it's raining

I woke up this morning to a total silence that I'm not used to, living on Bundy. It's so quiet here before dawn. And partly it's the way my mom had our windows made -- airtight because the wind used to blow dust everywhere and it bugged the hell out of her. But it is so quiet and only when I go downstairs to talk to my grandpa do I realize that it is pouring out.

Thankfully today I can be a hemit and laze about the house. I've got laundry to do of course, and Jocelyn's friend is home, decidedly ill, as is my grandpa, Mr. Simon Lin.

Since my late grandmother, Miss Pearl, was so anti-social in her last days, poor Mr. Simon Lin had been cooped up at home, partially to keep Miss Pearl company and mostly to spare her the anxiety of what my common sense-free grandfather might say or do in front of others. Bound at home, gradually the seculsion was adopted and now Mr. Simon Lin also stays home all day. Mr. Simon Lin has always been industrious, but he's made quite a schedule for himself, to keep himself busy.

The first thing Mr. Simon Lin does in the mornings is read from his daily devotional and then his assigned Bible passage. He does this sitting at his desk, hunched over, sort of with his head at an angle, as if he was checking to be sure God is watching him as he devotes. He has ear hairs that stick up straight out of his ears and I wonder if they inhibit his devout thoughts on their way to God's ears. Breakfast of bland-but-nutrirional is taken only after Mr. Simon Lin concludes his morning study.

I have showered and dressed only to create a semblance of livliness and also because my mother has brought on a small Indonesian woman named Uni to help take care of my grandfather. I don't know her but I know that she has hidden the rubber bands in our kitchen such that no one, including herself, can find them anymore. I also know that her predecessor stole from us liberally. I'm not sure who to criticize, as no one misses the vitamins and chocolate the stupid cow stole.

Anyway, the weather and my early morning visit to my grandfather, interrupting his morning devotional exercise, has made me want to write, so here it is.