Sometimes, for no apparent reason, the world will suddenly, imperceptibly, tilt on its axis. And life will never be quite the same again.

Eleven days ago,  on a Wednesday, I was at my friend’s house, drinking tea while our children played outdoors. And then the Earth shifted as her 3 year old was shooting off the end of the slide, sending him sideways and immediately to hospital for an operation, insertion of pins and an overnight stay.

She spent the next week following him around the house so that he didn’t fall in his soft cast and re-break the reset arm.

Ten days ago, on a Thursday, The Daddy was sitting in a small office with his boss’s delegate, for his yearly review. They diligently checked the check boxes and commented the comment spaces for the better part of 40 minutes. An hour later the Earth had upended them too, sweeping them both out onto the street clutching their cardboard boxes.

The Daddy spent the next week tied to the internet and the phone, sending out resumes and talking to recruiters and other contacts.

Good news. My friend’s son now has a hard cast on his arm and she doesn’t have to hover protectively over him any more.

Actually, although she had a busy week, with not a minute to herself, she also appreciated spending  one on one time with him that she would have otherwise missed.

Other good news. The Daddy has a new job, starting Monday.

And actually, this job is probably better than his previous one, using the kind of new technologies he gets excited about. And probably about as recession-proof as you can get these days. It’s a change he wouldn’t otherwise have made.

The Earth has been uneasy lately. It has been scratching its itch.

But we have been among the lucky ones.

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I haven’t been blogging lately. I just can’t, in all good conscience, make the time. And then there have been little things getting in the way, like for example my husband coming home suddenly in the middle of the day minus his work computer and then hogging mine while I roamed about like a lost soul doing unfamiliar things like … housework … all the while falling further and further behind with what I needed to be doing. We bought a new computer. It took two days to arrive. In the meantime I lost all my marbles. I swear, I was talking gibberish, and then the new computer arrived I almost kissed the UPS man, tight little shorts and all. Which would have been highly embarrassing. We see a lot of him.

But this weekend we had fun! Big Fun! We went to San Antonio for the T-Bot’s birthday and roamed around doing all the fun touristy things that fun tourists in San Antonio do. Like this:

And this:

And this:

We even had our portrait taken!

OK, it was a cheesy fleece-the-tourist portrait sold at the exit to the caves, the kind of thing we never, ever buy. But look! Whole family together!

I think if you read my last post you will realize how amazing this actually is.

(Full points if you noticed this is a not very good photo of a not very good photo. My scanner cable is still awol.)

Let’s finish off  this hurried effort with a picture of the Birthday Boy, who spent almost the whole three hour trip home in the car trying to convince us that he had actually grown a foot since the days - those long ago days - when he was six.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY, T-BOT!!!