A Bath and a Good Book.

O.K., I took a bath and a shower. I wasn’t that dirty, but there were a few things to be done. One: I needed to eliminate the sore muscles building up in my legs and back. Two: I also wanted to read the book I bought at the Pima County Air Museum. Third: The shower was for me to wash up…who does that in a bath? Fourth: was for Toby. Toby has not had a bath for a while, and he wore his color for a whole week…usually we leave it off when he is just home. It leaves a grey mark around his throat. Fifth: I needed to shave…I don’t have to clean out the sink that way (I hope that was not TMI).

Oh, and the C-133 book is great. It is a good book. Now, I had better explain that there are several types of good books, as far as I can tell. The best type is one that you just can’t put down. You have to read it to the end. (this type is rare, but, I will give you at least one example: Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows. I could not put it down)

Another good book is one that, though, the storyline is fair, the writing is simply too fun to pass up. ( I have had only a few of these: Tom Robbins writes this way. It is so descriptive and so fun that you feel compelled to see how else he will use the language. Also, my personal favorite: Douglas Adams and his Hitch Hiker’s Guide to the Galaxy. Don’t bother watching the movie, it sucks if you have even breathed a whiff of the pages from the book)

The third type is one that you can read over and over again. (the Harry Potter series is that way for me. I have also enjoyed reading a few science fiction novels over and over: I read The Hitch Hikers Guide every couple years, I have read several books by Allen Steele over and over, too. There are others, and usually it is because they are a comfort read.)

The last type is one that has a depth of knowledge that is difficult to undermine with poor writing, usually, it is subject oriented. My book is this fourth type, it is about the C-133 in particular and military airlift in general. I have been enjoying learning about something that I did not know about. Cora probably has similar books on biology that she feels the same about.

So, there is my semi-philosophy on good books. Wonder if it works for you…

Oh, and why did I have sore muscles? I taught PE today. Much like when I taught music, I feel the need to interact with the kids. This time, it was ball tag…which means carrying a ball around if you are IT and then dropping it as soon as you touch someone with it…fun. Also there were a few variations to the freeze tag I grew up with…one where the child crawls between the frozen child’s legs and thaws them out like that. The other was called Toilet Tag…the frozen child put their arm out and others would come by and “flush” them by pushing their arm down. It was interesting to see a boy, who did not know I saw him, run up to a frozen friend and pretend to pee on him, then flush…I almost got mad at him, but it was over so fast that no one else saw and I was too far away to make it threatening…plus I would have had trouble not laughing. I played a few times. I had speed, but, alas, not endurance. I was great out of the gates for about three minutes, then all my extremities got heavy and did not want to work anymore. Also, I was out of breath by that third minute.

The final thing is something called Pin Blaster…I have seen them do it before. It is a free for all where everyone throws balls trying to knock down others’ pins. The kids seem to like it. I thought I might have a better way, plus it would prevent me…I thought… from running around as much. I had each student grab a bowling pin and go guard it. I then stood in the center of the gym and proceeded to take all the balls and knock down students’ pins. Those whose pins I knocked over could join me in the center and then take their frustrations out on their friends’ pins…so long as they only threw from within a 10 foot circle marked on the ground. They seemed to like it. Some would simply stand in front of their pin and let the ball bounce off of them, others were more proactive about balls, slapping or catching them. I liked the ones who simply stood in front of their balls. I liked trying to get the balls to ricochet off the wall and bounce in at their pin from behind. By the end of the day I was becoming proficient…the kids did very good, and all seemed to enjoy themselves.

Cora is likely to download the pictures some time this evening, which means I will get to have pictures from our vacation to post. I am too tired to do much of anything…besides, the TV is right there and the laptop is here and all I need is to have Cora grab me another Pepsi…ah, life is good.