Koan of the Week: One Hand Clapping

PG&E gave us a break for the day, so I thought it was time to teach Erika another Zen lesson - about the sound of one hand clapping. One hand (versus two) doing anything has suddenly become very relevant for Erika, as one hand is generally occupied with holding the baby, which leaves only one hand for everything else.

Here are Erika's observations on things that are Easy or Hard with one hand:

Easy: reading e-mail
Hard: answering e-mail

Easy: eating crackers, ravioli, or dried apricots
Hard: buttering toast, eating yogurt out of the plastic container, or actually just eating most food.

Easy: drinking water out of the tap
Hard: drinking anything that needs to be refrigerated. It actually becomes a 12-step process: Step one, open fridge. Step 2, remove carton. Step 3, close fridge. Step 4, open cupboard. Step 5, remove glass. Step 6, open container. Step 7, pour drink. Step 8, close container. Step 9, open fridge. Step 10, put container back in fridge. Step 11, close fridge. Step 12, drink.

And, last but not least:

Easy: pet the cat
Hard: wash hands with soap (this is REALLY hard with one hand)

Well, practice makes perfect.

In other news, having finished digging up every square inch of the alley next to our house, PG&E has started digging holes IN THE SAME PLACE they dug holes last month! Yes folks, holes upon holes. Don't they have ANYTHING better to do? Our only consolation is that today, when we arrived home from Peter's 1-month check-up (via lunch at Tartine), the no parking signs were gone. Dare we hope that they will finally leave us in peace?

To leave you on a positive note, here are pictures of Peter at one day and one month. Not too terribly different, but he is 3 lbs heavier!