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![[info]](http://l-stat.livejournal.com/img/userinfo.gif) sandratayler | |
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I was watching Firefly with six year old Patch snuggled up next to me. He loves to watch the space ships. Some of the other stuff in the show was a little scary to him, so I paused the show to explain how it is all pretend. He turned wide eyes to me in disbelief and said “You mean space ships aren’t real?!”
It was like someone had taken away Christmas. I had to explain to him that we do have real space ships, but that they don’t look like the ones in movies. So we googled some pictures of the space shuttle and I told him about it. I told him what I knew about space shuttles and how they work. I told him how my dad dragged us kids out of bed at four in the morning so we could watch space shuttle launches on live television. I told him about watching the space shuttles land at much more convenient west coast hours. I told about the time that the space shuttle was transported via plane over our house and I watched it fly by. I remember what an amazing miracle it was to have a space ship that could be used more than once.
My stories convinced Patch that all was not lost in the space ship department. I wanted to give him more to be excited about, so I went to netflix to find documentaries about space. The documentaries arrived only to disappoint. They were nostalgic and historical. There were images of space ships, but most of the screen time was old guys talking. These documentaries did nothing to make my son excited about real space ships.
This makes me sad, because the fact that human beings travel into space is a miracle. It has become one of those routine miracles that few people pay any attention to. We entertain ourselves with fantastical visions of futures filled with flying cars and space ships when high above us people are orbiting beyond the reach of gravity. If we want our future to include amazingly cool space ships, we need to be making kids excited about space. I wondered at the lack of documentaries explaining to kids what space exploration has done and why it is cool. I wondered at the lack of a Carl Sagan or a Bill Nye or an Adam from the myth Mythbusters to make space science accessible to kids.
Lacking an exciting documentary, I took matters into my own hands. Today we had a family outing to the Hill Air Force Base Aerospace Museum. This museum is devoted primarily to airplanes rather than space ships, but it is worth the trip. We got to walk right up next to hundreds of historical aircraft. The one Kiki loved was the 1948 era plane of the kind used by the “candy bomber” who dropped packages of candy to children during the Berlin airlift. Gleek was creeped out by the mock up of the first atom bomb. It was truly creepy looking even before reading the plaque. Patch was delighted by the whole experience. He would have been happy to wander for hours just looking at the airplanes. But the true joy of the trip for him was the hands on exhibit where he got to climb into a bomber cockpit simulator and play with all the switches. If he’d grinned any wider, his face would have split.
I was once again amazed at the marvel of airplane engineering. I was a little saddened that so much of it is devoted to ever better ways to commit violence. I think that is why the portions devoted to space travel were my favorite. Space ships are all about making sure that no one gets killed. I mused on all of this as I sat waiting for the kids to be ready to leave the hands-on exhibit area. Then I noticed that in the waiting area there was a video playing. It was taking the viewer step by step through a space shuttle launch and doing so interestingly. I asked one of the docents and she told me that the video was The Big Space Shuttle. I have now added that to our Christmas list. It is more similar to How It’s Made than to Bill Nye The Science Guy, but it is much better than the documentaries I found before.
The outing was a success. Patch even acquired a little pewter airplane that he has been playing with all evening. He cornered me to tell me all about it, including the fact that the plane had a giant laser on its back which no one could see, but which could blow up anything.
I don’t know that any of my kids will become scientists or engineers. I don’t know that they will ever work in an industry related to space. But I do know that they will some day vote, and I want them to have some idea of the marvelous accomplishments which have come from the space program. It would be sad to have manned spaceflight come to an end merely because the voting public considers the miracle too routine to be worth funding.
Mirrored from onecobble.com. Tags: uncategorized
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klingonguy | |
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Good news and bad news on the whole NaNoWriMo front. The good news is that I topped 50K a few days back. In fact, right now my word count is hovering at about 60K. Of course, my goal was 90K, so while I've "won" NaNoWriMo, I'm falling significantly short of where I want/need to be. The bad news is that I've been feeling burned out. I added less than a page on Thursday, and I didn't write at all yesterday. Prior to this, I'd managed to write every day of the month, including while attending Philcon. I'm feeling a bit more optimistic about this weekend. I've done some catch up with my Paper Golem responsibilities, and I'll have the house all to myself this evening ( valverdi is going into town to see Angels in America, with her friend in the lead role). And too, by posting about this here on my LJ (which is read not only by you, but by my editor/publisher too) I'm giving myself an extra push. So, unless I'm a total slacker, I'd like to see another 10K before I run out of November. I'll still be short of my goal, I'll feel a whole lot better. Tags: nanowrimo
I feel:  cynical
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rowyn | |
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There's a myth around here, that if you purchase the right materials and prepare everything correctly, and then set it all out on the right days in spring or fall -- the exact days change every year -- then your yard trash will be whisked away for you.
In six years, I've never attempted this magic spell. Either I didn't know the day, or I didn't have the right bags, or I didn't put in the time needed to bag the leaves. This year, though, I actually knew the days, and I wasn't going to be out of town for the second of the ones scheduled in the fall. That'd be next Monday.
I did some leaf blowing earlier this year; about a quarter of the leaves in my yard can be blown to the untended garden boxes at the edges, where the leaves decompose and cut down a bit on the weeds that are growing there, instead of killing the rest of what passes for my lawn. I got those all cleared off. Then the weather turned bad and we went of Daylight Savings time, and I didn 't get any more work done on the yard.
For the first time in the twelve years that I've been working at the bank, they're neither discouraging nore penalizing people for taking the day after Thanksgiving off. So I took today off. I lazed around for the morning, and then Lut got up and reminded me that (a) today was a nice day and (b) there were still a lot of leaves in the yard.
Thus, a little after noon I went outside to deal with leaves. I started Matthew Ebel playing at too-loud volumes on my iPod, so I could hear it over the roar of the leaf-blower, and spent a ninety minutes getting the leaves into large piles.
Very large piles.
Very, very large piles.
I went inside to get the special yard trash bags (required for the success of the Ritual of Leaf Disposal), and got the bag attachment for the leaf blower out of the garage. Then went back into the garage to get the vacuum attachment, too. And started vacuuming leaves. As soon as I emptied the first load from the leaf-vacuum to the yard trash bag, I started sneezing. Profusely. I went into the house to get Kleenexes and a diet Coke. Lut suggested I wear a filter mask. I couldn't find them on the first floor and didn't want to go to the basement to look.
Hours passed. The gigantic pile of leaves in the middle of the yard slowly disappeared into three and a half leaf bags*. I went back into the house for more Kleenexes and checked the basement for painter's masks. No luck.
The sun went down. I started in on the slightly-less giant pile of leaves on the street corner. It got dark. I vacuumed leaves by the light of the streetlamp. I went back into the house for more Kleenexes and another diet Coke. I cleaned the patina of dust and dirt from my glasses. It got a little brighter.
I finished the pile on the corner in another two bags. The pile by the gate was also reasonably lit by the streetlamp. I started on it.
Lut emerged from the house at six and a half bags, and started moving bags into the garage. When he got to the gate, he stopped to stare at the size of the pile I was working on. "Wow. Rowyn?"
I took out my earbuds. "Yes?"
"Fire."
The seventh bag was full by the time he came for the last. "Are you just going to keep at it until they're all bagged? Or untill you run out of bags?"
"Uhh. Or until I run out of Blue October."
"Of the five albums we've got, how many are you up to?"
"Three. I already ran out of Matthew Ebel."
Lut went back inside.
By the fourth Blue October, I was definitely flagging. The problem is that, at about Hour Three, I had realized that not only was I not going to want to do this tomorrow, but my body probably wasn't going to forgive me for this until Monday at the earliest. I wasn't hurting now. I would be tomorrow. Better to get it over with while I was still capable of motion.
I filled the tenth bag, and the last I had with me. There were more in the garage. There were more leaves to be bagged, too; a little bit left of the pile I'd been working on, and another small pile halfway from the driveway.
The last Blue October album started, and I gave up. I carried the three full bags to the garage and went inside to collapse. I took some ibuprofen, figuring I might as well get a jump on it. I'd been at it for seven hours.
I'm counting that as my exercise for today. Possibly for the rest of the weekend, too. -_-
* The directions on the leaf blower say that vacuuming leaves makes them take up a tenth the space they'd normally take up if packed directly into bags. That seems a bit exaggerated, but five times as many is definitely reasonable. I kept
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rowyn | |
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- The roasting oven is not ... quite ... large enough to hold a 20 lb turkey.
- A 20 lb turkey does, however, have lots of cavity to put stuffing in.
- Pie crusts come two to a pack because one sixteen-ounce can of pumpkin makes two pies. If you want two pies, you still only have to buy one can.
- If you make the pumpkin pies two nights before Thanksgiving, you can eat pumpkin pie while you're cooking. Since one can makes two pies, there'll even still be pie left after dinner.
- The big ten-quart pot only holds five pounds of potatoes. So you probably shouldn't buy ten.
- Eighty ounces of canned yams is about right, though.
- You need milk for mashed potatoes.
- The stuffing needs a whole onion, and the salad needs some, too. So one's not enough.
( Ingredients used )Hope everyone enjoyed their Thanksgiving, and has lots of leftovers, too. =)
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sandratayler | |
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Ship store orders: These have been stacking up in the last two days while I was eating turkey and then digesting it.
Answer email: Ditto
Wash children/clean house: It is time to vaccuum and clean up so that we can face the holidays in cleanliness
Take kids to Hill AFB Aerospace Museum: There’s a longer story involved here. I’ll tell it tomorrow when I can include scenes from the museum.
Pick up Link from BestFriend’s house: Conveniently near the Aerospace Museum
Make sure Kiki gets her homework done: Almost caught up. Almost.
Spend time with Gleek: She’s been feeling neglected lately with all the time I’ve been having to spend on homework for the oldest two.
Spend time with Patch: Ditto.
Put up Christmas tree: Not sure this will actually happen. It depends on how gung ho the kids are to get it done.
Mirrored from onecobble.com. Tags: uncategorized
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sandratayler | |
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When I was little, Thanksgiving was all about the food and the company. My benchmark for “Good Thanksgiving” was set during the year that cousins came to visit and we had two tables packed with people. I loved sitting at the kid table with my cousins and friends. I think I was about eight and it was hard for follow up feasts to match that one. Then during my teen years we spent several Thanksgivings in a row at my great-grandmothers retirement trailer. I remember complaining about this. I remember that it didn’t even feel Thanksgivingingish because there was not room for us to sit around her tiny table. Instead we loaded paper plates and sat in whatever space we could find available. In hindsight, I am glad that we spent Thanksgiving with Great-Grandma. She did not live long after that. By about the third year I finally absorbed the fact that delighting an old woman was more important than sitting around a single table.
I still remember the Thanksgiving of my freshman year at college. There were three siblings at BYU so we met together in my empty kitchen, my roommates all off visiting relatives. The food was lacking, but we were together. Being together was even more important when the news came of the house fire in our childhood home. One pet died and much in the house was damaged beyond repair, but all the people were fine. We were very thankful that year.
The year I was dating Howard I learned the meaning of “big Thanksgiving.” I went with him to a relative’s house where they crammed five tables and at least thirty people into their front room. In later years the people were familiar and friendly, but that first year I only spoke to Howard and his brother. We had our own little pocket of fun in the crowded space.
When the kids arrived I had my own chance to shape Thanksgiving celebrations. I learned that none of my kids are fans of the southern cornbread dressing that I considered an essential part of the feast during my growing years. I also learned that kids will be mortally offended if I serve a roasted chicken instead of a turkey. It seemed logical at the time. There were so few of us to eat the bird. I only did it once, but to this day the kids double check to make sure that there will actually be turkey for Thanksgiving.
There have been small feasts and big feasts. There have been celebrations full of people and lonely ones. There have been sad events and happy ones. And yet somehow it is always Thanksgiving. A thread links through them and ties them together. I love that we have a day which celebrates gratitude. I love that we have a day to look around at our circumstances, whatever they may be, and find cause for joy. I am thankful for many things today, but among them I am thankful for Thanksgiving itself. Because the holiday is more than just the food and the company.
Mirrored from onecobble.com. Tags: uncategorized
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sandratayler | |
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This may not come as news to most Americans, but tomorrow is Thanksgiving. On one level I knew that the holiday was coming. I saw it on the calendar. I planned my week around the fact that the kids would be out of school. But somehow I did not really wrap my head around the notion that the holiday season would be arriving so soon.
I used to start thinking about Christmas gifts as soon as Halloween was over. I liked to have all the shopping done before Thanksgiving. Nothing was out of stock yet. Everything was lined up and planned. I’m afraid I was internally smug about my organization, although I never felt judgmental about people who ran their holidays differently. I had a system and it worked.
Somehow that system has fallen apart the last few years. Part of the system breakage is due to the fact that I am much busier. I don’t have much time for planning an event three months in the future. I’m too busy scrambling to cover stuff for this week. Part of the shift is because the kids are older. When they were young I could plan what everybody would give to everyone else. These days the kids need to do their own participation and gift planning. They have their own gift strategies and I have to let go of control. The letting go of control is a big part of it. I’ve had to embrace the fact that while I am the organizer of family events, there are aspects of the holiday celebration that I should not attempt to control.
Even though my holiday strategy has shifted, I am still left feeling like I ought to have done my shopping by now. I’ve been so busy this fall that I honestly have not had a thought to spare. This leads me to worry because the next few weeks will be even busier. I still won’t have thoughts to spare, but I’ll also have holiday shipping and holiday events as well. I’ll have to cram the holiday shopping thoughts into my brain on top of everything else. Perhaps for the first time I understand what feeds some of the Black Friday hysteria. The drive to hurry and get the shopping done during this time off from work.
On the other hand, taking each of the kids out on a shopping trip has some appeal. I picture each of them with their own several-hour-long outing where we partake of the holiday mood while selecting gifts. Only that brings me back to the issue of time, and brain space. It is one thing to take a child out for a relaxed couple of hours, it is another to force march a child through a store to acquire gifts on a schedule. I’m really not sure how I’m going to managed to get this holiday pulled together on time and under budget, particularly since the budget is tighter this year than in the past two years. We didn’t have a Fall book release this time.
Part of me is ready for the holiday season. I’m ready to decorate the house and play holiday music. I’m looking forward to burning down the advent candle while reading stories to the kids. Yesterday and today have had a holiday feel which is nice. I love that warm, relaxed feeling. It is the associated task list which I’d be happy to skip.
Mirrored from onecobble.com. Tags: uncategorized
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![What? Oh, no, the 'Enchanted' soundtrack was just playing because Pandora's algorithms are terrible. [silence] ... (quietly) That's how you knooooooow ...](http://imgs.xkcd.com/comics/pandora.png "What? Oh, no, the 'Enchanted' soundtrack was just playing because Pandora's algorithms are terrible. [silence] ... (quietly) That's how you knooooooow ...")
depressed
