Update with Ironies

Life continues to be rich and full here in Enoughsville.  This past week started as summer; torrential rains blew through in the middle of the week; by the end of the week, we'd arrived at fall.  

I've been reading a book called "The Water Recycling Revolution", which is essentially a book about water treatment -- the mechanics, the economics, the politics, the geology of it.  I realize it's not everyone's idea of a page turner (it's a bit of an irony to say that a book about water management is rather dry), but I found it kind of fascinating to dig into all sorts of facets and complications of how water gets from [wherever] to our kitchen sinks and bathroom showers.  On Thursday, my running buddy and I chatted about water in the basement (hers) and about how I caulked the roof of my Little Farm Library to keep my cow figurines dry; then I came home to read in the newspaper that even though we got 6 or 8 inches of rain this week -- in this county that boasts the most fertile non-irrigated soil in the nation -- even with all that rain, we're still technically in a drought.  And after reading the book, I can kind of understand why.  

I caulked and touched up the paint on this roof,
and also on the doors, so my cows have a dry space to stay.

The end of the week also brought my husband home, after the end of a 25-day voyage to far-away lands.  On previous trips, he had made tours of Holocaust sites.  This time (although I gently fretted in my own head that he would use this trip attempt to visit an ATMs in every city, and I totally admit I fretted needlessly), he made use of a professional perk to visit roughly a gazillion museums:  "My ICOM museum professional membership card has been magic. I get in everywhere for free." 

From the Medusa Museum, another lovely irony:
people in the flesh looking at Medusa frozen in stone.

Other random updates.  Nelson got a bike, but no one got pictures.  Instead, we have pictures of Gosling's dogs, because they hold still better than Nelson on a bike.

"Three snoozy pups" at Gosling's house,
enjoying the dog days of summer.

Also, Inkling is working hard on her Rhinebeck sweater.  Again, we do not have pictures, but she did reassure me that several weeks ago she really did get to Broadway, and here is a picture of her sock-in-progress trembling in front of The Little Shop of Horrors from that visit.

And I got a fun text from Jason the other day.  He wrote,

Hey mom, would you be able to send me everyone's names in the family I'm putting a family tattoo together

I love this for so many reasons.  First, how cool is it to think about a family tattoo?!?  Second, Jason has a bunch of different families to choose from, and I'm super touched that he wants this particular family inked permanently into his skin.  And finally, it is hilarious but true that my family is so dynamic and vast that it's hard for one of my kids to remember all the names -- and correct spellings -- of their siblings. Love it; just love it. (Especially point two . . . awwww).

I find myself in an interesting place, logistically, right now.  Back in May and June, as I was heading into the summer that would lead into my sabbatical, I was a bit concerned that I'd be so caught up in math that I would lack for social interaction.  I was a bit apprehensive about being lonely; I'm just not the kind of social butterfly that my husband is.  But this past week has had so many different meet-ups with friends that there have been some days I haven't had a single chance to think about math.  It's almost the opposite of what I expected.  In fact, the main reason that I got any math done this week is because I have regularly scheduled meetings with several collaborators, so in a very real sense it's the social component that also kept the mathematics moving along. 

Having said that, here are four quick math updates:

1. The Fulbright proposal is in; now I just have to wait until March or April to find out if (or how) I'm going to Panama next year.
2. My publisher has pulled together an application package to nominate our book for a math association book award.  Sweet!
3. My "moon tilt" paper got rejected; the referees said it was "a well-written, clear explanation" but not suitable for that particular journal.  So, I'll have to dust it off and try somewhere else. 
4. Last weekend, as I was getting tucked into bed, I started thinking about a project I'm working on with one of my research students, and realized something pretty cool.  I jumped up, went to the Command Center to play with GeoGebra, and in 3 minutes confirmed that I was right.   This is a little lemma that gives me the big breakthrough to answer the question I've been working on with various students over the last 3 years.  So cool!  The bad news is that the insight made me so happy and excited about all the implications that I didn't get to sleep until after midnight. Hah!

So, that's the news from our family, which continues to be wealthy in our adventures.  May you and yours be similarly prosperous.  

Early september update

Life continues to be rich and full here in Enoughsville.  My visit from the Covid Fairy is over; that unwelcome house guest has packed bags and departed, and I reemerged into a whirlwind of happy activity and social interaction.  Running!  ¡Tomando una clase de Español! Mathing! (There really should be a verb for math, so "mathing" ought to be a word, I say).

My major check-it-off-the-list accomplishment for the week was submitting my Fulbright proposal -- a week before the deadline, even.  I uploaded all the forms and essays, and then printed out a preview to read over.  A friend read my essay (even though I thought it was perfect) and suggested a few more changes (and I agreed she was right); then our grants officer read my revision and suggested a few more changes, some of which I made, and then I proofread it one more time, took a big breath, and hit "SUBMIT".  A caution warning came up: "once you submit, you can't make further changes; do you really want to submit?" and I took another breath, and said "YES".   The next day I read the essay over again and caught a small error:  an extra "a" between two words, ala "drawing bricks that a appear equal sized".  I have decided that this small error is like the deliberate imperfections that Amish sew into quilts, and just emphasizes the humanness of the overall proposal.  Cross fingers!  If it works, this time next year, I'll be in Panama.

My guy is already bopping all over the world.  Here's a short excerpt of his travels.

 When the trip began, I thought I might go to Slovenia or Romania or another place I have never been.  I was in Vienna in 2005 but did not see much of the city. I was there for a conference and saw little of the city. I decided I would go back to places I had been but barely seen. I will be in Geneva tomorrow and then Grenoble on Friday and Saturday before going to Paris on Sunday.  So, I have a plan of sorts. No new places. I went to places where I had a bike the last time I was there and saw very little.

 

 

The city of Geneva is wrapped around the west end of Lake Geneva. Walking the city means walking the semicircle around the end of the lake.  I saw all the neighborhoods and shops in each part of the city.  On the south side are endless high-end boutiques—especially expensive watches. The lake itself is greenish blue and transparent. I walked along the lakeside and could see the bottom of the lake near the shore.

 

 

I left Geneva for Grenoble in the afternoon on an old regional train. It was not crowded. I walked all the way to the end of the train and had an eight-seat compartment to myself for most of the trip. Near the end a couple in their early 20s sat in the compartment.  Just before Grenoble they got in an argument with the conductor. She turned to open the doors at the stop and the young couple ran out of the train. 

As much as I've appreciated being back with other people, so has Inkling, who went to a 90s-themed dance all decked out.

The DJ was playing not very dance-y music, but Inkling started requesting 90's diva songs, and that livened up the dance floor for everyone.  Vogue!  Macarena!  Yes!

And just like I am getting to take classes at school, Bchild is, too!  

1st Day of Preschool

And although they're not traveling to far-off countries, Kinderling and her clan did get to go visit a State Park that has an amazing collapsed bridge (damaged by a tornado two decades ago).

We went to kinzua bridge today! It was awesome!

And what would a family update be without dog stories from Gosling?  She writes,

So, as I told some of you, we are doing a two week trial with a dog named Nova, who isn't going to make the cut as a service dog due to a retinal condition and two behavioral issues (her love of cats and her propensity to counter surf)

Day one pupdate:

I picked Nova up in Williamsburg this morning.

We stopped at Colin’s and hung out with his dog Strider for a bit. Then we came back to my house and she hung with the boys. She did great with them. She is not overly zealous with Watson and she is adorable with Guinness… she gets that cute wiggle butt going. She seems to be low to medium energy for a 1.5 yr old pup. She goes for a walk or a little romp, then can just chill. As a prior service dog in training, she knows a lot of commands already, which is cool. She can pick up your phone or keys and bring them to you. She can twirl, she can adjust her leash if it gets under her leg walking. This evening we went to Ruth and Hope’s parents house, all the kids were there and she was so sweet, wiggly, and gentle with them.

As for her love of food, at our friend’s house, Hope had some chips and beef jerky in a bag on the floor in her room, nova did find those and help herself to a few nibbles. I also learned I need to use the lock on the trash can for time being.

Ultimately, great first day, and she is so sweet and adorable.

. . . 

Finally, although I hate to end on a sad note, I should say that although I submitted my proposal to go to Panama, the country I've been thinking most about this week is Haiti.   One of the missionaries we support started her most recent email this way.

I, Stevie, started and stopped writing this paragraph about a dozen times. Each time I write a newsletter this happens. Why, you might ask? To put it simply – because the situation in Haiti is not simple. It’s incredibly complicated and layered.  One day you get a glimpse of encouragement from the news and the next all you hear is more on death and destruction. There continues to be no president and no signs of an election. The gangs continue to run the country and their crimes have been especially heinous as of late.

For Xavier, the young Haitian man we'd unsuccessfully tried to adopt, life there continues to be tragic.  He's still recovering from breaking his leg, and on Thursday of this week, he received yet another blow when his mother died (I think from cancer).  He is devastated and brokenhearted, and feeling even more alone and hopeless than before.  I'm doing my best to stay in touch with him by WhatsApp, and to respond to his sad emojis with acknowledgement of just how horrible this is, and virtual hugs.  

I don't know what more to say about this, except that it's a good reminder for all of us to take time to appreciate the people we hold dear, and to make the number of such people ever more expansive.  May you and yours be blessed, strengthened, comforted, and energized in your love.

What the world needs now is . . . cow beanbags (?)

 What the world needs now . . . is . . . 

. . . cow beanbags, and lots of them.

But don't worry, I'm on it! I've got this taken care of.

I didn't know until recently that this was what the world needs; I guess I could say I stumbled into the discovery by accident.  I'd made a "Little Farm Library" for my front porch, with directions to passers by that they could "Take a Cow, Leave a Cow".  Having been by many Little Free Libraries that say the same thing with books, I figured this would be cute for people to check out.

I also figured that, like with the book version, that the turnover in contents would be minimal.  Well, I was right on the "cute" and wrong about the turnover.  My porch has become a bit of a tourist destination; people stop by and take pictures; they bring their friends; I wake up and hear people outside my window chatting about it: "did you get a photo?  Oh, I want to take a cow, but I don't want to take the last one!"

There's been a lot of cow taking.  Sometimes there's also cow leaving, or even other animal leaving (I came home one day to find a rubber ducky sitting by itself in the barn).  But mostly, it's cow taking.  

So I decided that I need to come up with a large supply of give-able cows.  Quick trips to yard sales and to so-called-thrift stores yielded basically nothing, which is kind of surprising because my city is surrounded by farm land, so you'd think cow-kitsch would be everywhere.  But no, apparently, I have the corner on cow kitsch (or perhaps, more correctly, the "porch" on cow kitsch).  

I of course wanted to avoid bringing more plastic into the world, so ordering happy-meal-style cows was out of the question.  I dabbled with the idea of getting cow erasers, but that turned out to be a trickier quest than I thought, and also probably more expensive and plastic-laden than I wanted.

So, eventually, I stopped at the fabric store and bought two yards of flannel in a cow print, for the grand sum of $7.  With that, I knew I was in business.

Two yards of cows, on one dining room table.

Fortunately, the cows alternate directions on this particular piece of fabric, so as I cut them out and placed the fabric good-side-to-good-side, I could get them going the same direction (that is, head-to-head and bum-to-bum).

Adorable rainbow cow teams up with contemplative cow.

Sewing around the cow, leaving a hole at the bottom.

With all my work in the past making t-shirt bags and other such bags, I realized that if I made little gussets, then the cow bags could stand up on their feet, rather than being like pillows.  So I sewed triangle gussets on each side of the base.

It's hard to see what's going on --
basically, I opened up the corner and placed seam-to-seam,
and then sewed a line perpendicular to the seam to make a triangle. 

This shows the gussets maybe a little better. 

I then turned the cows right-side-out, and used a funnel to help fill the little bags with lentils, because apparently when I bought a half-gallon of lentils a few months ago thinking I'd start eating them, I was overly optimistic.

Lentils through the funnel into the cow.

Then I sewed up the hole in the bottom, and Voila! Cow bean bags that stand up.

The start of a bean-bag herd of cows.  

The bean bags (like the whole display, really) has been very popular.  On Saturday night and Sunday morning, I initially made 14 bean bags.  By Thursday, I'd already had 10 of them sent into the barn and then rehomed.  

Making a new cow bean bag takes me, I'm guessing, about 5 minutes.  It's a nice contemplative thing to do as I'm getting ready for bed, so I think I'll be able to keep the supply up with demand.  What fun!

A $10 gift to my mouth

Who would have thought I'd like my dental night guard?

But I do; I'm a total convert.

Back in early July, when my ENT was diagnosing my jaw aches as due to clenching (possibly the cause of of my tinnitus, possibly caused by it, or maybe just an unfortunate coincidence), he mentioned dental guards at the same time he pooh-poohed them.  "You could wear a dental night guard, but then you'd have to clench your jaws to keep it in place . . ."

(Multiple friends and acquaintances have told me that he's wrong about the clenching-to-keep-it-in-place part, by the way).

Even earlier, about a year ago, my dentist mentioned night guards.  I'd had sensitive teeth for a couple of weeks; now I believe the reason was sinus issues, but at time we weren't sure, and she suggested it might be caused by grinding my teeth at night.  She made me a very crude night guard herself -- it was the color of silly putty, and big and puffy like a smurf, bulging out so much I couldn't figure out where to put my tongue, and I used it for about 5 minutes one night before giving up.  When she'd made it for me, she apologized for the crudeness, adding, "I don't know if we can convince insurance that you need a guard" (meaning, a real one), and because of that I just assumed that any functional night guard would cost, I dunno, $500.

But after my ENT suggested/didn't suggest the night guard, that one conversation led to all sorts of conversations with other people who used night guards successfully.  And eventually, I realized that in the same way reading glasses can be $500 if you buy them from one place, but can be $20 in the drug store (and less, in some bargain outlets) -- in that same way, dental guards can be pricey or they can be cheapo drug store versions.

So, my husband and I took a romantic hand-in-hand walk to our local drug store where, sure enough, we found a variety of options, including a "two night guards for $20" box, which I figured was a reasonable expense for a night guard experiment.  

The way you fit the dental night guard to your mouth -- and it only goes on the top teeth, so you really only need one at a time -- is to soak it in hot water, put it in your mouth, and bite down on it to mold it to your teeth.  Very easy.

I figured it was going to take me a couple of nights to get used to it, so I was really surprised to find that it was actually quite comfortable. At first, I thought I might have more drool issues (it seemed to make my mouth water a bunch), but even that seems to have become not a real issue.  

After a few nights with the night guard, I tried falling asleep without it, and I think it took me 5 minutes to change my mind and snap it back in. I have really sharp teeth, and biting my tongue has been a weird off-and-on thing with me, but with the night guard in, my tongue is safe from those evil fangs.  

My sister has used night guards for years; in fact, she grinds her teeth so much that she regularly wears through her guards and has to replace them.  My cheapo night guard has held up well for over a month now, with no real signs of breaking down (I haven't yet gotten the second one out of the box).  

So there you go: I put a tiny bit of money where my mouth is, and I like it. 

Family Up(in-the-air)date

Well, life continues to be rich and full here in Enoughville, although for me, life has been full of cancellations.  I'm feeling fine after my visit from the Covid Fairy, but since I'm still testing positive, I'm taking advantage of my sabbatical to sit home alone . . . meaning I've canceled running (4 times), biking (once or twice), giving blood, serving breakfast at the soup kitchen, holding a dinner party, going to Spanish class, meeting in person with my research students, . . . there's so much not to do these days!

I'm not doing it all alone (or at least, I'm not doing it all with Prewash).  She very much likes going for  long walks with me, and curling up beside me while I read novels, and greeting passers-by when I move out to the front porch.   My husband, on the other hand, is doing rather than not doing; he's bopping all around Europe, and his letter read like "Where in the world is Ofsnough SanDiego?"

I am writing from Kanaan, about to ride up to Frankenstein's castle for the third time. 

They have amazing tomatoes at Kanaan

On arrival from America, my flight to Amsterdam was cancelled. The rebooked flight six hours later boarded two hours late then sat on the runway for more than an hour. 

My sleep area at Gatwick.

And support for Ukraine at The Hague.

I went to the Escher museum in Amsterdam. I will post photos on the blog. Fascinating to see his paintings in person. 

Tomorrow I will meet a guest at Kanaan building houses for refugees in Poland. 

. . . 

The next day was a long train trip to Frankfurt where Cliff picked me up.  We drove back toward the monastery and ate sushi and udon on the way.  They don’t serve a lot of sushi in the monastery.  The next day I rode up to Frankenstein’s castle twice. In between Cliff and I went for a long walk and talked about how different the universe looks (and the God who made it) when there is no Hell. We both read a book by David Bentley Hart, an Eastern Orthodox theologian who believes in universalism. 

. . .  

Dinner was pizza with the brothers. Then we went to Wiesbaden to see Oppenheimer.  When the nude scene happened Cliff said, “I thought they might not have nudity in a physics movie.” I made the motion of smoking a joint and offering a hit.  When Oppy visited Jean in a later scene, I warned Cliff a minute in advance it might be a good time to hit the Boys Room. He toughed it out.  

Yesterday we walked along the Rhine and ate wurst and pomme frittes for lunch. Then I took another ride up to Frankenstein.  This morning we met a Ukrainian Army Chaplain and an American pastor who was traveling with him in Ukraine. 

Now I am on the train to Vienna.  My plan as of this moment is to go to Slovenia next then to Grenoble, but I'm not sure. I also will need a laundromat in the next day or two. . . . 

Vienna was amazing. 16.5 miles walking yesterday. Every place I am going on this trip is a place I was in before but either meeting or riding and saw almost nothing. 

I am in Geneva right now. It was an 11-hour train ride here from Vienna. I had the best conversation on the train with a Chinese comp sci professor and an Austrian teacher. It was almost three hours. I'm going to make it a blog post. 

Tomorrow is Grenoble after walking around Geneva.

So, that's where my guy is.  Got it all?  

And my kids?  Well some of them are up in the air.  

Gosling:  A couple friends of ours had 2 extra Tix for a tethered hot air balloon ride yesterday. First balloon ride! Now I want to do one of the full flights.

 

Y:  So cool! How would you describe the feeling?

Gosling: More primal then airplane flight and warmer, since you are right below the flames making the heat to float you around.

 

OfSnough's good advice: It's very bad to stand near the flames in jet aircraft ;)

 

Me:  Oh my gosh. My mom's best friend used to do a lot of ballooning; she often was in the chase car following balloons, but when we were kids, we got one of those tethered rides. It brings back memories! It's much louder than you'd think -- the flame machine makes loud noise!

Sizzling was a different kind of up in the air, bouncing in a Human-Sized paddle ball, apparently. She sent a movie, but I'll just show two still shots:

Kindering says,

I would legit throw up lol.

I love roller coasters, but will never ride that hope y'all had fun!!!

To which Nelson responded with a picture of his lunch.

And then there's the kind of lunch a person (or a dog) could only hope to have . . . here's a hopeful beast doing some window shopping, so to speak.  

Gosling:

When people talk about the thrill of tracking these animals, I am quite sure in different environments it is true. However, in RICHMOND CITY LIMITS it is a less onerous task to track these creatures. But for the window ole three legged Watson may have had a fighting chance at bringing that doe down.

And that's the news from our family, which continues to be wealthy in our air-dventures.  May you and yours be similarly prosperous.