cosmic truths and inaction

My lingering cough must have weakened my immunity, and now I have a painful infection with a debilitating fever. Interestingly, in the wee hours of the a.m. after uncomfortably writhing all night, I found, in my delirium, some original cosmic truths. It has happened to me before, and now I wonder about the prevalence of such "revelations". It's not all that. The experience can probably be likened to drug induced revelations of the colorness of colors or the connectedness of the universe, etc. Two years ago, in a sickness induced delirium, I had a fantastic idea that resolved some problems I had been thinking about in astrophysics. This time, again, linked to the metaphysics of the universe, I developed an analogy which, again, offers an insight that resolves a lot of disconnectedness between the origins of the universe, God, science, the human mind, and so on. Now I hope to write it all down, but, like remembering a dream, it will be a difficult task of crystallizing some pretty vague and lofty ideas. So I won't do that now, but if I ever do write a book, maybe I can include these ideas therein.

Also lingering in the spirits of my now 11905 day year old self, is the tension in my life between deliberation and action. Or potential and realization. It seems like a easy line to cross. If you want to write a book, just do it. If you want to start a business, just do it. But the factors of life and probably other character flaw obstacles continue to stack up as excuses for not doing some of the things I want to do.

What we did last week was pretty fun. We went to the beach, this time as a morning sandcastle excursion. We also checked out some free places in Houston. The "action" of having a family is a delightful undertaking that easily consoles me from the inaction mentioned above.

Peace.

Happy September

The penguins of Madagascar just mentioned that the sum of the square roots of any two sides of an isosceles triangle is equal to the square root of the remaining side. Interested, I googled it, and found that the scarecrow in the movie The Wizard of Oz delivered the line lo so many years ago. Sine then it's been used on the Simpsons, and now the Penguins as well. Of course, the only relationship between the twin legs of an isosceles triangle and the third leg is that the twins are each more than half as long as the third leg. In fact, the line is almost brilliantly wrong in each possible way (but there are, indeed, three sides of a triangle.).

I have had a nasty cough for a while. Otherwise, I feel okay, but when I have a coughing fit it's horrible. Earlier I was sicker, but now it's just the lingering cough.

We have explored around Houston some more. We went to the beach this weekend, but it was more like a driving tour than a beach excursion. We rode the ferry. While we were waiting for the ferry, our car battery discharged enough that we couldn't restart our van. Thankfully, a guy in a jeep nearby saved the day with some jumper cables. It all was resolved in such a quick manner that we did not slow down the line of embarking vehicles. But it wasn't completely resolved, of course, because as soon as we embarked, we had to turn off our vehicles' ignitions. And our Jeep friend was parked on a different part of the boat, too. I crossed my fingers and hoped that the van would start just fine. We watched dolphins and seagulls and waves, and at the end tried without success to restart the van. I quickly tried to get an attendant to see if they had a solution, but the attendants were all busy getting ready to unload the ferry. On the way back to our van I asked the guy in front of me (in a small car--I was sure the chance was slim) if he had jumper cables. When he said yes and jumped out of his car, I realized they'd have to be pretty long to be able to help out right away, since our cars were all arranged like a traffic jam. But, would you believe it, he was a mechanic, and his jumper cables were attached to a 12 volt jumpstarter, and it was all resolved in such a quick manner that we did not slow down the line of disembarking vehicles.

When we got to a convenience store, I poured some cola on the terminals to get rid of a bunch of corrosion that was helping to discharge our battery. Since then, we've been okay.

Life is good, but Annie just chewed off part of the cover of Bonnie's library book while I was typing up that story. So now I'll go and pay more attention to the young 'uns.

well ballyhoo, we're in texas

Happy Birthday Orry, you were born almost exactly four years ago this minute.

We are moved into an apartment into Houston, where we feel like we're a little on the wrong side of town. But on the plus side (and this is why we live there), we live about a three or four minute drive to work. It's about a mile and a half, but what's funny is that it's really just across a road. But it's a big road, beltway eight. And actually, I haven't ever been on it, because it is a tollway, and it has service roads that go around it, which serve the purpose we need of crossing it.

I actually like Texas, so far. Maybe I was hasty to reproach the lone star state. Some examples for my second thoughts: service is considerably better, drivers are considerably better, people are considerably nicer. Some more good points about where we live are that the area is a sort of convergence of a few different international cultures. My job, by the way, for the time being, is a lot like teaching English in another land. All my students are Turkish or from somewhere similar (like Azerbeijan or Uzbekistan). Many of them are fresh from overseas. I like it.

We eat breakfast at the school each morning. And after the schoolday we also usually eat dinner. There are a lot of olives and cheese.

Annie rolls, Isaac babbles, Orry is four, yes, four years old. Sheesh, time flies.

a May 30 quickie

My number two boy turned two yesterday, which means a few things. The precise day is passed when he is the age Orry was when he was born, although in two weeks they'll celebrate being half, or twice, the other's age for a year. The other milestone is that from this day forward, for now, Isaac will have spent most of his life in the USA again. He has really started babbling less incoherently, and has been seen jumping, singing, praying, and playing games which satisfy and delight us.

Annie is also developing well. On Thursday we'll move to Houston, and she will cross her first state line.

The Theobalds are coming over later today, and we'll have some fun. And we can show off our "finished" home. No, it's not turnkey perfect. But it is ready to rent out for the next year, and we signed a lease (hooray!) so it'll do for now!

For inappropriate quote use, see here. We have a dentistry pamphlet to submit. Seriously, after all that school, you send out a mailing that includes so many unnecessary quotes?! Seriously?!

a near mid-May report, 2010

It is nice Tawna has been working on genealogy lately, but I've been missing her blog action.

I've been working moderately over the past month or so to learn Spanish.

These are times of change.

Every single person in my immediate family working outside the home has changed jobs in the past year or will change in the next few months. This pattern extends also to many outside my immediate family, of course. Bonnie's family, by the way, is a little more solidly employed, it turns out.

I got a book from the library set in Idaho, since it will have to do for not going to Idaho this summer, by the looks of things. A Country Called Home.

I am another half day older.

Bonnie got another cookie book. We are about to sample some lemon lime cookies that would make even the sourest of frowns turn upside down, I bet. And that's going by the smell, and a few licks of frosting and dough.

We saved another turtle today. They want to cross the road, but the road is wide and their pace is slow. Who knows, maybe it would have made it on its own. Bonnie doubts it. We brought the refugee to the Bluebonnet swamp area, and then we got some turtle books from the library.

We've been going through our books and belongings and making donation trips.

magic beanstalk

The magic beanstalk at our place is made of bamboo. It grows a few feet each day, or did at least, the last we could see of the top. Actually, there are a few stalks, racing to become poles to blog about. Giant bamboo. Admire it.

I am trying my darnedest to complete a list of items in time for us to move to Houston soon. We don't know how temporary or lasting this move will be.

LSU vs BSU...

I pour myself some tootie fruities. I eat the green and red ones first. Then the fruities that remain are purple and yellow, blue and orange. When I eat some LSU colors I try to eat some BSU colors to balance it out. When I eat some BSU colors I likewise try to eat some LSU colors. The same goes for reds and greens, if I perchance eat some school colors. I try to keep the game balanced. At the end, when I can easily count the remaining fruities for each team, a winner is declared. So far I think Boise State is a few games up.

I sometimes think about such a game. Although I don't get to catch Boise State play very often, and I usually do watch LSU, I'd know so much more about LSU. But of course in my heart I'd want the mountain team to blast by the southern big boys. Either way, I guess it's a win-win. And that's how my day starts on select mornings.



I ate some cookies again. After a couple months of abstinence, I had some thin mint girl scout cookies. They're okay, but not that good, really, I mean come on--it's a cheap crusty mint flavored cookie in a little chocolate. Bonnie makes a mint chocolate chip cookie with Andes chips and real mint, and it's much better. And then, after the thin mints, Bonnie finally cracked under pressure and made a batch of chocolate chip cookies (not mint flavored). I ate three last night after a bunch of cookie dough--enough to feel like I didn't need even three cookies. Then, today, I had way too many little frozen cookie dough balls. Jeesh.

Bonnie was talking about gradually using less and less sugar in her tea, with the aim of cutting it out altogether eventually. But something tells me it probably wouldn't work with cookies, slowly cutting out the butter and sugar. I mean, what would be left? Yum, chocolate chips in egg flour!

Old Spice's advertising campaign has paid off for them. I bought an Old Spice product today, and do you know why? To smell like a man, man.

We sat down to watch Avatar last night but it was a German version with no subtitles. I fell asleep waiting to hear about the miners. Tonight, Project Runway goodness. And no hope for the coal industry.

I got enthused, and then a little doleful today. First, about Emanuel Sachs and silica PV cells. Then dolorous about the disqualification of my life achievements to get me on board with a company like his, doing something along the lines of what he is doing. I want to go work with him for free, you know. And then get PV rooftops on all the houses in the southwest, for example.

In the end, I got to feeling good again. I put a For Rent sign in the ground, put up some sheetrock, taped up some joints. I didn't listen to the Spring Fund Drive of my local NPR station. What gets me is how much of the pledge drive I listen to. Today, I listened to my own thoughts.

After working, I got to spend a good amount of afternoon with the family. That's a treat. We got ready for a picnic and soccer get-together tomorrow.

These days Venus and Mercury show their stuff in the dusky western sky.