Worth a smile

I had to smile when I saw this clip. It's snowing outside (again!)

Not everyone likes numbers

We continued to toil every day, not only at letters but at words, and also at what was much worse, figures. Letters after all had only got to be known, and when they stood together in a certain way one recognised their formation and that it meant a certain sound or word which one uttered when pressed sufficiently. But the figures were tied into all sorts of tangles and did things to one another which it was extremely difficult to forecast with complete accuracy.

The above is a quote from Winston Churchill in the book My Early Life. The list of books on my Amazon wishlist is growing very long! Too bad reading books is not part of my job!

The Woman at the Well

Borrowed from Following an Unknown Path.

A Palindromic Number

Did you know if you multiply 111,111,111 by 111,111,111, the answer is 12,345,678,987,654,321?

Actually, it's even more delicious than that....

• 1 x 1 = 1
• 11 x 11 = 121
• 111 x 111 = 12321
• 1111 x 1111 = 1234321
• 11111 x 11111 = 123454321
• 111111 x 111111 = 12345654321
• 1111111 x 1111111 = 1234567654321
• 11111111 x 11111111 = 123456787654321
• 111111111 x 111111111 = 12345678987654321

No Taming the Cross

What does the world do with a person who has been raised from the dead? Christians have been meditating on that for two millenniums. But despite the eggs, the baskets, and the bunnies, one thing we haven't been able to do is to tame that person, tame his message, and, moreover, tame what happened to him in Jerusalem all those years ago. That's one reason why you don't see many Easter cards, Easter gifts, and Easter decorations; why the stores aren't clogged with shoppers during Lent; and why the holiday is still, essentially, religious.

Read the whole article here. From Slate via The Point.

Winter's (hopefully) Last Stand

We had 3 or 4 inches of snow last night, but I can still see the little crocuses.

To quote another, "This is no thaw. This is spring."

It just has to be.

Remembering Marcellus

I've spent a few days with a nasty cold this past week. But I'm ever so much better now, rejoicing in simple things like breathing and swallowing. I love getting well. It always reminds me of Marcellus, after his encounter with the Robe.

Not since that summer when, at fifteen, Mardellus was slowly convalescing from a serious illness, had he experienced so keen an awareness of life's elemental properties. The wasting fever had left him weak and emaciated; but through those days of his recovery his senses had been abnormally alert. Especially in the early morning: all colors were luminous, all sounds were intensified, all scents were heady concentrates of familiar fragrances.

Until then, the birds chirped and whistled, each species shrieking its own identifying cry; but it was silly to say that they sang. Now the birds sang, their songs melodious and choral. The dawn breeze was saturated with a subtle blend of newmown clover and sweetish honeysuckle, of jasmine and narcissus, welcoming him back to life's brightness and goodness. . .

For those few days, as a youth, Marcellus had been impressed by his kinship with all created things. It stilled and steadied his spirit to find himself so closely integrated with Nature. Then, as he regained his bodily vigor, this peculiar sensitivity gradually ceased to function. He still enjoyed the colors and perfumes of the flowers, the liquid calls of the birds, and the insistent hum of little winged creatures; but his brief understanding of their languatge was lost in the confusion of ordinary work and play. Nor did he expect ever to reclaim that transient rapture. Perhaps it could be experienced only when one's physical resources had ebbed to low tide, and one's fragility had made common cause with such other fragile things as hummingbirds and heliotrope.

Watchin' the little girl

We got to spend the weekend in GR and watch the little girl. We were amazed at how she is growing and changing so much! It was fun to get to spend so much time with her. She loved playing with this little playhouse(compliments of Auntie Chandra). She would send the man and lady in the front door. . . and they always had to come out the same way, even if it was hard, even though she could have walked around to the open side of the house and picked them up. She's rather interested in the potty, though she hasn't got it all figured out quite yet. She did leave the room for a bit, and came back with the potty chair which for some reason really needed to be in the living room. She sat in it for while, and I won't speculate about timing, but when I changed her for her nap, I did note that she had been very productive, at least at some point.

Quick Texas Weekend

You can see most of the same stuff on Shelly's blog, but here is my perspective on the weekend. First, I got it in my head that I simply had to be the one to organize all Granny & Papa's slides. There are probably around a thousand of them, mostly covering the Europe years. The slide projector has long since broken, but the slides are in 7 carousels, somewhat organized and with limited identification. So the first thing I wanted to do was to buy some sort of slide viewer so that I could look at them with Papa. So we found a place, and Nancy gave us directions, cautioning us to always drive on the right on the hilly roads since there are so many accidents. (And of course, the Hertz guy had already warned us that he'd heard 85% of Texas drivers are uninsured! This he said when I, unbelievably, denied the insurance coverage they wanted to sell me for my rental.) I always enjoy driving through the hills in Austin. Maybe it reminds me of mountains. I just can hardly wait to come over the top of the hill and see what's ahead, even when I've seen it before. After that, Nancy joined us and we went to Grace House and shared slides with Papa. He seemed quite well, and seemed to enjoy talking about things he remembered from the past. Granny seemed much the same. She didn't really speak, though at times it seemed like she wanted to. I want to believe she knows we're there, but honestly, I can't be sure. After that, we went to Mark and Erica's to visit for a while. Peyton is hilarious. So different from Carolyn, but so much fun. One thing was the same: everyone sat in a circle and watched to see what Peyton would do next. Who needs movies? This is better. The picture below is Peyton showing his muscles. You really have to see it to understand. He tenses up every muscle in his face and arms. Everyone just laughs, and I think he loves it.

A Pretty Picture

Reminds me of Narnia. You can almost see the lamppost. . .