Picture Update

The June picture update is here. I'm pretty sure, unless something happens in the next four hours or so, that the baby won't be in this month's pictures ... but we I think we all know who we can expect to see next month!

This month's pictures include some from our peach hunting expedition and some of Aidan's very first pictures that he took himself (they start here and end with the one of the teddy bear).

Running to Stand Still

Renee has wanted to go swimming for days. It's been hot, she's near the end of the pregnancy, and she loves the water. Renee's been overdue for a swim. Except that the circumstances never worked in her favor.

Friday night, Renee wanted to go. I had to work late that night, thinking it was going to be my last full week at work, and I needed to ensure that certain things got handed off. So Renee asked Aidan if he'd go swimming with her, but he refused. Adamantly.

Last Saturday, we finally got things worked out to meet Kathryn and Silas at their pool and a cook-out on the grill. We headed out the door around 5:15 p.m.

Around 5:20 we arrived at the corner of Slaughter Lane and Brodie Lane. We were in the right-hand lane, a lane that has access to a gas station. This gas station isn't very well situated; it can be difficult to get in and out, especially when the tanker is filling up the tanks.

The light turns red and I stop, second in line behind a pick-up truck. Once the light turns green, I follow the truck through the intersection, but the truck stops. I'm not sure why, but I soon realize it's because vehicles are trying to get in and out of the gas station. And, of course, the tanker is there, blocking the way.

I am prone to checking the rear-view mirror a lot lately, as I was in an accident on April 20, where someone rear-ended me; I was alone in the car and other than some relatively minor physical damage to the car, there wasn't anything outrageous about that accident.

As I notice the pick-up truck stop, I slow and then come to a stop; and check my rear-view mirror. There's a car coming and it's not slowing down fast enough. I brace for impact.

The car hits me, then pushes me forward into the truck in front of me. Aidan starts to get a little upset and is whimpering/crying. The truck in front of me, a Ford F-150, is obviously looking for a place to pull over, and starts to pull into the gas station. However, the driver realizes that would be difficult considering the circumstances (too much traffic and the tanker blocking the way), so I follow the truck down to the next driveway for a business that looks closed for the weekend. The car behind me follows.

I turn the engine off and walk to the back of my Element. Not bad. About what I would have expected, especially after my recent experience; the back bumper takes the damage pretty well and doesn't really show much superficial damage. The impact was pretty slow; no one's airbags went off. Maybe this isn't going to be so bad.

I stroll to the front and see radiator fluid leaking and a large diviot in my front end. The F-150 had a trailer hitch and it planted itself neatly into the front of my Element. Really, other than that, the front bumper did pretty well, too. But my radiator is obviously cracked and the front end, while not completely messed-up, is displaced. I start swearing. I'm not going to be able to drive out of this.

If I wasn't rear-ended so recently, I probably would have been okay. But the other accident is still so fresh in my memory and ... well. I lost my temper a little.

Aidan is still a little upset, and Renee seems disturbed, but okay.

Renee walks over to me and helps me (and Aidan) calm down. Once I get my head together, I call my car insurance company (Geico). They get my information, then ask to speak to the driver of the vehicle who hit me. They get his information and then the information for the F-150.

Both other vehicles look fine; there is virtually no damage to the back of the F-150 and the owner says as much — at the scene of the accident, he had no intentions of filing any claim.

The other car, a Lexus RS 300 looks like it was in pretty good shape as well. The front bumper might need replacing, but in a pinch, I don't think anyone would have known that it was the point of impact for the accident. The driver gives me his business card and I learn that he's a capitan for Continential Airlines and from the information on the card, I guess he flies their 757/767 jets.

The driver of the F-150 and I talk for a little while and he tells me that when he stopped, he looked in his rear-view mirror and noticed that I stopped. He was thusly very surprised to feel an impact. He and his passengers (two women and a dog) all seemed to be doing well.

At this point, the heat is getting to all of us. The people from the F-150 provide some juice and water for Renee and Aidan and the driver of the Lexus offers to drive Renee and Aidan home so they don't have to sit in the heat while we wait for a tow. I obviously wasn't thinking very clearly, and I accept. Renee doesn't object, either. (Sending them home with a stranger? What the hell was I thinking?)

I stay and wait for a tow. However, Geico wasn't going to be able tow my car because I didn't have Roadside Assitance with them, and I also wasn't planning on putting the claim through them (I planned on putting my claim through the airline pilot's insurance — it seemed clear-cut that all the damage was the fault of the driver who hit me). That's fine, I said. That's why I pay my dues to AAA.

So Renee, Aidan and the airline pilot head off. The F-150 leaves. I am alone in the heat of Texas and make my call to AAA. After a few moments, they tell me they can send a wrecker out to my location in about 30-40 minutes. So I open all the doors to my car and I sit inside, out of the sun, waiting to get towed.

And then it dawns on me. Renee needs to call Dr. Love's office to make sure that the baby's alright. Renee had shown no ill-effects from the accident, but we never really did properly check the baby. I think everything is probably alright, but still, better safe than sorry. So I call home after what I felt was an appropriate length of time for them to get to the house. No answer.

I panic. I call Kathryn to tell her that, first, we're obviously not coming to go swimming and, second, that I'm an idiot and that my pregnant wife and son were in the car with someone who obviously isn't the best driver on his best day and who knows what other crazy things were part of his résumé. She offers to head directly over to the house and check on them while I wait for the tow. Thank God for friends like Kathryn.

I call the house again; no answer. Great. Now, I'm really panicked. I'm imagining the worst. I call again. Renee answers. Finally, a moment of relief. Everything will be okay. I tell her to call Dr. Love's office and inform her that Kathryn is headed over to be with them at the house.

After a few minutes, either I call Renee again or she calls me (I can't remember which) and her voice is not steady. She's been instructed to go directly to the hospital; she'll need to be there for a minimum of four hours for observation.

My moment of relief is gone. I have a full-blown ulcer at this point. I see Kathryn's truck drive by and I know that at least Renee will have Kathryn to drive her to the hospital and be with her, even if Kathryn doesn't know that yet. But I have to wait for the stupid tow truck; I'll take Renee's car to the hospital once I get home.

I call Monika, our doula, to let her know the situation, except that I get her voicemail. I leave a message, and try the number again, as the voicemail system had told me that there was also a paging option. However, when I call the second time, Monika picks up.

She tells me she was in a movie (sorry, movie folks; please forgive the intrusion) and I tell her about our situation and ask her to call Renee at the house to see if there's anything that needs to be done.

Around the 40-minute mark, a wrecker from All-Star towing shows up. I am eternally grateful and I want to make friends with the driver; he is going to be the beginning of things getting better and forgotten. I greet the driver and notice his name is Gus. I immediately like Gus.

Gus asks me for the police report. What police report, I ask. The police didn't come. We didn't need them. Gus looks a little out of sorts. He tells me that he can't tow my Element without a police report. He says that he could get in trouble for towing a car without a police report.

This all sounds ridiculous to me, but I'm in no place to argue. I just need to get home so I can get to the hospital. I tell Gus the situation; about my wife being nine-months pregnant and about the accident. If you can't tow my car, then please, just give me a lift back to my house, which is only 3 miles away. Gus tells me that he can't do that. He has other calls to make.

I am livid. Gus is not being the person that I need him to be; that I expected him to be. I plead my case one more time. He refuses. I start to run home.

On my way home, sometimes walking, sometimes running, I make some phone calls. I call my friend and Aidan's godfather Jeffrey. I let him know what's up, and that he may be needed to watch Aidan at some point, as I wasn't sure what the situation was with Renee and the baby. I call Monika for an update, but get her voicemail again. I call Kathryn and find out that Renee has since calmed down and is in pretty good spirits. Once Renee find out what I'm doing (running three miles home in 100-degree weather), she tells me to take a shower first before coming ot the hospital.

I call AAA and give them an earful. I tell them the situation. They give me excuses. I tell them that all I need at this point is for someone to tow my car. They make more excuses. I hang up. I call Gieco. Oddly enough, I end up with the same person that I had when I first called the accident in. She's very friendly and tells me not to worry, that they will take care of the car. They tow 24/7. She just wants me to focus on getting to the hospital with my wife. She was much nicer than Gus.

Eventually, I do get home. The heat never really did bother me, nor did the running. At least, not while I was running. Now, I am a little tired, a lot thirsty ... of course, we are all out of cold water so, like an idiot, I don't drink anything. I think about taking a shower, but I"m too wound up. I turn on the computer and e-mail Renee's cousin Matthew, who is a lawyer. I hate AAA and I tell him about it.

My cell phone rings several times; it's Monika telling me that she spoke with Renee and things appear okay for the moment — other than observation reasons, there's nothing to really worry about; Kathryn calls me to remind me to bring the infant car seat — just in case. I think AAA called me and tries to tell me their reasons for not towing. I don't have time for this, I reply. Either tow my car or get off the phone. They continue with excuses. I didn't want to go through any red-tape; I just wanted my car towed and get to the hospital. At this point, they were getting in the way of both things.

Their solutions were paltry and not very useful and required me to do more than I needed or wanted to do (go to the police station, file a report, etc. and then they could come tow). I tell them that I don't have time for this, I need solutions, not excuses or additional forms to fill out or hoops to jump through. Fix the problem or get out of the way. I hang up.

By the way, basically, they were telling me it was a law that tow trucks couldn't pick up cars from an accident without a police report. This perplexes me. Why would this be necessary as it would be next to impossible to tell the difference between a disabled vehicle being towed and an accident vehicle being towed. What would be the probable cause to pull over the driver of the tow truck?

Also, as it turns out, if involved in an auto accident in the state of Texas, you are legally obliged to do the following: move the vehicles out of the right of way, if possible, share insurance information with all parties involved, file an accident report with your insurance within 10 days. Note the lack of police report ...

I eventually get to the hospital, some time around 8 o'clock. Renee got there around 7 o'clock won't be released until 11 o'clock. Kathryn and Doug (her boyfriend) take Silas and Aidan out for dinner (I completely forgot about food). Renee and I catch up while Renee eats a turkey sandwich that the nurse was able to scrounge up for her. I drink all of Renee's Gatorade that she's been saving for labor. So far, it appears, nothing unusual. No contractions, the baby's heartbeat is perfect. Everything appears fine. Finally. Some good news.

I call up the airline pilot's insurance to start the process there. After an eternity, I call AAA again to try and get my car towed. Again, I meet the resistance of a well-entrenched bureaucracy. I give up.

I call Geico and I ask if I add their Roadside Assistance package to my policy right now, can I get my car towed? They told me that I didn't need to do that. They asked me where my car was and where did I need it to be. And that was that. Wow. That sure was easy.

Geico wanted to make arraingements with me to get my car right then, but of course, I was in the hospital. We figured that I should give them a call after I get back to the house, so I can meet the wrecker with the keys, etc. It's a plan.

So ... we finally get home around 11:30ish (maybe 11:45). Everyone is exhausted, but okay. I call Geico on the special hotline I was given to get in straight to the people that knew my story. I was given a reference number that had all my case details in it, so I wouldn't have to tell everyone the whole story again. I feel like I'm finally going to get some closure. I get some hold music. For about 40 minutes I get hold music. Ugh. I didn't know that it was this hard to get a tow.

I get off the tow-my-car hotline, and called the regular number. I am connected to a live person in about 3 minutes. He patched me through to a Roadside Assistance person in about 15 minutes. Mandy, my Roadside Assistance representative, started to call around for available wreckers. By this time, dear reader, you can probably guess what happened: no wreckers available.

So much for 24/7 towing. Mandy is as confused by this as anyone. So she calls around some more. Finally, she has to call towing companies that are non-contract; meaning, I'll have to pay for the tow. Fine. Just get my car moved. Please. Mandy finally, after going through a few of the non-contract towers, gets me one. It'll be about 30-40 minutes before the wrecker can get there, Mandy tells me. That's fine. $130. Fine.

2:00 a.m. Flat-bed wrecker appears and takes my broken car home. Finally, things are going in the right direction. Now I just need to hope that the airline pilot admits to everything and that getting my car fixed goes smoothly.

Renee still hasn't gotten the chance to go swimming, perhaps the Fates don't want her to for some reason. But at least we're all safe and in bed. A little past our bedtimes, but we are all safe.

Week 39

We're down to the final week before the due date and there's lots of excitement in the air!

Dr. Love saw us for the regularly-scheduled visit and felt that the baby was perfectly positioned so no worries about breech or transverse babies at this point. The baby still has plenty of room to move around, but all signs point to a baby heading in the right direction.

Renee is slowly getting over a cold (or allergies, not sure which). Her voice still sounds gruff, yet overall, she's doing well. She has plenty of energy (relatively speaking, and not counting the energy-sapping allergies/cold) and is planning on working as long as she can, or at least up to the due date, so she can spend more time with the baby post-partum.

Observations from School

Some observations from Aidan's teacher at school:

• I watched as Aidan and friends played color dominoes all by themselves. Aidan was helping his friends when they had trouble with their colors.
• Aidan and his friends had cars in line behind each other two-by-two. They were racing their cars like a real race.
• A friend brought in a bagpipe CD for us to enjoy while we were playing. I watched Aidan twist to the left and to the right. Then, he took a friend's hand and started dancing with him.

Week 38

Monika (our doula), Renee, and I went to the doctor's appointment this morning. However, there really wasn't much to discuss. We ened up talking more about Dr. Love's plans for Father's Day: visiting his father on his dad's ranch.

Dr. Love's father keeps bees — I think Dr. Love said that you can get 3 - 5 gallons of honey from one hive — and we listened to Dr. Love reminisce about running around on the ranch as a kid, extracting honey, stuff like that.

His dad is now in his 70s and still likes to keep active. Apparantly, last summer, his dad planted about $5 worth of watermelon seeds and they ended up with well over 200 watermelons. They picked up the melons by the truckload and passed them out to as many friends and relatives as they could. Occassionally, while harvesting, they would throw an over-ripe watermelon over the fence for the horses, only to find out that in a week or so, a new vine had started to grow from the rotten melon. By the end of the summer, they were all sick and tired of watermelons.

That pretty much covers our doctor's visit. Renee's doing well, baby's doing well. Aidan seems to be "real good," his new response to the "how are you" or "how are things going" question.

The baby most likely will have a name; it appears that Renee and I have settled on a boy's name and a girl's name. Aidan has been saying that he wants the baby to be a boy and he also wants the baby's name to have "dragon" in it somewhere. Rest assured, the baby's name doesn't overtly have dragon in it, however we may have found out a way to incorporate the idea.

For those who want to tease themselves, the initials for the baby, if he's a boy, are D.D. If the baby is a girl, the initials will be C.L.

The Kingdoms and the Elves of the Reaches

Okay. Here it goes. My first review of an audible book. Perhaps I should have waited for a more opportune tome.

My latest listen was to Robert Stanek's
The Kingdoms and the Elves of the Reaches. I've seen some reviews on this book that talk about it being the next Lord of the Rings or Harry Potter. Those observations are not completely unfounded; there is a young protaganist who is Harry Potter-like. There are large, epic events occuring that are seen through the eyes of a few individuals.

But that's where the comparions end, at least for me. Since I listened to this book, I'm not 100% sure what the writing is like from the perspective of a reader, but as a listener, I was not impressed. At all. It was completly cliché and predictable. The characters had no personality. And despite the large, epic events that I mentioned earlier, it wasn't until about three-quarters of the way through the book that something adventurous and exciting happened.

Now, one might think that Stanek may have used the first three-quarters of the book for character development and setting the stage for upcoming events. If he did, I missed it.

Perhaps I just wasn't in the right frame of mind to accept the story. Maybe the book just didn't translate well into an audio book (the narrator was utterly distracting, in my opinion, as his accent — from somewhere in Great Britian; I can't be sure where — did nothing for the cliché dialog.

If you are looking for adventure and a fantastical medieval universe, there are better choices: Your first stop should be
Across the Nightingale Floor:Tales of the Otori, Book One, which is an incredible, well written book and would probably be as wonderful a read as it is an audio book (the audio production is quite fantastic and in my estimation brings the book to a whole new level ... but that's for another review at another time).

Grade: D+

Peach Hunting

Last year, we drove about an hour or so outside of Austin to get some freshly picked, wonderful Fredricksberg peaches. We got a basket of them and we ate them quickly; the basket only lasted us a few days.

This year, we found out about a peach orchard that's about 7 miles from our house. Obviously a much shorter ride. And last years peaches were picked for us, which is fine, but what's the fun in that? The orchard around the corner from our house allows you to pick your own, which Aidan loved. He called it "peach hunting."

We gathered up about two baskets worth of peaches, although Aidan had to induldge himself with a peach after we picked the first couple off the trees. He followed us, munching on his very crisp (yet incredibly sweet) peach as Renee and I picked peaches.

The orchard manager eventually came by (his name is Rom) and offered to give Aidan a peach, unaware that Aidan had already helped himself. However, Aidan was too receptive, so Renee and I each got to eat one straight off the tree. Renee's peach was soft, juicy and sweet. Mine was harder, crisp (like Aidan's) and incredibly sweet. I found it odd that the crisp peach (and what I assume to be the less ripe peach) was so much more sweeter than the soft peach Renee was eating. No worries, though. Both peaches were delicious, and we had two baskets full!

The orchard is also right next to a beautiful Hindu temple. After picking our peaches, we strolled the grounds and saw a dozen or so peacocks with baby chicks. It was quite a wonderful day, and all accomplished before the heat of the day knocked us out of commission.

Week 37

This is the first doctor's appointment that I've been able to attend since the sonogram appointment back in week 19. The first thing Dr. Love said when he saw me was, "I haven't seen you in a while. Have you been busy?" My answer was, "yes."

My job has kept me very busy recently and finding time for these things has been difficult. However, put into perspective, I have it easy. At least no one's life is at stake if I slack off or put the family first. I don't see how Dr. Love can lavish as much attention as he does on his patients and keep a family life.

"Balance," was his reply to this. "Which is something they don't teach in med school."

Regardless, I'm very appreciative of Dr. Love's skills and attention and can sympathize with his family. But they can have him when we're done.

The visit was very good and Renee checked out fine; her measurements were right on target. It was refreshing to get to see Dr. Love again and reaffirm that he is indeed the right doctor for us. His philosophy of medical practice fits in well with ours and he takes very good care of Renee (and his patients in general — it confounds me as to how me can have anything left when he gets home). His primary goal — outside of a safely delivered baby and healthy mom — is to avoid a cesarean birth at all costs. That's exactly where we are, too.

Ultimately, I'm glad I was able to attend today, and a little regretful that I haven't been able to attend other appointments. Still, arriving at this appointment wasn't particularly easy for me. I had to ask Renee to take Aidan to school for me in the morning so I could wrap up a project at work before I headed to the appointment.

Of course, Aidan wasn't particularly keen on this (Aidan and I have a good thing going in the morning). To help him understand, Renee told him that I had to go to work in order to meet Mommy and the baby at the doctor's office.

Fast forward to later that afternoon. Renee is picking up Aidan from school as she usually does.

"Did you go to the doctor's today?" Aidan asks.

"Yes," replies Renee.

"You were there a long time," Aidan says. "Why wasn't I there?"

And thus is how we learned that Aidan wants to go to the doctor's appointments with us to see how the baby is doing.

What's Your World View?

For entertainment purposes only, although I think I would agree with their interpretation of my world view....

I scored as Postmodernist.
Postmodernism is the belief in complete open interpretation. You see the universe as a collection of information with varying ways of putting it together. There is no absolute truth for you; even the most hardened facts are open to interpretation. Meaning relies on context and even the language you use to describe things should be subject to analysis.

Week 36

Last night, we met with our doula, Monika, for our first prenatal visit. We covered a lot of basics, such as our expectations of what Monika would do for us. For example, when Renee was pregnant with Aidan, things were generally going very well in the beginning. We had a great nurse who was very supportive, gentle, and friendly. I don't think I heard a negative word out of her, even when Renee's blood pressure was rising.

However, we did eventually go through a shift change and we ended up with a nurse who was quite the opposite of our first nurse. She was full of negativity and was chastising all of us, our doula, myself, Renee, for Renee's high blood pressure. She acted (and reacted) as though Renee wasn't in the room and was generally making things more tense. Needless to say this wasn't helping.

One of our expectations for Monika was that she, at our bidding, would help us deal with the nurses better than our last doula did. In fact, Monika has extensive experience as a labor and delivery nurse, and I believe that she will have the proper demeanor to help us get the help and calm environment that will help make this a good experience, rather than a contentious one.

We also talked about writing our birth plan, something that Monika highly recommends.

Personally, and I think Renee concurs, I'm all for writing the birth plan. I know that births can't really be "planned" per se. To that end, a birth plan doesn't necessarily provide much. However, there's much more that one can get from a birth plan than a deviated script.

Just the act of thinking through the events as you write them out, specifying what you want, what you don't want, etc., can make you aware that you do have options, that sometimes the doctors and nurses aren't necessarily making the choices based on your best interest, but their own. [I'm not trying to imply anything overtly cynical here, other than the fact that doctors and nurses are people and are just as vulnerable to the whims and fancy of fatigue and outside pressures as anyone else.]

Just like anything else, practicing what you want to do, or thinking it through, when things are "good" helps to sort things out when things get a little more chaotic and panicked. This is why NFL teams practice in game-like conditions when they can, such as piping in loud crowd noise over the loudspeakers, so that when it's really happening they can react to it almost by rote memory.

Thus, in addition to working on our birth plan our homework assignment for the next week is to practice visualizations and relaxation techniques. Just 10 minutes a day of deep breathing and thinking thoughts of peace and calm. That way, when things start to get a little hectic, we'll (hopefully) remember some easy, almost rote methods of getting ourselves calm. A relaxed Renee can only help; labor and delivery generally happen a lot easier and quickly if there isn't a lot of tension and panic in the air.

Overall, Renee is feeling well. She looks great and I wouldn't have known that she looks any different than when she was pregnant with Aidan. But the tape measure never lies (unless you don't use it properly).

When she was carrying Aidan, Renee measured 40 inches around her belly in the last weeks of the pregnancy. Her bust and underwire measured 38 inches and 33 inches, respectively.

However, this time, at week 36, Renee is measuring 41 inches around the belly; 40 inches around her bust; 34 inches for her underwire. And she still has another month to go!

Oh, and as best we can tell, the baby is head-down. Or breech. Or possibly transverse. It's really hard to tell, but our spirits are buoyed by the fact that we were able to turn the baby easily last time, so there's hope that, if need be, we can do it again.

Reading vs. Listening

Inspired by an article in The New York Times (registration required to read the article), I decided to write a little bit about books and different ways to consume them.

I would consider myself an avid reader. At least I have been in the past. We have quite the book collection at the house and I can say that I have honestly read the vast majority of the books on the shelves.

However, I will also admit that I did most of my reading prior to 1998. After that I just didn't have a lot of time on my hands. And since Aidan was born, well, let's just say that it's hard to find a quiet hour or so to do anything besides the next thing on the to-do list.

Since 2002 (the year Aidan was born), I've read the following books (all reviewed here on this site):

1. Cosmicomics by Italo Calvino
2. Einstein's Dreams by Alan Lightman
3. Foucault's Pendulum by Umberto Eco
4. The Da Vinci Code by Dan Brown

That's not very impressive for someone who consideres himself an avid reader, even with the cumbersome Foucault's Pendulum thrown in there. Cosmicomics and Einstein's Dreams are very short (less than 150 pages) and all except Eco's work are relatively easy reading (Calvino might be an exception, too). And I'm currently reading The Invention of Morel by Adolfo Bioy Casares, which is about 100 pages long, and it has taken me months to get through it (and not for the subject matter or writing style). I have still not finished the book, although I only have perhaps another 20 pages to go....

Basically, I just don't have the time to read any more. I just can't find the couple of hours in a day or even in a week to sit peacefully with a book. And when I do, I'm too anxious about the other things that I need to get done around the house.

Enter the audio book.

I've been listening to audio books for about one year now (since exactly June 7, 2004, according to my Audible.com account). I've been able to listen during my commute back and forth to work. I've been able to listen while painting rooms in the house. I've been able to listen while doing yard work. I've been able to brush up on my Spanish and listen to special radio shows that I wouldn't have ordinarily even known about, let alone listened to.

Over the last year, I've listened to the following books, almost all of them are unabriged:

1. A People's History of the United States by Howard Zinn
2. A Short History of Nearly Everything by Bill Bryson
3. Across the Nightingale Floor by Lian Hearn
4. America (The Audiobook) by Jon Stewart
5. Brilliance of the Moon by Lian Hearn
6. Double Star by Robert Heinlein
7. Fast Food Nation by Eric Schlosser (while painting our bedroom)
8. Foucault's Pendulum by Umberto Eco (the very abridged edition)
9. Grass for His Pillow by Lian Hearn
10. Hegemony or Survival by Noam Chomsky
11. Life of Pi by Yann Martel
12. Minority Report and Other Stories by Philip K. Dick
13. Snow Crash by Neal Stephenson (while doing a graphic-intense project at work)
14. Starship Troopers by Robert Heinlein (while painting Aidan's bathroom)
15. Art of War by Sun Tzu
16. The Basque History of the World by Mark Kurlansky (while mulching the yard)
17. The DaVinci Code by Dan Brown (my first audio book; I wanted to see how different it was from a book that I recently read)
18. The Fabric of the Cosmos by Brian Greene
19. The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy by Douglas Adams
20. The Idiot by Fyodor Dostoevsky
21. The Known World by Edward P. Jones
22. The Secret Life of Bees by Sue Monk Kidd (while painting the new baby's room)

This is, quite obviously, a tremendous increase. That's 22 books in one year (not counting Spanish lessons and radio programs) compared to 4 over the course of about 3 years.

Still, listening and reading are not the same. I would prefer to read a book, and there are some books that I refuse to listen to, mostly because I hope that I'll be able to read them someday. In fact, I was a bit dubious about even listening to books to begin with, as I considered it a "lesser" medium than the written page.

For sure, books in general were not written with the intention of reading them aloud. And just as there are better and worse interpretations of plays, such as Hamlet, the narrartor and the production values of an audio book can make or break even a great book. The Otori Trilogy by Lian Hearn (three books, starting with Across the Nightingale Floor) is a great example of a wonderfully executed audio book. I can't tell you if the writing was good or not. But the story was excellent, as were the performances of the two readers. I was completely excited about all three books, as Renee will atest. There aren't enough good things to say about this experience.

However, the book I'm listening to now, The Kingdoms and the Elves of the Reaches by Robert Stanek is not living up to expectations. The story received rave reviews from others, but the narrator is quite probably ruining the story for me. I just can't stand his voice. Hopefully the story will win out and it won't matter who's reading it. As of right now, I'm not very excited about this book.

One precious memory that books still evoke is the level of comfort and peace that a page conveys to me. Yet, as I once was connecting books with a particular moment of reading too late into the night (The Fountainhead), or coffee shop (Notes from the Underground) or with a certain period of my life, I have now been able to appreciate audio books in a new, but similar way. Actually, I've been able to make connections with audio books in a similar way that music evokes a particular memory for me.

For example, I equate mulching the yard with The Basque History of the World. And that's not a bad thing. Whenever I'm in the yard, looking at the mulch, I'm thinking about Guernica and how the Basque will likely never get what they want from the Spanish, but why they will most likely be able to survive.

After reading a book, I usually like to write a little something about it. It helps me digest the story and ideas and helps me to keep the book in my head. However, I couldn't do this with audio books, because I felt that the experience that one would have with the book would vary too greatly, as I wouldn't be able to simiply write about the words on the paper, but I would have to also talk about the performances, production, etc.

But no more! Audio books have found a new place in my literary life and from henceforth, I will begin to write my reviews of the audio books I come across. Hopefully, I will be able to go back (time permitting, of course) and write up something on the audio books listed above.

After rereading what I just wrote, that's an awful bold statement coming from a guy who's about to have a new addition to the family some time in the next 30 days or so ....

I'm Not Dead Yet, or Forever = 69 Years

As many of you may already know, Deep Throat has revealed himself. And Bob Woodward et al. from the Washington Post have confirmed that W. Mark Felt was indeed played by Hal Holbrook.

While this revelation seems to be largely considered a big deal, I have to admit that I am a bit disappointed. I am not old enough to have been too emotionally involved in the whole Watergate scandal — perhaps this is part of the reason for my feeling a bit underwhelmed at the news.

However, I am old enough to realize the affects of this event on politics, journalism, and the government. Because of that (and potentially because of All the President's Men), I thought the identity of Deep Throat was a terribly intersesting mystery. Right up there with "who shot JFK" and "are there UFOs."

Perhaps my expectations were shaped too much by the movie. Was I expecting some dramatic reveal, like they have at the end of all those decorating shows on T.V.? Possibly. That would have been interesting, for sure. But Woodward had said that he wouldn't reveal the identity of Deep Throat until that persons death, so this whole thing just feels a little premature. Or even anti-climatic. He's not dead yet. Maybe I'm just disappointed that there isn't a mystery to be solved.

Although it now seems (I could have sworn I heard this on NPR this morning, but I cannot find the link to the story) that some people in the know aren't sure how someone of Felt's position could even have had the information he fed to Woodward (Felt, at one point, supposedly said that he had information that even the FBI didn't have, which is odd considering that Felt was second in command at the FBI). I guess we'll have to open an investigation into just what the FBI does and does not know, even if people in the FBI know it. I smell a conspiracy!

Oh, well. I guess this isn't the first time that I've been disappointed by knowing a secret. Or, as one might say, as soon as a secret is revealed, it becomes little.

In other news, John Lennon wrote Strawberry Fields Forever as an homage to a Salvation Army home for disadvantaged children. As it turns out, they are closing their doors after 69 years. I'm not sure why I'm mentioning this story, other than it just struck me as oddly sad.