Letter from Daryl - Jun 20, '99

I'm here at work, trying to avoid actually doing any thing productive.
Instead I have deleted a thousand of the two thousand mail messages that are
clogging up my In-box. I crossed more than one message sent to me by all of
you, so I thought that I'd write a single, massive mail message in response.
Actually, a massive distribution of a mail message with a yet undetermined
length.

The biggest news is that Thursday Julie and I went to the doctor and got to
hear the heart beat of the baby. We sort of expected something like the
heart beat on the Dark Side of the Moon. Instead, figuring out what was
Julie's blood flowing through her body, random movement of the instrument
and the actual heart beat took a season professional to interpret. In the
end, we heard it. Scary. Until then, the baby has been sort of an abstract
thing, even for Julie. Not any more, seven months from now life will change
forever. Actually, it already has. Its sort of like ridding a roller
coaster. We are slowly being dragged up the hill, we have the illusion of
control because we are being pulled by something that is in control. Once
we reach the top, all remaining illusion of control is lost. We read
somewhere, that at a certain point the baby actually controls the chemical
processes that allow for it's development. Julie has been feeling pretty
good, no morning sickness. If she could, she would probably sleep 16 hours
a day. This means that our baby is really probably a cat.

By the way, the new father is having a major mid life crisis at the moment.
Nothing that a new Porsche wouldn't fix. (OK may just a High Definition
flat screen TV...)

We have a very cool think happening around our house. There are between
three and five adult Bald Eagles live in trees near the lake. Its really
cool. These aren't abstract, we saw them while we were driving, Bald
Eagles. They sit in trees less than two blocks from our house. We can hear
their calls. Probably the most interesting thing is how the crows dive bomb
them when they sit in certain trees. The crows are trying to chase them
off. The sea gulls also hate them. This tends to annoy us, because it
makes for a very noisy early morning when the sea gulls try and chase them
off. Did I mention this all starts at 4:00 A.M. First light in Seattle in
the summer. Of course the cats get up then also.

Julie and I hope everything is going well or all of you.

P.S. Julie and I were talking on the way back from the doctor. We decided
that the last two songs on Dark Side of the Moon may be the best recorded
music ever. Every time we hear it, it brings a tear to our eyes...

And if the cloud bursts, thunder in your ear
You shout and no one seams to hear
And if the band you're in starts playing different tunes
I'll see you on the dark side of the moon.
-Pink Floyd