Home again, home again.

Well, I went down to see my folks yesterday.

For those who don't know, my parents live 100 miles or so from me, on 80 acres which holds their house, a grass-strip runway and a hangar and shed, a small enclosure for the guys who come out to fly model airplanes on our runway, and most recently a little house next door for my grandfather.

Well, the pond that they dug last year (when it was dry and my dad claimed it was a meteor crater) has finally filled up with water, so you can sit on the dock and look out at it, and my mom says they get a lot of bird visitors.

The newest addition to the yard, though, is a telephone pole, complete with glass insulators on the little pegs. Seems someone had dropped it in the creek on our property, and rather than try to dispose of it by burning or something, they decided to put it up. It's about 20-30' high, and the insulators look really pretty. I'll try to get pics at Thanksgiving. I'm not sure if it's taller than their flagpole, though.

They have a new dog named Jake, who is very young and very spring-loaded, but like his namesake will eat anything. He ate some paper towels while I was there, despite my trying to take them away.

Oh, I also cleaned my car out and helped my dad change the oil (only 7500 miles since 13 months ago when I last got it changed there) and he put in a new water pump because mine had given up. I'll go out and take pics of the car in a wee bit, as soon as I wake up and stop staggering around.

63% of teen pregnancies are none of our business.

So, once again, that old canard about red states and teen pregnancy has reared its ugly head. "Red states have more teen pregnancies and more abortions than blue states."

And it's come to my attention that we're getting it for our abstinence education. Well, I'm against one and for the other--( want to see which one? Warning! Religious bits inside! )

And for the record...

There is a slightly unhappy little girl at my house.

You see, I told said little girl that I would look for a pretty pair of shoes for her. And I went out shopping alone.

And in three different stores, the only available choices were:

a) boring, black, unisex sneakers
b) boring, white, unisex sneakers
c) sparkly/shiny/sequined/pink-and-purple shoes that any little girl would go nuts, beg, and throw a tantrum to get-- with 2" heels, ensuring that any parent with a modicum of social conservativeness would refuse to get them. (Boy, was I glad she wasn't with me.)

So, we have the black boring shoes. I'm going to look for her some sparkly shoelaces, at least.