It's All A Numbers Game

 

 

 

 

6. My favorite Doctor (of the Doctor Who science fiction franchise; he's the one with the curly ginger hair who looks like he got dressed in the dark), although I seem to be in a minority on that. I just finished reading the novel Players (ISBN 9781849905213) by Terrance Dicks, originally published in 1999 and reprinted to celebrate Doctor Who's fiftieth anniversary. One of my favorite fictional characters collaborates with one of my favorite historical characters, Winston Churchill, to thwart the ambitions of the Players, enigmatic characters who “play” history like it's a chess game and look to influence events by removing major characters. And toward the end of the story which alternates between 1901, 1915 (when the Doctor first met Churchill in the Time Lord's past and Churchill's future), and 1936, you're left with an unsettling – at least to me – question. How are the Doctor's and his companions' traveling through histories to right wrongs any different than a big chess game?

 

 

 

 

20. The number of dollars Sarah, Jeffrey, and I spent last night at our local Pizza Ranch during a fundraiser being held from five to nine pm for Feed Our Starving Children, a non-profit Christian organization where communities come together to hand-pack meals formulated for malnourished children. Our next day for people of all ages here in Minot to pack the meals is the Saturday after Thanksgiving, and twenty percent – that would be four dollars – of what we paid for their all you can eat buffet went directly to Feed My Starving Children. I was on the eight-person Breakfast with the Boys team a few years ago when Pastor Gerald organized the event here, and I expect I'll do it again, but I'm not sure yet with which team. Got some ideas cogitating in this head of mine … after we ate and met several other church members there at a less intense time (after I got off work and got the kids, so around eight) and Jeffrey picked out a great table!

392. The number of students I heard yesterday were enrolled at Longfellow Elementary where our kids Josceline, Sarah, and Jeffrey started third, second, and first grades this morning! And if you remember reading my post yesterday, I DID get to go to their open house for a bit and the place is huge! The reason for the increased enrollment is because Longfellow took in the student body (kindergarten through fifth grade) of Lincoln Elementary which got so damaged in the flood two years ago that it had to be destroyed. This being the first day of school Martha and I brought Sarah and Jeffrey to school and met Sharon, Breanna, and Josceline – correction: she is our niece, not our daughter, but she is our goddaughter and I think we the extended family do better than her natural parents, but I digress – there and signed them up for Community Learning Center (CLC), an after-school program for homework help and the occasional field trip. It's gonna be an awesome day!

2341. In case I cannot be here tomorrow, let me wish a very HAPPY BIRTHDAY to Julian Bashir, chief medical officer of Deep Space Nine (from the Star Trek science fiction franchise). The year he was born is established in a television episode, and I believe the date is an expanded universe – read: from the novels and games – addition.

2536. The further away I get from my weekend the harder it is to write about it … and quite a bit happened. Saturday I had the kids and Breanna with me at a bingo party and Martha and I were blessed with enough money to buy the kids some good school clothes that afternoon. And I'm the one who got to bring Josceline, Sarah, and Jeffrey home with me for a while because of some … issues … that happened at WalMart. Sunday our church met in the Scandinavian Heritage Park and held a potluck afterward, and that afternoon was our – Martha's and mine – first time visiting someone in prison. Nothing like you see on TV; indeed, I think if it were not for three-year-old Shane “running” about with his sisters and aunt talking with us in the waiting room we would have all gone stir-crazy. Don't think anyone wants to be in jail, but it can even get more frustrating waiting to see someone there. But worth it, for if we don't visit those in prison, who do they have?

David