Monday, August 13, 2007

8/13

Power went out last night around 1am and just got back on around 7pm. This was also the first day of school for the year--Rose is in 3rd grade & Thomas is repeating kindergarten. Angela is only 2, so she has a couple of years yet.

Right now I am reading 2 books. Earlier this year I started this reading 2 books at once and have really enjoyed it. It all started with my re-reading The Brothers Karamotzov(sp?). I had started it around Thanksgiving & it was taking me well into 2007 to get through it--I think it was into March, maybe April before I finally finished it. Because it was just taking too long for me to finish, I started another book--Finishing Strong. This book was by an evangelical talking about how fathers/men need to live a good life, etc. I had received the book at a bowling night hosted by the Albert Puljos Family Foundation. It was for fathers & son's with down syndrome & was included in the free packet of stuff they gave away. I am signed up for this event again this year, I think it is 8/26. The book was okay, not something I was really interested in reading, but certainly something that was a nice & easy break for the The Brothers K.

Anyway back to the reading 2 books at once thing, it has allowed me to read one more serious book along with one that is a little to a lot easier to read at the same time. I did Adventures in the Mainstream(a book about a father & son, where the son w/ DS was becoming 21 & what his life would/could be like as an adult) & The Story of the Conferacy--a good civil war book & a more serious read. I then read Summer of '49(baseball book) & Watership Down--sad but I don't think I read them at the same time, but I can't really say for sure either at this point. I usually have a pretty good memory, but this was only a couple months ago & would only be guessing. Right now I am reading Atlas Shrugged--Ayn Rand--one of those books that I figured I should read but just had never gotten the urge up enough to put forth that much effort. I am at 400 & so pages & have enjoyed it for the most part, but does too often seem like work to get through. The 2nd book is One of Ours--Willa Cather. Growing up in Nebraska, I think it is mandated that I would have to enjoy reading Nebraska writers. I really have enjoyed the Cather books I have read so far--Death comes to the Archbishop(title?) is probably my favorite so far. I also really liked Old Jules by Mari Sandoz. I also have to mention A Cry of the Soul, by Anna Newbigging--a story about Morman immigrats in the 1880s. Anna Newbigging wrote the book in the 1910s while living on my now parents farm in Wisner, NE--the same house I grew up in. You can tell the landscaping and fruit trees in the large yard were well planned & probably maintained. My parents & us kids had no real desire or effort to maintain these and now the trees, etc are mostly gone. Still it is kind of interesting to think I grew up in a house built and lived in by a writer, even if she never really developed anything more than local noterity(sp?).

By the way I really should credit Adventures in the Mainstream along with the Cardboard Gods blog for probably being the two reasons I have started this blog. Adventures in the Mainstream was written in a journal style and was something that I not only enjoyed reading but also thought something I could certainly do. Not that what I would write would ever get published, but just that writing & putting my thoughts down would be a good exercise. Also the Cardboard Gods blog is about baseball cards from the 1970s & maybe into the early '80s--the same time I was collecting. I have some of the same cards he has written about, but I really have to say I never looked at them the way he has. I haven't pulled out my cards yet to walk through them with the new perspective he offers, but will probably do so at some point. Right now I fear if I would get my cards out, my son would probably destroy them and my wife would certainly question and not understand why I was pulling them out after so long.

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