Today we all went to the Union Cab picnic at Demetral Field. The candidate's forum was at 1 pm. Don is running for the Board, so he was there for that. He made his statement and answered questions with the other seven candidates. That lasted about an hour and a half. For an hour and a half, I chased Ulysses around the Demetral Field picnic shelter and kept him off the hot grills, out of the dog poop, and away from Don's lap.

Every time Don started to talk, U screamed with happiness and ran straight for him. I would run and catch him and take him away. U would howl wth unhappiness.

Finally, I just let Ulysses run up to Don. I didn't want another Daddy deprivation meltdown like the week before last, when I kept him away from Don during a video game session so long (about 45 minutes) that he broke down and screamed inconsolably, intensely, for a long time, and then woke up screaming periodically all night long. And I figured Don would be with me on that call. So U would run up to him with a play ball, or a plastic slinky, and throw himself into his arms, get a hug, and after a few moments, run back to me. Worked out.

Other kids were at the picnic, too, including Stella, Jen Horne's 5-year-old daughter, and Anna, daughter of Brice, another driver.

We were playing on the Demetral jungle gym playset equipment. Anna was singing a little song that went, "I am me! I am me!" as she played.

Eventually, I chimed in, "Nuh-uh! I am! I am me!"

Anna responded by broadening the lyrics. "You are me. I am you. You are the baby," she sang. She continued to add lyrics.

I made some too, but hers were better. "The baby is the clouds. The baby is the sky," she sang. "The baby is a lion. The baby is an elephant.

"The baby is our teeth.

"The baby is our eyelids.

"The baby is our toenails."

Stella rejoined us as this was in progress. "I am me! I am me!" she sang happily as she ran up to us. When she heard how the song had evolved, she joined in with new verses, too.

Brice came around. "How are you enjoying your gravel bath?" he asked me. I realized that while were singing, Ulysses had, little handful by little handful, deposited gallons of gravel on my chest as I lay where I had stopped at the bottom of the slide, my eyes half-closed against the bright late-afternoon sun.

"It's lovely," I said.

"Daddy, Daddy!" said Anna. "We're singing all about the baby!"