Did Gyre And Gimble In The Wabe:

3:33 AM.


I couldn't sleep this morning, but in all fairness I went to bed after the kids did and before Martha came off her latest Dance Moms binge, and I shouldn't complain about that because the show is kind of growing on me (especially the Pittsburgh-based Abby Lee Dance Academy vs. Canton-based Candy Apples Dance Center episodes aka Abby vs. Cathy). I can't picture Dance Moms ever winning an award for makeup and styling -- seriously, the close-ups done on individuals under lights and camera make them look ... what's a polite word for this ... plastered.


Not plastered as in drunk, plastered as in this is how their make-up was put on!


But it HAS won awards, I am learning; out of seven awards the show's been nominated for in the last five years, it's won two -- a 2013 BMI [Broadcast Music, Inc.] Film & TV Award and a 2015 Kids' Choice Award from Nickelodeon for Favorite Reality Show. Like I said, it grows on you, and since 2015 evidently grew wings and flew to Los Angeles as well. I can only hope that Sarah and Jeffrey on their first day of school today (that's their picture included here, we take one of them in front of our house every first and last day of school -- actually, I think this is the first one Martha took of them. Sarah's starting fifth grade and Jeffrey fourth.) are not asked where they went on their summer vacation.


The furthest we went out of Minot was to that family reunion in July in Bowdon.


So we stayed home, mainly because we couldn't afford to go anywhere big. I can live with that. Starting school from the other posts I've seen at possibly the latest time in the civilized world, I'm thinking now that even if we can't physically tour the sites where the Revolutionary War (not to be confused with the American Revolution, it's a fine line) was fought, we can get a grip on how people thought and acted and felt by reading history, the older the better. I finished Bruce Bliven, Jr.'s 1958 The American Revolution (SBN 0394846966) yesterday and got reminded of Washington.


George Washington wasn't so great.


At first, lest you bring out the tar and feathers for me. (I see them!) Congress appointed him commander-in-chief because the then-Thirteen Colonies were glad to accept someone from the middle of the country. My understanding's another Virginian, a "Mr. Jefferson" as one of my Stetson professors referred to him, authored the Declaration of Independence, but I digress. Washington had the money and status to bring in more money and status on the side of the colonists against Great Britain, but he was smart enough in his on-the-job training to not only remain among the soldiers he commanded without enjoying the privileges of rank but also to whittle away at the then-largest army on the planet.


The older the books you read, the less interpretation you have to deal with.


Speaking of books, today's also the day I had planned to have my novel "Victory" finished. I have twenty-six out of thirty-six chapters done and I don't see that happening ... but you know, the fact I even planned and laid our steps to accomplish my goal says more than I would have if I had -- as I've done for years -- just said I'm going to be done and then just made it a vague, nebulous something. I know and I can elaborate for you how my story will be done. I even have ideas for the foreword I'm putting in, which seems fair since the previous novel in my Progeny Cycle series Legacy (which is finished, look it up at Amazon or AuthorHouse, ISBN 1425907431) came out ten years ago!


You do need SOME idea of what's going on,


David