Slide Rules, Peach Pie, and Up North

Mr. UPS Man arrived Wednesday afternoon with that wool blanket I ordered, more on that when I get back over to Iowa, including a picture— somehow I didn't think to bring my camera with me on vacation.

Then over to visit my friends David and Mary, and we spent a pleasant Wednesday evening together. David and I are both slide rule collectors, and he was showing me some of his latest finds. We had supper out on the back deck, chicken wings, vegetable pizza, salad with blueberries and raspberries, organic tea, and amazing peach pie.

A hummingbird flitted around us as we discussed the growth of Chinese industry, problems in today's Catholic church, the difficulty of putting yourself back into the mindset of earlier historical settings, the bridge collapse in Minneapolis, water in basements in Seattle and elsewhere, the liabilities of Cartesian philosophy with its illusions of universal control and its lack of a place for the knowing subject, the ways philosophical positions have worked themselves unbeknownst into popular culture, shopping online, Google, Linux, the kabbalah and premodern views of magic, family get-togethers, Carl Jung, the historical prevalence of warfare and mass slaughter, do-it-yourself projects, working third shift, ethanol, and the rise in housing prices.

Then yesterday it was up into central Wisconsin, me and my folks with me behind the wheel, up to visit my grandmother, who is 102 and still just as clear in the head as you or me. We visited for a while, my grandmother was remarking on my resemblance to her father, which (I've seen photos of my great-grandfather) truly is amazing. Talk about various old relatives and how they were related, what I've been doing on vacation, the horrors of Hillary, our Lions Club and its various projects including the big Fourth of July event, my new wool blanket, and various other doings of late. Then back and stopping off in Westfield along the way.

Slept last night beneath my new wool blanket, now I'm up this morning and will be heading out and around today with my folks and my brother. So vacation proceeds apace. I'm finding I'm much more active this vacation than I've been on many vacations in years past.