Read In Rain Bows

Finally! We get some rain. This is the extent of the flooding here.

I know I am getting absolutely no sympathy from everyone on the East Coast. I have heard from JiJi and Babci and Papa and all say that areas that were peaceful, meandering creeks have turned into raging waters. Thank the gods, everyone is doing okay.

Today, though, I just want to curl up and finish reading my book. I'm so tempted to leave the TV on all day for the kids. It's one of the rainy, cool, fall days, cloudy, damp and chilly. If I knew anything about my fireplace (it IS or WAS gas) I would have a fire going. I really, really miss New England in Autumn.

Last night, as I was contemplating the Full Hunter's Moon during Her fleeting glimpses, I got to thinking about how different our society was less than 250 years ago. Back then, there was much more of a tribal feel to families and villages even though there was so much wilderness in between settled areas. Today, in 2005, there are more people crowded into smaller and smaller areas, so much on top of each other so that it is impossible to ignore one another. Yet, we manage to close ourselves into little boxes that all have cell phones and other wireless gadgets. In our effort to globally connect, we are missing the immediate connection we can have with the person at the next table, if all we did was smile and say "Hello".

I used to read romance novels all the time. Not those goofy Harlequin Romances that always seem the same, just change the time period and the names of the main characters. I would read Danielle Steel who I found much more interesting in the strengths of her characters and stories. There was a time when I didn't read much of anything. However, for the past 15 years, I have been reading thriller/mystery, science fiction/fantasy, Tolkien and now the classics, Louis L'Amour, Jane Austen, Steinbeck.... anything homeschooling related and lots of non-fiction books on a wide variety of topics. Daddy and I love to read.

So, recently, a friend slobbered all over herself telling me of young James Fraser and his wife, Claire, a triage nurse who served in WWII (thats right, the math doesn't add up) in a book she lent me, Outlander by Diana Gabaldon. It is the first in a series (of six) that follows the meeting and life paths of the two main characters. It weaves time-travel, Scottish and English History, The Stuart Uprising, piracy and the years in the American colonies just before the Revolution into a book that was impossible for me to put down. Since time travel has always been something I have been interested in, I quickly finished that one and moved on to the others (in order), Dragonfly in Amber, Voyager, The Drums of Autumn and The Firey Cross. When I traveled back East a few weeks ago, I brought The Firey Cross which is 1,443 pages in paperback. I was traveling alone and had 12 hours of uninterrupted time total plane flights. I finished it as my plane touched back down in Los Angeles. A few days later the latest book was published, A Breath of Snow and Ashes. I made myself wait a few days before I bought it in hardback. Not a small thing at 979 pages. I'm about 1/2 way through so far. The story is fiction, but the history is rich and wonderful. I warn you, if you are ANY kind of romantic, this story which spans 30 years or so, could be one of the best you may have ever read. If you are looking for a story to get lost in, this is a good one.

As I'm writing this I received an email with a phone number from my friend Jenni who moved to Ireland earlier this month. I'm going to go figure out how to call her.

~~Mama