Tuesday, 14 August 2012
So, I looked at my work calendar today, and I’m happy to announce that I’m not working a single full week this entire month. Last week, I took off Friday. This week, I’m taking off Friday again. Next week, I’m taking off Monday and Tuesday, and the week after that, I’m taking off Monday.
The week after that, we’ll be into September, but I’ll still have a partial week by virtue of Labor Day.
My reason for taking off three work days in a row is because Jennifer, Owen, Isla, and I are heading up to the family cabin again, like we did back in June. They all spent five nights there; I only spent two. So, spending an upcoming four nights at the cabin will triple my total time sleeping there, ever.
So today I really kicked my “get everything at work in order” into high gear. My plan is to not have anything waiting for me when I get back.
Wednesday 15 August 2012
This evening, Owen and I finished reading The Yellow Yacht, by Ron Roy.
Here’s a few intersting bits of trivia about that:
We are now only one book away from having read the entire A to Z Mysteries Series together. At 25 books, this easily makes Ron Roy the most represented author on my list of books I’ve read.
I’m reading a lot of books this year. Not sure why the uptick, but I think it’s a combination of reading to my son every night, having to read books for school, and listening to audiobooks in the car on the way to and from work. At 54 books, I’ve already read more books this year than any other year in the past decade, except for 2011, when I read 58 books. So i’m within striking distance. If I don’t read another book this year, I will still have averaged over one book a week. Good for me.
And if you look at my list of books I’ve read this year (and, if you’re like most people, you probably don’t), then you’ll see I’ve read at least one book beginning with every letter of the alphabet except D, E, F, and Z. Z, of course, will be filled in by month’s end. Not sure if I’ll fill in those other empty spots. I started reading Does Local Government Matter? for a book review, but it was so boring I couldn’t finish it. Oh well. I’ll keep you posted. Literally.
One more bit of trivia: in 1998, I read the book Where the Red Fern Grows. Until this year, it remained, alphabetically, the last book on my list of juvenile fiction that I’ve read. After over 13 years in that position, however, it’s lost out to – not one – but four other works of fiction.
Thursday, 16 August 2012
So, in case you don’t know, there are two Republican-sponsored proposed amendment changes on the ballot for Minnesotans this comings fall. One says:
“Shall the Minnesota Constitution be amended to require all voters to present valid photo identification to vote and to require the state to provide free identification to eligible voters, effective July 1, 2013?”
The other says:
“Shall the Minnesota Constitution be amended to provide that only a union of one man and one woman shall be valid or recognized as a marriage in Minnesota?”
The other day, I mentioned to my wife that I’ve seen signs and bumper stickers and t-shirts that are opposed to the voter ID amendment, but I’ve also seen stickers and buttons and such indicating support for the amendment. However, I’ve only seen opposition to the marriage amendment. Maybe I’m pretty insulated living in a very liberal city in a very liberal metro area and generally avoiding in depth discussions with fundamentalists, but I had yet to see any individual person expressing support for the amendmet. Oh, I’ve seen support discussed online, and the local media has noted when various groups have supported it, and I’m sure their are individual people I know who support the measure, but I had never seen an individual expressing it on their person or property.
Well, that changed today.
I was driving home from work. I was in the center lane, swiftly gaining on a pick-up truck in the fast lane who was going under the speed limit and talking on his cell phone. The back window of his pick-up truck had two bumper stickers: the first one I saw expressed his support for the voter ID amendment. No big deal; I’d seen that sticker before, on other vehicles. But then I saw his other sticker. It said something about protecting marriage, voting YES on the marriage amendment, and then showing one of those bathroom door icons of a man and a woman in a skirt.
I don’t know what he was doing in Minneapolis, but I can only assume he was lost.