Two Early Phone Calls

The phone rang early this morning twice. The first was from Plottie's cousin John's son to inform us that John had passed away during the night. It's a little daunting -- how can people exactly our age have failing health of this magnitude?

The second caller said "Hello my dear father" except it wasn't either of Plotnik's children. He was looking for The Great PD -- someone PD had met in the wilderness of Rishikesh in India many years ago. Plot took his phone number and informed his son that it is nice to be called "my dear father."

To be perfectly truthful, the caller first said "Is this Daniel's mother?" So maybe the connection was not so good.

Plot had had little connection with his cousin John -- probably only saw him two or three times ever. But in recent years they had developed a nice email relationship from time to time, mostly during baseball season when a disappointed Plotzer fan could seek solace with a disappointed-for-far-longer Cub fan.

Why the distance? Family feuds, probably. Plot's family tree is overflowing with 'em. Somebody fights with somebody else, and that's it for everybody for a generation or two. Probably didn't help for Plot's father to die so young and take with him whatever connections there might have been between cousins.

Plot and John planned to get together, to go to a ballgame. Plot should have known better. You've really got to do it, not just talk about it.