the eric update - day 392: odin's continuing swimming lessons.

we've been continuing odin's swimming lessons; we're not really following any official program and are just letting him get used to being in water much deeper than his bath at his own pace.

he's getting much more confident and today he thought it might be fun to repeatedly dive his head in the water while standing on the pool steps. perhaps he remembered the breathing technique his mamma taught him because he didn't suck in any water and seemed to think it was the best fun ever.

i'm not sure what he was thinking. maybe he saw his reflection in the water? or maybe he thought it was time to dunk his head under water just like he's seen the big kids do.

the eric update - day 391: odin's ( almost ) Walking Shoes!

odin has been having so much fun walking (!) around with his radio flyer walker wagon ( and yes, we know it's been very recently recalled; we're getting replacement parts for the faulty wheel clickers. ) that he's running out of space in the house and needs more room to really strut his stuff. so we thought it might be nice to give him a chance to walk around in the driveway or the lawn. but then we realized we only had a pair of indoor preschoolian shoes and didn't have any shoes with treads suitable for tackling the great outdoors in style.

which, i guess, is an elaborate explanation for why we ran out and bought him some his first pair of Walking Shoes ( whoohoo! $7 on the clearance shelf at the baby gap. )!

even thought i know why we bought the shoes, as we put the them on him and i watched him crawl around on the deck, it struck me why we bought them. and even if he's not really walking with the radio flyer walker wagon, it's still impossible to fathom that he's getting close to being able to run around without our aid and i couldn't help feeling the faintest of hints of the feeling that i imagine you feel the first time your child learns to ride a bike for the first time. or goes off to school. or gets a drivers license. or goes off to college.

i can't imagine what a sorry sap i'll be when he waves goodbye as he heads off to school for the first time :-)

the eric update - day 390: odin's new found ability to move objects at a distance!

in addition to creating and retaining complex spatial memory maps of his environment and mastering his oral/motor skills, odin continues to show evidence of that his little neurons are doing their neuronal development thing and giving him the ability to accomplish what was previously unimaginable; just this week he discovered that he could push the buttons on his developmental mobile that's attached to his changing table right next to his BIg Boy Bed and remotely turn it on and off!

of course, we now know when he's awaken from a slumber because we can hear the musical mobile sounds starting and stoppping via his baby monitor, which he thinks it's all sorts of fun.

maybe i'm just giving away my background in cognitive neuroscience but it seems to me that this opportunity to learn that one can control things from a distance so early is quite a new phenomenon. i mean, before the advent of remote controls it was impossible unless you possessed some sort of psychokinetic ability. someone, somewhere surely must have a ph.d dissertation in the works on the effects of the learning action at a distance on a developing brain.

in any case, you can see several of his other favorite playthings that he likes to have around when he wakes up; his bedside clock, and a stuffed toy malamute that's been by his side since the nicu and, of course, the gloworm.

the eric update - day 389: odin's ascent to practice his outside voice! and tweaks to the feeding regimen.

maybe this is one of those things that only a parent can really appreciate, but odin has recently deduced that since the upstairs bathroom is his favorite place to practice his outside voice and he happens to be up The Stair Master, he can go and practice his outside voice any old time he likes, as long as we're not foiling his attempts with The Gate!

so, periodically throughout the day, he'll eagerly take to the stairs and occasionally stop during his ascent to see if we're following him.

it's a little hard to tell from the photograph, but he's filled with excitement and almost can't quite scramble up the stairs fast enough.

"great! you're still there!" he seems to be thinking. "i've got something really cool to show you!"

once at the top of the stairs he heads straight for the bathroom, every single time and wastes no time leaning up against the shower door just like he likes to do after his bath.

and after a slighly dramatic pause and a quick glance to make sure that you really are still watching, it's time for the real purpose of all the effort.

"aaaaaaaaaaaaarrrrrrggggggghhhhhh!"

we might be a little happier if he used an a more appropriate "inside voice" and maybe it'd be better if he spent time practicing his consonant sounds, but it's impossible to not giggle along with him, which i think he finds tremedously amusing and encouraging.

for the two people that might be interested in the most minute tweaks to odin's feeding regimen and may also remember our slightly tongue-in-cheek stance against sippy cups, i'll justify the appearance of what appears to be a just such a cup in his hands because, well, handles are easier for grasping and getting every last drop of water into one's mouth!

we'd still like him to get used to drinking out of a regular cup rather than relying on a sippy lid so we removed top; but i wouldn't be surprised if you catch us with a fully functional sippy cup in the near future :-)

books such as "super baby foods" ( an adequate resource if you keep in mind the caveats mentioned in the amazon reviews ) remind us that it's important for odin to get some liquids while eating solids and sometimes our glass with no handles makes it a little too tough for odin to get the good stuff before dropping it.

so, we compromised :-)

and while i'm mentioning tweaks, i'll also mention that we're doing our best to make a more concerted effort to transition odin away from baby food in a jar to the homemade stuff. we've come to rely on organic food in from a jar, not so much because we're lazy ( although there might be a little of that :-) ), but because until very recently every time we tried to make him some homemade food he'd gag on the chunks no matter how smoothly we thought it might be pureed. but now that he's getting a little more proficient with his chewing skills we're trying to sneak in the homemade foodstuffs.

and sneak it in we must!

we suspect that he's grown accustomed to the super tasty food in a jar, as he will register his discontent at being forced to eat a meal prepared with our own hands!

hopefully he won't figure out that the we've slyly begun mixing in a bit of the homemade food ( in this case, the green mush is green beans and rice that we prepared ) with the jarred stuff ( the orange color is supposedly a corn mush of some sort ).

i feel a little guilty about tricking him. but we can't seem to get him to understand that it's for his own good ( insert ironic comment about the inevitability of becoming just like your own parents here )!

the eric update - day 388: odin's first adventure with cheerios!

even though odin has been enjoying the merits of relatively solid food for quite some time, whenever we tried to introduce anything as thick as even mashed potatoes or anything with the slightest bit of chunkiness, he'd - well - gag. and while this might not normally be a cause for concern for parents of "normal" babies, as a parent of a micropreemie it's often hard to know if the behavior is an indication of an Impending Issue related to his microprematurity.

sure, all kids like to gag occasionally on foods they don't care for, but sometimes it can be an early indication of oral-motor delays that can reveal themselves when you least expect it.

so, today we decided to give him an impromptu therapy lesson and see how he did with that classic first finger food - cheerios.

we didn't have very high expectations and thought that maybe he'd get a few of them in his mouth before bringing them back up again.

but apparently he had other plans.

while odin loves to put anything and everything in his mouth, he discovers that it's a little tricky to get a single cheerio from the tray on his highchair to his mouth without dropping it.

and, of course, there's still the complicated bit about coordinating one's mouth and tongue with one's fingers. all things considered i think he picked up the requisite skills quite quickly.

soon enough, he's shoveling them in his mouth forgetting what meager table manners he might have acquired from his pops ( the emphasis being on meager ).

and tada! the cheerios have disappeared! without the slightest hint of gagging.

maybe next time we'll have to try french fries again :-)

the eric update - day 387: odin's new video baby monitor! and digital video recorder!

there's an old joke amongst software development types that every application eventually evolves to the point where it can be used to send email. but i wonder if it can be proven that every video capture device will eventually be used as an ad hoc baby monitor and general purpose "babyvision" platform.

which, of course, is an elaborate justification as to why i've been spending time thinking about how i can recruit my snazzy isight into pulling double duty as a video baby monitor ( sure, our old audio baby monitor is more than adequate, but still ) and digital video recorder.

the isight is a capable camera for video conferencing capturing an image in low-light napping conditions can be a little challenging even with it's light scavenging f/2.8 lens aperature, but luckily it appears that one can simply use iglasses application to get reasonable night vision capabilities.

and while the isight wasn't originally designed to be a digital video recorder there are several options available for recording captured video directly to disk in a format ready for imovie editing. snapzprox, ivezeen and btv all look like they have potential, but apparently the open source application ivideo can also meet the challenge for the low, low price of free!

so, who knows, maybe i'll actually throw in some video in the next installment of "the fourth that has somehow run into outrageous production and shooting delays :-)

the eric update - day 386: odin's first experience with The Gate.

it had to happen eventually.

odin's crawling and climbing skills are getting so advanced and his stair master mastery so proficient that sometimes we find that if we want to get this or that accomplished during the day that we have to to have to be reasonbly assured that he's in a Safe Place if he's out of our sight for more than a few moments.

so, today we thought we'd give The Gate a try and see what he thought of the contraption.

it turns out, not very much.

have you seen a more lamentful look? he wasn't so much upset as he was seemingly perplexed about why we'd ever choose to him on one side while we were on the other.

of course, we couldn't stand it for more than a few minutes and eventually relented and released him from his jail.

sigh. we tried to convince him that it's not like we were sentencing him to a prolonged stint in a skinner box or that he should be thankful that we're not subjecting him to the accordion style baby traps like we had when we grew up ( how did we ever survive anyways ), but i guess we might have to wait a few months for his higher reasoning faculties to develop.

the eric update - day 385: live strong! and hurray for lance!

odin decides to celebrate lance armstrong's 7th tour de france victory by attempting to devour his "live strong" wristband!

even though the "live strong" motto is really meant to remind people about the challenges of living with cancer we think they're words of wisdon for all types of fighters.

some might remember that when we were in the nicu we received dozens of bands and postcards from a friend that we used to liven up the intensive care unit. and this band is the very same one that pooh wore while hanging out in the bassinet.

the eric update - day 384: a slow saturday - hanging out with cousins, a dog and fishes!

after such an exciting day at the fair, it's nice to have a relaxing day hanging out with family.

even budding adventurers need a slow saturday to rejuvinate every once in awhile :-)

you can click on each of the photos to read a short description of his adventures.

the eric update - day 383: odin's first day at the fair!

summer in the midwestern united states means it's time for the berlin fair - longest running fair in michigan.

naturally we thought it was a perfect opportunity to take odin on a great adventure to see all manner of new and interesting sights, sounds and smells.

since he doesn't meet the height and weight requirements for many of the attractions, we didn't actually try out many of the rides, but odin didn't seem to mind and had a fine time studiously studying his surroundings, including the slightly odd spectacle known as the bumper cars!

odin saw much, much more on his first day at the fair. you can click on each of the photos to read a short description of his adventures.

the eric update - day 382: odin's magnificently metaphorical birthday box!

well before odin's first birthday kris decided that she'd like to give him a special box as a gift. she didn't have any grand plans and initially thought that she might make him a simple box that he could use to store whatever special things he might chose to store as he got older. but when his grandma and grandpa salmi heard of the plan, they thought a local wood carver in the upper peninsula of michigan with an interest in traditional norwegian wood carving might be amenable to taking on the challenge of creating a one of a kind gift.

as it happens their friend had studied under phillip odden a renound professional wood carver who has taken it upon himself to revive the dragon or stave church style of carving; he was so enamored with our own odin's story that he decided to create a fantastically detailed mythological scene of the norse god odin slaying a dragon in the traditional dragon style!

of course, the metaphorical significance of all the dragons that odin has slain and has yet to slay does not escape us :-)

the detail and craftmanship is astounding and it completely and totally surpasses anything we could have imagined.

many many thanks to grandma and grandpa salmi for commissioning the work of art and to steve lindahl for spending what must have been countless hours carving the box.

it's absolutely perfect and we'll keep it the family for generations to come.

the eric update - day 381: the micropreemie odds. in black and white.

odin is doing so fantastically that it's almost easy to sometimes forget that the effects of being born extremely premature can last long after you've left the nicu.



an article in today's chicago tribune highlights the odds:

""Look, even with all our technology, there's more than a 50 percent chance your baby could have some significant issues long-term with all kinds of costs financially, emotionally, and mentally," he said. "That's something parents need to know and think about.""

i bring this up because just recently there was a video segment on the today show that was your basic human interest, gee whiz, look at how modern medicine can save the smallest of the small ones these days. and jeeez, it set off a firestorm in various prematurity mailing lists because it claimed that 80 percent of premature infants suffer no long term consequences thanks to the wonders of modern medicine, conveniently forgetting that 80 percent of premature births occur after 30 weeks and less than 5 percent occur before 25 weeks.

and you can probably guess which group ends up with the disproportionate degree of long term complications.

i know that even some of my own relatives don't like it when i mention such things, but it's always best to hope for the best and prepare for the worst.

even if sometimes it's a drag that you have to.

we're not overly neurotic about it, since in some sense what ever will be will be, but we do what we can to try and provide odin with a stimulating environment on the theory that it certainly can't hurt and it maybe it might even help delay or diminish any impending issues ( or, of course, maybe there aren't any impending issues at all ).

i've heard it can get even more difficult as time goes on, as you try to discern whether or not this behavior or that behavior has it's roots in being born too soon and if perhaps it might be time to call in "the professionals".

but today we'll cut odin some slack as he decides that it would be a grand time to try to pound the clover piece in the "wrong" hole while testing his "outside" voice at heretofore unheard of levels.

i mean, sometimes a boy just has to be a boy, right :-)

the eric update - day 380: trying out toothpaste!

while we've been using odin's toothbrush as a teether for quite awhile, we recently decided that since he now has six visible teeth that is was time to go to the next level in training him for what will hopefully be a lifetime of good oral hygiene habits.

that's right. it was time for trying out the toothpaste.

after a few attempts of trying to get him to let us put the toothbrush in his mouth, as soon as he tastes the toothpaste, all hope is lost and he won't let us get the toothbrush near his mouth unless he does it all by himself.

the furrowed brow and the devilish look in his eye might lead you to believe that he doesn't like the taste of the toothpaste. but, if fact, he likes it a lot and would probably enjoy eating the entire tube over the stuff he's been finding in his dinner bowl of late.

lucky for him they don't make toothpaste like they used to what with human urine or pulverized charcoal and brick :-)

very quickly, odin discovers what everyone eventually learns - that there's no better way to pass the time while brushing one's teeth than by reading the instructions on the back of the tube.

eventually, if he's like his pops he'll have read the instructions on every single tube and container in the bathroom, hundreds and maybe thousands of times.

we just picked up the oral b tooth & gum cleanser because it was convenient. as always, we're open to suggestions from the peanut gallery.

the eric update - day 379: whooohoo! we got a baby sitter and we're going to a concert!

hopefully odin won't take it personally but we're "going out"! it's not the first time we've gone out since coming home from the nicu but it's not a common occurrence; i think i can count on one hand, er, maybe even just two fingers the number of times its happened, so it's still a little new and slightly nerve wracking.

of course, it's not that we're concerned about his well-being while being cared for by grammy pam. maybe we're just really concerned that we'll find out what a grand time he had when we're not around.

anyway, we're going to see ani difranco in a very "intimate" frederik meijer ampitheatre so it should be fun, even it she's not my super favoritest artist ( not that she's my least favorite either ) to see live. then again i haven't seen her show in years, so maybe things have changed.

way back in the day when kris and i were attending the evergreen state college ( go geoducks! ) she'd play every year on the campus; the first year, maybe 1992, she arrived in a vw bus and every after her busses and entire support system kept get bigger and bigger and bigger. until it was unwiedly for campus shows. it's nice to see her getting back to basics nearly a decade later.

hopefully it'll be a great concert and we'll come home and find odin fast asleep and not giving his grandmother a hard time.

the eric update - day 378: odin's first ride in a swing!

it appears that this is the week for belated birthday gifts for odin; i guess everyone was probably waiting for us to arrive back in town. certainly he and we don't care one wit, but hopefully he doesn't start to expect new gifts for weeks and weeks to come :-)

today we even had an impromptu second birthday party with a bunch of his aunts and uncles and cousins and he had fun ripping the wrapping paper of all sortf of fun things including his very first little tikes swing ( and no, it's apparently not the one that was recalled )!

we weren't sure if he'd like it or not, but he quickly let us know that is was just about the greatest time ever!

maybe even more fun than than being pulled around by pops in his walker.

i think it's certain that we'll be spending a lot more time out underneath the tree in the front yard for the rest of the summer.

the eric update - day 378: odin discovers the walkers aren't just for walkin'!

well, it didn't take odin long to discover that his new walker isn't just for walkin'!

it's also perfectly designed for being pushed around the house by pops, which he clearly seems to enjoy!

maybe i'll find a small hill and give him a taste of racing in a soap box derby :-)

and while i'm mentioning gifts from strangers i'd be remiss if i didn't point out that odin's very sporty "world traveler" shirt was sent to him all the way from manchester, england from vanillasky who also happened to send one of our favorite postcards. thanks!

the eric update - day 377: saving a shopping trip for a rainy day.

what do we do on a rainy day? we go grocery shopping!

odin is such a trooper during our shopping adventures, which is fortuitious because we're notoriously bad about just running in, getting what we need and getting out quick.

no, with us there's endless rumination and examination expecially in the produce section.

odin doesn't mind it one bit, even though a fairly routine shopping trip can take us over an hour. he absorbs everything, taking in all the lights and sounds and smells as he studiously studies patrons who studiously study me, likely wondering why i'm taking photos of something they probably presume to be so mundane.

if only we could all recall so easily when the minutia of daily life was so fascinating and alive with newness. or maybe i've just been reading a recent david foster wallace commencement speech a little too closely.

when was the last time you found a can of coffee an object of endless amusement, capable of keeping you preoccupied for nearly forty minutes?

and yes, you coffee snob - we have recently begun revisiting the merits of canned coffee, fed up with the obnoxious prices that seem to defy basic economic principles. or maybe they're obeying basic economic principles perfectly :-)

in any case, we've been experimenting with affordable imported canned coffee and have been revisting an old favorite, medaglia d'oro, which is a probably considered a pedestrian choice amongst italian expresso connoisseurs but is still better than most of what you'll find for twice the price in the "coffee aisle".

the eric update - day 376: studying for an upcoming developmental assesment.

grammy pam found some one inch ( 2.54 cm ) ABC wooden blocks which are the perfect size for odin's hands.

we've been looking for one inch blocks as we've heard that he'll his block stacking abilities will be tested during his next developmental assessment which is scheduled for sometime around his age-adjusted 1 year birthday.

even though his "adjusted" one year birthday isn't until october, it's never too early to study up; but it certainly appears that he'll be a block stacking pro sooner rather than later!

the eric update - day 375: odin's first swimming lesson!

while odin has enjoyed his own wading pool and the waters at the family camp and the atlantic ocean were far too cold for swimming.

so today we decided that it was the perfect day to give odin his first swimming lesson.

he and kris spent quite a bit of time practicing blowing out the water gets close to your mouth. it didn't take too long before he really had the hang of it.

next week, we might have to try to teach him the doggie paddle so he can swim just like mauja.

the eric update - day 374: still more gifts! or the unbelievable kindness of strangers.

we've received many thoughtful gifts over the past year from strangers and we're tremendously grateful for each and every one; but i was still very surprised to find an extra large package waiting for us at the post office when we returned from downeast, maine. it seems that due to a mail forwarding snafu, the package didn't reach us in time for odin's birthday but luckily the united states post office almost always eventually delivers packages to their intended recipients.

sometimes i feel a little funny writing about gifts that we receive from people because they never ask for us to publically acknowledge their kindness and it feels a little odd to continually write about the things that people take the time to send. while we appreciate all the goodies, we don't ever want to create the impression that we expect people to send odin gifts or that we think any less of anyone who enjoys the updates but doesn't feel the urge to send a "thank you" gift.

but this package is a little different because it comes from a family who, after finding themselves in the neonatal intensive care unit with their own 24 weeker, stumbled upon odin's story while searching for information on micropreemies on the internet. and they decided to take the time to send our entire family gifts ( including mauja! ) on odin's birthday thanking us for helping them through their own struggles.

it's impossible, absolutely impossible, to adequately convey how much it means to us to know that in some small way we've been able to help make life a little less scary and a little more hopeful for a family that we've never met and that they would take the time to mindfully express their thanks. it's a little hard to tell from the photo, but all the tags are handwritten and the ribbons are so beautiful that we're going to save them and put them on special gifts for odin for many birthday's to come.

and the sentiment that they expressed on the inside of the card really means a great deal to us. perhaps more than they ever suspected when they wrote it. i didn't ask their permission ahead of time so i haven't revealed their family name, but if they're comfortable doing so, perhaps if they recognize their handiwork, they'll leave a comment. if not, that's o.k. too.

regardless, we were tremendously touched by the gesture and we wish the very best for their entire family; maybe someday we'll get a chance to meet and watch our miracle boys play together in the sandbox, while wondering if they ever were really that small and fragile.

the eric update - day 374: another belated birthday gift! or more radio flyer gear! and walking!

we can't really chastize grandpa and grandma snowdeal too much for giving odin a belated birthday gift since we knew that when we arrived in grand rapids we'd have our very own gift waiting for him. amusingly we had no idea that we both decided to get him some radio flyer gear. but it's all good because the two gifts are different enough that i'm sure he'll enjoy them both.

grandpa and grandma got him a "traditional" pull wagon while we got him a walker wagon which lets crawling, climbing infants while we did get his birthday patch practice their walking skills by pushing the cart around the house.

at first, after i finally finished stumbling through the "some assembly required" directions, odin wasn't sure what to make of his new toy, preferring instead to practice standing against a nearby chair.

after a bit of prompting, odin finally figured out that unlike many things in the house - i.e. potted plants and stairs - we were actually encouraging him to crawl up and investigate this new object.

it seemed to capture his interest, with the cool metal and soft curves of the wood, but he didn't immediately discern that he could push it and walk!

a few moments later, and he was quite impressed to see that the new thing also contained some of his favorite toys, including the crinkly orange book and his measuring tape.

what fun!

eventually, odin slowly figures out that not only does this new thing that mamma and pops seem so fascinated in hold his favorite toys, but he can also push it forward while moving his legs!

after a few hesitant attempts to push it forward, he quickly got the hang of it and is now pushing the cart around the house, smiling and laughing, quite obviously impressed with his newfound ability to walk without any human adult intervention.

of course, we're very proud and are sure that it won't be long before he won't even need to use the walker to get where he needs to go on his own two feet.

the eric update - day 373: there and back again. day three.

even with a few delays, we've been making such good time that it was possible to plan for a surprise visit with grandpa and grandma snowdeal in grand blanc, michigan which is about about 230 miles from cleveland, but we decided to be ambitious and try and drive the entire leg of the trip without stopping so we could get there in time for a nice visit.

not long after we started driving we began seeing the unmistakable sign that you're back in the midwest - miles and miles of cornfields.

on our last day of driving, we passed through detroit, michigan the ancestral homeland of the galaxie 500.

outside of the region, it's a little known fact that the closer you get to detroit the faster you have to drive just to keep up with traffic, as if everyone is unconsciously overtaken by the spirit of days gone by when the great american muscle car was perhaps a little more popular than it is today ( in fact, the 1965 1965 galaxie 500 could be considered a prototypical muscle car ).

i tried to keep up with traffic, but it can get a little tricky to haul a trailer when your going faster than 80 miles per hour, so i had to settle with barely letting the galaxie strut her stuff while passing through the land of her birth ( i'm sure someboy reading this might even be able to hazzard a guess as to what factory she built in ).

at last, after 4 hours of driving which was about fifteen minutes longer than odin cared for, we arrived in the lovely suburban landscape of grand blanc, michigan; obviously grandpa and grandma were quite happy to see us. but my first priority was getting mauja out for walk, so i missed the photo op ;-)

soon after we arrived they surpised odin with a belated birthday gift - a nice, new radio flyer wagon!

while it's not an old school metal wagon ( which is nice, don't get us wrong ), but what it lacks in sentimental charm it makes up for by having all sorts of modern features, such as a cooler in the bottom! the box cheerily suggests it can be used for soda, but we might have to find something else to put in the cooler for at least a few more years.

maybe i can teach odin to wheel around adult beverages! oh, cmon. it's a joke. where's your sense of humor!

after the adults had lunch, grandma snowdeal gave odin his lunch in a bottle and then he did something that's quite unusual. something that he's only done once before that coincidentally also happened when he was hanging out with grandma.

he fell asleep.

odin never falls asleep in anyone's arms, much preferring the car seat or his bed. or rather, i guess he almost never does, since he seems to enjoy making grandma the exception to the rule.

after a short nap, it was time to say goodbye and finish our trip with a relatively short 119 miles drive from grand blanc to grand rapids. ironically, shortly after we left, after travelling over 2,600 miles ( 4184 kilometers ) in our trip there and back again, kris and i got separated on the highway in a tricky bit of construction and as the signal from the two way radios quickly went out of range of each other, i heard kris exclaiming (!) that she had missed the interchange from one highway to another. sigh. at least we were in relatively familiar territory :-)

we arrived in grand rapids within minutes of each other, despite not ever having seen each other on the highway, which is kind of a bummer because i was hoping that i'd have one last exciting story to tell. instead, we arrived safe and sound to the sounds of a whole bunch of odin's aunts, uncles, cousins and grandparents who were very, very happy to see us ( again, with the missed photo op! ).

the eric update - day 372: there and back again. day two.

while we did arrive in albany last night without any significant problems, i did notice that the galaxie was losing power as we climbed the last few hills that surround the city. while it seemed noteworthy, it didn't strike me to be an emergency since i could still make it up the steep inclines at a good speed as long as i downshifted into low gear. but it was noticeable enough that i opened the hood of the car in the dark after we arrived at the hotel to see if i could see anything out of the ordinary, even without a flashlight. indeed, something was out of the ordinary! the batttery had slipped out of place and fallen into the alternator, mere inches from the radiator fan blades. there isn't a shroud protecting the radiator fan and if the battery had hit the blades the results would have been disasterous. in the dark, i couldn't tell if any serious damage had been done and as i moved the battery back into it's proper position, i could feel a liquid substance on my fingers which i immediately assumed was battery acid. but luckily for me the liquid didn't burn by fingers which is what you'd expect from battery acid and the car was starting fine which is not something you'd expect if the battery had been drained of acid. without any engine lights indicating a major problem, i decided to take a closer look in the bright light of the morning.

shedding a little light on the situation in the morning didn't really add any clarity though. beyond a little bit of fluid on the bottom of the battery and a chunk missing removed from the whirring alternor blades, everything as it should. the car started without any hesitation and the alternator light didn't come on which meant that, amazingly, it hadn't been damaged.

it seemed logical that the battery landing on the alternator must be in some way related to the loss of power when climbing steep hills, but i wasn't smart enough to put all the pieces together to form a coherent theory.

and since we hoped to drive to cleveland, ohio ( about