About 04:00 this morning the power went out. Everything was dead. I got up and got the flashlight and shut all of the computers down and peed then went back to bed.

Finally got up around 09:30, very reluctantly. Messed around for quite a while, then watched the Chiefs win their 9th... nine and oh, they are. Looks like a Super Bowl, fer sure.

O'wait: they have a history of losing playoff games, heh.

So... the sewer has been running rather slowly the past few days. Karen had bought some really strong toilet paper recently....

So I tried to unjam it with some chemicals, then I tried to unjam it with the 3/4" tape. No luck. I took the tape outside and ran it to the end of the line, up to where it dumped into the 24" line. No problem there.

So it's got to be between the house and the cleanout. Probably where the 4" line joins up with the 3" line, dammit.

So. I need to work even harder, I guess, to force it through. But I've already wprked pretty hard on it and given up. What I guess I need to do is get the 1/4" tape and try that, maybe that 1/2" ball is just too much. If I can fine the 1/4" tape, that is. I might've thrown it away.

But that's really the least of my problems today.

Brian, Matt's son, has been, essentially, kicked out of his house. Yeah, he's just going on 14. What can I say.

He's Matt's problem, not ours, but we're the contact point. So he's here now, waiting for Matt to get home from the Chief's game. He and I had a long talk, and I have no idea if I had an effect or not.

Kids don't really want to communicate. And neither do parents. Jacinda is a good mother, loves Brian and all of that. And Brian loves her. But they've never gotten to know each other on a personal basis, like, human to humam.

Not that I can really fault either of them for that, I'm still working on getting to know my mother, y'know?

Talk, talk, talk. Communication is what's needed.

Bryan may be here for a coupla weeks, or he may be at Matt's. At Matt's would be more logical, but I'm not really sure if logic comes in this at all.

And once logic is defenestrated, I am lost, lost, lost.

But I am here for Brian, and I'm here for Karen.

And there has to be some room for me in here somewhere, right?

I remember when JD was going through this, I remember it well. But at the time I was a responsible person, and I think that I handled the whole thing responsibly. I'm really not that confident about Matt.

But it will work out, I know that. It will work out, and everyone involved will be the better for it.

But right now, I'm thinking about my cut-up hands and the clogged-up sewer and going to work in the morning.