Samurai Sword

Saturday night, Jess fell asleep on my lap while we were watching the first Harry Potter movie.

I can sometimes carry on amusing conversations with her while in this state that she doesn't remember.

In the beginning of the movie, incoming Hogwart's students are told they are allowed to bring a cat, an owl, or a toad as a familiar.

"Which one do you think I would bring?" I asked Jess, not realizing she had dozed off.

"A samurai sword," she said, quickly, and matter-of-factly.

The choice is between a cat, and owl, or a toad, I told her.

"Slappy," she said.

"Go back to sleep," I told her.

*

My mother's computer continued to be a source of annoyance. I stopped by after work yesterday to try installing the old harddrive and, after ninety minutes of fruitless effort, decided I would instead try to talk her into letting me take the power tools.

She keeps some great, old, still functioning power tooks in the basement: a belt sander, a router, a saw, even an electric grinding stone. They are decades old, heavy, and built in a age where you expected to pass tools onto your children.

When I told her that I wasn't able to fix the computer, she burst into tears. "What else can go wrong!" she yelled.

I silently took the tools, as well as a dusy air popper I'd found in the basement. She was still crying when I left, Fox News playing in the living room.

I got into the car and drove off. I had a handful of napkins with me. I had somehow, without noticed, nicked the skin on my left cheek and it wouldn't stop bleeding. It bled for hours. I would almost say tears of blood, only it was a little too low on my face to be tears.

When I arrived at the school to teach, it was still bleeding. Chris recommend I put duct tape over it, as it would act like a second skin. I did, and it finally stopped bleeding after I replaced the tape.

*

Mikey and George both offered to go out of their way to fix the computer. I ended up rerouting a truck run earlier today and dropping the tower off with Mikey to see if it could be salvaged. Their kindness gives me peace of mind on a number of levels.

As my persistent knee troubles continue to worsen, and I'm forced to at least consider retiring from jiu-jitsu, depending on the outcome of doctor's meetings, at this point it is more the people I'd miss than the training. Not that I wouldn't miss the training -- but as with anything you do for a length of time, the value disengages at key points from the activity itself, and you find yourself thinking things like, "I can't stop training. Where the fuck will I find people to do karaoke with!"

*

Speaking of karaoke. Saturday night. Who's down?