it was a walk because too many people got sick or passed out trying to run a fast mile. Anyway, to get the maximum points for the mile walk, you had to complete it in 10 minutes. I finished in 11, even with the professor/coach yelling at me every lap that I was jogging. I'd alter my gait and head around the turn thinking that if I was jogging, I'd be done by now. If running were allowed I also wouldn't have had to listen to my roommate repeatedly remind me that my speed walk form makes me look like a praying mantis.

In other news, tomorrow morning my dad is having brain surgery. He has a small growth that has made its home for the last 6 years in the space between his brain and skull. It's benign and slow growing and hasn't caused any problems until recently, when he has started having what my parents call "events." Supposedly he's had them when I've been around. They're short in duration and an outsider can't notice, but I have the strange feeling that my parents only claim that they are a small nuisance and in fact the tumor allows my dad glimpses into the future. Or he can see through people's clothes.

The surgery will last about 4-5 hours. Kelly and I are headed to see him on Friday and will spend the weekend there. He will be in the hospital the whole time, but will return home on Monday or Tuesday. One positive is that he gets off work for 4 weeks, though I'm sure there are better ways to do that than getting brain surgery.