Dragon power needed

I'm wearing my dragon sarong as a shawl today. Because, you know, I need some dragon power rather desperately.

Morning alarms

5:50 a.m. my alarm goes off. I get up and turn it off immediately. I go into the girls' room to wake Delia. This is necessary because Delia cannot awake to an alarm clock. I stroke her arms and legs quietly for about three minutes before she blearily rouses. Once she's awake I re-set my alarm for 6:30 and go back to bed.
6:07 Rob's alarm goes off, clock radio set to an incredibly obnoxious sports radio station that I just loathe. He doesn't wake up well to an alarm--he just doesn't hear it--so what usually happens is that I have to jostle him several times and repeatedly demand that he get up and turn it off. I cannot take fart jokes at the best of times, much less at that time of the morning. He staggers to the girls' room to make sure that Delia is moving (she frequently dozes back to sleep), and then goes downstairs to make sandwiches for the girls' lunch
6:20 Fiona's alarm goes off. She manages to get up on her own.
6:30 My alarm goes off again. I get up immediately again.
6:50 Delia leaves for school. Usually Rob goes back to bed at this point, setting his alarm for later in the morning.
7:50 Fiona leaves for school
8:00 I leave for work.

Fiona does a better job of booting her brain up than Delia or Rob do (it helps that her school starts later than Delia's), but she still isn't very talkative in the mornings. I've learned over the years that if I tell Rob anything that I want him to remember (please pick up a quart of milk today; don't forget to pick Fiona up after school; I have a meeting at church tonight) I'm more or less wasting my breath if I tell him before 10:00 a.m. in the morning. He simply WILL NOT remember it.

I wish there was someone in my family who was a morning person, besides me. There is certainly very little conversation at that time of day.

Another fabulous offering from Playing for Change

It's a cover of Bob Marley’s "War/No More Trouble." (moony, take note: this one includes Bono of U2!)

I probably have to get their CD/DVD release "Playing For Change: Peace Through Music," which came out on April 28 (my birthday!).

H1N1 Flu

It has arrived at Fiona's high school. Two cases have been confirmed, but following the new protocol, the school will not close.

All right, I'm nervous, but not panicked. I knew this would have to happen eventually.

( What I did today to make the world a better place )

Wisdom from Roger Ebert

Here's a great column, "Go Gentle Into That Good Night" from film critic Roger Ebert, talking about facing the inevitability of his own death. I particularly liked this:

I drank for many years in a tavern that had a photograph of Brendan Behan on the wall, and under it this quotation, which I memorized:

I respect kindness in human beings first of all, and kindness to animals. I don't respect the law; I have a total irreverence for anything connected with society except that which makes the roads safer, the beer stronger, the food cheaper and the old men and old women warmer in the winter and happier in the summer.

For 57 words, that does a pretty good job of summing it up. "Kindness" covers all of my political beliefs. No need to spell them out. I believe that if, at the end of it all, according to our abilities, we have done something to make others a little happier, and something to make ourselves a little happier, that is about the best we can do. To make others less happy is a crime. To make ourselves unhappy is where all crime starts. We must try to contribute joy to the world. That is true no matter what our problems, our health, our circumstances. We must try. I didn't always know this, and am happy I lived long enough to find it out.

Ebert's blog is syndicated at ebertsuntimes. Thanks to shakes_sis for the link.

Picture from May Day

A very nice picture of Fiona (lying down on the blanket) and me at the May Day picnic, taken by barondave.

Good heavens, that's quite a bit more cleavage than I ordinarily display.

(THAT will undoubtedly make everybody click the link)

See the rest of barondave's great May Day pictures here and here. I'm glad to see the pictures, although they make me even more keenly sorry I missed the parade. I particularly get a kick out of the dungbeetles.

(no subject)

( Cut to spare the uninterested )