Sunday, Oct. 23, 2005 - 3:52 p.m.

Success!-moon pic

E has learned to read. She is so proud, and does well. She needed sight-say more than my best readers did, but also knows how to use phonics. I find it very ironic that my worst reader, 2s, is also the child that reads most like me--anything he can get his hands on and as much as he can.

He and s came over yesterday and spent several hours. s and I spent time playing with google earth. I have such fun with that program. s was amazed that she could even see the field she rides in, and then we had to go visit her girlfriends. 2s even got in on the act later, as he wanted to see the layout of the hills and ridges near the closed gold mining enterprise to the south of us. He has definite ideas about finding gold, and I wouldn't be surprised to see him strike off in that direction when the girls are through school, and he is ready to retire.

Some of the places we were interested in can be seen from only a few thousand feet up in the air. One of the most amazing things I have seen with google earth is a mound in the middle of the bay where I used to live as an early teen. ONce my friend and I took our inner tubes across that bay, and way out in the middle we touched the bottom. It really scared both of us, and we imagined all sorts of horrifying things waiting to grab us, and paddled like mad to the opposite shore. Fom the air via google earth, I could see a shallow spot in the lake right where the mound would have been. I don't know what would account for it since the lake is pretty closed off in that arm, but perhaps there is runoff that has created a hump out there.

This is a beautiful time of the year. Even at night, there are amazing things to see. I have watched the moon and Mars compete for attention every night this last week, and I have heard the northern lights have been visible in the wee hours of the morning. the moon stays up until about noon or one in our western sky, and I took some pictures of it yesterday. Maybe I will stick one here.

When I think how I struggled to put my first pictures up here, I am amazed at how effortless it is now. For me, any thing new has a pretty steep learning curve, but once I have learned it, the information stays pretty close as long as I use it. It would be nice to be a 'show-me' learner but that is just not the way I am made.

EE's devotional

newAutumn Leaves

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