Nothing~ma to amyth's brother and Raq.

I'm leading a lonely life these days, except for the invisible people. I fear I have a permanent seat on the lonely hearts bench, and I need to find ways to get out more. The state of mind I'm in makes it much easier to be a hermit, though.

We've got nightly freeway construction about a half mile from our house--there are houses a whole lot closer--but our bedroom is on the opposite of the house. When you're in the bathroom you can sometimes hear noises. It's the metallic screeching, straining noises that are occasionally worrying.

At 49, any questions now are about potential grand-children, but for a while strangers felt entitled to ask about potential children. Heck, Utah, kids are practically currency. I sometimes worry about being 70 and alone, but having children would have been worse.

I laugh at the youngsters around me with their great plans of getting a job with so-and-so, and their wife will get a part time job when the kids go to school, and they'll retire at 35 because real estate will make a come-back, etc. One guy I dislike was going on about this, and I asked what he was going to do if one of his kids turned out to be sick or if he was in a car wreck and couldn't work and his wife had to go find a full-time job? He said, "That won't happen," in the tone of voice that says he knows God is looking out for him 'cause he's special. An over-hearing co-worker laughed bitterly.

One guy I dislike was going on about this, and I asked what he was going to do if one of his kids turned out to be sick or if he was in a car wreck and couldn't work and his wife had to go find a full-time job? He said, "That won't happen," in the tone of voice that says he knows God is looking out for him 'cause he's special.

I hate to wish ill on someone I don't know, but... it's hard not to in this case.

One of the nice things about the flying club (yes, flying club likes carrots) is that I'm meeting a ton of people who I would normally never run into. There's nothing romantic coming out of it so far, but at least I'm making new connections. Eh, maybe one of them has a brother or cousin who'd like to meet a weird, middle-aged, lefty-liberal, fat chick with a bazillion books and a single engine prop. plane obsession. Stranger things have happened.

Yeah, if you could show my current life to me five years ago, ten years ago, and fifteen years ago I'd be completely flabbergasted in every instance.

Life can change quickly and unexpectedly.

I am a new father of twin boys, and I am in my 50's. For most of my life I've been a typical bachelor scientist. I worked very long hours at a very interesting job and I traveled a lot a bit meeting with other long-hours interesting-job people. I liked the lifestyle enough that I hardly noticed the family thing slipping away.

A couple of years ago my long-distance girlfriend was offered a job at my university. She took the job. We eloped. We talked about kids. After about a year we found out that she was pregnant with identical twin boys, which is pretty cute because we both do research with twins and we met at a twin research conference ten years ago. I'm astounded at how well everything turned out, but if you had told me at age 50 that I would soon be the father in a classic nuclear family with two kids I would not have believed it.

Now we just have to figure out how each of us can spend 80 hours a week on our jobs and 80 more caring for out infant boys. So far the remaining 8 hours a week for sleep does not seem to be enough.

Now we just have to figure out how each of us can spend 80 hours a week on our jobs and 80 more caring for out infant boys. So far the remaining 8 hours a week for sleep does not seem to be enough.

There's a simple solution to this problem - just slow the Earth's rotation.

I am a new father of twin boys

Dude, YOU DO NOT CHECK IN HERE OFTEN ENOUGH. Just saying.

I am a new father of twin boys

Oh yeah - congrats! and all that.

Calli, I met my DH flying.

PC, I'm sorry your parents and your brother are at odds, but I find a lot of my sympathy is going to the she-devil. I hope he prepared her for this.

If my mother opened a closet to snoop I would throw her out of my house. And she'd agree with me.

I am a new father of twin boys

Dude, YOU DO NOT CHECK IN HERE OFTEN ENOUGH. Just saying.

The two phenomena are not unrelated.