So the Indian doctor in Bedford (an allergist) told us we absolutely had to talk to "Dr. Joe" down in the Amish country about the boy's case. He told us that two years ago, actually, and now we're back in Indiana I'm glad we did. The guy's weird, but boy is he competent. Of course, I'm now imprinted on House, so that's the kind of doctor I'm looking for. Competence is worth driving for. His opinion, incidentally, is to wait and let the boy grow a little, keep an eye on it, but don't biopsy yet. My feeling as well. Nothing like an asymptomatic condition to make you want to avoid stabbing your son in the kidney with a big needle.

And as a bonus, the Amish have a much larger market for hats than the population at large. I asked one guy in the waiting room where they buy their hats, because I left my Panama hat down in the Caribbean where it belongs (didn't like it much anyway, but it has a good, broad, sun-blocking brim) but I still need something. My hairline is ever so gradually receding (I'll be 40 this year) and sunburn is a problem. And a painful one, even if you don't obsess on skin cancer. He sent me down the road to a store with no interior lighting but a whole lot of really solid outdoor clothing (we know where to buy boots for the kids now!) at incredibly reasonable prices. I tried on every hat in the place, and ended up with a brown kinda fedora-like number. Amos Graber, the proprietor, let me have it for $22 instead of $25 because it wasn't really moving and they weren't going to order any more. A closeout price, for a really great hat. My wife says I look really good in it. The female offspring (now nearly 12) was totally eying it and wore it most of the way home in the car, a practice I vetoed once we were home. (She's cute in a hat, but I know she'd steal it like any other article of clothing that takes her fancy, if I only let it go once, and darn it, I waited a long time for a chance to buy a decent hat.) If we go back down in the next couple of months, I'll get her her own darned hat. She shoulda gone in the store herself instead of sitting out in the car drawing X-Men anyway.

Speaking of -- the kid is really getting good. Remember last year she was threatening Web comics? This year maybe I can persuade her to go through with it. Some of her Marveloid character sketches are truly good, and she's just 11. Imagine how good she'll be in five years!

Anyway, the doctor told us to have the boy's hearing tested, just for curiosity. Turns out the ears and the kidneys develop about the same time, from an embryological standpoint. He wants to see if everything's OK in the ears.

How weird is that? See, that's why you drive an hour and a half to talk to some weird New Yorker practicing deep in Amish country.