Time's a ticking...

It late Thursday night/early Friday morning and it just dawned on me - my second niece will be born today. I'm so excited, but also worried about my sister. I mean, this is the girl that never once, NEVER, pulled one of her own teeth as a child (she had to go to the dentist for every single loose tooth). She faints when she has to have blood taken. She once cut her finger on a shampoo bottle in the shower and I found her wrapped in a towel passed out on the kitchen floor (I assume she was on her way to get a paper towel or something...).

Anyway, I know that she has done this once before, but I wasn't there to see her reaction. Apparently she did fine. I hope all goes well tomorrow - or today - whatever.

So, on an entirely different note, I have been reading a lot of Dickens because I'm a major dork like that. I finished "A Christmas Carol" two nights ago and a passage that I had never paid attention to before really struck me this time. I assume that since I have experienced so much death in the past year, maybe it means a little more to me now. Here it is:

"Oh cold, cold, rigid, dreadful death, set up thine altar here, and dress it with such terrors as thou hast at thy command: for this is thy dominion. But of the loved, revered, and honoured head, thou canst not turn one hair to thy dread purposes, or make one feature odious. It is not that the hand is heavy and will fall down when released; it is not that the heart and pulse are still; but that the hand was open, generous, and true; the heart brave, warm, and tender; and the pulse a man's. Strike, Shadow, strike! And see his good deeds springing from the wound, to sow the world with life immortal!"

I am so sad that Dad will never get to meet his granddaughter. And now, I sign off. Sorry for the thoroughly depressing post; but hey! It started out alright, didn't it?