My youngest, Nathaniel, has been in the hospital for the past two nights with a respiratory infection (we hope to have him home some time in the next 24-48 hours), and I've been amusing and making curious the staff at two hospitals in and around Washington, DC over the past 48+ hours.

Today, one of the volunteer clowns at Children's Hospital passed me near the atrium as I tried to pick up a cell signal in an "okay" location (no place is really good with all the wireless networks the signs say cell phones interfere with) gave me a "I like your kilt!" as she passed.

Also, one of the nurses (let's call him Carl) attending to Nate's care has been having fun with one of his shift-mates. Apparently at a staff meeting last night, after seeing me bekilted (UK original) with my son and in the hallway, another nurse asked Carl if he knew what religion I was. Carl, while making conversation with me and my wife this morning, said he needed to come up with a religion to tell her to really get her going. I immediately popped out with "Kiltarian." My wife added that wives in kiltarian marriages are forbidden from wearing skirts (which, in our case is the observable truth).

Carl later came back into our room and offered a hand for a low high-five: his shift-mate was looking it up on Google when he left to come in to see us.



Now for tomorrow: I'm optimistically hoping that we'll finish our stay, and on a high note--it's Robert Burns's birthday, so I'll put on my SK Hunting, sporran, FK heritage hose and SK flashes, along with my grandfather's Clan Cumming kilt pin, and relieve sorely sleep-deprived wife (I think I'll take off the sporran and kilt belt for holding the baby; fewer things to catch on the tubes and probe leads, you know)!


A Bottle And Friend

There's nane that's blest of human kind,
But the cheerful and the gay, man,
Fal, la, la, &c.

Here's a bottle and an honest friend!
What wad ye wish for mair, man?
Wha kens, before his life may end,
What his share may be o' care, man?

Then catch the moments as they fly,
And use them as ye ought, man:
Believe me, happiness is shy,
And comes not aye when sought, man.

I'll drink to that! int: