View From the Bushes

I got an e-mail from my younger brother today, saying that he was okay... I hadn't realized that there was any question as to his "okay-ness" or lack thereof, but I also hadn't realized that he had been in Europe for a week. I mean, I knew he was going to Europe, I just had no idea he was not only already there, but halfway through his trip. Of course, this paucity of communication made me realize that I'm trying way too hard. I mean, writing something every weekday, what madness is that? If my younger brother can get by with one e-mail a month, then surely I ought to be able to get by with less than what I'm doing right now.

What I guess I'm saying is that despite the accumulation of a weekend's worth of events, I don't have much that's either exciting, or interesting to write about. We did pick up the parts for our new kitchen/dining room floor on Thursday, but that was mostly just hot and tiring. One thing that was very exciting (but unfortunately had nothing to do with me) was the news that they're using a particle accelerator to reveal some long lost writings of Archimedes. It reminds me of the book, "Inherit the Stars" by James P. Hogan. The hero is initally hooked into the story because he has a machine which can read closed books. It's an incredible book, one which I highly recommend. I may have the single most engaging premise ever:

The man on the moon was dead. They called him Charlie. He had big eyes, abundant body hair and fairly long nostrils. His skeletal body was found clad in a bright red spacesuit, hidden in a rocky grave. They didn't know who he was, how he got there, or what had killed him. All they knew was that his corpse was 50,000 years old -- and that meant that this man had somehow lived long before he ever could have existed!

Carpe Diem Quam Minimum Credula Postero
Ross