Have you heard about shingles--the sharp pain that mingles

With terrible itching and hurt?

Well, to help with the stingles, our front doorbell jingles;

In doubles, not singles, our good neighbors bring

us dessert.

Well, I have had this pesky ailment for nearly a week now, but the medicine is beginning to take effect and it appears that survival is quite likely. Shingles is a carry-over from chickenpox. The virus hides out in the body for years (in my case, 75 years) and then bursts forth with a vengeance. An angry array of painful bumps and blisters, usually on only one half of the mid-section, appears. Now I'm looking forward to their disappearing. (The literature indicates that it will take four to five weeks)

For Em

A mouse in the house!

What a scare!

It's worse than a hedgehog or bear!

It's strange how these critters

Can give us all jitters.

What's worse than a mouse?

It's a pair!

Some thoughts on naming new babies

Dr. Seuss wrote a poem about the McCaves—
A family who boasted some twenty-three Daves.
Well, that’s not so different from our good McCords,
The clan that has Davids by dozens and hordes.
And we think our ancestors, though they were nice,
Should really have followed that good Seuss advice:
He said, for example, “when those boys were born,
They should have called one of them Bodkin Van Horn,
And one of them Hoos-Foos, and one of them Snimm
And one of them Hot Shot, and one Sunny Jim.
And one of them Shadrack, and one of them Blinkey.
And one of them Stuffy and one of them Stinkey.”
He’s right. What a boon to our modern research,
If one of our Daves had been Lochinvar Lurch.
Another, perhaps, would have been more distinctive
If he had been christened Robertus Dolinctive.
Names like Davidicus, Otto, or Kunkel
Would now help distinguish a grandpa from uncle.
But parents and grandparents, it would appear,
Found that David McCord sounded nice to the ear;
And so grandsons and nephews (they number in dozens),
Grand uncles and grandpas and twice-removed cousins
Were all christened David, but we are assured
That one of them must be OUR David McCord.