Yesterday was wild and scary. We have had so much ^%*!ing RAIN that when you step on my lawn it’s like trying to walk on a saturated sponge. It rained off and on all day yesterday. Today and tomorrow we are supposed to get more rain. Mother saw the back yard turning into a lake yesterday and called me almost in tears. I rushed home, and thankfully the rain had slacked off and the house wasn’t flooded, but it was a fear. On the way home I was calling my brother trying to figure out about going to a hotel with the dog, how to sandbag, etc. There’s a slight slope to the back yard and we have drains out there, but it’s not a safe situation.
Mother and I are thinking a retaining wall might be the solution.
If I ever again contemplate buying a house with a creek behind it, slap me. Hard.
We talked about maybe buying a new house. However, my kids are used to this house. It’s in a settled older neighborhood and we have great neighbors. They have some stability and security, which they never had before in their lives. As much as I would love a different house, one not obviously constructed by stoned hippies in 1968, the old house will have to do for now. It’s not worth having my kids feel disrupted and insecure.
I talked to the guy fixing my computer and he said there was a Trojan wreaking havoc on my system. I will be honest, when I heard “Trojan” my first thought was condom, and I was momentarily confused. Then I remembered it is also some nasty computer demon. I feel like the computer has had a nasty disease. It’s very disturbing. I should get it back tomorrow, Lord willing.
We watched the movie Gladiator last night. Michael has a test in social studies today, and it’s covering the same time period, so I wanted him to have a movie to reinforce those lessons. They talk about the Roman senate and repelling the Germania barbarians, which all ties in. I re-read the sections of his book he will be tested on, and he seems to be remembering everything well. I told him my ancestors were mostly Celts, fierce clannish warriors who painted their faces blue and scared the crap out of civilized people, and he was tickled by that.
So we were sitting there watching the movie, and Alesia stopped it to ask me what the word “bold” means. Just when I think her vocabulary is where it should be, she pops out with something like that and I know she still has a ways to go on vocabulary.
OTOH, Michael and I are reading together all the Harry Potter books, and when I ask him about a word I think he might not know, he knows the word 80% of the time. The only ones I have to explain are British words we don’t use here, like “crisps” for potato chips, or “petrol” for gas. One paragraph I read the other day was all about “rubbish” falling out of “dustbins,” and when I finished reading I asked him if he knew those two words. He shook his head. “We say trash is falling out of trashcans, Hon,” I told him. He has an amazing ability to learn new words just from context clues.
I enjoy reading the Harry Potter books, for one reason, because they are so English. We are two countries separated by a common language, as some famous person once said. Something was in the book yesterday about “black pudding” being eaten, and I looked that one up. Apparently, it’s made from animal blood. I have a pretty strong stomach, but that’s enough to turn me vegetarian. We won’t be trying anyblack pudding at my house any time soon. Treacle tarts, toffees, and sausages - all those things sound yummy. Not everything does. Of course, we read about spotted dick the other day and he thought that was hilarious. It’s concocted out of dried fruit and custard. When I think of dried fruit I just think of passing gas, which is the effect it has on me. We have enough of that at our house.
