Storms, Stones, and Dragons

[rolanni]

We got clipped by the least edge of the truly impressive line of thunderstorms that crossed the state last night. The air cooled and the wind came up and we got to turn off the air conditioners (and the lights, and the computers) open the windows and listen to the weather over a companionable glass of wine.

This morning was foggy and damp, but the Weather Beans promised cooler and dryer later. We stepped out early to the gem and mineral show, where I scored four Chinese coins with dragons on them. Seems like the silver content might range from Lite to .9 across the four of them, and they're well worn. But, hey, dragons at a buck the each. What's not to like?

I went food shopping yesterday -- not the best plan, it being Friday and tourist season. As expected the store was full of People from Away, many of whom had apparently never been inside a grocery store before. I escaped being run down several times by various people in a state of sensory overload, and twice by two overstimulated children. The boy of this pair was pushing the cart, his sister was kibitzing. They were doing wheelies and cutting capers behind their mother's back. The first time they just missed involving me, I ignored them. The second time, I said, "If you keep driving like that, they'll take your license away." Whereupon, their mother whipped around, grabbed the girl by the arm and the boy by the basket and said, loudly enough for me to hear, but without ever once acknowledging my existence -- "Didn't I tell you to behave yourselves here?"

Which gives rise to the question of which "here" exactly was under discussion. Didn't I tell you to behave yourselves in the store? Didn't I tell you to behave yourselves in this scary, barbarian state? Didn't I tell you to behave yourselves on this planet? Really, I wish she would've looked at me, so I could have explored these matters with her, but -- no. And so I remain curious, and unsatisfied.

Or at least curious.


Progress on Duainfey

41,160 / 100,000 (41.2%)

Today's Special:
"So," he said to Ganat, "when will you summon the giant birds to bear us to Sea Hold? If you wish to arrive for dinner, it had best be soon."

Comments

[jonquil.livejournal.com]

I can certainly imagine saying "Yes, you can go to the grocery store, but only if you're good." Hence "behave yourself here".

Not defending the misbehavior, mind.

[pakwa26.livejournal.com]

That "here" is certainly subjective, isn't it? I get the impression she was trying to impart that her little darlings behaved beautifully everywhere else except the supermarket...and I can certainly imagine saying to my partner in crime and life "yes, you can stay away from the grocery store, but only if you're good". That works every time.

[kalimeg.livejournal.com]

It's behave yourselves "where there are witnesses!"

[(Anonymous)]

"Behave yourself on this planet" does seem to be setting the standard a bit high for young'uns ... I don't always manage that one myself. Not that we shouldn't strive for it, mind you.

By the way, I'm thoroughly enjoying the regular snippets and they are serving well to whet my appetite for the book. Perhaps too well, given that it'll be a while before it's available in its entirety to us mortals.

OtterB

[mbarker.livejournal.com]

Didn't I tell you to behave yourselves here?"

And on the witness stand, sworn to truth, the court jester cross-examined the lady.

"Did you intend to imply that when they are not-here, they are given license to not behave?"

She gulped. "Could you repeat that? I don't think I know where not-here is?"

"Have you ever noticed that no matter what, children will behave. The question, dear one, is merely what standard one sets for their behavior. Should it be polite or rambunctious?"

She bit her lip. "Does that mean I have to behave, too?"

"Have you noticed that your children crave your attention, and the simplest way to gain that attention is to behave in a way that you dislike? So, in fact, you reward their failure to behave as desired by giving them the attention they crave?"

The crumpled little lady waves a white flag from the witness stand.

"I surrender! I admit to being unarmed in the battle of wits with my children, and I shall certainly consider attempting to gain assistance in dealing with them. But . . . normally they are in school, and I don't have to think! How am I supposed to deal with vacations?"

Here the judge bangs his gavel. "I'm going to rule this way too complicated for judgment. Take it up with a higher court, like the court of public opinion, please? Next case!"

And the curtain falls on our little scene.

One wonders whether a license for parenting (with accompanying education to prepare one) would be a useful aid. I am relatively certain that many people never think about parenting, assuming that instinct will somehow fill in the blanks.

Good luck with the Folks from Away. Are stores in the land of Maine really that different?

Licence for parenting

[keristor.livejournal.com]

My mother, who was a teacher, always noted that if you want to look after other people's children even for an hour a day you need to be 'approved' and trained (now, you also have to go through government background checks) whereas with your own children nothing is required.

[baggette.livejournal.com]

No ! The stores here are not different. I have just returned from visiting in five other states. I had occasion to enter grocery stores in each one. They are so similar as to be BORING.
For myself and my children, I tried to encourage socially acceptable behaviors and limited my instruction to those occassions when I had the ability to correct the behavior by removing them from the venue of mis-behavior. Therefore, 'behave your selves HERE' rather meant the current locallity. I was never permitted to remove them from the planet- isn't that odd?

[noiseinmyhead.livejournal.com]

but did she tell them how to behave?

I always behave one way or another.....

Snippets

[paw3pals.livejournal.com]

Also am enjoying the glimpses. As it is a Baen book, any way to get the snippets over to Binjali's?

Re: Snippets

[mbarker.livejournal.com]

If'n the authors don't mind, we could transplant them easy enough. Might want some language to remind people that this is rough draft stuff which will probably morph significantly on the way to a final text, but . . .

Progress Counter

[phil-boswell.livejournal.com]

One thing I noticed is that the progress counter is not very wide. This means that when I view the feed in Google Reader, for example, it is almost completely collapsed into obscurity. Is it possible to make it wider?

Re: Progress Counter

[keristor.livejournal.com]

The progress counter is actually 5 images (I know this because for some reason when I read in my flist with Firefox it appears as 5 image icons, but when I go in and look at comments it appears as the complete image! This happens with all embedded images in my flist, so it's probably a setup problem). Why your reader shrinks them I don't know...

[pakwa26.livejournal.com]

Y'know, probably the reason she didn't look at you was because that would be "inviting" you to make eye-contact with her, and then you have broken one of the cardinal unspoken rules of the supermarket, which is, 'never make contact of any kind with other people who are also stuck behind the trolley'. It's like talking to people you've never seen before on buses or in queues, it immediately marks you out as 'different', and you are therefore a likely candidate for bag-lady-hood, or if the conversation is directed at their children, child molester-ness.

Interestingly, in my (admittedly childless-by-choice) world, the people who are most likely to make comments about the bad behaviour of children in the supermarket are those without children themselves, as it's well known that she without kin should throw the first scold. [Sorry, couldn't help it.]