Diversions on a rainy Tuesday

Yesterday was a rainy tuesday. At least for most of the day. I did get out and was able to evict the squirrels living in our attic and board up their entrance in a way that they would be hard pressed to come back in.

My morning and part of my afternoon was occupied with waiting around a hospital while the lovely Miss Carol had a couple of procedures done which would determine the treatment for her cancer. While I was in the waiting room, the subject of names popped up. The subject never really popped up, so to speak... it sort of fell into my lap.

I picked up one of those local magazines which awards "Reader's Choice Awards" to various and sundry businesses and wouldn't you know, the magazine awarded the award for "Best Surgeon" to the woman who was, at the moment I was reading the award, performing her craft on my wife in a nearby room. Not only that, but they shared something, too. Names. Actually just one name. Doctor Canavan's first name is the same as the lovely Miss Carol's middle name. Lynn.

Way cool. Two Lynns. No waiting! If you are familiar with the extended Harrell family, you know that you can add two more Lynns to the list making the count at the moment (properly) three Lynns and one Linn. Discount the good Doctor and you still have 3 Lynns in the family which ain't too shabby.

That's tied with Bruces. A brother-in-law, my brother's father-in-law and my self. Davids abound, but the Davids are a bit more complicated. Depending on the count and who gets counted, there are at least 5 Davids out there involved with the family. There's only one blood David, and that would be my second cousin. Three of the Davids are leftovers from the previous regime and are still my childrens' Grandfather, Uncle and Cousin respectively. Decent people, but I'm no longer sort of related. It's complicated. Then there's David Schirtzinger who isn't related, but at the same time he's unofficially been adopted into the family from time to time as sort of my younger twin brother (I'm the evil one!).

Then there's Sarah who shares her first name and her middle name with her grandmothers' middle names - not to be confused with my father's sister, Sara, who is my second cousin's grandmother.

Are you getting this so far? It gets more complicated.

The lovely Miss Carol's children were amused with the fact that Carol became a Harrell and thus provided some alliteration to the mess. Then, we found out that some of the names in her family were coincidental with names in our family. For instance, she and I both have an Aunt Joan, both being our mothers' sister. Keep in mind, there is Texas Joan related to Carol and West Virginia Joan related to me. Texas Joan has two children, Judy and Jill... I have sisters Judi and Jill. My sisters are married to Linn and Lynn. Adding to the mess is the fact that my third sister Janice is married to other Bruce, although he is referred to as B. Sing just to keep things clear.

Oh, and B. Sing's son is Charles who is pursuing his Doctorate at a large, well known college in the East - not to be confused with Charlie, or Charles, a second cousin who is married to a Jaclyn who is an Internist - not to be confused with Jaclyn, one of the lovely Miss Carol's daughters... who is named after one of her grandmothers.

If we ever hold a family reunion with everybody, I'm going to sell programs so that everyone else can tell who is who. The proceeds should just about make my fortune as I see it.

And so my mind is occupied on a rainy Tuesday. The lovely Miss Carol finally got to go home and other than having a bit of a green tinge to her skin from a dye which had been injected into her and being a bit silly from the drugs used to knock her out, is fine and dandy and ready to go on to the next stage of her treatment.

So, kits, cats, sacks and wives, how many were going to St. Ives?

Be Seeing You!