I thought we were settled in for a really good evening. Day had been feeling as though there was not much family fun. We had decided to take her out to the new Japanese restaurant. She's not that fond of Japanese food but we figured that she would enjoy the show that goes into the hibachi cooking and she did. Then she drove us home and we started playing poker. Day likes bet-less poker. (We play with chips that are worth absolutely nothing.) She likes poker because I'm terrible at it and Rob's not much better. We were laughing. We were having a great time. And then the phone rang.

The second I realized it was my mother on the other end, I knew it was bad news. She might call just to call but not on a Friday night. We talk virtually every Saturday morning. She would not call on a Friday night with news that could wait until morning. Besides, I know her tones and, if it's not bad news, she usually is reassuring right away. My dad has had a bike accident.

Although my dad is 77 years old, he still bicycles regularly and goes approximately 10 miles many mornings. Unfortunately, he tried to share the same spot on the road with a car and was sideswiped. He says it was his fault and not the driver's. I'm not sure exactly what happened but he has a broken right shoulder, a broken pelvis, and broken ribs. He will not need surgery and is otherwise in good enough physical shape to impress the doctors. He will need to stay in the hospital for several days and then go to rehab for several weeks. They seem to think he will be fine eventually and I'm very grateful.

Still, I have decided to blame the telephone for all of life's bad news. I would threaten to do damage to my telephone except the one in the bedroom decided not to work as of a few days ago. Perhaps it knew bad news was coming. Perhaps it was protecting itself. Perhaps it doesn't matter because I'm going to throw it out anyway.

But I'm losing focus here. The focus should be on Dad and on Mom. And it will be.

|