The Ongoing Saga of the Triplet Mobile

Yesterday was my very first Father's Day. I got to the hospital at 9:15 a.m. We had played in Tulsa the night before and the guys dropped me off in Temple on the way back to Austin. The nurses had a neat Dad poem on a sheet of paper with the boys' footprints on them. That was pretty cool. Apparently, taking their footprints for this was about all they were willing to give for Father's Day. When I went to each boy I asked each one if they had anything to say to me. You know, like "Happy Father's Day Dad. I love you." Nope. Nothing. Cade looked up at me and tried to stick his whole hand in his mouth. Zane stared at me for a second and fell asleep. Cash messed his drawers and screamed while I changed his diaper. I got to hold everyone and it was a great Father's Day. I guess they must be a little short on money, cause they didn't even get me a tie. I did get a card from them, but I think their mother might have signed their names. They are pretty advanced for their age, but I haven't seen them do any writing or even any reading yet. I received plenty of "Happy Father's Day" texts from all over the country. Not one single text from any of the boys. They didn't even post on my Facebook page. Maybe next year.

In other news, we finally sold Carrie's 2002 Mitsubishi Diamante. The whole thing happened so fast, I didn't really have time to think about it. I put it on Craig's List and within 15 minutes we started receiving all types of calls. We ended up selling it to a very nice guy from South Austin who bought it for his son who is going to law school. Perfect car for that. The car was fine except that when you got it above 60, the wind whistled through the rear windows. Actually it sounded like you were in a wind tunnel. The guy didn't care. He knows the car has at least another 75,000 miles in it. Anyway, the car is now gone. As soon as it was sold, I realized that my excuse for not getting the proper Triplet vehicle had vanished.

If you have been reading this blog for any length of time, you have probably ascertained that I hate spending money. I can't stand it. It drives me nuts because I always feel that somehow I'm getting screwed in whatever deal is going down. This is especially true for buying vehicles. Carrie and I have decided that we are not getting a mini-van. We are not mini-van people. I also want to have my family inside a very substantial vehicle. I want something with a truck frame and a lot of metal between them and the outside world. We started looking again and I would like to say that the price of cars is completely out of hand. I mean a new suburban with any options at all is around $50,000. That is completely insane. That is roughly one third of the cost of the house that I am currently sitting in. If they built a vehicle to last 30 years, then I would be happy to spend that kind of money. However, after 36,000 miles you know that the transmission will fall out of it, or the engine block will crack, the A/C will break and the repair bill will be around $7,000. Combine this with the fact that on new vehicles they have made it next to impossible for a shade tree mechanic like myself to even attempt to repair. I drive a 1991 Chevrolet half ton pick-up. I can fix anything on that for next to nothing. I love that truck and so does the dog. I wont' be able to haul even ONE of my boys around in it, but that's the only downside to that truck. New vehicles on the other hand are just the worst investment on earth. The second you drive a new vehicle off the lot, you lose money. I mean like lots of money. When I think about this, my head hurts and my arms start to feel weird. I can't explain it. Things have to make sense to me. I always have a similar feeling when I'm washing socks. You know, you get all the socks out of the dryer, and you have 15 socks. How do you only have 15? You look back in the dryer and there is nothing in there. You check the floor to see if you dropped any. You know there wasn't a day when you only wore one sock, so something is wrong. You have 7 pair of socks plus this one sock. One sock all by itself. Where is the other sock? You look in the clothes hamper, maybe you forgot to wash it. No socks there either. This sock has simply disappeared into the ozone. Perhaps it was sucked to the center of the earth. Perhaps it was lost in a swirling vortex of despair. I bet that somewhere in this universe there is a huge black hole full of socks, and there are plenty of MY socks in that black hole. So, now you have this one sock. Totally and completely useless by itself. This drives me nuts cause it makes no sense. Just like buying a car makes no sense. We must have a reliable vehicle that will haul the boys, the dog, all of our baby gear, and I personally will not travel anywhere without a guitar. The vehicle must hold all these things. We are looking, and we will find one. We will spend the money and it will eat at me. It will gnaw away at the inside of my brain until one day I snap and hopefully I will find a place where I can feel at ease. A break with reality might do me some good.

How are the boys? Well, they are awesome and Carrie and I are so thankful how truly blessed we are to have three boys that only need to grow. Cannula. Cannula is the name of the breathing thing they have on. They are turned way down, and after today or tomorrow Cade and Cash will no longer need theirs. Zane is right behind them and he won't need his for long. Then we will get to look at our boys without tape and tubes on their faces. Cade gets his PICC line out today which will mean all three of them are solely on mother's milk. They will still be fed with a tube, but as early as this week or next, they will start to bottle feed them. We are truly fortunate.

There is another little girl in the NICU that is in the same room as our boys. She has been there for over five months. Her mother is so positive and upbeat it is amazing. This little girl has had a very rough time of it. I don't want to say her name or anything, cause it's not my kid, but if you have a minute today please say a prayer for her. She is having surgery today and we are hoping it goes well. She is a little fighter and we are hoping for the best for her.

Now for some photos:

This is Cash. He wanted to play some guitar with the old man on Father's Day. He looks like he is crying, but he is actually singing the chorus to "Paradise City" by Guns 'n Roses. He was getting way into it. He had thrown down his guitar and was just singing away. I mean he was really rocking.



Next is Zane, who took the outro guitar solo on "Paradise City" while Cash was singing. You can't see the guitar, but at this moment he held out one note and closed his eyes. He held the pick up in the air and threw it into the audience of NICU nurses that were cheering him on.



This is Cade totally worn out after the performance. He had just smashed his guitar on the NICU room floor and was basking in glory of the roar of the crowd which was deafening.