Summer Half-time May 9 - August 14, 2003 a sweeping account of important changes in our lives

	Little Hippo (19th week)

	Grandpa by the Pacific Ocean first of our series of summer visitors

I have no idea how to fit three months into one journal entry. Were it not all so full of events, I could (possibly) have the time and room to describe everything in good order; this way I shall have to skip many accounts. Perhaps I am going to revisit them later.

Yours may be different, but my reckoning of mid-summer falls onto the very boundary between July and August. It is incorrect both by common calendar and astronomically, yet the half-time of (Czech) school holidays always used to be a very important milestone for me. It's been quite a while since I went to school, but this year there were many things happening around the magic middle point.

Some of them draw their origins from long before. Only now I'm simply finally getting around to letting you know the greatest news: our little Hippo is underway! We found out about him four days before leaving for our vacation, which disturbed our plans somewhat -- more accurately, it disturbed my plans to sample many English beers with Vicky. Little Hippo decided to spent first few weeks of his existence sustained mostly by tomatoes and yogurt, and even that in only small doses (thus making my big carnivorous Hippo worry), and he also loaded my circulatory system and breathing. A few hiking trips we made, took place at a senior-citizen pace, with much huffing and puffing and resting every ten feet of progress. Not to speak of the fact that I was able to fall asleep anytime, anywhere, and for any duration (best for about sixteen hours a day). This phase, somewhat reminiscent of malaria symptoms, I still have not fully recovered from.

	Grandma in a balloon (another visitor)

	Some visitors manage to discover a new, previously unknown attraction. Without Suchýš we would not be aware that Yellowstone's famous geyser, Old Faithful, has a brother in California.		With our future grandpa, we ventured along the banks of a mountain river of Kern.

Mid-summer more or less matches with the middle of my pregnancy. If everything goes as it should, little Hippo will be our Christmas present. So far he looks like a small Alien -- at least by moving bulges on my belly. My doctor confirmed his gender twice already, Sid maintains that it was very obvious on the ultrasound screen, but I would rather leave room for doubts. I had heard too many stories of how "our Cathy was finally born and his name is Joe" (or vice versa). Our first name is still under discussion. As it is a Czech custom to associate (and celebrate) each name with a certain day in a year, any names that fall close to Christmas would deprive our child of another distinct reason to party (as he will be already suffering from proximity of his birthday to Christmas). Hence Adam (or Eve), David, Daniel, Lucy, Barbara etc. are out of question. Then there's the matter of our Czech last name, while little Hippo will quite likely spend most of his life in America. Names like Jiří, Šárka, Zdeněk, Boženka are too Czech, while Kevin, Brian or Jessica are too English. And besides that, try to say for example "my name is Phillip Paral". If you can still read this text under the spit on your screen and have a good idea of a name for our little Hippo, e-mail it right away.

I have several excuses for my tardiness in producing new journals. I shall put aside completely objective complications caused by my pregnancy: a hard to explain tiredness and an advanced brooding dementia - that is, sudden loss of capability construct meaningful sentences.
Since returning from our vacation, our house has become a hostel for altogether seventeen visiting people in three months -- and their stays ranged from several hours to several weeks, so we really cannot complain about boredom. Neither can our visitors (I hope) -- I would like to mention that it is also nice to come home to a cleaned-up garage (we did not get around to it since we moved in) or all windows cleaned (I think that they last saw some cloth about a year ago), or weeds from our back yard removed. Don't be afraid, we do not force visitors to labor on our plantations. Tourist expeditions who stop by for a day or two usually receive a lecture on where to go within fifteen hundred miles from here, and where to find good camping spots, or how to deal with bears, policemen and rangers. We tend to combine that with a California wine, Czech beer and a solid dinner and nobody ever raised any complains.

	Aguerberry Point ...so we took him into the desert. There was no snow in Death Valley.

	Crater Lake Winter (in May) my dad came too early and some places were still under snow cover...

Without much torture I confess that the most pleasant change of this summer was the demise of my esteemed employer. Since March it was clear what kind of things were coming, and by the last July it ended with closing of our subsidiary. I packed my toothbrush, lip moisturizer and comb, returned my main door key, and merrily delved into the lifestyle of an unemployed pregnant woman. I have to say that since I stopped working I don't know where to be first. For some time already I was putting off visits to miscellaneous doctors (dentist, optometrist), there were many loose ends in need of mending at our house (like a three feet layer of unpacked boxes dating back to our moving in, piled up in our future children's room) -- and my little Hippo will have nothing to wear. Baby clothes can be possibly arranged in the last moment, but we will definitely need to have a car seat for him (as they won't let us out of the hospital without it) -- and the question is, which one. So now I'm gathering information on what to do. Naturally things are being sold here that are different from Europe, different brands mostly, and I am completely lost, for I never cared much about babies before.

	...to the contrary - lizards were warming up in the burning sun.

	Balloon rally at Prosser Lake, CA. In a suitable place, one balloon after another rose up, making room for the next crew ready to move in.		Part of the rally was an unofficial fishing competition. Due to the delay with which a balloon reacts to burning, hovering right above water surface requires a master skill. Yes, some aeronauts got a little wet.

The last event of mid-summer was my first noticeable encounter with poison oak. The plant is a completely inconspicuous bush, easily overlooked among other common vegetation, covered with special (vegetable) oil on its leaves and twigs. Most people are highly allergic to this substance, but only after some accumulated exposure - it takes a few years to saturate one's organism, so until this year I did not know if I was allergic or not. The most sneaky about this pest is that you won't notice right away. It is there, dormant for a couple days, before a rash develops; being an oil, the substance can contaminate clothes (or pets' fur), so one can transfer it to skin much later. I went through all of it already several times with Sid -- a little noticeable rash, which develops two or three days after touching the plant, would eventually spread over body, burst into oozing blisters, and itch devilishly. Mild cases recede on their own, worse ones must be treated with Prednison, or else your immunity system goes completely haywire and damaged skin may allow septic infection. I hope you can imagine how "lucky" I felt when I discovered this happening to myself. A doctor said that because of little Hippo we would fist try only lotions - so I grease and smear them on my skin, but it so far has only neutralized spreading of the rash. So I really hope that this has been he end of all "exciting" events for this year's summer and the rest will pass on a dull note.

Copyright © 2003-2004 by Carol & Sid Paral. All rights reserved.