With regrets

Well, the blog hasn't burned down in the last 18 days, even though no one's been around to watch for arsonists. That's something, I suppose.

It's been busy busy busy around here. When last I wrote, I was traveling with a generation up and down the family tree to and from Memphis. Almost immediately upon return and reunion with my wife, we set off to spend a few days at renting a condo at a resort in northern Michigan (lower peninsula). We had a nice time with sunny but coolish weather and no convenient internet. Almost immediately upon returning, we had meetings at school, followed quickly by the return of my entire unit (well, mostly) for Band Camp. One time, at band camp, I was very busy.

As you can tell from the number of times I transitioned with "almost immediately," things have been busy. Things still haven't settled down, but there's never a better time than the present to get back to things we want to get back to, so here I am going through the usual apologies for flagging attention to my blog and vowing with all good intentions to do better.

In any case, I do regret the blogs unwritten. While I was in Memphis, I got word that I had won our library's adult summer reading program, though you'd hardly know it from reading my blog... which is to say that I'm way behind on writing book reviews. Some of them may never get written, given the way that the most useful bits often quickly slip from the mind's grasp and make retrospective reviewing progressively more difficult. Likewise, the ideas that the books inspired within me are mostly lost, or at least subsumed in the daily chatter, though one might hope they could rise again given the right prompting. Mostly, though, I suspect most have passed, and that's regrettable.

Twos-Day Travel Update

I'm currently traveling with my mom, visiting family in Kentucky and Tennessee (with forays into Mississippi and Arkansas). Here are pairs of observations...

Two things I wish I'd brought: 1) the maple syrup I put into a smaller jar to bring along for the oatmeal that I brought for Thea and 2) --and more importantly--my pillow. It was on my list and just didn't make it.

Two things I wish I could have brought: 1) Lauren. She could even take up both spots on this list, because wow do I appreciate not being a single parent when I'm not! 2) since I've got space for it, let's say a whole fridge full of healthy food and the means to prepare it. My breakfast this morning was so far from ideal.

Two colossal blunders: 1) letting Thea have a McDonald's chocolate shake in its original container--even though I lowered the level a bit to try to prevent her from spilling it, I failed. She spilled all over herself. 2) letting Thea play with a bottle of ketchup at a restaurant--she dropped it onto the floor where it shattered and scattered glass and tomatoey goodness all over.

Two books I've been listening to: 1) Moonwalking with Einstein by Joshua Foer, 2) The Shallows: What the Internet is Doing to our Brains by Nicholas Carr. They make a very good pair.

And there's the briefest snapshot of our trip.