Friday the 13th Full moon accelerates Baby ArrivaL
“I don’t think I can take much more, Dan,” Tom explained. “I’m getting worn out.”
“Do you want me to talk to Melika?”
“No, I think she’s more worn out than me.”
“That’s probably true,” I replied. “She may be ready to rethink this whole ‘pregnancy thing’. It’s an idea that has simply taken too long.”
In fact, Melika remains incredibly positive and fashion focused. (She even bought a birthing gown because hospital clothing is ‘so yucky’.) She read somewhere that walking can help accelerate, eh, ‘move things along’, so she’s spent time on the treadmill. The photo, shot from the ceiling, shows Melika on the treadmill. You can just barely see her feet.
While Nazy and I supported Melika’s preparations, my engineering background naturally led me to use scientific analyses to predict an accurate delivery date. I explained it to Nazy.
“The birth will take place during the full moon.”
“That’s an old wive’s tale,” Nazy replied.
“No. The Sun, the Earth and the Moon are in a line during a full moon.”
“You told me that it was necessary to get ‘your ducks in a line’ before...”
“No, no! This has something to do with gravity and a suitably warped space-time continuum.”
“So when is the full moon?”
“It’s on June 12th at 9:13PM Pacific Time. Or, more scientifically, June 13th 4:13AM UTC.”
“UTC?”
“Universal Coordinated Time. It’s the same as Greenwich Mean Time.”
“In the Mean Time, she’ll probably have the baby.”
“It will be soon, Nazy. Gravity cannot be denied. I predict that I won’t finish this letter before there is a birth to announce.”
In fact, Nazy and I drove to the ocean to take a photo of the baby-announcing full moon. For birthing purposes, the full moon spanned June 12 and June 13.
Last weekend, Nazy and I also decided to visit a nearby orchid farms (located on Orchid Drive in Santa Barbara). We visited one of the oldest, The Santa Barbara Orchid Estate - founded 1957. They had a giant collection of orchids and naturally Nazy had questions. Mary, the owner, assigned Sven to provide answers.
“I’ve been working here more than 60 years. I started when I got back from the war in 1947.”
“The war ended in 1945,” I thought. “And the sign says this place didn’t exist until 1957.”
“How much does this white orchid cost?” Nazy asked more appropriately and simply.
“That is white orchid,” Sven replied redundantly. “Orchid prices depend on the number of flowering stalks. One stalk costs less than two and two cost less than three and so forth. Also, rare orchids are more expensive than common orchids.”
“Are these white orchids rare?” Nazy asked.
“Some white orchids are rare and others are not so rare. We like orchids that are cold tolerant. You need to keep those outside. A cold-tolerant orchid will not re-flower if you bring it indoors. That’s why all of our orchids are outside.”
“So this white orchid is..” Nazy interjected.
“White orchids can come from Central America or Brazil or Venezuela - in fact, anywhere in the tropics. Asia, Africa, Australia. There are more than 27.652 different varieties of orchid.”
“And this white orchid?”
“It’s one of those 27,652. You need to keep it outside and happy. Here in Santa Barbara, we’re in the subtropics. You don’’t want to get orchids that can’t stand a bit of cool weather.”
“Is the white orchid an outdoor..”
Orchids originated outdoors. Many of the white ones were later encouraged to grow bigger or more fragrant flowers. They all need to be fed and watered appropriately. If you..”
“What would you feed this white one?”
“Feeding plans depend on the kind of plant you want to grow. Some like to be fed frequently and some prefer..”
Concluding that we had never met a shop clerk who could talk so much without answering any question - including the price of something we wanted to buy - Nazy and I tried to extricate ourselves.
“But enough about orchids,” Sven said. “Where are you from?”
“Santa Barbara,” Nazy replied.
“But before that.”
“We were in Switzerland.”
“So you’re Italian? I fought my way through Italy in WWII.”
“Were you collecting orchids the whole time?” I asked.
NEWS FLASH: A text message as arrived. Melika is in the hospital doing hard labor.
“Hard labor?” I asked Nazy. “Is she having the baby in North Korea?”
“Dan..”
“How long is this going to take?”
“It could be many hours. It could be tomorrow..”
“Nope. In California there is a law. No labor more than eight hours in a day.”
“Dan that’s..”
“... the law. More than 8 hours and she’ll need time and a half pay. Of course, she’s a lawyer, so she’s used to breaking that particular law.”
But enough of babies. I’d like to tell you about the primary election results in Virginia.
“Dan!” Nazy interjects. “No one cares about the primary. People want to know about the baby.”
“Well, okay,” I replied.
A baby, our first grandchild was born on Friday the 13th.
“Was it a boy or a girl, Dan?” Nazy, backseat driving asked.
“As you well know, my dear, it was a boy. An 8 pound, 9 ounce (3884 gram) boy. A large baby. Mother and son are both well and happy.” I replied. “Mom Melika is the most happy,” i thought.
For some reason, Melika looked a little worn out when we saw her.
“It was really painful, Dad. I was worn out. I had been awake for almost 36 hours in a row.”
“Really!” I replied, shocked. “You knew this was going to take a while so why didn’t you sleep the night before?”
Right after the birth. In fact, directly and immediately after the birth, Melika, Tom and assorted bit players shot a late night music video announcement based on The Lion King.
The baby’s name is Thomas Reagan Adams IV. (We are following the support bowl numbering scheme until we get to the 50th Thomas Adams at which point we will switch to decimal numbers.) Father, Mother and Son are in fine shape. Grandmother and Grandfather are happy and excited.
