misc entry
Aug. 23rd, 2004 08:21 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
ciroccojToday's news includes a near-death experience by Justin, and a week-long grounding for both kids. No yelling, though. I was too appalled to do anything other than ground them and talk to them for a long, long time about road safety.
***
On to happier subjects: I love camping.
Three days of living in the forest, being with Chris and the kids, eating by the fire. Very little car/electronics/distractions. We did a lot of hiking, the kids and Chris went fishing (and caught something), we saw Todd and Susan and Turtle and Zane, and read a lot of The Hobbit. Incidentally, reading The Hobbit to the kids and The Fellowship of the Ring to myself while camping is pretty neat - it's like you're partly living the book, seeing as how most of both books take place mostly outdoors, camping :)
I noted something interesting, a shift in perception within myself. The wood we'd gotten was very, very green, so we had to hack it into smaller pieces in order to get any kind of a decent fire going. I'd been chopping for about 10 minutes when Susan remarked that this was the kind of thing that makes camping so tedious - that the simplest things take an enormous amount of time and effort. Later on, after dinner, we sat in front of the fire and she looked at her watch - 8pm - and commented that once again, this was what was so frustrating about camping. That you finally get to the good part, relaxing in front of the fire... and it's already nearly bedtime. You don't have time to enjoy the fire; you're too busy getting it going, cooking, washing the dishes by hand, etc etc.
Funny thing, I used to think the same thing. And now I don't. To me, the whole experience, chopping wood and washing dishes included, was fun and relaxing. It wasn't 'the tedium' before 'the fun part' - it was the fun part. Not that I thrill at the thought of washing dishes, but it is pretty cool to wash while looking up at the night sky, smelling the fire, listening to crickets and all that.
I can't wait to go back in late September for our last trip of the year.
***
Tomorrow's agenda: hopefully, a bike ride down to Experimental Farm. We haven't done it even once this summer, and I'm feeling rather guilty about it. I'm also looking for ways to occupy the kids seeing as how they're grounded and all. We'll probably read some more, build a giant Bionicle they've had for weeks and haven't built yet, maybe finish our 4 Alls diorama. We'll see.
***
Speaking of shifts in perception... this sort of thing is why I'm kind of... I dunno... ambivalent? about faith and religion these days:
Church Says Girl's Communion Not Valid
Summary: An 8-year-old girl who suffers from a rare digestive disorder and cannot eat wheat has had her first Holy Communion declared invalid because the wafer contained no wheat, violating Roman Catholic doctrine.
I know. Not all Catholics are like this; not all Christians are like this; not all members of any faith are like this. But... yeah. I dunno. Stories like the above make me really doubt that there's anybody up there running the show.
Plus I'm still rather peeved at the minister at my mother's funeral attempting to shove Jesus down my throat. It's made me rather cynical, I think.
On to happier subjects: I love camping.
Three days of living in the forest, being with Chris and the kids, eating by the fire. Very little car/electronics/distractions. We did a lot of hiking, the kids and Chris went fishing (and caught something), we saw Todd and Susan and Turtle and Zane, and read a lot of The Hobbit. Incidentally, reading The Hobbit to the kids and The Fellowship of the Ring to myself while camping is pretty neat - it's like you're partly living the book, seeing as how most of both books take place mostly outdoors, camping :)
I noted something interesting, a shift in perception within myself. The wood we'd gotten was very, very green, so we had to hack it into smaller pieces in order to get any kind of a decent fire going. I'd been chopping for about 10 minutes when Susan remarked that this was the kind of thing that makes camping so tedious - that the simplest things take an enormous amount of time and effort. Later on, after dinner, we sat in front of the fire and she looked at her watch - 8pm - and commented that once again, this was what was so frustrating about camping. That you finally get to the good part, relaxing in front of the fire... and it's already nearly bedtime. You don't have time to enjoy the fire; you're too busy getting it going, cooking, washing the dishes by hand, etc etc.
Funny thing, I used to think the same thing. And now I don't. To me, the whole experience, chopping wood and washing dishes included, was fun and relaxing. It wasn't 'the tedium' before 'the fun part' - it was the fun part. Not that I thrill at the thought of washing dishes, but it is pretty cool to wash while looking up at the night sky, smelling the fire, listening to crickets and all that.
I can't wait to go back in late September for our last trip of the year.
Tomorrow's agenda: hopefully, a bike ride down to Experimental Farm. We haven't done it even once this summer, and I'm feeling rather guilty about it. I'm also looking for ways to occupy the kids seeing as how they're grounded and all. We'll probably read some more, build a giant Bionicle they've had for weeks and haven't built yet, maybe finish our 4 Alls diorama. We'll see.
Speaking of shifts in perception... this sort of thing is why I'm kind of... I dunno... ambivalent? about faith and religion these days:
Church Says Girl's Communion Not Valid
Summary: An 8-year-old girl who suffers from a rare digestive disorder and cannot eat wheat has had her first Holy Communion declared invalid because the wafer contained no wheat, violating Roman Catholic doctrine.
I know. Not all Catholics are like this; not all Christians are like this; not all members of any faith are like this. But... yeah. I dunno. Stories like the above make me really doubt that there's anybody up there running the show.
Plus I'm still rather peeved at the minister at my mother's funeral attempting to shove Jesus down my throat. It's made me rather cynical, I think.
![[identity profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/openid.png){kind=small}
no subject
Date: 2004-08-23 07:15 pm (UTC)My mind is full of strange and distressing possibilities, some of which include mutant, two-headed franken-animals (the product of scientific experiments gone horribly wrong).
P.S. Don't forget that Jesus loves you
unless you have wheat allergies, in which case you're going straight to hell!no subject
Date: 2004-08-24 04:46 am (UTC)They've got a whole herd of hippogriffs out there, it's pretty cool ;)
Well, no. Experimental Farm is a farm set right in the city, where they do all sorts of agriculture-related research. They've also got an Agriculture Museum, arboretum, flower gardens, wildlife gardens, etc. It's a great place to take the kids :)
http://res2.agr.gc.ca/ecorc/au/histo_e.htm
P.S. Don't forget that Jesus loves you
unless you have wheat allergies, in which case you're going straight to hell!::snortgiggling:: Amen, sister.
no subject
Date: 2004-08-23 07:43 pm (UTC)Oy vey is mir. What sort of meshugginah thing is this, already?
Sheesh. You'd think they'd be bending over backward to recruit new
cult memberscommunicants just now. The candles are lit, but no one's in the sacristy.And people ask me why I don't... ::sigh::
no subject
Date: 2004-08-24 04:47 am (UTC)No kidding. Insane, isn't it?
no subject
Date: 2004-08-24 12:07 am (UTC)Here's the link - http://www.smh.com.au/articles/2004/08/22/1093113057267.html
My friend Meg, who is the most RC of my four RC close friends, says this may be the straw that breaks the camel's back as far as the Western church goes.
no subject
Date: 2004-08-24 04:57 am (UTC)And this line, Something had gone "seriously wrong" in a church where conservative leadership was promoting religion as an end in itself, at the expense of the rights and needs of faithful Catholics sums up a lot of how I'm feeling about religion in general these days. It seems like such a triumph of form over content.
I don't know whether I believe in Christ or not, but I am pretty sure that this wasn't what he had in mind. I somehow doubt that a man who felt adulterers and tax collectors could be brought into the warmth of God's love would condemn eight year olds with chronic coeliac disease to be cast out of it.
no subject
Date: 2004-08-24 08:22 am (UTC)Word. And communion, despite the scary/gross transubstantiation stuff the Catholic church believes (no offense to any devout Catholics), is at its most fundamental form a shared meal. Jesus shared meals with the lowest of the low, and was all about bringing the children to him.
I doubt wheat factored in.
no subject
Date: 2004-08-24 08:22 am (UTC)Just one more reason to force myself to recover from my slug phobia. It's too intense now...I can't stand being in the woods.
no subject
Date: 2004-08-25 05:36 am (UTC)Oh no. That really sucks.
Yeah, that's a good motivator to deal with the phobia - at least, it would be for me.