June 20, 1999

I'm here at work, trying to avoid actually doing anything productive. Instead, I have deleted one thousand of the two thousand mail messages that are clogging up my inbox. I crossed more than one message sent to me by all of you, so I thought that I'd write a single, massive mail message in response. Actually, a massive distribution of a mail message with an as yet undetermined length.

The biggest news is that Thursday Julie and I went to the doctor and got to hear the heartbeat of the baby. We sort of expected something like the heartbeat on Dark Side of the Moon. Instead, figuring out what was Julie's blood flowing through her body, random movement of the instrument and the actual heartbeat took a seasoned professional to interpret. In the end, we heard it. Scary. Until then, the baby has been sort of an abstract thing, even for Julie. Not any more; seven months from now life will change forever. Actually, it already has. It's sort of like riding a roller coaster. We are slowly being dragged up the hill, we have the illusion of control because we are being pulled by something that is in control. Once we reach the top, all remaining illusion of control will be lost. We read somewhere, that at a certain point the baby actually controls the chemical processes that allow for its development. Julie has been feeling pretty good, no morning sickness. If she could, she would probably sleep 16 hours a day. This means that our baby is really probably a cat.

By the way, the new father is having a major mid-life crisis at the moment. Nothing that a new Porsche wouldn't fix. (OK, maybe just a high definition, flat screen TV).

We have a very cool thing happening around our house. There are between three and five adult bald eagles living in trees near the lake. It's really cool. These aren't abstract; we saw them while we were driving. Bald eagles. They sit in trees less than two blocks from our house. We can hear their calls. Probably the most interesting thing is how the crows dive bomb them when they sit in certain trees. The crows are trying to chase them off. The sea gulls also hate them. This tends to annoy us, because it makes for a very noisy early morning when the sea gulls try and chase them off. Did I mention this all starts before 4:00 A.M.? First light in Seattle in the summer. Of course the cats get up then also.

Julie and I hope everything is going well for all of you.

P.S. Julie and I were talking on the way back from the doctor. We decided that the last two songs on Dark Side of the Moon may be some of the best recorded music ever. Every time we hear it, it brings a tear to our eyes...

And if the cloud bursts, thunder in your ear
You shout and no one seems to hear
And if the band you're in starts playing different tunes
I'll see you on the dark side of the moon.
-Pink Floyd, 1973