it's that post-thanksgiving, late afternoon sunset and i'm sitting in my chair watching the sun go down over a melting-snow landscape. the snow is actually quite rare and probably won't be back for a little bit but we consider it wonderful, as snow melts and seeps into the ground, whereas rain just takes the dust and washes it off.

a traditional thanksgiving to me has a snowstorm wednesday night, and then again sunday night, so i can now say that we've had at least half of one. we had the turkey, and stuffing, and mashed potatoes, and pumpkin pie - my wife is really quite excellent at it, and wants to do it herself - and even the kids, four teenagers, all came in and joined at one table for a happy meal. unusual for us as we've had kids who deliberately did not want to be part of that family thing and would occasionally go out of their way to avoid it.

no football here - i'm alone with my triptophane, and my computer, and the sunset, though my wife is sleeping right across from me. i had my booster last night - that means i am clear - but i have less a sense of freedom from worry, and more one that just, well, there will be another shot soon enough coming down the pike. the pharmacy guy was eager to stab me and didn't bother me about being like twenty minutes late for the appointment. he was ready, he was grateful, and he was positive. but watch out, he said, you'll feel it tomorrow.

and here it is tomorrow, and i'm trying to get back to my book. in my book a young girl goes to college in michigan and finds most of the women want to just get married and raise kids - women can't have a career in those days, 1870, and that's fine with most of them. not fine with her. she becomes an elocutionist and goes of to philadelphia to finish her education.

in philadelphia she sees a lot of things, but one of them is the controversy over the centennial exhibit's handling of women. women get their own pavilion, because all the main-house space has been taken over by foreign visitors. but the pavilion has a problem too - most of women's achievements are domestic achievements - how to wash clothes better, how to cook with new tools, etc. - and that just highlights the fact that that's about all women are able to do. Sure they can sing, or entertain, or look fancy (dresses in that era were quite a production) - but, you couldn't find a woman who, say, invented electricity, or even made advances in science, as marie curie and those who followed her were still a few years off.

the women in charge actually printed a newspaper, the new century, that was a hot item in its day. it wasn't quite radical enough for some, but to most, it represented the general idea that the times were a-changin'.

An excellent review of Tall Corn State, by Livi Brooks, whose blog I greatly respect:
https://livibrooksbooks.wixsite.com/website/post/book-analysis-tall-corn-state-by-thomas-leverett

in this month of gratitude i wake up and with my only cup of coffee huddle in my winter shirt and blanket by the morning window. yesterday morning i looked out and didn't see the little car, the new one, so i panicked, got out of my seat, went outside, and there it was, pulled way forward, out of my sight, but apparently there.

later my wife went out and found out that it had indeed been totaled, wrecked, but somehow driven back and parked in that unusual way. a couple of teenagers including one of mine had somehow taken the key, gone for a ride, and hit an elk. a fifteen thousand dollar car down the drain in one stupid move, but insurance most likely won't cover it, unless we were to somehow use a lawyer to prove it was theft. my immediate impulse is that we will probably take a big hit here, down one good car at the beginning of winter, and unable to come up with a massive repair bill for major damage to its front. yet somehow they were able to drive it back.

well the kids are good and repentant, and the one who was driving may never ba back to stay overnight, and that may be a major benefit, since he seems to be going in a different direction from the rest. but yet i sit with my coffee here this morning, actually grateful - that they lived (hitting an elk is a life-threatening situation, especially near the cliffs and mountains where it happened) - that they seem to be ok in health (the driver was sitting on top of his own seat belts) - that what appeared to be shock on my son's part was just that, and nothing worse.

down one car, down to an 180,000-mile beater, is a temporary condition - but still somewhat severe as the snows come in. i don't think the financial planners had this accounted for when they were doing their christmas plans. but i also think that since it's mostly teens who would be the recipients of those plans, there will be some understanding of why things are the way they are. it's not like santa is still holding a big promise out in front of them any more. they can recognize when their own foolishness costs them. of course the two who are still in line to get their licenses, and who have done nothing wrong, may not see it that way. but they have a lot to hold against their bigger brother anyway, and can just hold this as one more thing against him.

mom points out that we obviously have to protect this kid from being unable to say no to anyone, in particular a kid who always gets him in trouble. you can't protect a kid from being unable to say no. such things, i mull over with my morning coffee.

Beginner's Guide to Quakerism

New pamphlet, homemade and sent out on the snail-mail post. Details here.

a little tired tonight because making eleven pamphlets caused a strain on my back. only eleven, and it took all afternoon. but they were fine quaker pamphlets, part of an order of twenty, and i'm getting the process better so it won't be as darn long and painful next time.

the quaker pamphlets are called beginner's guide to quakerism - look for an advert on these very pages very soon, as soon as I can take a picture of it. it's very cute, twenty pages, very small, written by four of us, maurine, margaret, fernando and me.

i never did update this blog, even a little, even though the new autobiography kind of glorifies it. that's because, at my core, i'm non-commercial. i can go out there and peddle my books, ok, but my heart says, you get what you see, here i am, there is not more, and i'm not really going to put lipstick on a pig, so to speak. well let's just say not fixing it up is part of its general theme of it being all me, no caps.

homeschooling my daughter is exhausting, though it's only a couple of hours a day; my wife covers the rest, and i'm doing well with what i've got, though i believe she is getting the full brunt of what happens when your parents turn into teachers. poor kid. the isolation of not being in school is beginning to get to her as well, i think, and so a depression might kick in. but she was pretty clear - she wasn't being treated well at school. she couldn't keep up. she couldn't handle the pressure they were putting her under, and at the same time do what she was supposed to be doing.

would love to be doing a lot more research on elizabeth mansfield, my great grandmother. she was a gilded age women's rights pioneer, and broke the 'taboo' against women owning businesses in toledo ohio. if the book is about her alone, i'll call it the elocutionist...

i'll keep you posted.