Sunday, August 26, 2012

Helping out

Conversation at the dinner table:
Spouse lady: <sigh> I've got to figure out a song to teach the kids at church.
Uncle R. : I know a good one.
Spouse lady: <staring at offspring, ignoring Uncle R.> Hmmmmmm, do you kids know any good songs from school?
Uncle R.: Hey!  I've got the perfect song!  The kids'll love it!
Spouse lady: Hannah, come on, help me out.  What's a good song?
Hannah: Ummmm, I think Dad knows one.
Spouse lady: O...K...<slowly turns to acknowledge U.R.'s presence>
Uncle R.: it's called "the Hannah Song." It's about Hannah.
S. L.:  Hmmmmmmmmm.  Well, it's not just a song that I need.  The hard part is making posters with pictures and words to help the kids learn.
U. R.: Consider it done.


Wednesday, August 8, 2012

Same old public pool, brand new diseases!

Today I took my family to Mallard Point (a local water park) while my computer continued to do my busywork in the office.  Apparently it needed more time than the 15 hours I had given it since I left the previous day to get all of its assignments done.

The water park was simultaneously fun and disgusting.  The kids had a blast in the wave pool and on the water slides.  Even Lucy enjoyed crawling around and splashing in the last few inches of the wave pool. 

Now on to the disgusting part.  Aside from just being in the same water as a bazillion other people who are generously sharing molecules from various aspects of their lives with you, you are compelled to see as much of themselves as they choose to reveal.  A number of people appeared to be bravely attempting to put the brakes on global warming by absorbing the excess light reflected back downward by our industry-altered atmosphere.  Sadly, their absorption coefficients are less than 1, resulting in a scattering of rogue photons that wander past my pupils to tell my brain gory details about their anatomy. 

And this is the part where I make a smooth segue into describing the piece that I recorded.  Well, here's the piece.  It's got Rhodes piano, ukulele, baroque recorders, electric bass, and some drums.