Hopefully you have all been wondering where I've been for the last while.  Perhaps you had images of me helping out the flood victims of Cork, or Clonmel or Galway.  Well in a sense I have been dealing with floods.  Basically I've been snowed under with events and work and activities and blogging is one of those things that when you get out of the habit for a few days it can be hard to get back into.  Like dieting or praying or painting the damn stairs.

Today was Michael's tenth birthday.  Michael was born on a Sunday, almost a month prematurely.  I almost missed it but for a divine intervention.  I was on my way out to Mass.  It was a particularly frosty morning and as I rushed to get into the car I slipped and fell, tearing my trousers and cutting my leg.  I hesitated for a moment and then decided to go back into the house and go to a later Mass.  No sooner was I back in the house than the phone rang;  my wife to say they were performing an emergency caesarian section and to get up there soonest which I did.  Ten years on, older, heavier, tireder.  but enough about my son.  A happy birthday to him.