The Grandson

So there we were dead asleep at 2 AM when our lives changed forever. No we didn't hit the Lotto (although that would have been pretty cool) but we did get the call our daughter was in labor with our first grandchild. Well...... I should say I got a call after missing two texts from them. Seems my last iPhone update set my "Do not disturb" setting to "on" which muted everything except calls from my "Favorites" phone category between 12 AM and 5 AM. Who knew?

Baby's Coming Code

I rarely get calls at that hour so fearing the worst (son in jail, somebody in a wreck, or the cancellation of NCIS or General Hospital) I grabbed my phone and answered.

I was rewarded with the voice of my dear daughter who, rather calmly, told me she was in labor and they were at the hospital. My wife was now sitting upright in the darkness taking this all in. When I hung up she sprang up and headed for the bathroom to dress. I said she had just gotten there and it might be hours before anything significant might occur. She turned and returned to bed briefly before stating it was now impossible for her to go back to sleep so we were going. There was a, "You don't have to go....I can go and call you when things get going." I have been married for quite some time and I know a trap when I see one. You know, like when they ask," Does this make me look fat?". I'm sure this was a test of some kind and I wasn't falling for it. I did what any man in my position would do, well the smart ones anyway. Got up, got ready to go and off we went into the cold dark night.

The trip to Centennial Hospital was thankfully uneventful. Recall we were just coming out of the throws of a major ice storm event and although it was still below freezing (aka "butt cold"), the roads had a chance to thaw enough to make the roads passable.

After reaching her room and exchanging some pleasantries (really...what kind of chit-chat can you conduct when some one is having contractions every two minutes) we left her to further gestate. We then returned to the darkness of the "Family Waiting Room" and proceeded to watch Jim Belushi in Animal House and then the live broadcast of Nelson Mandella's funeral which turned out to being covered by EVERY network on cable. Not the waiting room kind of entertainment to while away the hours with.

Well 2 AM became 6 AM and the garage door just wouldn't budge. The contractions subsided but with her water broken she wasn't going home so new Dad Rob let us know they were in a holding pattern until things progressed. With Rob camped out bedside, we decided to split up and head home. I had to go to their Savannah community home to retrieve their dogs and get them to our house for safe keeping. Dianna was heading home to get back online and get some mortgage loan work done (damn that Internet ball and chain).

Roads out west toward Denton were still a little dicey as I made my way in the darkness that is US 380. It was rather surreal in that the darkened landscape was broken with the staccato of bright flashing emergency lights flickering off various cars and trucks akimbo in the bar ditches alongside the road, victims of the evil black ice that formed in what my dashboard temp gauge said was 17 degrees.

Buffy

Peanut

I was able to navigate my way to their house and after corralling Peanut and blind Buffy (kind of sounds like the name of a jazz act) I slipped and slid my way back to our Frisco hostel. Of course, now with four crazed dogs (Peanut, Buffy, Marley and Jenna) confined to the interior of our first floor, it was bedlam and I could see Dianna was not getting much work done tending to Peanut and Buffy. Both seemed to be unusually high-maintenance compounded by Buffy's blindness skittering around bumping into our unfamiliar abode was nerve racking for the similarly anxious future grandmother. So my reaction was.... to abandon her to the chaos (I know....bad husband). In my defense, I did need to get Buffy's medication I had forgotten earlier and to make a rocket run to the Cracker Barrel Restaurant in Denton at US 380 and the I-35.  Somebody had to do it.

Ok....for those of you who don't know, I was not there for the weekday special (Monday - Friday: Grilled Chicken Country House Salad with choice of baked potato or cup of soup...yeah, I checked). But they do have a selection of pretty well made rocking chairs for sale in the store. You see, when Nicole was born we had a rocking chair I had given Dianna as a gift several years before. It came in handy during those 2 o'clock feedings I did when I got home from my 6 PM to 2 AM Patrol days which allowed Dianna to sleep through the night in those early days (I know....what a great guy). The decision had been made (well...Dianna decided) to get Nicole a rocker when she had her baby. Due to the uncertainty of her delivery date (I believe the last time we had a definitive answer was "sometime in December") we had procrastinated and not gotten out to the restaurant to pick one up.

With the sands of the hourglass slipping away...it became imperative we acquire one before Nicole returned home so since I had to drive halfway there to pick up Buffy's meds, it seemed to be an efficient use of my time so I made the round trip and got the chair too.....and conveniently extend my time away from the menagerie which had become our home.


That done, I arrived just in time to learn the situation had changed and the decision had been made for Nicole to have a c-section to end her now 14 hour labor. This delivery was a replay of Dianna's labor back on that incredibly hot 4th of July in 1984 with Nicole. She too was heading into her 16th hour of labor when the OB gave her two options, continue to labor and have Nicole sometime in August or do the c-section and be done with it. She practically tore the pen from the doctor's pocket protector to sign the consent form with the promise of immediate pain meds to stop the contraction pain.

So we headed back to the hospital to see her prepped and wheeled out to the delivery room. It turned out to be a short wait. She left around 6:35 PM and they wheeled the baby out around 20 minutes later. We followed the pediatric nurse to the post delivery room where Rob got to help weigh and measure the little dude where we learned Rob Jr was 8 pounds, 7 oz and 19.2 inches long.

We watched her poke, prod, stretch and medicate the little man with a practiced hand. It looked like she had done this before, no wasted movement. When she was done, we learned Nicole had already made it back to the room and was taking visitors. All in one hour. Amazing.

Baby was quickly reunited with new mom for the first breast feeding and the rest is history. I can assure you there were many photos and videos documenting every yawn and wince baby Rob produced. I think I got a case of repetitive motion syndrome just snapping away on my iPhone. And it's just his first day of life.

So now we begin a new phase of our lives as new grandparents to our grandson Robert Xavier Orbe (pronounced Orbee)Jr.

Freeze of 2013

The winter residence Friday Morning

Here we are the first full weekend of December embracing the 72nd commemoration of Pearl Harbor Day and we're stuck at home. For those of you who missed it (like you Southern Californians), we encountered an unusual weather event for Texas. A massive cold front rolled out of the northwest (those darn Canadians) and met enough moisture to rain then turning to sleet which stuck with accumulations of several inches in some spots. Overnight temperatures dipped down to the teens making all those ice crystals meld together into a giant sheet of ice with all the downed power lines and slippery highway chaos that goes along with it.

Nicole's dog Peanut discovering snow

Now it does freeze from time to time in Texas but it's a rare moment when ice storms blanket such a large area and virtually shut down most of North Texas.  Luckily (if you want to call it that) it was a well established fact early in the week and many businesses and schools had already decided to close prior to anybody having to suffer the roadways. The downside was that we were forced to remain cooped up in our Frisco winter residence for the duration.

For Dianna this was a mixed blessing. Her new job means her office is our home. She works remotely over the Internet (thanks Mr. Gore) so she doesn't have to drive the treacherous roads but it does mean she has no excuse not to work because of the weather. My job at the Courthouse was cut off based on the local school district deciding to close Friday morning. We were now landlocked with only our wits and the food we had in the house (and the copious amounts of alcohol) to help us survive. I wonder how it would have gone if the power hadn't stayed on.

This caused quite a stir with the dogs in that they are primarily outside dogs and are clearly confused by having to remain indoors. However the confusion disappears when it's time to go out for potty breaks. They clearly have a need until the door opens. Jenna (the white Lab mix) is a bit more heartier than her brother Marley (chocolate Lab) and runs out to the slip-n-slide that our backyard has become. Marley feels nature calling and reluctantly makes a dash out onto the frosty ground to do his business and dash back to the back door and the inner warmth it provides. Marley is all southern dog....no Yankee in that K-9 what-so-ever.

And there is our new found discovery about Marley's flatulence. Being an outside dog, we had not realized our dog has been struggling intestinally. This didn't become evident until the afternoon of the first day. I always feed them their main meal early in the morning before work and give them a half bowl when I get home. On normal days we bring them in at bedtime. Once they started staying in full time, we began to notice a periodic release of toxic gas that would permeate the room and drive us out. This became so regular an occurrence, we instituted a regular regimen of sending Marley outside at the slightest eye contact he made with either one of us. He would be lying there quietly when, without warning, a sharp odor would rise up, a kind of brain-freeze would occur as it enters your sinuses.  I feared the heater might kick-on and ignite something. Beside smoke and carbon monoxide detectors...I think someone needs to develop an animal methane detector. Forget about your cow flatulence...this could be the answer to the whole Greenhouse Gas dilemma Al.

Thus we are now contending with the fact Dianna and I are housebound and can't get away from each other. This has been born out when we both are occupying the kitchen. Some of you may know our kitchen is enormous. The center island is big enough to launch small airplanes. So imagine both of us tottering around this cavernous chamber and unable to avoid each other. The common interception point is the Keurig coffee machine. I seem to always be underfoot as she throws another K-cup into the device. More complication was added when I chose to expand the dogs horizons by opening up their normal range of master bedroom and living room to include the kitchen. They could be dead asleep but when they hear us move into the kitchen they are up and roaming right behind us, virtual shadows. They quickly get underfoot while Dianna is trying to pour a new glass of wine or make some coffee. It may be they just love us very much and want to be apart of our wandering but I'm just as sure they are hoping we'll take pity on their predicament and hand them a Scooby snack.

Now, Dianna and I have not been arguing or giving those dart like stares yet but that could be coming. See I decided to utilize my time in catching up on some baking and food preparation while Dianna worked and then settled down into some serious TiVo watching. You see this weather event coincided with a holiday tradition Dianna has had for years (since the invention of the VCR/DVR). My wife will record legions of Hallmark channel holiday movies starting at Thanksgiving all the way to New Years. You know those sappy holiday love stories where boy meets girl, girl (or boy in this politically correct world) gets dumped by boy and they miraculously meet again years later and rekindle their love and live happily ever after. Then there's the inevitable Santa crisis where he's unavailable and some mortal or elf takes over and makes Christmas happen. Lots of cute little kids with sad faces then bright smiles all around when they discover (again) that Santa is real and the world is a better place for it.

My M.O. for this is to sit and kibitz. I will point out the obvious flaws in the story line or scientific impossibilities which make Dianna roll her eyes and suggest I go write something for my blog or shovel the driveway....guess which one I picked. Hey....I'm a paid professional observer and I report what I see.

So I decided to do some baking and be responsible for preparing our meals (and try to stay out of her way). I whipped up one of my world famous Key Lime Pies to assuage her cabin fever as well as preparing lunches and dinners for my bride and I. So with a little help from the Food Channel and online, with the assorted ingredients from pantry and fridge, I made some tantalizing concoctions which have kept up our morale and energy up. Well, there was that first tragic attempt to make a scratch pie crust for a pecan pie filling we had on hand. It's really not too bad if you heat it up....hopefully the power will keep the microwave functioning.

As I write this it's still below freezing. So, as we look toward a new week we have to ask ourselves...will the ice break and life return to normal or will we run out of food and be relegated to just drinking our way through the rest of our imprisonment? Only time and our supply of vittles will tell.