23April2007
Posted by nate under: Uncategorized.
as if my hair weren’t interesting enough, this morning we went to the hatchery and saw literally millions of walleye eggs and watched how they caught the walleye and harvested said eggs. go dnr go.
today was sunny and beautiful. in fact today is the first day that i would say the ice is out on ottertail lake. some may have said yesterday but i say today because yesterday was gross and overcast and not a fit day to say the ice was out. i’ve been thinking the baby would come in days like this – all wrapped up in the warmth of new life. i fixed a screen door today. vaccumed again and again. cleaned up in general. cursed windows vista while trying to get my camera to befriend our new laptop that runs the os of which i will no longer speak the name aloud lest its power grow. i finished a great book – eleanor rigby by douglas coupland. it was supposed to be the book i read in the hospital but i’ve always been an over acheiver…
i need to repack my bag. double check all the electronic gadgetry i’ll be using to inform the world of baby’s birth. i filled up the tank. i need to double check the phone numbers of everyone i’ll be calling and make sure i know how to call my folks in kenya on the cell phone. i need to stop pacing. take a shower. decide on what to wear to the hospital. go read stories to lydia. remember to pack a mug – it greatly increases your chances of free coffee everywhere you go and even starbucks will knock 10 cents off, but you sometimes have to remind them. i’ve been pacing alot lately… all this nervous energy. daddyhood part deaux.
23April2007
Posted by nate under: fact.
so tomorrow (unless jodi goes into labor during the night) we have a baby. i’m not sure if that’s sunk in yet. it did strike me today that perhaps i should get a haircut since chances are i’ll be in a few pictures the next couple of days. so i went to find a barber in perham while lydia was in prescool and found out that there are no barbers in that town. there are a handful of family beauty shop all purpose places but no barbers. something you should know about me (actually you there’s no reason you should know this, but i’m telling you all the same sucker) is that i’m afraid of 4 things. heights, snakes, my tax man robert melde telling me i have to do my taxes myself, and getting my haircut. this last one pertains to the discussion at hand. i have childhood memories of freezing outside great clips and freaking out and sitting in the car while my mom took only my brother when we were both supposed to go in. or sometimes i’d make it in but then freak out at the last minute and bolt for the door. i was okay with my mom, aunt, or cousin cutting my hair but that was about it. and from a fashion point of view that makes my fear even more irrational. if someone’s moving sharp objects around your eyes, ears and jugular wouldn’t the sane thing be for that person to have some sort of qualification beyond shared last name? there have been two break throughs in my adult life concerning my hair. one was the purchase of a clippers during my senior year of highschool. the other was befriending the barbers over on west. 7th, mitch and steve. On november 3rd 2004 i went in for a haircut. i’m not sure what got into me, a more appropriate action would’ve been to shave my head, adorn my sackcloth and administer ashes and lament the coming 4 years. maybe facing my fear (rhymes with shear) was my act of bolding moving on.org so i went into this place and got my haircut, talked with my Democratic Gen x barber about the coming years, and left feeling great for the first time ever after having my haircut by a stranger. since then i’ve been back twice – thats almost annualy, and that’s a big deal for me. in fact that means i’ve paid strangers for 5 haircuts since 2000. I just about got this thing licked.
so tommorrow being the big day it is i decided to get a haircut. first i picked up stamps for the baby announcements and rhonda the postal clerk dropped two bombs on me. stamps will soon be 41 cents, and, as mentioned earlier, there are no barbers in perham. in my selfannalyzing and i’ve concluded that part of the reason i don’t like getting my hair cut is the smell of salons. secondly salon is a girly word. and thirdly salons are expensive. barbers on the other hand smell like grandpa’s aftershave (old old old spice), feel manly, and most importantly are cheaper. so obviously i was devastated by the news. but hey, if abraham wouldn’t have gone up the mountain would he have made it into hebrews 11? hell no. and so, i took this as a test of God deeming my worth as a fearless parent. Rhonda said there were two places that took walk ins, thrify cuts and a place next to suds, the saloon in town. no brainer. off to thrifty. couldn’t fit me in. i lost momentum. fine i’ll check out the other place. i drove by it three times. got the gumption to park in front of it. mustered up the courage to go inside, and asked if they had any openings. what was that? a ram in the thicket? totally, they were booked i was free. i walk by faith what can i say?
so i didn’t get a haircut, but i tried, and so i am very pleased with myself and the outcome of events. maybe tonight i’ll shave my noggin’ to celebrate.
and tommorrow, we’ll have a baby.
21April2007
Posted by nate under: Uncategorized.
in 3 days we get the latest addition to the houge family, baby x.
yikes.
we went to jodi’s last check up on friday and brought all our stuff just in case we’d be stickin’ around for a little deliverance. not so. we did follow the appointment with a stop at target where we bought a kite and a stop at olive garden where i ate about 8 bowls of salad. after she was done with her mac and cheese lydia charmed us with, “let’s see what the desert options are.” it’s good to have options. later we set off to find a park, stopped at a few garage sales along the way, one at which i almost bought an old silvertone chord organ for 5 bucks (i’m still not sure it was a good idea to pass on it). We couldn’t find the park and finally pulled over and asked a jogger, who gave us great directions (way better than the last 3 sets of wrong directions we had recieved). As we pulled away from him lydia said, “i’m proud of you guys.” in reference to our asking for directions. i love that kid.
we flew the kite successfully, slid on the slides and swung on the swings and stopped for ice cream and coffee before heading back home.
today’s excitement is that the slushy remaining ice on ottertail is being blown up on to shore and creeping into the back doors of some of the houses along the shoreline. we drove over to see the area it was happening at and i gotta admit it really was bizarre and impressive. no clue if it’ll do any real damage or not. let’s hope not.
tonight i did a little recording and now i’m getting ready to clean up the studio – i won’t be playing any loud guitars for awhile so i might as well clear out all the pedals and wires that i keep tripping over.
go to church,
nate.