Late Night Pneu-moon-ia

I'm fairly convinced that interesting astrological phenomena are always scheduled for when it's 20º below zero outside. Take Maine, for example. On a good night where my folks live the skies are so clear you can pick out the rust spots on the unidentified flying objects. (As opposed to the LA basin where on a clear night I can almost make out the street light at the end of my driveway.) Whenever I visit my folks in Maine I try to hit the backyard one night and go sightseeing. The nebula in Orion is particularly clear, and with a modest set of binoculars you can get a pretty decent view of the Andromeda galaxy. But unfortunately both Orion and Andromeda are winter constellations, and in my opinion, the winter sky in general is the far more interesting and worthwhile sky to peruse. This means, of course, that if you want a good night of star-gazing, you have to put up with temperatures that mimic my stock returns.

But even the summers are frustrating. My best summer sky hunting is up in the mountains on camping trips. But what happens after sunset in the mountains? That's right, it gets bleeping cold.

I thought last night I'd found an exception to the rule. Last night (January 10^th) the moon was at perigee, which means it's at it's closest spot to earth in it's orbit. That and other astro-physical considerations that I don't really claim to understand contributed to the full moon being the largest and brightest it would look in all of 2009. It was expected to be something like 14% wider and 30% brighter than usual. (Thanks, Wayne for the tip off!)

Given a noteworthy celestial event over sunny Southern California (OK, maybe "sunny" would be the wrong term for star-gazing...), I thought I'd found an exception to my cold conclusion. Not so. Being too busy to catch things in the early evening, I got up and went out this morning before the moon set. Yup. It was pretty miserable. But I did get the following picture snapped before my trigger finger seized up. (Yes, I know: without any context in which to judge its size and brightness it looks like... well, a picture of the moon - and a fairly out-of-focus one as well. Big deal.)

And I know any of my family members in Maine reading this now are giving me the "poor baby" taunt I so love giving my own children. "Brave Steve, you had to endure the chilly night air!" they say, dripping with sarcasm. "What a trooper! A true hero!" People from Maine generally aren't too sympathetic when you whine about how cold you are...

Child Warfare

It's been a long day with the kids and as a result Stacy and I have been doing some soul searching. Every year thousands of children are adopted from China, Romania, Vietnam and other far and distant lands. After the day we've had with ours today Stacy and I have concluded that we owe it to our country to even out the trade deficit. We will shortly be putting our children up for adoption to the furthest bidder.

We had considered shipping them off in a box with airholes to Mimi and Grampy in Maine, but as a kid I read The Incredible Journey and have an irrational fear that they would find their way back. And besides, we like Mimi and Grampy. China certainly seems like worthy choice. Uzbekistan looks like another good option.

Of course the new Obama administration probably doesn't want yet another international crisis to deal with at the moment; it's hard to imagine such a transfer would not inevitably be viewed by the recipient nation as a hostile threat against their national security.

Do military schools have preschool and kindergarten options?

Late Night Book Worm

Ever get a book you just can't put down, and read and read until you drop?

Richard Scarry sure does write page-turners!

A Man of Few Words

So much for the strong, silent type. N used to be the poster child for thoughtful reserve, for pensive introspection. You could say that his actions spoke louder than his words—that's mainly because he tended to like to bang on anything loudly, but my point still stands.

Not so any more. Over the last month some internal switch closed and verbosity ensued. He's been talking for 9 or 10 months now in a little stream of mismatched nouns and verbs, but what we have now is a verbal flash flood. It is ceaseless. If the eyes are open, the tongue is wagging.

I am generally a man of few words; if there ever is a large outpouring, it's usually written down rather than spoken. I had relished the thought that one of my children would actually allow a thought to brew in their heads long enough to have discernible content and poignancy before being blathered out, but alas, N seems to have followed in his sister's "speak first, think later" modus.

Notice how careful I am being to not say where our children may have picked up this trait. Notice how I have gone way out of my way to avoid suggesting that perhaps it might be due to one side of the family rather than the other. As you might imagine, it is typical of my character (and far wiser) for me to ponder my thoughts on this matter privately and simply not say them...

More Thoughts on Leaving

Stacy and I had a disturbing realization yesterday. We were driving surface streets across the South Bay to a particular store we wanted to go to that was about 15 miles away. As we drove we started noticing and noting all the businesses that were closed or closing. There seemed to be one or two on every block. While the "economic crisis" has been all the buzz on the news of late, it hadn't actually seemed to make it too far into daily life in L.A. At least I hadn't noticed. Sure, business has been a little slower at work these days, and the shopping centers did seem less chaotic over the holidays, but it didn't strike me as real until yesterday.

It was a rather sobering introduction into 2009. Here's hope and prayers that all the dire predictions of the news buzz will be shown to be overstated.

New Year's Leave

Mimi and Grampy left for home on Dec 30^th. They made it back to Maine safely, though not necessarily smoothly. I could go into all the dreary details, but that would be exceedingly boring and serve no purpose—it wouldn't even be a satisfying vent session for me. I'll suffice it to say that they made it home 40 hours after they set out for the LA airport.

L and N are somewhat at a loss without Mimi and Grampy around; their sugar intake remains high with no targets around on which to expulse it. And Stacy and I notice the house getting progressively more cluttered with dirty dishes and strewn-about toys. Oh, that's right - we have to do that now that Mimi's gone! Bummer.

We really enjoyed having them around, not only for the kiddie-diversions and the kitchen elves that seemed to emerge once Stacy and I went to bed, but just because they are fun and relaxing; the ideal no-stress guests. Stacy was crying when I got back from taking them to the airport, "I already miss them so much."

One of the highlights of the visit for the kids was the decorating of an architectually challenged gingerbread house. It looked a little like it had been through a hurricane or a 7.0 tembler when it was done, but it was nevertheless an object of beauty to the contruction crew.





It must have been built in a bad neighborhood because with every day that would pass we'd notice that someone had stolen another shingle or window pane.




L also took the opportunity to show Mimi and Grampy how grown up she has gotten and that she will soon be able to go to work like Daddy.
(Says Daddy: "Knock yourself out, kid.")

In olden days Mark Antony may have had Cleopatra lazily feed him grapes. In our local version of Egypt, Mimipatra substitutes grapefruit for her N-tony.

There was plenty of time for education with Grampy on the couch. Who knew FOX news could be so captivating to a two-year-old?

A visit from Grandma Flo.

Three generations of Perkins.

L and N will miss Mimi and Grampy, but at least they are comforted knowing they'll be back again soon. They are planning on coming out again in March and this time they'll be bringing Auntie Sue, Uncle Victor and their cousins Aubrey and Garrett for an extended family vacation at Disneyland. (Daddy can hardly wait...)

A Hot Mug of Tea and a Good Book

I finished my Terry Pratchett book Making Money over the holidays (great read, as always), and will be starting into Shakespeare's The Winter's Tale today. I've been reading a lot of Shakespeare lately since I've discovered an on-line book club sponsored by Barnes and Noble. They have a number of different reading groups of various topics and genres, and I've been sitting in on the Shakespeare group. You can pretty much read along at your own pace and ask questions or comment when you see fit. You're not required to buy any books to participate, though I'm sure they're hoping you will.

It's a pretty interesting group of folks on the board who all chime in with their thoughts and comments. They pick a different play each month. I participated in the Macbeth reading in October, but sat out the last two months because I was too busy. (Missed The Taming of the Shrew and Love's Labor Lost.) I end up disagreeing with half of them, but that's half the fun. (I bet there was some lively discussion on The Taming of the Shrew!) It is encouraging me to read more Shakespeare, which is a plus, and I'm especially excited about the January selection because I've never read this play before and don't even have an idea what its about. Guess I'll find out (in part) this afternoon!