12.22.03 - 8:15 a.m.

One of my favorite hymns is Morning has Broken. I'd try to find a midi of the tune to link here, but it's likely not worth the effort. I have the tune in my mind, and I'm the audience that matters for this, anyway. I like the lyrics, and I was thinking of the song because I'm here and it's an early morning and it reminded me:

Morning has broken, like the first morning
Blackbird has spoken, like the first bird
Praise for the singing, praise for the morning
Praise for them springing fresh from the world

And... so on. I looked it up, but I don't remember any of the other lyrics, and apparently it isn't so much a traditional hymn as a Cat Stevens song that made it into the Catholic repetoir. Go Catholics! I always liked the Jesus-freak Catholics, with their shaggy beards and folk music services and whatnot. There were still some Jesus-freak Catholics fresh from the 60s hanging around when I was a kid in the 80s, working at Catholic camps and teaching us rockin' songs like Thank God I'm a Country Boy and Rocky Top, which is one of my perennial favorites. Rocky Top, that is. One of my perennial favorites. Ask me, anytime, and I'll sing it.

Except this morning. I don't feel like singing it this morning. The sun was out yesterday, but this morning is gray again. It's going to rain this week, and my endless illness is still lingering. I was sick this weekend, though not so sick as mom, who had a 104 degree temperature until she took some Tylenol. It's expected, right, with chemotherapy, that things like this will happen. Hopefully the gyn-onc will give her antibiotics. She's felt like absolute crap all week, and isn't getting better yet, and that's really difficult for everyone. The other day I said that sick-mom is easier to deal with than mostly-well-and-hyped-on-steroids mom, but I take that back. She'd be welcome to yell at me if she would just feel better.

I think I need to clean off my desk. Things are accumulating. Soon there will be an avalanche. Most of these things are not work-related, either, but distinctly seasonal instead. I suppose it's time for work now, though, as I just opened my outlook and found 10000000 emails awaiting my inspection, and a very mysterious telephone message showed up on my voice mail without ever a ring.