We wandered up town today - went swimming. I love swimming, the feel of the water embracing me, the way gravity doesn't work quite right, and I can do things I certainly can't do standing on dry ground. And then to get in the hot pool. I have maintained for about 10 years so far that hot water is the greatest invention of human kind. And I have bought some new goggles. Now that I can see underwater I am enjoying the swimming even more. I had no idea how bad my previous water eyes had got, now I know what I was missing out on. And my eyes don't feel like they are on fire with the chlorine getting in them.
We need to get the kid in the water though, he is getting used to the idea that swimming is something to avoid.
Then we went to the library, had someone else's favourite book list to work from so choosing was so much quicker. I have come to the late realisation that reading is my primary hobby, and that reading is a valid hobby. I have had this idea hobbies were about making something, or sport. In just the past week I have realised my hobby above all else is reading. I read and spin, read and knit, read and ride bicycles, read and drive (no, just kidding on that one), read and cook, and just read. Thirty odd years of reading and I just realised what is going on here. They'll give me a PhD, they be racing to do it!
Cn and I were walking up the road in town when he decided he would rather have a piggyback. These days he mounts me like a horse, using my hand as a stirrup, and swinging on in the manner of John Wayne. Unfortunately, in the middle of town I lost my balance while he was getting on, and we both fell on our butts. We both laughed, it was funny. A woman was watching us, and said she loved it. "What", I said, "me falling on my butt?" She replied, "No, the fact you laughed about it." I thought about this, and you know she was absolutely right. I've seen things like that happen, and it leads to screaming parents, and crying kids. I guess I am lucky in that there are very few things I can't see the funny/good side of. Pollyanna-ish. But also there is too much hurry and worry in the lives of parents, and they don't have the energy left to cope when things go a little haywire.
Needless to say we got about another 5 metres up the road from talking to the woman, and the kid ended up casting himself onto the ground and screaming because we wouldn't buy him a new DVD. Sheesh.
Some parents never ever take their kids to cafes. We go weekly now we have found one we all like. He really has the hang of what to do and not do in a cafe now that he has practised. Once he starts to read, we may even get to sit there more than half an hour...
Thesis
I am trying to put some numbers in a table for the book. I have done the stats, I know how insignificant these numbers are, but do you think I can find them? Writing a large data driven book is a study in organisation. Over the five years I have got better, all the numbers are in tables (not lost), but now I have to work out how to get the numbers I want back out of the tables before I can make any further progress. Everything takes so much time.
Posted by Toni at June 28, 2003 05:30 PM