Wednesday, July 30, 2008

Vacation aftermath

G and I just got back from a week in Utah visiting family. It was a long trip for a three-year old, both in terms of time spent on planes and time spent away from his mother, but he handled it all pretty well. It was wonderful to see how well he got along with all his cousins, and I know he had a great time. Hopefully he will still remember everyone two years from now when I plan to take him back. I've got lots of pictures and I'll try to figure out how to post some of them as soon as I find the cable I need to get the pictures off of the camera and into the computer. Thanks to everyone who helped to make it such an enjoyable visit, especially Mom and Dad for putting us up and feeding us all week long.

I think we are both still suffering from jet lag. I was smart enough to take Tuesday and Wednesday off from work this week. We got back late enough on Monday night that it was actually Tuesday morning, so G spent the night with me and we both slept in - G didn't get up until after 10:00 that morning. G also spent much of the day with me since his mother had to work, we went to the park and the library. He went to see his mother just before 3:00 and promptly fell asleep. Today he got up only a little behind schedule, so hopefully tomorrow he will be back on track. Anyway, it's back to the regular grind for me tomorrow.

Are you pondering what I'm pondering, Pinky?

While I was in Utah during the past week all of my blogging relatives urged me to start my own blog. I don't know that I'm likely to be very good at this - I've always had a perhaps too keen appreciation for the permanence of the written word, which makes me a very slow and deliberate writer. The idea that just about anyone might find and read what I write here is only likely to exacerbate my trepidation, even though I know that no one outside my family is ever likely to bother. That kind of feeling is entirely at odds with the spirit of blogging, so I'll try to overcome it.

A word about the title. I think my family will mostly get it, but on the off-chance that someday someone else wanders by and takes the time to read this, I'll explain. My grandfather was famous (within the family) for the often pithy, if almost always nonsensical things he would say in his sleep. Family members began to write down his unconscious utterings for the edification of the rest of the family. Many of these have even been compiled into a book, and I know several of them by heart. One of these somnolent aphorisms is, "People are always wondering what snails pick their teeth with." This, then, is my place to write about snail toothpicks and all the other, equally weighty things I ponder about.