Feckless

Preparing a package of chicken to be roasted, he adds the marinade to the bird parts and lets it sit for half-an-hour before inserting the assembly to rest in the oven at 350 degrees (relatively speaking}. Electric ovens are difficult for people unused to the way electricity performs as opposed to the way gas works. When you turn your gas oven on, it heats up to the degree you want and stays there, until the thermostat decreases and moves back up to the degree again. Same thing with electric ovens: you set the degree you're looking for and check the thermometer and when the light goes off, it's there, and heats up until it gets there and the light goes off. So, how come it always take 3 or 4 hours to bake a few chicken thighs?

We are so different, all of us. Even those closest to us - those whose genes we physically share - are one-quarter or one-half removed from us as individuals. And, our progeny, the genes that we connected with are no more combined than in themselves. 'Who knows those waves?'

The first child I ever came to love apart from my family and my youngest sister's best friend, is the step-son of my brother. His mother was attached to my lover previously and we shared an apartment in the Haight. We liked going to Golden Gate Park, to the Carousel and the Children's Playground with him because his bright and shining eyes never faded except for sheer fatigue. I remember the Christmas Eve that we bought him a pint of Peppermint Schnaaps; he proceeded to berate us for being bad adults wanting to make kids bad! However, he stayed with us when his mother and my brother flew to Mexico and lived in Oaxaca for a few months. He came and stayed at our house in Sonoma County, and with friends. Now his kids are facing their own prospects and looking out for their own futures, and hopefully our group of tightly-knit, loosely-clad, figures from three counties will be able to juggle our needs successfully.

Don't Cry for Me, Argentina?