General update

Early this month, the bees were gone from the woodpile. So were over half the termites. So was two thirds of the wood. A couple of days ago, the rest of the termites and most of the rest of the wood followed them. No, we haven't had any bonfires. Dad faced up to reality, and asked our yardman to haul the wood to the dump in his truck. Dad insisted on paying twenty bucks for gas per trip. {smile} The only wood left now is a few old mamani logs. They aren't going to the dump. They seem to be insect free, so the yardman wants them for his woodcarving. Dad's happy to do it. He's {Smile}

Dad fell down in church last Sunday. He saw the doctor Monday, because the left knee was really swollen. He has a hematoma there. It probably needs surgery. Due to a severe doctor shortage in Hawai'i, the surgeon can't see him until Monday. He saw his main doctor again today (Friday), and complained about all the pain. He's been laid up all week. His doctor sent him to a semi-retired orthopedist who doesn't do surgery any more. He was able to remove an ounce of fluid, but the rest of the swelling is a big clot that will have to be removed surgically. Dad's in marginally less pain now. At this point we're hoping that when he finally sees the surgeon on Monday, the fellow won't insist on waiting another week or two to operate. {disgusted look}

I keep praying for Dad. Unfortunately, my prayers have yet to be answered the way I'd like. {small smile}

Anne Elizabeth Baldwin

Church musings

I've been thinking about church. There's something... I'm not comfortable there, and I really should be. I've been there all my life. {pause}

I think I need a change. Not a major one, but... I feel restless.

I'm toying with becoming a deacon. the Diaconate has fascinated me since I learned that some deacons never become priests. {pause} I'm not sure it's right for me, tho. I'd have some trouble reading the gospel without falling over, more getting to the pulpit to take a turn at preaching, and yet more trying to get up to the altar to assist the priest in the Eucharist. {pause} I know there's much more to being a deacon than helping in the service. They study the bible in depth, and reach out to the community in various ways. However, do I need to be ordained for that? Some form of lay ministry may suit my abilities and my congregation's needs better. I really don't think they need to add ramps all over the sanctuary so I can get around. {Smile}

I just wish I knew what was the right choice for me. {Smile}

Anne Elizabeth Baldwin

Good news

Well, my computer seems to be behaving itself since it realized it does have a keyboard after all. {Smile}

That's not the good news of the title. {bite lips} I've been trying to figure out how to tell you without sounding like I'm bragging. After about three weeks, I give up. So here goes. {smile}

A few weeks ago, I got three volumes collectively titled Storytelling: An Encyclopedia of Mythology and Folklore. {pause} In the middle volume are four short articles I wrote myself about gods and creatures popular in Hawaiian legends. (Pele, her sister Hi'iaka, Maui, and the Menehune, if you're curious.) {Smile, pause}

The encyclopedia was edited by Josepha Sherman, and she did a great job on it. The articles are both well-written and well-chosen. {Smile} I don't say that because my articles are in it; I was taught how to evaluate an encyclopedia in library school, and this one passes the tests. {Smile} That isn't easy to pull off either; a lot of encyclopedias have problems.

Dad says this makes me a published author. {bite lips} I guess it does, but I know too many published authors not to realize it's only one step on a long road. I'd like to follow up with something else sometime, but at least I've made a start. {Smile}

Anne Elizabeth Baldwin

Well...

Yesterday afternoon (Thursday), Dad announced that the Computer Store had called. My computer was already fixed. We could go pick it up any time. So we went down pretty quickly. {smile} We picked it up. The gal who fixed it said the only problem that she could find was the modem was switched off. She turned it back on, and all seemed fine. She said this could be a virus, so I should watch it for more trouble, but she really thought it was fixed.

So we loaded it up and took it home. Dad set it up as quickly as feasible. I turned it on, and checked my email to make sure it was working. My email downloaded fine. {smile}

Then I shut it down so I could tag along while Dad got groceries. KTA, the supermarket he was going to, has picnic tables out front, on a wide, shaded patio. I like to sit at them and think and write. It's a change of scenery, and a pleasant arrangement. {Smile}

Then we went back home. After a while, I turned on my computer again. As I began to log into my usual sites (LJ and Blogger), my computer stopped responding to my keyboard. {bite lips} No matter how many buttons, I pushed, nothing. I figured out which cable connected the keyboard to my computer, and checked it. It was slightly loose. I pushed it in firmly, and checked again. Still no keyboard. I told Dad what happened. He came to look at it. I took a bathroom break to calm down. (No, I was no calm. {half-smile}) When I came back out, Dad said he'd turned off my computer, waited for a bit, and turned it back on. It seemed to work after that. {bite lips}

It has continued to work since then. {bite lips} However, with the repair technician at The Computer Store's words about viruses, I've been watching it very carefully for further stunts. I hope it's working now, but I don't trust it, even after over a day. {small smile}

I really hope it's working now, but... {bite lips, cross fingers}

Anne Elizabeth Baldwin

{frustrated sigh}

My computer is in at The Computer Store waiting to get fixed. The DSL can't find the web, tho the dialup can. {small smile}

The good news is that they have improved their procedures. They expect to get around to it in 2-3 days. This really is an improvement over the 4-5 days they usually took before. {half-smile}

In the meantime, I'm borrowing Dad's computer. That means I won't have as much time online, since I'll have to give it back. {resigned smile}

Anne Elizabeth Baldwin

Space hazards

I'm back to reading The Hazards of Space Travel. {Smile}

Remind me never to travel to Io. Between the volcanoes spewing all kinds of dangerously heating and poisonous substances around and the tidal forces warping the very rock 100's of feet, I can't imagine anyone wanting to go there. I might be underestimating a few daredevils, but any who do want to go are not in their right mind as far as I'm concerned! {Lopsided Smile}

Anne Elizabeth Baldwin

The World of the Dark Crystal

I recently got a coffee table book, The World of the Dark Crystal by
Brian Froud. It tells about the background of the movie The Dark
Crystal. I really enjoyed it, and not just because I have a weakness
for coffee table books. It starts with the history of how Brian Froud, the
concept artist, and Jim Henson, then head of the Muppets got together, came
up with the idea, and turned the idea into a movie. {Smile} They don't go
into a lot of detail, but they give a general idea.

I don't mind the lack of detail on that because the rest of the book
covers the history of the world the movie is set in. You get some glimpses of this history in the movie, but this book gives a clearer view. {Smile} It lets me glimpse other stories that happened earlier, and maybe what came just after. {smile} Those are fun to think about when I'm daydreaming. {SMILE}

I enjoyed the book, obviously. I finished it in a little under a week, which is doing pretty good these days. {SMILE}

Anne Elizabeth Baldwin

Reading notes

In the Lord of the Rings, the king has gotten married, and everyone is ready to go home at last. {Smile}

I've been kind of stuck there for about a week. I got a coffee table book, The World of the Dark Crystal by Brian Froud, and immediately started to look it over. It's about the background of the movie The Dark Crystal. That is really nice, and not just because I have a weakness for coffee table books. I'll have to write that one up soon; I finished it in less than a week. Reading it while soaking my toe helped, but I read it at other times, too. {SMILE}

After that I expected to get back to The Lord of the Rings. This shows I don't always know my own mind. {Smile} Instead, I picked up The Hazards of Space Travel. This covers hazards astronauts and space tourists can reasonably expect as they travel out into our solar system. It includes historical incidents astronauts have contended with, as well as ones they're likely to encounter but haven't yet. {small smile} I just finished a chapter on air. It started with a (fictional) account of a traveler whose friend's oxygen got switched off, and how the traveler saved his friend by turning it back on. The book then explained the need for a proper amount of oxygen. It mentioned the hazards of having too much, including the Apollo 1 fire that burned so fast no one survived, even tho they were just testing the capsule on earth. They mentioned an incident where a Cosmonaut's suit got over inflated during a space walk, and he had great difficulty getting back into his space craft at the end. They also mentioned the problem of getting the bends from switching between our oxygen-nitrogen* atmosphere and the pure oxygen atmospheres in modern space suits too quickly. The book says they're currently trying to develop hard space suits that will allow an oxygen-nitrogen atmosphere without risk of over-inflation. That does sound like an improvement! {SMILE}

Anne Elizabeth Baldwin

* Oops; carbon dioxide is a trace element in our atmosphere, so I removed it. {Smile}

A Thousand Words for Stranger

I've been trying to think how to give an overview of A Thousand Words for Stranger. It isn't easy. In fact, it's a very difficult book to give a book-talk on. {Smile}

The book begins in the rain on a street on a backwater planet named Auord. The avian alien 'Whix and his human partner are on a stakeout, watching a couple of members of the humanoid Clan, an alien race that doesn't belong to the Trade Pact like the humans, 'Whix's people, and most others they know of. While they are watching, the two Clan members - a man and a gal - are attacked by native Auordians. The attackers are killed, the man taken in for questioning... and the gal disappears in the confusion.

That's the prelude. Chapter 1 begins in a dirty back alley, where a single protagonist cannot remember a thing: not name, nor sex, nor whether the world existed five minutes before. Tho they do know they're on the planet Auord, because that pops up in odd compulsions telling this person to get off Auord and stay safe.

{pause} Describing what this character discovers later would ruin the sense of bewildered mystery at this point. I don't really want to do that, so this is as much as I can say about the story. {smile}

I can say one thing that won't spoil that feeling. I was particularly impressed with the way the aliens who turn up really feel alien. They don't feel like talking lions or Scots with funny hair; they feel like unique aliens. Yet there's more than one kind of alien like this; usually when I see aliens, they either correspond closely to not-so-alien people or creatures, or else there's only one other race. In this book we meet a few races well-enough developed, we realize they aren't something familiar pretending to be aliens. The closest to that would be 'Whix, who seems to be bird-like; yet he's not a raptor, nor a song bird, nor a chicken or a duck... he's a type of bird I've never heard of, and not just because he's as intelligent as a human. {Smile}

Anne Elizabeth Baldwin

Sarah, Plain and Tall

Sarah, Plain and Tall is a slim book I found in the children's section years ago. However, it's really a book for adults told in simple language that people still learning how to read English can handle. There's nothing to make you blanch if a kid does find it, but most kids will be bored by this simple, somewhat delicate tale. {Smile}

I recently reread it after recommending it to a friend of the family who's teaching "advanced beginners" English as a second language. She loves it, and so do her students. {Smile}

It is told from the view point of Anna, a girl who lives with her little brother, Caleb, and their Papa on a farm on rolling plains in inland America. (Their mother died just after Caleb was born.) However, it is really the story of Sarah, who answers a personal ad Papa put out when he decided he needed a wife. They each write to her, and she answers back. Then she comes to see what they and their home are like. She's from the coast of Maine. She finds that people talk funny, saying "yes" when they mean "ayup." Plus, there's no dunes, no sand, no shore, and no sea. Instead, there's lots of grass, and farm animals, and Anna and Caleb and their Papa. {pause} Sarah particularly misses the sea. Since the children really like her, they are afraid she will go back to Maine.

Anne Elizabeth Baldwin