August 4, 2014: The Girls Go to the Library

A writing term with which I have often struggled is forgo and forego. Many dictionaries even list forego as an alternative spelling of forgo. However, upon some research, they are actually two different words.  Learning that they are two different works, one meaning to come before and the other meaning to do without, is really important.  No wonder I have always had so much trouble figuring out the spelling and understanding why the spelling was what it was.

Today it occurred to me that since DNA was first discovered in 1953 that means that I have been alive for quite a bit more than half of the total known history of DNA. DNA is so fundamental to our understanding of life and the universe yet it now is evident to me that it was a relatively new discovered still when I was young and that I am among the very oldest who grew up with knowledge of DNA and its role being obvious, accepted and simply taught as known science rather than as a new discovery! Of course, DNA being what it is, it is very unlikely that it would have been discovered very long ago. But that still doesn’t stop it from being really amazing that it was discovered so close to when I was born.

Dominica took the girls to the Peekskill Library today. They had fun and got some books to take home. Dominica has decided that regular library trips are going to be a regular part of the school experience for the girls. As they need so many books for their school stuff this will be a cost saving measure too. Liesl was a bit overwhelmed by all of the books and couldn’t figure out what to do. Luciana dove right in and found books for herself. They both had fun, though.

The electrician that Dominica called the other day came this evening to fix our broken electrical box outside that has been plaguing us for several weeks. I had to work late this evening, not leaving the office until seven so was not home to deal with him.  He was done by the time that I got home.  That electrical box has been hanging over our heads for a month or two.  The homeowner’s association has been on us to get it fixed but we did not know what to do to get it fixed.  What a pain that has been. And now it cost another surprise $140.  Argh.  There is always something.

Liesl and Luciana got a new reading video game tonight that Liesl is super excited about.  She played it for maybe four hours today!  Dominica said that her reading is really coming along too.  She has learned a lot of words and really just needs to build up her confidence now.

We watched a little 30 Rock tonight and Liesl played games through all of it.  Got the girls to bed at ten.  Luciana got a new iPad game called “Puppy Doctor” and the girls did a great job of playing that together in bed.

I had worked to do so sat up working in the bedroom office for a few hours until just after midnight.  Dominica brought her laptop up and used it in bed so that she could be in the room with me.

I am so excited that SGL is back on track and up to date again.  Things are so much easier to record as they happen and it is so much more useful to let people know what is happening at the same time.

I talked to dad today and he mentioned that the grocery store in Pavilion, the one that I used to go to all of the time with mom when I was very little, is gone.  I had heard when I was back home at my high school reunion that it had burned down.  Dad looked up the news, it was June 1st that it burned down.  It was just a tiny little place, right on route 63 in downtown Pavilion.  It was the cornerstone of that little village.  We used to go there all of the time and it was a really significant part of my childhood.  That’s where I learned what a grocery store was.  It is still the place that I picture when I picture a grocery store.

It hasn’t been the same place in decades.  It changed long ago.  But the building was at least there.  It was Reinhart’s when I was little.  No idea what it has been for the last twenty years.  I still know where everything was in there, though.

Many years ago I noticed that the similar little Wise grocery store that used to be in downtown Wyoming, just up the highway from Pavilion, was gone too.  All the little places are disappearing.  It just isn’t the same anymore.  They were so small that today they are more like convenience stores than groceries.

Dominica did the first postings in the girls’ online educational blog today too.  We have decided that part of their education is going to be blogging and recording their entire school experience.  That way they will be able to go back and see, quite literally, everything that they have ever done.  We have nothing like that from our generation and I don’t know of any schools today doing anything like this.  Our plan is to attempt to record all of the stuff that they study, all of the projects that they do and all of the trips that they take.  In a way it will be like they are building a portfolio of their work.  But not a little portfolio, instead a massive, multimedia portfolio of the entirety of their educational experiences that they will be able to share in real time with their cousins and grandparents and families.  That way they can keep in closer connection with everyone and everyone can keep track of their progress.  It should be really interesting.

One of the reasons that I really wanted to try this is because as the girls get older they will lack things like speaking in front of a class or writing for a semi-anonymous teacher.  But instead when the girls write essays or do an art project, it is not just for their class but it is something that will be saved and shared.  This should bring a very different aspect to the experience.  Writing for real people, like I do when I am blogging here, causes you to approach the task very differently.  You know that things will be read, that people will respond.  It makes what you do so much more important.  And they will be able to reference things that they do later too which, I hope, is useful.

And because it is a blog they can do pictures, audio, video, text, graphs, charts, documents or just about anything that you can imagine.

We almost completely paid off one of the big credit cards tonight.  We would have easily paid it completely off had we not had to pay for those crazy attic repairs this month.  So frustrating how many massive surprise bills there always seem to be.