Whoo Boy

I've begun reading The Man Who Would Be King: The First American in Afghanistan by Ben MacIntyre. It is the biography of Josiah Harlan, a man who... who... well, I'm not sure I can do justice to any description of him in a quick before-bed blog. Half way through Chapter Two, I can only say that I cannot find the words to describe this man. "Ambitious" falls thinly and inadequately upon the ears. That he had certain body parts of pure brass comes a bit closer, but still no cigar. At any rate, the author, Ben MacIntyre, is a phenomenal story teller, capable of creating images and animating characters as he draws his reader into the mind of his subject. I won't say he's up there with Edmund Morris in my All-Star line up of Biographers, but perhaps. I'll let you know when I've finished the book. Have any of you read this book?

Today began well enough, then deteriorated, wallowed in the decay for a bit, and finally found redemption through the never-fail "day saver": read aloud time on Mommy & Daddy's bed. There is just something about calling a halt to the infighting, bickering, yelling, sassing, groaning and screeching by declaring that it's time to jump on the bed and read a silly book. Now if I could just remember that it's perfectly acceptable to do that as early as the day necessitates... it'd save a lot of wear and tear on all of us.

The Suburban is now near-acceptable for Maryland's standards. *sigh* Just when I think we're getting ahead. We took the vehicle in last week for inspection (which you must have in order to get it registered here, and no, it's not even an emissions inspection, which I could understand to some extent). Anyway, we came out with three work orders to complete before the Inspector will sign off for us. 1) Replace windshield. Don't even get me started on this! *ugh* However, there is a special place in heaven for the man in the mobile unit who will come to your home and replace a windshield while your children play in the grassy front yard! Yesiree, that's service! $260.00 2) Fender flares. Or new tires. Pick one. The tires stick too far out for their taste (and no, we're not talking the illegal extended axle punkmobile tires you see on lowered Ford Escorts w/ ground effects- these are mud tires on a full-sized Suburban and in no way out of line). However, the state requires that we drill holes in the fender wells (can you say RUST?) and attach little wing-like appendages to our vehicle. These flares will not actually deflect water, dirt or rocks. They will not enhance the safety or performance of the vehicle. And yet, Big Brother says... *rolling eyes* So, those have been ordered and will be here tomorrow. $100.00 3) Replace one CV boot. Oh PUHLEEZE! Yes, it has a leak. It has a minor, minor leak, and to be perfectly honest, there is a huge enormous possibility that we'll have even MORE leaks after messing with this thing than we do now. But oh, no... no, gotta fix that. The joint is good. The axle is good. But the boot has a microscopic leak and SO, it must be replaced. $170.00 + the hassle of arguing w/ every service manager in St. Mary's County that I am NOT going to pull a perfectly good axle just because they don't want to do the work on the boot.

There ya go- $500+ later, we will then have the privilege to spend another heaven-only-knows how much more money to actually register the vehicle. It's not like... *snort* well, never mind.

On the up side, it's all good. We're ok. We have the money, and whether we'd prefer to spend it on things like this is moot, at least we can get it done. Right? And, it's good that we have the Suburban (which is, to be truthful, the best-running vehicle we've ever owned jointly... we would have had to just set our old Suburban on fire and call it even.)

John built an amazing Pirate Ship from PVC pipe tonight. It has wonderful sails, and even a "private entrance" for the Captain. He made up wonderful games around it, too.

James had a nice heart-to-heart with Zorak and told him that he really does like living in Maryland except for the laws and the humidity, but in general, he likes it ok and is happy here. He is so glad he learned to swim and asked me if we could add swimming to our regular schedule now. Wow!

Jacob is getting more and more brave with his cruising abilities. His balance is improving, too. He is also joining in on the family games in the afternoons, which is a blast and is wearing him out. He's moved his own bedtime up from 9:30 to 8:30. Too cute!

We're taking this week to rest up, rescue the house from six weeks of anti-routine add-on activities, and gather ourselves. Next week we'll begin back to lessons. I think we're all looking forward to that again.

~Dy