JediWright.com

So Lee finally got sick this past week and he’s done it in kind of a big way, with croup. We went to the doctors Wednesday morning after a nominal cough turned full-fledged into croup. He got dosed with a steroid that wore off in 24-hrs and he seemed okay but by midnight his coughing fits were back. By 5am he was really laboring to breathe, had turned a shade or two sicklier and was throwing up.

So we rushed him to the Akron Children’s Hospital downtown and have been here for treatment and observation since 5:30am yesterday. He’s doing better overall, but still struggling with sleep at night. We might get out tonight but it seems iffy.

The funny thing was how cavalier his pediatrician was over the symptoms he could exhibit and that “we might choose to take him into the ER for treatment”. Well let me tell you, it was a lot more frightening than might’s and if’s expectation we’d been led to. If we hadn’t brought him in it seemed a real possibility his breathing would have stopped. So, despite his and our discomfort from a hospital stay, it’s been for the best.

On at that note, here’s a quick vid of him in his room proving, incidentally, that he isn’t smiles and otherwise angelic all the time. Though truth be told, he’s still managed his winning smile and giggle at times.

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Update 10.4.09: Lee’s mostly recovered, still nursing a little somethin’ as shown when he gets worked up crying or sometimes when waking up at night. Mostly, his teething is really gnarly now. Poor little guy.

Continued infrequency in my posting comes as no surprise, since I’ve been working so much this spring/summer. But, a brain dump feels in order now, so here goes.

I’ve been busting ass at the Home Depot mostly, with a few hours woven in here and there at the first part-time job I picked up here in Akron back in April. I finally got my operator license there about a month into the job, at Home Depot, and thank god since it was really proving counter-productive working without it. So along with getting the gist of their “reach truck” (hmm, pretty much what it sounds like) and “tow motor” (forklift), I’ve been learning a lot more about pesticides (yuck), herbicides, fungicides, seeds, plants, various equipment, and more.

It’s actually kind of a nice little education into a number of things I can tie in with Green Gurus and any related consulting there. And on the Exchange front (the other part-time job), I’m learning the systems they have in place for an interesting buy/trade they deal in. Could provide an interesting entrepreneurial option at some point, either with them or in one of my own ventures I’ve had shelved for awhile now.

On the parenting front, the wee pup is getting big. He’s eating solid foods (insofar as bottled veggies and fruit can be anyway) and loving it. He’s gotta be pushing close to 20-lbs now and is finally starting to hold himself up in a seated position, on his own.

And as I can squeeze it in, I do what I can to tend to Distinctivefabric.com, which has been making steady headway at knocking away at its debt (I think largely in thanks, to me having opted out of my salary indefinitely). Along the way, we’ve parted ways with its first founding member and are now just in a weird limbo of knocking out our debt, exploring any liabilities associated with assuming 100% ownership, etc.

Other than that, things are very routine and boring. Just trying to make it through the summer, with the help of what I hope to be a nice break with a short trip to PA to visit with mi hermana Amanda in from Spain, then a 10-day stint with The Do LaB in Ireland for their third year there for Electric Picnic. Hopefully afterwards, some moving plans will really come together and life will pick up more.

Until then, I’m just reading as much as I can, the oldest refuge I know.

Today marks two weeks since our move here into Akron, Ohio. It’s a return for Tristan to her hometown and a departure from my own, in Pennsylvania. Neither of us are super thrilled about it; we both just really miss pre-parenthood right now and our lives in Cali.

Regardless, I see some potential here. Downtown Akron, though small, still has some measure of vibrancy to it.

The job search is proving the most frustrating so far though, out of anything. One month online and nearly two weeks in person should have returned at least a call or email, but I’ve gotten nothing (other than spam/scam email responses). As an entrepreneur, I see a lot of potential – I always do. But as an employee, I’m losing confidence. More than likely, I’m just getting impatient due to the stress of landing an income and admittedly, of going back to work as an employee, not the employer. Though in some ways, I’ve been craving this, since the stresses of self-employment and entrepreneurship have taken their toll on me over the last few years.

It would be nice to find something cool, engaging, challenging, and stable. And maybe on the side I’ll pursue some more modest startup ideas here, time and resources permitting.

On the homefront side of things, our house, known as “the Chitty farmhouse” is cool, though it does have a few issues (what house doesn’t?). We’re mostly settled in now, though short some bedroom storage since we have little closet space. Our cats are adjusting to our roommates cats nicely, as we ourselves work to adjust to living with roomies again. We have a separate studio/garage space that I look forward to modifying for my future office/studio use, once I’ve secured a job.

Other than that, things are pretty low-key. I’m enjoying the relatively quiet neighborhood, more reading and getting to know the area.

So, as our friends continue on with their rockstar lives in Cali, we struggle to shift our lives for the necessary stability of parenting, all the while wondering what is to become of our own lives.

Finding purpose outside of parenting is a must for our survival, I think.

Children surely have been born designed with multiple survival mechanisms, though many pale in comparison to what know and are used to from most creatures in the animal kingdom.

Lee is no exception and as his father and a new parent, it’s pretty powerful to watch and experience the reactions to his mechanisms.

Top three survival instincts noted to date:

1. Cuteness!

Babies are generally cute and again, Lee is no exception. He gets so much attention, both from family and complete strangers. Something so adorable is just hard to ignore or refuse lavishing one’s attention on.

2. Crying

Ugh. Probably his most powerful instinct and mechanism is ironically, his most vulnerable, at least it would be if he wasn’t of the modern home sapien erectus clan. His cries are so gut wrenching, at least as a parent, especially within the first weeks of birth, that your own senses go on hyper vigilance. If they were the cries of any other adults kids, it might be different, and most times it is just plain irritating.

3. Limb Movement

Babies have little to no great control over their limb movements at first. And some like Lee, can be excessive and violent in their motions. And while his or any other baby’s range of motion and motor control is far from a great defense, it still could do some good since their motions are quick, unpredictable (well okay, not completely unpredictable), and seemingly violent.

Of course, all this motion day-to-day is just he or she developing their motor control, but there are times when it seems to more defensive or reactionary to something they don’t like or startles them.

Regardless of what is and isn’t a survival instinct, he remains super cute.