manyoudontmeetBoy Z is sleeping for England this afternoon, so much so that I’ve found myself at a loss. I’ve even cleaned the toilets, something that it rarely crosses my mind to do. I’m grateful for this one day a week I take off with my son – it’s a day to take stock, to take a break from the stress of the work week, to be present as a father. And the boy is just flat sleeping through it.

While listening to this Pogues song it occurred to me from whence this conceit I’ve developed of using song lyrics for post titles came. During the long distance wooing stages, I used to send Dr. O’C endless, longing e-mails, e-mails in which I used song lyrics as the subject line. This was one of those songs. She’ll tell you that she didn’t know they were song lyrics, or that it was ‘arty-farty’, but she’s still here eight years later. So you tell me who knows how to court.

I’m worried about my extended family – parents, sibling, grandparent, niece. That’s where this expatriate/immigrant thing falls apart. It’s a long way from South Australia to North America. It’s a long way from South Australia to anywhere. I don’t know what happens in the longer run, when the inevitable starts to come through. I don’t know how the long term plan falls into place.

I’m less worried about me. I stood on the scales at the pharmacy this morning and I’d gained a kilo. I think the weight loss may have been one of those statistical aberrations. I don’t know about the rest of the medical tests, but that will all be sorted out in the next couple of weeks. I think it’s going to be O.K.

One of the reasons for this is that I live in a country with a sensible medical system. I’m glad that on top of the creepiness of my body doing aberrant things that I don’t have to fret about health insurance and deductibles and pre-existing conditions and money.  I’m not going to rant about health care because I honestly don’t care what they do in the States anymore. There’s no way that y’all are going to get a decent system out of this. There’s too much stagnation in the fetid swamps around the Potomac, too many people with too much money who don’t have your best interests at heart. I can’t even listen to the news coverage anymore – the lies and apocryphal stories from the Right, the inaction and endless hand wringing from the Left. There’s a distinct lack of courage in American politics – from the top down.

At the shops today I went to get Boy Z a new beach ball. The clerk found me one, but when I went to pay for it I found that it was pink.

“It’s pink!”, I exclaimed with my notorious penchant for stating the obvious, “I’ll just get another.”
“You’re such a bloke”, she laughed in reply.

grandadWhile not a man’s man – nowhere near in fact – while pretty liberal and open-minded guy, I’ve found that with my son I’m a father right out of the 1950’s. Boys wear blue. Boys play with trucks. Boys have short hair. In fact, in the space of a week I called Nichole’s little boy a ‘hippy’ and threatened to get out my clippers and “give the boy a #2″ if Dr. O’C didn’t get her Mum to cut Boy Z’s hair.

My grandfather used to say that to me when my hair started to touch the tops of my ears – “C’mere, I’m going to  give you a brush cut!”

So, I guess I’m more of a 1940’s Dad.

I miss him, my maternal grandfather. I miss the summers my sister and my cousins and I used to spend up at their lake house in far northern Ontario. The long mild August days and smells of bug spray and evergreen. The relative innocence of childhood and the the relative freedom of time away from the parents.

Boy Z is still asleep. And I’ve written a whole blog post, such that it is.

Thank you for paddling along that stream of consciousness with me.

I have acres of land
I have men at command
I have always a shilling to spare
So be easy and free
When you’re drinking with me
I’m a man you don’t meet every day

———————————-

The Pogues’ “Rum, Sodomy and the Lash is available from The Pogues - Very Best of the Pogues.

 
icon for podpress  The Pogues : Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

Popularity: 13% [?]