Quiet Lately

The blogging sphere has been quiet lately, it seems to me. Granted, I only read about 3-4 blogs with any regularity, but those blogs have been quiet. Are we all lethargic with the summer heat? Bored? Too busy to blog? Nothing to write about? I think I fall into the last category – things have indeed been quiet around here lately. Nothing particularly out of the ordinary has occurred – just life as usual.\par
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We went to see my grandmother today for our weekly visit. She’s definitely failing. I had to hold her up so that she could get a drink of water – I even had to put the straw in her mouth and take it out again, etc… I can barely hear her when she talks, but even so she’s still trying to get me to give the boys more and more chocolate and cookies! Old age is sobering.\par
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When we got home I told Judah that he could have a sip of something before he took a nap. He did and my attention was attracted elsewhere. When I looked around for him, he was gone. I started to search for him and found him… in his bed, under the covers, with “white” on his right and “blue” on his left. Such a big boy these days!\par
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I’m reading a book called “Heiland” by Franklin Sanders right now.. I’ve read it before, but not since I was a teenager. Michael lent it to me, as I recall, because he thought it was pretty interesting. It’s a futuristic novel, but not very futuristic – it’s set in 2020, by which time the official population in America is supposed to have been cut nearly in half as a result of abortion and euthanasia. The story is about the “free states” that survive in the rural areas out from under the watchful eye of the tyrranical federal government. It’s got some fascinating sci-fi machinery (anti-grav units, and scalar interferometers) which is suppposedly based on the work of a (real) man named Tesla. The story is how the free peoples fought back, but to some degree it’s really used as a stage for long lectures about what went wrong in America, civil government, goofy economic systems, etc. It made me want to research the gold and silver money verses fiat money issue more – of course economics classes in colleges denegrate gold and silver currency and applaud fiat money, but perhaps I should try to find a few other perspectives? Also, I noted when I was a teenager that all of the free people have large families (7-12), and all of the mothers are tall and slender and beautiful. It was published in Bermuda.\par
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Of course, what I’m supposed to be reading now is “Moby Dick.” That was Alice and my’s May Project that sort of turned into a Summer Project. Oh well, no hurry. I keep getting distracted by other things (books). It is interesting enough, just not at all a “can’t put it down” sort of book. Partially I’m reading it so that I’ll know whether or not to subject my children to it. At this point I’d say that it’s definitely more worthwhile than reading Harry Potter (though not as enjoyable), playing computer games, or watching TV, but less worthwhile than going to visit the elderly, or volunteering at the Pregnancy Resource Center, or reading the Bible. Of course, most educational things fall into that category anyway, so perhaps that’s not too helpful. One thing it has given me is an increased interest in whales in general – I put some books and movies on hold at the library so that I can get a better (perhaps illustrated) idea of what we’re talking about here. Melville describes everything in excrutiating detail but I have a hard time putting words on paper into pictures in my head and I AM somewhat interested. Oh, and Mystie, I read the chapters about the butchering of a whale that your mother told you about… theyr’e not so bad. I was rather intersted to hear that they peel the blubber off of a whale the way one peels the rind off an orange. Sounds rather hideous and disgusting, but also very ingeneous. In fact, much of the equipment and procedures described are rather ingeneous. And we think we’re so smart today because we can operate a computer and remote..\par
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Our 5th anniversary is on Friday. We’re doing something to celebrate, but it’s a surprise (for me). All I know at this point is that we’ll have to get up at 3-4 in the morning and that “they don’t allow coffee.” Also, apparently there is some specific dress required, although Michael didn’t want to tell me about that for fear it would give me too many clues. Apparently we’ll be back in the midafternoon. Angela is going to come and stay the night Thursday night so she’ll be there in the morning when the boys wake up, since we’ll be gone by then! I was explaining this to Judah, and apparently he got the general idea, because just as soon as he woke up this morning (early enough that I put him back to bed) I heard him crying and saying\’c3\’82\’c2\~”Where going, Mommy?” I’m more worried about Ezra than him, actually, since he’s turning into more of a Momma’s boy lately that he used to be, even though he’s weaned now.\par
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Well, better try to get something done during the rest of the boy’s nap!