Moomin Light

Resistance, even if futile

It takes me a while to transition back from vacation to normal life.  When we go on our two week vacation every October, we usually get back on a Friday.  While we're unpacking, I gather up the two weeks' pile of mail and put it out of the way.  By Saturday, I may listen to the answering machine, but I also may not.  I usually try to avoid the computer until late on Sunday.  That was even easier this year because it died while we were gone, and dear husband had to reconstruct it.  Monday, I finally go through the mail and put all the bills on my desk.  It may take a week or more to deal with the rest of it (the dregs are still sitting over there on the small shelf). 

I love our October vacations.  They're beautiful, peaceful, and filled with good books, music, and conversation.  Not that we just sit around; we hike in the mornings and afternoons with a little reading/writing/painting/playing time after lunch.  We wander through new roads in the mountains to see what we find.  We get snacks at new coffee shops.  We sit and watch the sunset from the Bass Lake or various Blue Ridge Parkway overlooks, then we rush back to the car to get warm as the temperature drops.  In the evening, we play games, do puzzles, read, have long conversations, or go for night hikes.  

 After a vacation spent focusing on beautiful scenery, good books and music, good food (dear husband is an excellent cook (and he actually enjoys it!!), and I don't cook for two weeks), and wonderful time spent with the people I love the most, I don't want to get back into normal life.  I do so resentfully.

 

People, of course, help.  When we got back this time, I got teary a few times when older son got home from his day at NCSU (this made me look forward to coming home more than I ever have before).  Our neighbor came over and talked for a few minutes as we were emptying out the van.   I always call my mother to let her know we're back and to catch up on things. 

I know that people are also behind the electronic things, but, somehow, it doesn't feel the same.  I hate going through the e-mail, snail mail, and the answering machine.  Even Facebook, as much as I enjoy it, felt like an assault the first time I looked at it again.  So many different people to focus on in such a short time.  I go into a different frame of mind on vacation, let's call it "thoughtfully slower," and I like it. 

I'm always amazed when people dive back in.  I guess they feel rejuvenated and happy to get back to regular life.  Maybe it says something strange about me that I'm not ready to dive back in, even after two weeks. 

I just happened to listen to the answering machine the first night we were home.  Mainly, I just wanted to clear out all the "Hi, it's me" messages I left for older son (we screen calls so I had to talk to the machine when I called).  Given the number of messages on the machine, I didn't think that there was much else on there.  It turned out that there was a message we needed to hear the first evening because it had to do with the following morning.  I remarked to dear husband that I was amazed that the caller thought we'd get it that evening, "Who listens to the machine the first few hours they're home?!"  Dear husband replied that most people do, and that I was the odd one. 

This post was prompted by The eternal conference call at Rough Type:  Nicholas Carr's Blog.  Here, he discusses the phone and e-mail: 

...Remember when we first started using email, back in the foggy depths of the twentieth century? The great thing about email, everyone said and everyone believed, was that it was an asynchronous communications medium. (Yes, that's how we used to talk.) Email cured the perceived shortcomings of telephone calls, which dominated our work lives. The ring of your phone would butt into whatever you happened to be doing at that moment, and you had no choice but to answer the damn thing (it might be your boss or your client, after all), and then you had no choice but to respond immediately to whatever the person on the another end was saying or asking...

Email delivered us from the telephone's realtime stream. Suddenly, we controlled, individually, our main communications medium, rather than vice versa. We could choose when to read our email, and, more important, we could choose when to respond - and whom to respond to... Even taking just a few minutes to think about a message often led to a more thoughtful response than an immediate, halfbaked phone reply.

However, there are still expectations of timeliness in e-mail.  I usually take a while to come up with a good response, but if it takes me a few hours of on and off thought, I may get a few more e-mails about the same thing.  I also only check my e-mail a few times a day -  more often if it's rainy and dreary.  If it's a beautiful sunny day in the 60's or 70's, I may not check it at all.*  

Nicholas Carr's post goes on to discuss IM, which I don't do, cell phones,** which I now have one of but only use with daughter and older son (dear husband can call me if he's not at work (explaining that would make this post twice as long)), and Google Wave, which I had to Google because I hadn't heard of it.  He concludes:

The approaching Wave promises us the best of both worlds: the realtime immediacy of the phone call with the easy broadcasting capacity of email. Which is also, as we'll no doubt come to discover, the worst of both worlds. Welcome to the conference call that never ends. Welcome to Wave hell.

No Wave hell for me.  I'm on vacation. 

*  This may prompt you to ask how to best get in touch with me if you absolutely can't wait a few hours for a response.  Coming to the door always works.  I only hide when door to door salespeople/evangelists come around. If you call me around lunchtime, I'll probably answer because it's after we're done with the morning's homeschooling and before we get into our afternoon plans.  However, if we're in the middle of eating or having a wonderful after-lunch conversation,*** even that won't work. After dinner used to be good, but now, with older son at college and daughter at work a few days a week, that's the glorious time when we all may be together.  Really, I'm not all that interesting, and you probably don't want to talk to me anyway.  

** I get calls so seldom that, when the cell phone rings, younger son has to remind me what that strange music means.  If I'm driving when it rings, he has to answer it, or it goes unanswered. 

*** By the way, if you're over here, I'll do the same thing.  I don't usually answer the phone when I'm talking to guests. 

[Note:  The title is a reference to the Star Trek aliens called the Borg.  They're part person/part machine, their goal is to take over everything, and their motto is "Resistance is futile."  We think that people wearing Blue...tooths, Blueteeth(?) look Borgified (to the right, Next Generation's Captain Picard as a Borg).]

[Photos:  Top:  The Black Mountains.  Second:  Dear husband and younger son flying kites and helicopter...things at what we call the "Kite meadow" on Flat Top Mountain.  Third:  Sunset from the beginning of the Flat Top Mountain trail.  Bottom: A hike at Doughton Park.] 

Wordless Wednesday: Can you tell the predominant wind direction?

Durham Farmer's Market

After wandering around Duke Gardens this morning (I was trying to learn how to use my new camera), we went to the Farmer's Market in Durham.  It's about three times the size of the one in Hillsborough (I felt a bit guilty for neglecting ours today), and full of energy.  It's so much more fun than shopping at the grocery store.

Here are some photos older son took:

 

 

 

 
 
The flowers came home with us.
 

Pottery by a Paperhand Puppet performer.


 It's a good thing that I didn't see this basket, otherwise the blue vase pot in the upper right hand corner of the basket would have come home with us.
 

 A candle (not pictured) did come home.
 

 

 Older son snuck this photo of me and younger son admiring the frog and flower quilts.
 

 One of the reasons we went there today.  Older son, dear husband, and younger son wanted to get Save the Bronto t-shirts (daughter was at auditions).    The brontosaurus is part of the old, no longer used, dinosaur trail* at the NC Museum of Life and Science.  It can be seen from a walking trail next to the museum, and it's popular in the community.  At the beginning of the summer, some teens beheaded it as a prank.  The head was found, but it was going to take $4,000 to repair it.  The Northgate neighborhood association is working to raise money - including selling t-shirts.  They also received a large donation from Bronto Software.
I've loved the brontosaurus ever since the first time I saw it - walking the dinosaur trail with older son, who was in a stroller and only 18 months old at the time.

• Video of the repair
• Award for best post title goes to Bull City Rising:  Beloved bronto's brains back; brazen beheading bullies blamed (and the best comment on that post:  "Astute author adroitly applies alliteration in announcing abominable antisocial atrocity!").

 
The results of our morning.  Younger son bought the lizard at the Duke Gardens gift shop:

 

*  A new trail recently opened.  I've got photos...

Playing with my new camera at Ayr Mont

With photos, taken by dear husband, of me taking photos.  I was lamenting how difficult it is to find flannel shirts for women, and he gave me an old one of his that doesn't fit him anymore.  It was nice and softly warm this morning when there was just a little bit of chill. 

 

 

 
 

 
Kousa dogwood
 

 

 
 


 

NC Museum of Life and Science

The original forecast was for rain all week.  Yesterday morning, I woke up and there wasn't a cloud in the sky.  The weather was wonderfully cool - the first weather in the low 60's for months.  After my early morning walk, I woke up younger son:  "Do you want to homeschool inside today, or do you want to go to the science museum?"  He opened one eye, looked at me, and said, "You'll be happy to know that I choose the science museum."  We had breakfast and headed to the museum with daughter. 

There were so many creatures in the wetlands area.  We spent a long time looking at them.
 



 


We watched this turtle for a long time.  He wandered all over the place.  There were also lots of tadpoles coming to the surface to eat the insects.
 

The wolves were very active also.
 
We all love the lemurs.

 

 

One of my favorite things at the museum - the remote controlled sailboats.  Younger son (10 yo) was steering one with a black sail.  When his boat collided with the boat of a (probably) 5 yo boy, the 5 yo yelled, "I won! I hit the pirate ship!"

When I mentioned this to younger son (who was further away and didn't hear this), he, very seriously, told me that the 5 yo didn't hit his boat.  His attention wavered and his boat hit the younger one's.  There's such a world of difference in those five years.

Not-back-to-school day and photos of last winter's Revolutionary War encampment in Hillsborough

 While taking my walk this morning, I came around the corner started down the hill toward a couple standing at the end of the driveway.  The father was holding his son in his arms and saying, "Now you're a big boy in first grade!"  Further down the hill, a father and daughter, waiting for the same bus, were playing a game.  I went down to the bottom of the long court, and, on my way back up, I saw the bus.  Sitting.  And sitting.  The snapshot in my head, which I can't show you, is of the father leaning towards the door as his daughter leaned over the front seat, exchanging a few more words. 

 The elementary school bus headed on its way, and I headed on mine.  At the end of the walk, high school students, whose bus comes 45 minutes later, started to appear .  One teen was dressed in the current styles, low slung jeans and a form fitting t-shirt.  Her mother was holding a cup of coffee, and, as I passed, they hugged. 

Not every year, but most years, we've done something special on the first day of school - gone to the science museum without crowds, picnicked at Duke Gardens, gone to the Mad Hatter Cafe for a snack.  This year, it was just younger son and I.  Older son left at 7:40 am for NCSU.  Daughter left at the same time for work. 

Since last spring, younger son has been looking forward to going to the new Lego store in Raleigh.  Legos are one of his passions; he saves his allowance for months.  Because of my knee, I haven't been able to drive as far as Raleigh since the beginning of last summer.  This month, I finally can again, and that's where we headed this morning. 

He smiled all morning and all the way there.

For older son and daughter, although their schooled friends headed off in the fall, their homeschooling friends came back from summer trips and homeschooling activities started up again.  We haven't found many homeschooling activities that younger son likes yet and most of his friends are in school.  The fall is not a positive thing for him.*

I'm finding that it's more difficult to get involved with homeschooling groups with younger son.  The numerous sports or arts programs aren't his sort of thing.**  I sign him up for whatever hands on science programs I can find. 

I'm also in a different spot than many homeschooling parents of fifth graders.  For many of them, their fifth grader is their oldest, and curriculum choices are very critical. 

Having been involved with older son's and daughter's high school homeschooling for the last seven years, fifth grade homeschooling seems so free.  Yes, we regularly work on writing and math.  Beyond that, there are so many things to explore.  We're not bound by the rigidity of what is necessary for the college bound high school student.  We read about science and history, and we also wander around the yard with the microscope and go to historic sites such as the Revolutionary War encampment in Hillsborough last winter, pictured here (daughter and older son also went - older son took these pictures).  Younger son hasn't had much interest in history until this year, but he's been gobbling it up, and I'm amazed at how much detail he remembers. 

This difference, however, sometimes leads to awkward conversations with other homeschooling parents of fifth graders, though. They're very concerned to do everything right, and I feel kind of free spirited hippie-ish in comparison.  I'm not, really, but, compared to high school, there seems to be so little that needs to be done at this age. It's all a matter of perspective.

This reminds me that I need to go and borrow Favorite Greek Myths by Mary Pope Osborne from older son.  Younger son enjoyed her book, Favorite Norse Myths, earlier this year.  

Younger son spent the afternoon putting his new Lego sets together.  Here's how they turned out (the clone troopers seem rather bemused by the rock monster):

* One of my projects this week is to go over all the homeschooling activities I can find in detail to see if anything works out.   

** Some kids are malleable and will go along with whatever you try to get them to do.  I'm always amazed at them.  I wasn't one of those so I couldn't pass those genes on. 

Link Snack: August 22, 2009

Items of interest this summer:

• If you look at nothing else in this post, you should look at My Milk Toof.  It's an adorable, creative, photo story blog about two teeth - who have personalities and adventures. I've added it to my sidebar under "Fanciful."

• What happens when you give bears some watermelons - from the Museum of Life & Science Animal Department Blog.  I've added it to my sidebar under "Triangle, NC."

• From Planet Green:  75 Things You Can Compost, But Thought You Couldn't.  However, your neighbors might not be too thrilled with the creatures your stale bread, moldy cheese, pizza crusts, hamster droppings, and latex condoms might attract.  Don't worry, neighbors. This list is here just for interest; I'm not actually using it.

• San Diego Zoo's Panda Cam:  Their newest cub was born this month.  [Hat tip to russlings:  About zoos and wildlife, a blog by a member of the NC Zoo society (which is now on the sidebar in the North Carolina section)]

• From the Wall Street Journal:  If you have lots of money, a simple house by the sea - Villa Rockledge in Laguna Beach, California:

In 1973, Roger Jones convinced his landlord to sell him the guest house he lived in and the accompanying beachfront home for $420,000—a hefty sum for a 33-year-old electronic-parts salesman making $35,000 a year. “I was as scared as hell,” says Mr. Jones. The gamble paid off. Added to the National Registry of Historic Places in 1984, the 5,000-square-foot house named Villa Rockledge, perched on the edge of a rock hillside, appears to float above the private beach 50 feet below and offers ocean views from every room—even some bathrooms and closets.  The main room of the house is vast, with 22-foot-tall cathedral ceilings supported by logs as big as telephone poles that have been treated with an unusual mixture of cement and buttermilk to create a grey sheen. Many of the details have been restored: Solid redwood doors are dotted with brass extrusions cast in rough star-shapes that look like barnacles. The kitchen walls are covered with original canary-yellow tiling, while modern appliances are discreetly hidden behind wood panels. A 5-foot-wide ship’s wheel hangs from one of the beams like a chandelier.

In May, Mr. Jones, now 69, decided to sell this home, which he’s painstakingly researched and slowly renovated over the past three decades, for $34.5 million. He says the upkeep and maintenance are too costly for his kids and adds that he and his wife are getting too old to live in a large home...

Make sure you look at the slideshow.  It's lovely.

• Being an Oscar Wilde fan, I'm curious about the upcoming film, Dorian Gray, starring Ben Barnes, Colin Firth, and Rachel Hurd-Wood  [Hat tip:  The Egalitarian Bookworm (Chick?), also added to the Books sidebar]:

 

• Prize for best recent post title:  My Vagina is Not a Universal Translator from Life Under a Rock:

...my revolution starts with not being held responsible for anyone else’s behavior simply because we both happen to be female.

My revolution starts with the idea that what another woman does, does not reflect well or badly on me simply because we are both women...

[Photo from our garden:  Soldier beetle on a cosmos]

Mini-vacation

Hillsborough is a lovely place to live.  However, we live on the edge of the town and have lots of activities in Chapel Hill and Durham.  During really busy parts of the year, we can go for weeks without seeing downtown Hillsborough (although now I at least drive through it on the way to Joseph rehearsals). 

This is why I love our new Saturday morning routine.  Dear husband and I get up early to take a walk in downtown Hillsborough.  It's very historic and pretty.  It's also extremely calm, except on the main street (Churton)  because few people seem to get out to take walks (which always surprises me).

We took a different route yesterday, and found the town cemetery (right), which we hadn't seen before.

An old service station which has been added on to and made into offices.  Adaptive re-use - I love it when they do that.

 

The town hall is in one of the historic houses...

 

...and has an interesting bottle collection in the sunroom.

 

The town barn, where meetings are held, is behind the town hall.

 

The town recently built a shelter for the farmer's market.  We stop there at the end of our walk every week.  Dear husband is in the center, buying corn for tonight's dinner and squash for yesterday's.

We also bought some wonderful fresh blueberries (they taste much better than the ones from the store), two loaves of French bread, and duck eggs.

Yesterday, there was a small, traditional string band playing music with a dancer clogging.  Another musical group was starting to set up on this end.

We always walk back to the car through the visitor's center (located in another historic house) to see the flowers:

 

 

 

It feels like we start our weekend with a mini-vacation.

The Barrel Monster

The construction company was amused, but the police and the district attorney aren't. 

Joseph Carnevale, a student at NCSU in Raleigh, made this barrel monster out of traffic barricades one evening in early June.  Soon after, police confiscated the monster, disassembled it, and arrested Carevale. 

Now, of course, I don't condone stealing barricades (he has offered to pay the construction company), but, you have to admit, the barrel monster is really well done. The construction company, Hamlett Associates, does not seem at all bothered about losing their barrels.  Not only do they not want to press charges, they want a barrel monster of their own (either the original or a remake). 

The DA's office is still going to prosecute Carnevale.  Hundreds of local residents have written in to encourage them to drop charges.  The Barrel Monster now even has a Facebook page (and over 9,000 fans), with member-created photos of the Barrel Monster on the Yellow Brick Road, going over Niagara Falls, and going to the Dark Side (you may not be able to view these if you aren't on Facebook).

Barrel Monster articles:

• NPR's interview:  He Created a Barrel Monster... And May Go to Jail
• An Article in the NCSU Technician where he discusses "kidnapping" the barrels
• A lighthearted view from the Raleigh News & Observer

Great Smoky Mountains National Park - June 3, 2009

We went to the Smoky Mountains a few times when older son was very little, but we've never had a chance to take all three kids.  Finally, on our recent vacation, we were able to take a day and go to the Great Smoky Mountains National Park.

I was worried that it wouldn't be as special as I remembered. 

I didn't need to worry.

View from the Blue Ridge Parkway near the park.
 

Chickens at the historic farm at the park
 

Older son's photo
 
 
 Hover fly who sat and posed on older son's finger for about 5 minutes (this is one of the best photos he took of the fly)
 

 Tortoise beetles (making more tortoise beetles) [OS]
 
The view from the tower at Clingman's Dome (highest point in Tennessee):
 
 
[OS]