Bit of a somber morning. We were awakened by our daughter in the middle of the night -- she had a stomach ache. Pretty unusual -- I doubt it's happened once for the last eight years. She was supposed to perform with her color guard troupe last night -- it was canceled due to the weather, which is ironic; this morning, it's extraordinarily bright and sunny -- so we suspect that it's left over nerves about that. I wish I knew a little more about why we get nervous. I don't know enough about it to even have an opinion, which of course will not stop me -- I suspect that it's a psychosomatic deal, where we trigger stress hormones because the mind thinks thats its the appropriate response to what it's thinking about. I could be all wet, though.
On the drive back from dropping off the van to be repaired -- the 'check engine' light is staying on, which is supposed to be a Bad Thing, though its been known to happen for something as mild as the gas tank cap not being securely on -- my wife mentioned hoping that my mother is not entering the stage of her life where she is too frail to live at home. I must say, that put a damper on my mood. I don't at all like any of the options that such a condition presents. I doubt that anyone without staff -- and plenty of it -- does. It is a very strange and unsettling experience to be thinking 'I hope she doesn't die -- and I hope that she does, if thats the alternative.' I despise that inconvenience, expense, or both to me are the first thing I think of.
People who think its useful to offer comments about such things (which, I guess, now includes me) were saying that Fred Thompson didn't overwhelm the field in his first outing to a Republican presidential debate, and so therefore should be discarded. I guess its a function of our immediate-gratification culture (of course, I don't subscribe to that. Yeah, right.) that if a person cannot immediately overwhelm us, then that person must be inadequate -- and a reflection of popular tradition that if that person does overwhelm us, then the media looks for reasons not to trust the image, and we buy whatever they find. Not entirely, but to varying degrees.
On the drive back from dropping off the van to be repaired -- the 'check engine' light is staying on, which is supposed to be a Bad Thing, though its been known to happen for something as mild as the gas tank cap not being securely on -- my wife mentioned hoping that my mother is not entering the stage of her life where she is too frail to live at home. I must say, that put a damper on my mood. I don't at all like any of the options that such a condition presents. I doubt that anyone without staff -- and plenty of it -- does. It is a very strange and unsettling experience to be thinking 'I hope she doesn't die -- and I hope that she does, if thats the alternative.' I despise that inconvenience, expense, or both to me are the first thing I think of.
People who think its useful to offer comments about such things (which, I guess, now includes me) were saying that Fred Thompson didn't overwhelm the field in his first outing to a Republican presidential debate, and so therefore should be discarded. I guess its a function of our immediate-gratification culture (of course, I don't subscribe to that. Yeah, right.) that if a person cannot immediately overwhelm us, then that person must be inadequate -- and a reflection of popular tradition that if that person does overwhelm us, then the media looks for reasons not to trust the image, and we buy whatever they find. Not entirely, but to varying degrees.
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