And We're Back
I was back in the office today, after eight lovely days away. The weather was great, and we did lots of fun stuff (beaches, Busch Gardens, the pool at my mom's place, touring, touring and touring), but I realized upon our return that all of that was incidental to the real reason I had such a good time. It struck me when David ran up to me when I got home this afternoon, arms up in the air, ready to fling them around my neck when I picked him up. I'd had a week of real, long, sweet days with my wife, son and mom (who I really do see far too little). Today was the first day in more than a week I hadn't spent the whole entire day, start to finish, with David. Man, did I miss him. And I realized that in the end, it's not rest or fun that recharges me, not at all. Something better.

We Arrive In Florida

After a good many hours in cars, planes, trams, cars, and the like, we have arrived in Bradenton. David is shown here having a very coool time in the warm, warm weather. Enough sub-arctic temps for us.

Mom and John have already shown us a great time; they have a beautiful place here, and they took us out for dinner at the Sand Bar, right on the beach on a nearby island. Right as we arrived, a pod of dolphins swam by... interesting. This was David's second trip to the beach, and the first time, at Cape May, he was welcomed by dolphins as well. He has a real affinity for the beach ... and perhaps the beach has a real affinity for him.

Certifiable G-g-g-good Time?
This column by The Union Leader's John Harrigan, "Ice fishing, a sport for the certifiable," got me thinking about fun, frozen winter days down on Bad Luck Pond with Ed and company ... and I realized that I haven't been ice fishing at all this year. In fact, it's been a long time since we've been down to Douglas to see that branch of the family. Now I like fishing of most sorts, but it takes somebody with Ed's special enthusiasm to me worked up about dragging a sled around a frozen pond while the wind scours across the ice and the water sloshing out of the freshly augured holes turns your gloves into inflexible ice-gauntlets. He manages it, though, and I've never had a bad time on Bad Luck, even in the dead of winter, and even when the fish aren't biting.

Somewhat odd to be thinking of ice fishing, though, as we pack our bathing suits and beach towels (and I pack up my salt water fly fishing gear) for a visit to Florida's Gulf Coast this week.

Good Grief...
Charlie Brown ... Christian or existentialist? Child of God or abandoned by the universe? Nathan Radke examines the existential Charlie Brown in Philosophy Today. After reading the essay, I'm not convinced that this was what Schultz was going for ... then again, when Radke quotes Sartre on how comforting it would be not to be an existentialist, it makes me wonder if Sartre got what Sartre was going for ...

"If you are born cowards, you can be quite content, you can do nothing about it and you will be cowards all your life whatever you do; and if you are born heroes you can again be quite content; you will be heroes all your life, eating and drinking heroically. Whereas the existentialist says that the coward makes himself cowardly, the hero makes himself heroic; and that there is always the possibility for the coward to give up cowardice and for the hero to stop being a hero."

Good grief. Only a simplistic sense of determinism could bear the first premise. Because the most common of human instincts seems to me to be: "I was not born for this, I was born for something more... why am I not what I was made to be?" So the coward will always wonder if he's not actually a bungled hero and the hero will always wonder if his cowardice is about to be found out.

Ancient Cities, Lost Tombs and Particle Physics
It's long been a mystery what type of government ruled Teotihuacan, a massive, ancient city in what is now Mexico. The name means City of the Gods and was bestowed on it by the Aztecs, who discovered it long after its fall. Now scientists figure they can peer back into that distant past and find an answer by counting muons. Muons are elementary particles about 209 times bigger than an electron. They're created when cosmic protons hit the atmosphere. Then they rain down and are absorbed by matter. By counting muons in the Pyramid of the Sun, scientists hope to determine whether there's a tomb or tombs in it. If there are more than one, it could lend credence to a co-rulership hypothesis.

On a much less scientific note, Kristen and I climbed the Pyramid of the Sun a few years back. There's a little metal disk in the middle of the top, and tourists were charging their crystals and jewelry on it. They said it was an ancient ley line marker. It looked like a modern survey marker to me. But what do I know? Our guide had just spent the last half hour hustling me around gift shops where they'd pumped me full of free tequila. Yum ... tequila ... Maybe they were feeling the muons...

Answered Prayer?
Ask for fine weather and you get it! Even though I spent most of the day in front of a computer deep in the bunker in Hudson, Kristen and David had a nice walk to the library, and I got home early enough for a quick run before the light went. Felt good to exercise. Haven't been running, just using the Nordic Track because of the cold. Until a few weeks ago, that is. I didn't realize that the exercise machine shook Rob and Cat's ceiling downstairs - apparently hard enough to finally knock a globe off their light and bop little Max in the head. (He was uninjured, but I felt badly anyhow.) So it's back to the pavement for me! And I'm sure I'll be the better for it; running on the street during a New Hampshire winter develops a toughness Nordic Trackers could only fantasize about.

Dratted Cold!
All right, it was a bit warmer than sub-arctic today, but still not that balmy mid-twenties sort of weather that makes a walk in the woods or up a mountain with a toddler tolerable. As were all going a bit stir crazy, the only good alternative after church was to put the baby-pack in the trunk and drive down to Manchester, where we hiked around the mall three or four times, listened to the Peruvian flute player and let David ride the carousel. Most amazing - we braved the temple of Mammon for nearly two hours without spending more than the $1.25 for Kristen's Sprite Remix and the $1.75 for David's trip on the merry-go-round. Cheap, and it's always nice when I'm with David and Kristen, but it still wasn't a day in the mountains. Let's pray for blue skies and temps in the mid-thirties.