It’s early in the morning now and I’m still recovering.

The implosion from a few hours earlier at work is still fresh on my mind.

Let’s see if we can count the damage:

  • Forgot to check the fax machine to get two death notices in the newspaper from the funeral home, and this comes after messing up the obituaries for the past two weeks. Luckily, the page designer was a good sport, agreeing to do a last-minute switch to fit them in. I told Steve Lundeberg that I would post all the information from the page to democratherald.com for him, as a way of penance. A Mormon’s version of 10 Hail Marys.
  • Forgot to run an announcement about the Albany Rose Society meeting in the Sunday Lifestyles section. Incidentally, it will be held Tuesday, Oct. 19, at 7 p.m. at The Villas, 1929 Grand Prairie Road, Albany.  The guest speaker will be Nancy Mandell, who will be talking about drying roses and hydrangeas.
  • Started running the Sunday paper on the press late Saturday night, only to realize I had accidentally left a text box over the Democrat-Herald nameplate. That meant a resend of A1, further delaying the start of the press.

Those were just the high points, the ones that still have me befuddled this early in the morning. I can blame it on a lot of things: menopause, hair loss, the dog or too much pizza. But not really.

I’m sort of feeling sorry for myself until I remember waking up 20 hours earlier at home.

She’s sitting at the computer working when I walk in from the bedroom. I sit down on the couch as the early morning sun lights up the living room. Most of the kids are still asleep and won’t wake up for several hours.

My wife starts talking, and I listen. It’s the first time we’ve really connected all week because of the Blair Witch Project carnival ride that is life. You know exactly what I mean. It’s bad enough some weeks where you can barely catch your breath.

Get the boys here or there.

Unclog the sink and desmell the dog.

Who’s cooking dinner or defrosting it?

There really isn’t another mountain of toilet paper here, is there?

Almost an hour later, we’re still talking on a deeper emotional level and I feel even closer to her.

As I get up to take a shower for work, I am thankful we had this time. Glad I chose not to pull up Facebook or Saturday morning cartoons.

Funny. I think I got this one right.