Monday, January 29, 2007
Fractal Broccolli
Wednesday, January 24, 2007
Books on tape
Jacob and I drive a lot. Most days we go back and forth to school a couple times - half an hour at least each way. Trips to San Francisco and Stanford are longer.
So we listen to books, mostly on tape, sometimes CD or iPod: classics (Candide, To Kill a Mockingbird) funny ones, (Hitchhikers' Guide to the Galaxy, Kurt vonnegutt, Bartimaeus), Mysteries (Sherlock Holmes, Dorothy Sayers, Tony Hillerman, Laurie King) and uncatagorizable ones(the Diamond Age). You can order them online at the San Mateo Public Library and they deliver them to the branch of your choice.
Today we finished Cannery Row, a book I always assumed I'd already read, long ago in some English class. I didn't expect much beyond the pleasure of reading about a familiar place, but I had never read it and I was bowled over.
I think Jacob was too.
There are some books that are simply better read aloud, and this was one of them. The narrator is Jerry Farden, and he was terrific.
The suspense got so bad sometimes, I couldn't stand it and had to turn off the tape - and all that was at stake was whether a party came off. My friend Sue, who hates suspense, often reads the last chapter of a book first so she doesn't have to worry about what is going to happen. For the first time I think I understood.
At the end of the book, one of the great chacters, Doc, reads a poem.
I looked it up - it's a translation from an ancient Sanskrit poem, published in English as Black Marigolds. It is beautiful.
Here's a link to the poem, but you might want to listen to the whole book:
Black Marigolds
So we listen to books, mostly on tape, sometimes CD or iPod: classics (Candide, To Kill a Mockingbird) funny ones, (Hitchhikers' Guide to the Galaxy, Kurt vonnegutt, Bartimaeus), Mysteries (Sherlock Holmes, Dorothy Sayers, Tony Hillerman, Laurie King) and uncatagorizable ones(the Diamond Age). You can order them online at the San Mateo Public Library and they deliver them to the branch of your choice.
Today we finished Cannery Row, a book I always assumed I'd already read, long ago in some English class. I didn't expect much beyond the pleasure of reading about a familiar place, but I had never read it and I was bowled over.
I think Jacob was too.
There are some books that are simply better read aloud, and this was one of them. The narrator is Jerry Farden, and he was terrific.
The suspense got so bad sometimes, I couldn't stand it and had to turn off the tape - and all that was at stake was whether a party came off. My friend Sue, who hates suspense, often reads the last chapter of a book first so she doesn't have to worry about what is going to happen. For the first time I think I understood.
At the end of the book, one of the great chacters, Doc, reads a poem.
I looked it up - it's a translation from an ancient Sanskrit poem, published in English as Black Marigolds. It is beautiful.
Here's a link to the poem, but you might want to listen to the whole book:
Wednesday, January 17, 2007
One Way to beat the cold
Alex came up with a way to beat the cold - a bonfire of abandoned christmas trees.
They went up like fireworks.
They went up like fireworks.
Tuesday, January 09, 2007
Happy, Happy New Year
Despite tragedies, big and small, there has been some great news for the new year already:
Our Governator, Arnold Schwarzenegger, has proposed a plan to extend health coverage to everyone - everyone! - in California.
We have been beyond fortunate, throughout Jacob's odyssey, to have truely excellent health insurance.
When he was first diagnosed nearly three years ago in 2004, our then insurance company, Principal, assigned us a wonderful, compassionate case manager: an experienced pediatric oncology RN who helped us through the dreadful period of learning the health care ropes.
After the relapse, as the stem cell transplant loomed, we were lucky enough to switch to Blue Cross, and they've been terrific as well.
But we've had the tense late night discussions - what if? What if we lose Jacob's coverage, and have, for some reason, to find coverage on our own. Just facing the possibility is terrifying enough. It's all too real to me what it is like for families living with it day after day.
So this proposal is huge, tremendously important, wonderful news.
If you want to know more, here is a link to a Chronicle Editorial and a Press Release from the Governer's office, and if you have the stamina, here is a link to the actual text of the proposal.
ps. of course I've had my struggles with the insurance companies, mostly about medications, but the scale on which they've supported us dwarfs everything else.
Our Governator, Arnold Schwarzenegger, has proposed a plan to extend health coverage to everyone - everyone! - in California.
We have been beyond fortunate, throughout Jacob's odyssey, to have truely excellent health insurance.
When he was first diagnosed nearly three years ago in 2004, our then insurance company, Principal, assigned us a wonderful, compassionate case manager: an experienced pediatric oncology RN who helped us through the dreadful period of learning the health care ropes.
After the relapse, as the stem cell transplant loomed, we were lucky enough to switch to Blue Cross, and they've been terrific as well.
But we've had the tense late night discussions - what if? What if we lose Jacob's coverage, and have, for some reason, to find coverage on our own. Just facing the possibility is terrifying enough. It's all too real to me what it is like for families living with it day after day.
So this proposal is huge, tremendously important, wonderful news.
If you want to know more, here is a link to a Chronicle Editorial and a Press Release from the Governer's office, and if you have the stamina, here is a link to the actual text of the proposal.
ps. of course I've had my struggles with the insurance companies, mostly about medications, but the scale on which they've supported us dwarfs everything else.
