Daily Update

Weight: 223

Currently Reading (fiction): Keep the Aspidistra Flying, George Orwell. I’ve read this book twice before, but not since college (or maybe right after college). It’s one of Orwell’s most satirical books, but also the only one that actually has a happy ending. It’s all about a young aspiring writer’s struggle to get published and support himself financially in the meantime, all while not giving into the “money world.” Sound like anyone you know?

Currently Reading (non-fiction): Walking the Bible, Bruce Feiler. I actually haven’t started this one yet...I planned on starting it last night, but I was too tired.

Currently Listening To: My Favorite Headache, Geddy Lee.

Rush Lyric of the Day: We’ve taken care of everything, the words you read and the songs you sing.

Hailey Update: Hailey’s behavior has just been atrocious this week. It started on Sunday and was bad all day, and then bad yesterday and this morning too. We’ve been trying to get her to go to the bathroom, and she’s been going through the typical shenanigans of dirtying her underwear, and then not going when we force her on to the toilet. She’s started screaming bloody murder – full, open mouth, screaming at the top of her lungs – when we make her sit on the toilet. Over and over and over again. Scream, scream, scream. Then she screams more when I flush the toilet, irrationally terrified that it’s going to get plugged up. She won’t go to bed at night. She acts up in the morning because she’s tired. She won’t talk at school and tries to hang on to my arm when I drop her off, so I can’t leave. I was late to work this morning. It’s so frustrating and makes me feel utterly incapable of handling her. I’ve seriously been thinking this week that we may need to get her some counseling. I don’t know what to do with her. She’s utterly unparentable at times. Either that, or we’re utterly incapable of parenting.

Work/Money Update: We’ve got a new receptionist – our third now since I started – and Joel’s last day was Friday. I paid our bills last night and even with Melanie’s extra paycheck in August, we’re still not ahead. As always, as soon as you get ahead in one area, you fall behind somewhere else – she got that extra paycheck this month, but this month we also had to pay $140 for Hailey’s dance class, and Melanie’s car insurance was due. So if it’s not one thing, it’s another. It’s so annoying. Every time there is a chance to get ahead, something smacks you back down. I don’t know how I can expect to start X-ray tech school and work two jobs, even if the second job is just a day or two each week. When will I have time to write, much less spend time with my family or read or anything else?

Lexington Plane Crash Update: This plane crash happened about 4 miles from our house, as the crow flies. One of the main landing lanes for the airport goes right over our neighborhood, so we see planes all the time. I haven’t seen a complete passenger list yet, but from what I’ve seen and heard so far, I didn’t personally know anyone on the plane. But of course, there are a lot of people around who did know people. Several of the teachers at Melanie’s school knew people, and the father of one of the little boys at Hailey’s school (not in her class) was on the flight. Also, my friend Bill up in Cincinnati...his mother was a neighbor in Burlington with the pilot.

Today in History, August 29:

1350 – The naval Battle of Winchelsea is won by the English under the command of Edward III and his son, the Black Prince, over a Spanish fleet.

1533 – The last Inca emperor, Atahualpa, is executed by Spanish conquistadors.

1831 – Michael Faraday discovers electromagnetic induction.

1877 – Death of Brigham Young, and the beginning of his journey to Kolob.

1896 – Chop suey is invented...in NEW YORK CITY.

1911 – Ishi, the last known member of the Native American Yana people, emerges from the wilderness and makes contact for the first time with European Americans. He is the last known Native American to live the majority of his life outside of contact with European American society. His name was given to him by anthropologists. In the Yana tradition, it was bad luck to say one’s own name, and since he was the only surviving member of his tribe, no one ever knew what his real name was.

1915 – Birth of Ingrid Bergman.

1952 – The premiere of John Cage’s Four Minutes and Thirty-Three Seconds. It was a piano piece in three movements, with no notes. It was literally 4 minutes and 33 seconds of silence.

1958 – Birth of Michael Jackson.

1966 – The last Beatles concert takes place in San Francisco, California.

1982 – Death of Ingrid Bergman.

2005 – Hurricane Katrina makes landfall on the Gulf Coast.