Prophetic, wasn't it?

No, reader in Rhode Island, it wasn't meant to be the finale of the whole blog.

In fact, it was the very day I mentioned to a friend that I really needed to keep posting every day, lest I stop posting altogether, that I decided to give myself permission not to post everyday.

And you see what happened.

It had gotten to the point where, more often than not, I was finding some random and trivial thing to post simply to keep up with the (self imposed) obligation of daily posting,when in fact I had nothing of substance (for even very generous definitions of "substance") to say, and the whole thing was really a chore.

So anyway.

I haven't abandoned it altogether, but I think it's clear that I'm over the Post Every Day Just For The Sake Of Doing So phenomenon.

Basically, I've switched over to Facebook for the day-to-day keeping in touch with people, remarking on the minutiae of life, and general online presence. It's not the same as blogging, but it's meeting the same needs. I'll post here if I have something more substantial to say, or photos to post.

Season Finale

Raxi's second favorite TV station went off the air today.




I've been wanting to get rid of the turtle for...well, not so long after we got her. She's cute and all, but there's not much interaction, and the tank is too heavy for the girls to be able to clean it themselves, so...

Then on the Nicaragua trip I said something about it to our friend Sherry, and she actually wanted the turtle, which I couldn't believe. They have a small "water feature" in their yard, with running water and a couple of plants and some rocks piled up. We took her over this afternoon and she seemed to like it just fine.

Raxi seemed to know something was up, because she paid way more attention to the turtle all morning than she usually does. I'm sure she'll miss The Turtle Channel, but The Bird Channel is still on the air 24 hours a day, and if this morning's evidence in the laundry room is any indication, we may have an interactive Mouse Channel in the offing at some point.

We're compatible in that Jack Sprat sort of way

Dad brought Bob a Highland Brewing Company beer, which made Bob very happy. This evening, Bob brought the beer to the proper temperature, uncapped it, and took a blissful swig.

However, I think he got even more pleasure out of the face I made when I tried it.

Again with the bullet points

• The phone company, having heard from us [the company] daily starting Monday morning, finally contacted us this morning to see about fixing the Internet connection at the office.
  
  
• It was already fixed.
  
  
• The phone company, having heard from us [the household] once, yesterday afternoon, called back early in the business day today, and came, and fixed the Internet, and all is well.
  
  
• I dropped Dad at the airport this morning and haven't heard from him, so I'm figuring he got all the way to where he's going.
  
  
• On the way home from work, I came upon Jose and Yolanda walking down the street carrying a small television, so I gave them a ride the rest of their way.
  
  
• Turned out they had just called the house to see if the girls could come with them, so we picked them up too.
  
  
• Then I went home and played my computer game while Bob played his, and then he took a rest and I was ALL BY MYSELF. FOR MINUTES AND MINUTES ON END.
  
  
• It was nice.
  
  
• And then the girls called, and I went and picked them up, and Bob went to work, and the girls and I watched a movie, and it was nice.

You're not supposed to bring work home, but...

Internet's been out at work since Friday afternoon. They finally discovered today that someone bumped a wire in the back room, so it's fixed (the phone company never quite managed to send a tech). And now our home modem lost its configuration, so we're back to the dialup for a couple of days.

IOW, see you later.

Some sort of a half life?

When we went to Quepos in October, we crossed a small bridge.
Five days later, the bridge collapsed.

When we came back from Grenada last week, we crossed a large bridge.
Five days later, the bridge blew up.

Now I'm scared.

(In fact, when I searched "bridge" on my blog to find the October post, I discovered that bridges, their structural integrity and their lack in spots where you would really kind of expect to find one, have been a not-so-infrequent topic around here.)

Recycling is good

Remember this?

Where I'm From

I am from a Snoopy lunchbox,
a rickety cart with a tiny black and white TV,
waxed paper and Strawberry Quik.

I am from the red house on Bayside Avenue
the rambling parsonage on the hill
the splintery-sided duplex
white siding in the suburbs.
Loyal Smutley, orange Volvo, fresh cut grass
Grandpa praying for unwitting sinners in the Sunday leaves.

I am from the woods behind the house
woodchucks, rat snakes, box turtles,
the allure of touch-me-nots--but only the fat ones pop.

I am from "not before six o'clock" on Christmas morning,
Saturday special breakfast,
From Earl and Louise and the far-off Moores.

I am from towering stacks of library books in crinkly plastic
and from moving boxes never unpacked.

From the marriage of "one right way" to "shades of gray."

I am from Sunday School, peace rallies,
boxes sent to a Mississippi family,
rice and tea like the children in Cambodia.

I'm from Tunkhannock, the Dutch rub,
brownies and maple walnut ice cream.

From great grandfathers black with coal dust,
a great aunt (or cousin once removed?) in France,
Nicholson File, Lincoln Bank.

I am from thick, crumbling sepia photographs:
Is that Grandma? Who's he?
Did they really take a picture of her after she died?

I am from jumpy, faded, silent home movies:
Mom in polyester and cat-eye glasses
Dad in shorts and knee socks, trips I never knew I took.

I am from a scrapbook for each child and another for the whole family:
Combing through childhood photos to recall
that couch, those shorts, don't you still have that teddy bear?

Scrapbook photos of a family reunion 30 years back, long-lost cousins.
Digital photos of another family reunion, cousins found.

The original post is from June 2006 (wow, I was blogging in 2006??), and can be found here, with explanations and links to the source material, and Mom & Lisa's versions in comments.

This came up today because Dad read me a (partial) version that he's been working on, and which he is welcome to post in comments here.