The Retaining Rodent's Refuge

Kendra, my darling wife, will be the first to tell you--or anyone else--that her husband is, if not a complete pack rat, then certainly a retaining rodent. I have souvenirs from events dating as far back as elementary school, and the only time, it seems, that I remember I have them is when we move--which we have now done twice in less than a year.

Granted, I--and by "I" I mean via Kendra's insistent prodding--jettisoned a lot (for me, anyway) of stuff before our move to Florida--and I am sure that there was a lot more that could have been disposed of. But give me some credit--we went from 11 boxes of Halloween decor to 5.

Although we haven't found a home for everything (there remains the guest room to be tackled before the in-laws' visit in May), I did manage to get all of the holiday decor, along with a bunch of my miscellany, stashed in the small shed in the back yard. I even made room for our three bikes.

One small step for me, one giant leap for rodentkind.

Goodreads Review: Foundation by Isaac Asimov

<a href="http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/76680.Foundation" style="float: left; padding-right: 20px"><img alt="Foundation (Foundation, #1)" border="0" src="http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1320518217m/76680.jpg" /></a><a href="http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/76680.Foundation">Foundation</a> by <a href="http://www.goodreads.com/author/show/16667.Isaac_Asimov">Isaac Asimov</a><br/>
My rating: <a href="http://www.goodreads.com/review/show/316020730">5 of 5 stars</a><br /><br />
I was first introduced to Asimov's <em>Foundation</em> series (nee trilogy) in a high school English class called "Science Fiction: A Look at Tomorrow." One of the choices for the independent read was <em>Second Foundation</em>, and I was consumed by the story of a group of mentalists who were trying to rebuild the shattered remnants of a galactic empire. Naturally, that led me to read the first two books--and the subsequent four additional ones Asimov wrote before his death (not to mention the <em>Robot</em> and <em>Empire</em> books).<br><br>Every couple of years I go back and re-read the stories, partly because they are entertaining, enjoyable reads (you don't have to be a sci-fi fan to appreciate the storytelling, and Asimov never lets the sci get in the way of the fi), but partly because of their prescience. Asimov was not merely a sci-fi writer--he was knowledgeable in a great many fields (as his body of work demonstrates), and history was one of them.<br><br>In <em>Foundation</em>, we are introduced to Hari Seldon, a psychohistorian who has predicted the fall of the current 25,000-year-old empire and the subsequent 30,000 years of barbarism that will follow. To compact this into a mere 1,000 years, Seldon created a mathematical plan and established a settlement, the Foundation, on a remote planet of the empire's periphery. <br><br> covers the first 130-or-so years of this new world: how Seldon's plan predicts the challenges facing this fledgling outpost and how the people in charge kept the course of history from deviating from the Plan. What's more important, however, is what lies beneath the storyline: a not-so-subtle commentary on mankind's myopic method of going through life.
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<a href="http://www.goodreads.com/review/list/5259678-dave-hanna">View all my reviews</a>

Killing Time

Don't you just hate it when you spend your time promoting something than doing the opposite? Yes, I know the term for that is hypocrisy, but that's a little extreme in this instance. You see, in the past I have extolled the virtues of running/jogging (for those of us who enjoy doing so) just for the sake of doing it, and not concerning ourselves with time, pace, or speed (unless, of course, you are training for a race). So what have I been doing since we moved to Florida?

You got it...I have been timing every run diligently, even pausing the stopwatch when I had to wait on a light. Monday I ran one of my short routes and was dismayed that my time was as slow as it was the first time I ran it. So yesterday I didn't run at all. Today, I did...sans watch. And it felt...liberating. It's amazing how much a little Timex strapped to the wrist can weight--psychologically speaking. Once again I jogged just for the sheer enjoyment of doing so...and, in so doing, I freed myself from the bonds of time. Isn't that what our escapes are supposed to do for us?