Collected Thoughts

I also read a very interesting book, Snowball Earth, the author escapes me at the moment. It's nonfiction and explains about the evolutionary theory that at one point the Earth was completely encased in ice and snow and that immediately after that it was plunged into extreme heat and this kicked off an evolutionary process. Actually, there were several Snowballs, but only one kicked off an evolutionary advance. The book is very intriguing, totally written so a science dunce (that's me) can understand it and want to read more about the geology (although I admit to having a fondness for geology). The author doesn't start with "Here's the theory and this is how it came about". No, it's like a detective story...or rather part detective story part drama about the personalities in field of geology. She introduces each scientist that was involved, tells about him (they are all male) and goes through what part he played in the theory or what part he played in try to disprove the theory and in the very last chapters she brings you to conculsion. Including a really neat and action packed tale of how the contitents went from being seperate to apart.

The Due South part.

The first part of the book introduces the Canadian geologist who worked in the Arctic and mentions areas like Great Slave Lake and the Northwest Areas. There is information about Arctic expeditions as well as information about a group that was on an ice bridge that collapsed and they fell down a crevasse and how they got out. Including a scientist (or explorer) who skied on a broken foot. There are foot notes with further reading. I thought it might be interesting for those people who are intersted in writing Due South or reading about this kind of thing. I found interesting.

Also I'm reading the The Life of Pi which is by an Canadian author who I can't remember. Lots of stuff about animals but I'm not very far into it. So far I like it, most of it sounds like it might be said in b.org.

I've also decided that I've had trouble reading certain classic books because I wasn't reading them at the beach, or at least outside. It seems to make all the difference to be outside with the sun and breeze rather than inside feeling hemmed in by both the house and the fact I feel as if I have to wedge myself into the story rather than just merge into it naturally.

I'll be spamming my friends list just a bit I think because I've got several things to say and I wanted to break it up.

Temporarily back fromthe beach.

So far have had a a lovely time. The weather has been mostly nice, in town it has RAINED. Although I did discover that the leak in the roof that took months for the repair people to fix is not fixed. I have to tell dad and I'm afraid it will make the place unusable for the rest of the summer. Basically we discovered the leak in--April? or May and they worked on it and worked on it---not just the roof but other things until just two weeks ago. The whole spring and summer ruined because the men are fixing the roof and fixing the wall and fixing the cieling and fixing this and repainting that.

Anyway, being at the beach is lovely. Even if we took down this pop up little tent thingy and totally forgot about it until a few hrs before we were about to come back---I kept rationing my time outside so I wouldn't burn.

I found neat things on the beach. Including a dead, intact blue crab, unfortunatly the insides hadn't been picked clean so I didn't take it back to house. I didn't want to smell it rot. If it had been picked clean I would have kept it as decoration because it's not often that you find that--both claws, all the undersides, everything totally intact. However did find some other shells and such that are going to be sent to friends far from here. I've really stopped taking shells and things from the shore, unless they are unusual like the intact crab because, well, our place doesn't need them and in town I don't have a place for them. I'm not on the ocean or, well, on the Gulf, just a bay and the shells that wash up are small. It seems I see less of certain kinds than I did when I was younger but I'm not sure if that's because I get down to the beach less or if there are fewer shells. Could possibly be just not getting down as much.

I'm reading a lot but not writing anything. I have no desire to write fiction however I'm writing a lot of thoughts down.

I made my polite visit with my great aunt and uncle by I managed to escuse myself just after the "BBC is the enemy of American they tell lies, you know the British Broadcast Company, they just want to see the downfall of America" speech began. I made polite excuses and left.

Now that I'm here I feel like--well everything is on no mail and I hate wading through the interface, I am catching up on b.org. Damnit! I want to be at the beach. It's different than being at the beach with Dad. He has all these annoying habits. He clicks his teeth with his thumb, he grinds his teeth. Plus, when Mom and I go to the beach we buy snacks and trashy magazines and read the gossip about celebrities and then we'll go lay out in the sun or talk about various things. Mom and I are friends and Dad, well he's just my Dad.

So, hopefully I'll be back and forth between here and the beach until school starts.