I always treasure getting notes...

Jared wrote me to me from Costa Rica today. A really loving and lovely sweet message.

I suddenly feel a lot less lonely.

Nicely done, Dad

My dad fixed my iPod for me today. I'd been having problems with it because its damn battery wasn't lasting more than fifteen minutes no matter how long I charged it. My dad took the bad battery out of mine and in its place he soldered a battery he got out of my brother's old one with the broken screen. I'm impressed, it was a pretty delicate job. He says he thinks the battery from the one with the broken screen is of an older generation, so it may not be as high quality, but it seems to be actually holding charge for a while. Thanks, Dad. Unfortunately it wiped the iPod's memory, so yet again I have to rebuild my traveling music collection. That'll be a pain, and I don't have any of it here. Maybe I can find all my stuff on Dad's many external hard drives totally devoted to songs.