where has the past year gone?

Tashi delek! Julley, julley! To Tibet and back (no kidding.)
But seriously now folks, being back is fine, except that I want to be THERE. There is too much oxygen here- too much everything.

And here we are again in the throes of the February homework rush. Teachers seem to think that giving a child a list of obscure inventors and telling them to go to the library to get a book about the people on the list is a good idea for an extended lesson. Well, for all you would be authors out there, we sure could stand some books on the people who invented the electric windshield wiper, the furnace blower, and the hairbrush. If they could be written on a third grade level, with lots of color photographs (of folks that lived in the 19th century), that would be even better. For some of the folks our young customers seek, the only information available is the patent number and their name. Not exactly riveting reading or inspirational! Wow! Patent number 17239894913939!! Gee, Mom, I want to be an inventor, just like her!

It's also hard not to tell the kid that is hell bent on making a volcano for the science fair that he is the 35th one from his school to ask for the directions, and that it's not really an experiment anyway. I wonder what happened to the kid that insisted that his teacher said it would be just fine to bring "a fake bomb" to school for his project. My personal opinion is that she just wanted to get rid of him for the rest of the year, and that he's in juvenile detention somewhere. Or maybe Gitmo.

I have a new favorite reference question! "What about the eel?" slips to number 2. The new question, asked by an actual grown-up who is probably driving in the car next to yours and chatting on the cell phone while she lights a cigarette is: "What is this third dimension that people are talking about?" That's the spot in the reference interview that I'd love to be able to say, "What people are talking about it? Can I hear them, too?" I don't' think it's the folks at her MENSA meeting. Maybe it's the people in her fillings, or the ones in her cell phone. Why don't people I hang around with talk about this so-called third dimension? Maybe it's because everyone I know is FLAT. We just edge around on our paper. At least things are always looking up if you are flat- unless a whim of the wind flips you over. What indeed is this third dimension people are talking about? And why don't they talk about the fourth and fifth dimensions? (Surrey on down!) (geezer reference- sorry, kids) Which reminds me- I saw the old Monty Python skit of the extreme sport of sidewalk climbing. It was filmed so that it appeared as if the sidewalks were vertical surfaces. Very tricky, getting over those curbstones!

Mitty is stringing together longer and longer sentences these days:
"HEY! Come check on the bird!"
"There are chairs in here."
"I'm not busy."
"Oh, isn't Scout a good-good doggie!"
"Do ya think ya could turn on the light?"
"HEY! Let the bird out!"

I wish my friend could travel with me back to the mountains. I wonder what she'd say!