I am back at the old grind. I hope all is well with Mikey. I should hear from him tonight. The weather looks pretty normal with near freezing temperatures and the cloudy skies. Michelle is not supposed to be in today since Justin is leaving. I will get the payment out to those places that need the 15^th deadline. I did pretty well on spending over the weekend. Of course, the clothes for Mikey were probably not necessary. I need to work on the bench for Michael. I probably need to send the seed of Mikey coming to Hermiston during MLK Day to Annie.

Actually not too busy today. I got an email from MM and she figured I had found a reason to keep on living. She seemed upset that she was not in more direct contact with Mikey. I would think she has her hands full with the rug-rats she has taken on. I think that one kid may have real problems that may be learned and there may be more.

I was interested in Mikey yesterday interacting with some kids. It seemed to me like he might have gone out of his way to splash people or generally irritate them. Then he was surprised when people took after him. We talked about the fact that some times people were in a bad mood when people had been mean to them and they sort of passed it on to the people around them. I m not sure it was an “ah-ha” moment but he seemed to understand. As soon as he was in trouble he sought out some bigger kids to play tag with. I am sure that the kids who were after him got the message – pretty clever really.

I called Annie’s cell and there was no service so I left a message on voice mail. I hope that I hear from Mikey before I go to bed. I watched a video called Montana Sky about three sisters who inherited a ranch and had to live on it for a year. Mediocre at best.

At ten o’clock Mikey called and he did not sound very enthusiastic or excited. I asked him if everything was okay and he said yes but not convincingly. I did not dig but checked the weather and if school was okay. We did not do the beddy bug deal very well. I let him go pretty quickly. There was something going on in the background. At least I heard from him.