The time has come to replace the 25-year-old carpet in the room that we don't have a good name for. When the MacGregors owned the house, they used the room as a living room. For 20 years we used it as our bedroom. Now we use it for Sandra's sewing projects and for large family dinners. We have a couple of long tables and can seat 20 if everyone is friendly. The new carpet comes on Friday and we'll have a birthday party here on Sunday.

We have a couple pendulum clocks from my grandfather, by way of my father. One is a grandmother's clock in the room that's getting the new carpet. The clock keeps good time. Because our old floors are uneven and sometimes unsteady, we had to screw the clock to a vertical beam in the room to insulate it from the vibrations of people walking by. The clock is about five feet tall, a couple of inches taller than my grandmother, Mummu, my father's mother. The other clock is a grandfather's clock, about the height of my grandfather.

My grandfather, Vaari, was a cabinet maker. Particularly after my grandmother died, my grandfather built furniture, including a clock, to help fill the time. The old gent, as my father called him, was going to the hospital for some routine tests. A long-time Pall Mall smoker, his lungs needed to be checked periodically. My father went next door to drive my grandfather to the hospital. My grandfather showed my father the work he'd done on the clock. "I guess you're going to have to finish this," my grandfather said. A few days later, my grandfather died in the hospital. My father finished the clock and gave it to us 10 or so years ago.

We now call my father Vaari. I don't have a good phonetic spelling of vaari. The closest that I can get is vah-di or vah-ti, the last consonant being quite soft.

Today is Ash Wednesday, Chinese New Year, and Tet. For many Americans, Tet will forever be associated with the Tet Offensive of 1968. For others, it's a video game.