Things on My Mind

Heavy things lately. Last week wasn't exactly all roses, and now Virginia Tech. I'm actually somewhat familiar with the campus and I know the buildings involved, although it's been some time since I was there. Still, listening to the news reports all morning Monday, I had very vivid images of where they were talking about. What an awful day, although I really don't have sufficient words for it all. A sister of a friend who is a VT alumna now living in Australia had a better take on it all. Very eloquently put.

They released a bunch more details about the guy today. What a lunatic. The radio was making a big stink (on a BBC program) about whether it mattered that he was South Korean. Nobody here seems to care too much, but I guess the South Koreans are taking it pretty hard. Apparently, they have a far more collective idea of guilt and responsibility than we do. The show pointed out that the Koreans made a huge international incident out of a traffic accident a little while back where a US serviceman in Korea killed a couple kids. They held the US responsible for that incident and we didn't understand why. Now they are collectively grieving and feeling somewhat responsible for this tragedy and we don't understand why. Unexpected culture clash.

Also, I'm already tired of the gun-control discussion that will rage forever and go nowhere. The first quote I saw from Bush on Monday noted that he was sending his prayers to the families and community and, oh, yeah, he still supported the 2nd Amendment. Good thing he pointed that out. I've already heard from one side that we are the only gun-happy industrialized country and that should end immediately. I've also heard from the other side that if more law-abiding citizens had been armed, this would have ended much quicker. As usual, not much middle ground.

I was working at the US Forest Service laboratory at OSU this week. We only actually got the contract because the guy that has been calibrating their stuff for the last 25 years of so just passed away last month. He was about 85-90 years old and has been working this area longer than my boss. He was apparently a nice guy who like to tell stories going back even before his time on an aircraft carrier in World War II. Usually when I work a new place, it's because whoever was doing it before annoyed them too much so they are happy to see change. This was different because everyone seemed to like him a lot, so I felt like the runner up that they didn't really want to see. It didn't help that every time I replaced one of his stickers with my own, I felt like I was erasing a piece of history. I can look forward to doing this a lot in the next year since his daughter has been giving us a referral for all his old customers.

There's been some light stuff too. I had a dream the other night. Usually I don't care much to hear other people's dreams. They tend to be much more interesting to the person who dreamt them, and then often only until they say them out loud. But this was different (yeah, right), and anyway, this blog has no point. Anyway, it was loosely based on the end of I, Robot, although way more apocalyptic. For some reason, Will Ferrel was working with the robots, and in an odd twist, was not acting like his normal stupid-but-lovable buffoon self. He was actually very mean and evil, including a black leather jacket, head scarf and a couple guns. I reached for one of his guns, and he noted that he had another one pointed at me, so I took that one too. He laughed because when I shot him with it, I found that it was a water pistol. So I choked him with it. Apparently, I don't like Will Ferrel very much.

Franny and I took the Mizz to the tulip festival this weekend and met a couple other people with kid of the same name and only a couple days younger. We've been there before, but not with him. Not the same thing. We took him away from the flowers pretty quickly since he mainly wanted to pick petals off. I thought this seemed like excellent babysitting since they had several acres of flowers, but reluctantly decided against it. Luckily, there were lots of kid-friendly activities that we walked right by last time. The Mizz had more stimulation than he knew what to do with. He especially liked the roller slide, which was about 15 feet high, so I went with him. I apparently don't have enough padding on my behind, as it was pretty bumpy. None of the kids seemed to mind though.

The Mizz got to experience hail this evening. It was coming down in about 1/4 inch balls, so we went out on the front porch to watch. I caught one for him, and he thought that was great. He held it until it melted and then wanted another one. I caught several more until my feet got too cold. He didn't want to go back inside, but I distracted him with the doorbell. At least that's still easy.

I should write smaller things more often. Sorry for the rambling.