Last year we were suffering a major draught that had started the winter before and lasted throughout much of the year. In fact the land was going up in smoke (literally) Wild fires came close to our house (about a mile) I remember that their was one day that I had to take a very winding path to get home because of all the road closures. I remember the smell of smoke hung in the air for days afterwards. I remember one night when I went out into our garage that we had just cleaned out some only to be alarmed by the smell of smoke. I went outside and started searching for the source. About a mile away there was the flames reaching for the stars. I frantically knocked at a neighbors door to ask them to call the fire department. The husband came out to look and the wife went in to make the call. Shortly after that we heard the sirens racing to the scene.
Now we have state parks that are closed due to all the rain we've received. Firefighters have had to perform hair-raising rescues. People have been lost to floods. I remember one of my entries last year described the grass on the campus. This year everything is green. Green grass, green trees, flowers. It's amazing. It reminds me of the Northeast U.S.
Once on one of our year migrations to visit the grandparents in Pennsylvania we went through Kentucky. Lord! Everything was an unrelenting green. Everywhere you looked it was green. I remember telling my folks how glad I would be to return home so I could see some nice yellow/brown grass.
Please don't get me wrong, I love this wet rainy weather. The temperatures have been bearable. With age I've gotten to be bothered by the heat. Never thought that would happen. It's great that I haven't needed to get out the hoses to water the grass. But I think this beautiful weather is at an end. I think the weather is getting ready to turn up the heat (literally) I know I better pull out the hoses and get them situated because my willows seem to be drooping and turning yellow. Tomorrow.
Thursday, July 26, 2007
Wednesday, July 25, 2007
Summer dud
There is something wrong in my house. The evenings are something I've come to dread. I have to make dinner. I have to wait on 3/5 of my family to return home before I can serve the dinner. Dinner is getting later and later. The kids fight going to bed. Before they are in bed I'm ready for bed.
But lately I've been doing house work after the little monsters go to their bedroom. Notice I didn't say go to sleep. No in fact noise continues to emanate from their room. Parents are required to go in and threaten drastic measures before the noise turns into whispers. Further warnings and yes, groundings are issued.
This hasn't been a good summer for the kids. They wanted to do so much. We just aren't able to financially afford to do the things they want to do. The girls want me to pick them up from their camp early so we can go swimming or go to a park but we simply can't afford for me to drive down there and get them. MI is having a great time with me. She gets me all to herself. ST is really showing signs of stress and anxiety. DQ actually is having a great time at camp. She just doesn't want the day to end.
I've already told Passionfruit that we will not do that summer camp in the neighboring suburb. I'm going to find an alternative. Passionfruit replied that next year ST will be able to go on all the field trips. I just want to be able to pick up the girls. I don't want to wait on Passionfruit to decide to go home.
I wish I had something funny or profound to say. Instead I'm complaining. Well, I tell you that one good thing happened this summer. DQ initiated a disscussion about her adoption and birth family. This has me feeling so good because I think that she is okay. She is going to be okay. Being adopted for her is not a tragic, horrible thing. In fact when DQ gets to be older and more mature I think she will say that being adopted is an adjective. It's a word that describes her not defines her.
But lately I've been doing house work after the little monsters go to their bedroom. Notice I didn't say go to sleep. No in fact noise continues to emanate from their room. Parents are required to go in and threaten drastic measures before the noise turns into whispers. Further warnings and yes, groundings are issued.
This hasn't been a good summer for the kids. They wanted to do so much. We just aren't able to financially afford to do the things they want to do. The girls want me to pick them up from their camp early so we can go swimming or go to a park but we simply can't afford for me to drive down there and get them. MI is having a great time with me. She gets me all to herself. ST is really showing signs of stress and anxiety. DQ actually is having a great time at camp. She just doesn't want the day to end.
I've already told Passionfruit that we will not do that summer camp in the neighboring suburb. I'm going to find an alternative. Passionfruit replied that next year ST will be able to go on all the field trips. I just want to be able to pick up the girls. I don't want to wait on Passionfruit to decide to go home.
I wish I had something funny or profound to say. Instead I'm complaining. Well, I tell you that one good thing happened this summer. DQ initiated a disscussion about her adoption and birth family. This has me feeling so good because I think that she is okay. She is going to be okay. Being adopted for her is not a tragic, horrible thing. In fact when DQ gets to be older and more mature I think she will say that being adopted is an adjective. It's a word that describes her not defines her.
Wednesday, July 04, 2007
Rambling rampages
I don't like it when holidays fall in the middle of the week. It makes the work week awful. I didn't really want to work yesterday but I finished my regular authority work just in time to get the next report. They will run today. What fun!
Now when I go to work tomorrow I'll have a lot more work to do. Work that can only be described to the civilian as boring and tedious. Sometimes I wonder whether anyone appreciates what I do. What I read in the professional journals, and what I see happening at the Library of Congress I can only hear the death toll for us catalogers. No one seems to understand what we do and why we do it. Everyone wants Google and Google-like environments without realizing the limitations to Google. Do people even realize that they are missing information? Yes. I must admit I Google, too. But that is not my end all of any research I do.
Newsweek's "My turn" the essayist wrote about taking the traditional road trip with her family. Everyone had their personal electronic equipment. While they sped down the highway everyone tuned each other out. I can only say that I laugh when I think of Timothy Leary's phrase, "Turn on, tune in, drop out". I doubt that Leary had any idea that we were going to take it to the limits that abound today. Did he ever envision people being hooked up to phones and ipods? Walking down the street talking to some unseen person, not hearing anyone near them greet them. We all are turned on and tuned in with the results of dropping out.
When I see people walking around with their blue tooth in their ears it makes me think of Star Trek the Next Generation. You know the episode where they encounter the Borg. "Resistance is futile people". We are all soon going to be a part of some massive piece of machinery. And those of us that resist shall be pursued to the ends of the earth. Tortured into assimilating into the various parts and pieces that make the whole. [Funny how that seems to parallel some Christian ideology... "I'm the vine you are the branches... Hmmm...]
Well I see that I am only rambling and continuing my anti-technology thread that seems to weave itself through this blog from time to time. Which in itself is ironic considering it is technology. I'm not against technology perse but the way in which we use it as a society. Enough.
Now when I go to work tomorrow I'll have a lot more work to do. Work that can only be described to the civilian as boring and tedious. Sometimes I wonder whether anyone appreciates what I do. What I read in the professional journals, and what I see happening at the Library of Congress I can only hear the death toll for us catalogers. No one seems to understand what we do and why we do it. Everyone wants Google and Google-like environments without realizing the limitations to Google. Do people even realize that they are missing information? Yes. I must admit I Google, too. But that is not my end all of any research I do.
Newsweek's "My turn" the essayist wrote about taking the traditional road trip with her family. Everyone had their personal electronic equipment. While they sped down the highway everyone tuned each other out. I can only say that I laugh when I think of Timothy Leary's phrase, "Turn on, tune in, drop out". I doubt that Leary had any idea that we were going to take it to the limits that abound today. Did he ever envision people being hooked up to phones and ipods? Walking down the street talking to some unseen person, not hearing anyone near them greet them. We all are turned on and tuned in with the results of dropping out.
When I see people walking around with their blue tooth in their ears it makes me think of Star Trek the Next Generation. You know the episode where they encounter the Borg. "Resistance is futile people". We are all soon going to be a part of some massive piece of machinery. And those of us that resist shall be pursued to the ends of the earth. Tortured into assimilating into the various parts and pieces that make the whole. [Funny how that seems to parallel some Christian ideology... "I'm the vine you are the branches... Hmmm...]
Well I see that I am only rambling and continuing my anti-technology thread that seems to weave itself through this blog from time to time. Which in itself is ironic considering it is technology. I'm not against technology perse but the way in which we use it as a society. Enough.
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