Author Archives: Netmom

Mark this day…

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Nineteen years ago today, I gave birth to a beautiful 7 lb. 1 oz. baby girl.  I knew virtually nothing about babies, as I was just four when my youngest sister was born and hadn’t been charged with much responsibility for her care.

It seems like it was just a few months ago.  Somehow, we muddled our way through it, learning along the way. 

Today, she came home with the news that she’s engaged to be married.  The date isn’t set yet, but it will be sometime after both obtain Bachelor’s degrees — probably a little under three years from now.

Truthfully, if I could have chosen a son, Mathman would have been my pick; he fits right in with this family, and most especially, with Alpha.  They spent the summer apart, with Alpha taking a class, working at Y-12 during the week, and at Pet Supplies Plus on the weekends.  Mathman was at Texas A&M on a research fellowship. 

They went through a few cell phone minutes over those 2 months, but seem just as content together as ever.  After dating for two years, they’re quite comfortable together.

So, I guess I’ve got a couple of years to procrastinate on making the wedding dress.   Alpha’s the child who always wanted her dresses custom-made, so I know there’s no getting out of that one.  She’ll design it, pick out the fabrics, and turn it over to me.

Nineteen years ago, I was trying to figure out how to change a diaper, put clothes on a wiggly little doll, and trying to figure out how to be a good mother.  On the day we brought her home, HWTFM held her upright on his chest as he lay in bed, teaching her the alphabet.

I remember laughing at him then, but not now.  Somehow over the years, we got something right.

Time to weep a little now.

Stargazing

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For an hour and some this evening, Mother Nature provided an enjoyable show via the Perseid meteor shower.

Alpha, Mathman and I found the outfield at Big Turtle Park an acceptable viewing location. Not great — there are streetlights on the turnpike, in the parking lot, and otherwise nearby — but it was the best place we could find close to home.

The narrowing of our viewing area provided another educational example, as the cooling night air after midnight brought about a rising fog over a low lying field and stream to our east. It was not like the nights over Northern Michigan (which has several times the number of visible stars simply due to clearer air and less light pollution), but it was a lovely show nonetheless.

One more for the list of great things to do at no cost whatsoever.

Think about it

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Finally, a Bachelors degree for women only:

[USA Today]  NASHVILLE — The Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary offers coursework in Greek and Hebrew, in archaeology, in the philosophy of religion and — starting this fall — in how to cook and sew.

Southwestern Baptist, one of the nation’s largest Southern Baptist seminaries, is introducing a new academic program in homemaking as part of an effort to establish what its president calls biblical family and gender roles.

It will offer a bachelor of arts in humanities degree with a 23-hour concentration in homemaking. The program is only open to women.

I’m not making light of knowing how to cook and sew — nor how to home-can green beans without the risk of botulism, how to bake a perfect cherry cobbler from fresh fruit and basic ingredients, to make a quilt strictly by hand from scrap fabrics, nor how to keep a family together for a couple of decades… those are some of the most important things I know.

I didn’t have to pay tuition to get it, though.  My tuition went for the study of computer science, which is much more difficult (though not impossible) to teach one’s self.

Certainly, I grew up watching my mother and grandmothers do most of those things (although I have begun teaching Mom to quilt).  Unfortunately, since my mother was so skilled at the home arts, I didn’t have much opportunity to practice those skills until I was on my own and had to learn out of necessity.

That the Baptists feel a need for a Bachelor’s degree in homemaking seems to me transparently laughable:  it’s not a BA program, but the path to an "Mrs."  Or, perhaps to create a pool of appropriately knowledge-limited women who might make suitable wives for those who aren’t up for a little intellectual challenge now and then.

I love my husband, I respect my husband, but to defer to him intellectually at all times would be doing him such a disservice.  He would be thoroughly bored.   As would most outside the world of the Taliban.

Dog Days

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The last few dog days of summer are upon us: it’s hot, there’s not much going on, and no one’s writing much (including myself).

In contrast, I have been reading a great deal. The current fiction favorite is Eclipse, the third in the Twilight series by Stephanie Meyer. Goofy as it sounds, we bought three copies on Tuesday; none of us wanted to "wait our turn" while someone else read ahead.

This afternoon, I skimmed an interesting article in Psychology Today. There are a number of humorous (and quite possibly accurate) conclusions, but the notion that the reason that Islam produces more suicide bombers because too many of their young men "aren’t getting any" cracked me up.

As good an explanation as anything else I’ve heard, I guess.

Because we’ve had a week of temperatures in the upper 90’s, my air conditioner is barely working (so it’s usually in the mid to upper 80’s in the house), and the dryer’s been broken (fixed for real today, thank you HWTFM), I’ve stayed away from reading much news. I don’t want or need depression. That said, it’s worthy of note that the Perseid meteor shower peaks Sunday night (yeah, it’s a school night, but it’s educational) and should be just brilliant since it coincides with the darkness of a new moon.

Not much controversy here, but maybe September will banish the writer’s block that has settled over the valley these past few weeks.

 

A new favorite in town…

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Firehouse Subs.

We stopped in for lunch today, and had a lively chat with the owner (well, the owner of this franchise) about the several dozen kinds of hot sauce lining the counter.  My kids, ever adventurous, asked which one is the hottest.

Gamma and Delta each proved their culinary bravery by tasting some on a toothpick; I settled for waiting for my sandwich — the Hero Sub — and put a dab in the middle.  It was a bigger dab than I intended, so more than three hours later, I can still feel the burn in my throat.

That said, it was the best sub sandwich I’ve had in ages.  The staff was friendly and efficient, and there’s no doubt we’ll be back there often!

Senior Center Dreams

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What should a Senior Center in Oak Ridge be?  Where should it be?  What should it provide?  Those are questions that will doubtless be debated and discussed in an informal meeting with City Council members next Thursday (1 p.m.) at the City Service Center.

The Oak Ridge Senior Center used to be in a building that most of us recognize as "the old Wildcat Den," at the corner of Robertsville Road and the Turnpike (near Grove Center).  When that building was deemed too old, services were moved to rented space in the old Daniel Arthur school.

In a city that truly cares and provides for the needs of elder citizens, wouldn’t it be nice to have a facility where there is appropriate space for group activities or classes, recreational and physical fitness facilities, a kitchen where meals could be prepared, perhaps even a reading area and some networked computers?  For a city that dreams big, it’s quite possible.  There could be rooms for card games, one with billiards and ping pong, maybe even an indoor heated pool.  Dreaming really big, there might even be a park nearby!

A facility like that might be so attractive that younger people would also want to go there, providing healthy social interaction between generations — alleviating the isolation that many seniors encounter (the basis for needing such a center to begin with). 

Done right, it would be centrally located and fully handicap accessible — all on one level, with automatic doors and such. 

But it would be so expensive… or would it?  Can’t you just envision the possibility?

Computer Shopping

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Alpha needs a new computer this year (the laptop she’s been using is now five years old, not meeting the specs of UT’s College of Engineering), so I’ve been surfing around Dell’s website thinking I should order one this weekend.

Unfortunately, there are a very limited number of machines available that can be purchased with XP.  There are simply too many Vista nightmares out there now… beginning with a serious lack of drivers for existing hardware (printers, card readers, etc.).

The temptation to order one with a Linux OS is palpable, but I do have to meet the COE’s requirements.

On a brighter note, a letter arrived a couple of weeks ago notifying her that her stellar academic performance last year has earned her another scholarship — more than enough to offset whatever computer she needs.

Request

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Take a moment this morning to put in a prayer for Katie, Jon, and Charlotte.

Edit:  All’s well!  After about six days of genuine labor and a lot more medical intervention than they’d hoped for, Miss Charlotte has arrived.  And she’s just beautiful!  Katie is an amazing woman who really stands out as a role model as a mother.  I understand and admire her desire for a natural birthing experience, but sometimes, it’s good to have the option of a hospital when absolutely necessary.  In this case, it appears that it was.

Where the sun doesn’t shine

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Tennessee’s Sunshine (open meetings) Law is said to be one of the toughest in the nation.  While I am strongly in favor of a high standard of open government, I’ve seen evidence that it may be frequently misunderstood by the public to incorporate far more than government legislative bodies.  This morning’s paper indicates that some who should know better are feeding that misconception.

Private tax policy meetings led by the Oak Ridge Chamber of Commerce probably should have been open to the public, a Knoxville media attorney and Nashville open-government advocate said last week.

The Sunshine Law is intended to cover governmental entities — City Councils, County Commissions, School Boards, etc. — with the ability to enact laws or policies affecting the public.  It does NOT cover private companies, volunteer organizations, private schools, chambers of commerce, etc., even if those groups are meeting for the purpose of discussing public policy. 

As long as they can’t make public policy, they can discuss it all they please.  In private.

In this case, members of the Chamber of Commerce met to discuss tax policy (probably tax abatements or tax increment financing).  But, they can’t enact such policy — only give an informed opinion to our City Council, who must then deliberate and decide upon such policy in a properly conducted public meeting.

Of course, I was not surprised at the opinions given the source: attorneys for the Tennessee Coalition for Open Government and the Tennessee Press Association. 

Let’s look at it a little differently, just for the sake of perspective: if the Oak Ridger had an editorial board meeting to discuss the city’s tax policy, would it conduct the meeting in accordance with the provisions of the Sunshine Law (published advance notice, meeting open to the public)?  Would it welcome representatives of the News Sentinel and the Oak Ridge Observer to listen in and perhaps give their own opinions during the public comment period?

I don’t think so. 

Anyone who is interested in tax policy will certainly have the opportunity to not only hear the Chamber’s recommendation (if they give one, which I would expect), but to comment publicly and listen to every word of deliberation amongst those who will actually decide these matters.

Joy of Reading

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I’m finished.

After a full day at the farm and a long, relaxing bike ride around the lake, I settled in for some serious reading time last night with the book.

"Serious reading time" has been a challenge, sandwiched between the farm chores and three other people in my family (Gamma, Delta, and HWTFM) who are also reading the same copy. But I snagged a few hours last night, and a few more today. Now, I know how it ends.

I refuse to be a spoiler, but absolutely marvel in the ability of JK Rowling to spin a tale — a series of tales — that thoroughly enchant so many, from early elementary school students to retirees. Before the Harry Potter series, many children had lost the enjoyment of chapter books. Thanks to Rowling’s magic, so many have rediscovered the sheer joy of losing themselves in the printed works, and have recognized why movies, while entertaining, are no substitute.

Riding around the lake (12 miles or so), I was really grateful that I gave up smoking some 5+ months ago. Although it wasn’t particularly hilly, we traversed pavement, gravel, dirt, and even sand. Riding a bike in deep, soft sand is a LOT of work, not to mention slippery.

After taking a day off from the farm today, I feel ready to have some fun!