“I wouldn’t think of it. Why are you going?”

“Shahriar broke his ankle. He’s just getting back to work and I want to help him adjust.”

“Yes, well…”

“He said that he isn’t the right age to break a bone.”

“Is there a right age?” I replied. “I broke my wrist when I was 15 and that wasn’t….”

“Let’s get practical, Dan. Do you know where I keep the diapers?”

“Diapers?” I gasped as I began to internalize the bleak reality of the week to come.

Brandishing a diaper, Nazy continued to instruct: “Do you remember how…”

“ … who can forget?” I interrupted.

Shahriar’s house in San Francisco, like Melika’s in Santa Barbara, is in the midst of renovation. There are other similarities:

“Work at Shahriar’s started as a project to fix a leaky roof,” Nazy explained.

“That is a necessity in San Francisco during an El Nino year,” I replied.

“Then they decided that since they were ;already in there’, they would do a few repairs on the terrace.”

“That makes sense,” I replied. “Sense?” I thought. “That’s like a dentist performing a root canal deciding that he’ll do a kidney transplant since he’s ‘already’ in there.”

“There has been significant cost overrun,” Nazy hammered on.

“Is Shahriar using Melika’s contractor,” I replied. Slowly and expensively

While Nazy was up north, I was able to continue my studies in Chaos Theory by stopping at Melika’s (under construction) home. For the last several weeks, things have been stalled in the kitchen. When Tom and Mel chose a specular oven/stove for the new kitchen, no one told them that there would be problems installing the hood/vent. By problems, I mean new holes in the roof, kitchen sink relocation, cabinet moves and the like. You can, therefore, imagine my surprise when I stopped by on Tuesday and saw a worker finishing up the vent.

“You did it!” I exclaimed. “That vent has been a major challenge.”

nap. We went to the zoo where he marveled at the meerkats, penguins and rabbits and exuded nonchalant boredom in the direction of the elephants.

Wednesday was totally trouble-free when Melika and Yari (the nanny) took full responsibility and 100% of child care time.

Thursday, October 29th was National Cat Day. (I am not making that up.) It was also a day of trail and tribulation. It was, in short, the day that I had full responsibility for the grand(est) son … from 9:00AM until 8:00PM. It was the kind of day that tests the sinews of grand fatherhood, a day filled with Armageddon-esque challenge.

After breakfast with Tiger and Melika, I took the lad to the library Kids Korner. I was reading Tiger a book when nature called him. Astute readers undoubtedly know that a 16 month old baby wearing a diaper has little interest (and less skill) in controlling bodily functions. A prepared caretaker would have had appropriate materials to cope with the smelly mess. I rank low on the prepared caretaker metric.

After his nap, I took him to the old carousel, the duck pond (‘little water&rsquo and the ocean (‘big water&rsquo. Astonishingly, there was another call of nature while we were at the ocean, during low tide, far from the car. Once again, lessons from Boy Scouts (“Be Prepared&rdquo had been not been utilized. I called Nazy (with a crying baby in the backseat) as I rushed home to deal with the, eh, situation.

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For last week's letter, click here

The Donald, Tom and Melika