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Last year: Things Liz Is Waffling About |
But I grumbled, as I typed in my password and selected the correct domain, that I wished they'd left a note to tell me what it was they were doing. It's sortof annoying.
As I waited for everything to finish logging in, I happened to glance at the whiteboard where it hangs over my desk, and there in blue whiteboard marker, it read: "8/17/00 Liz - I was at your PC checking updates. -D." Oh. Heh.
I'm more than a little irritated with the A/C repair people. They're fairly prompt in responding to our calls, but the guy they keep sending out is little more than useless. He didn't listen to my description of the problem until he'd done a pointless repair, and then when he did listen, he insisted on an impossible cause. (He thinks the problem is that the breaker is tripping. But since the problem fixes itself without us resetting the breaker, that can't be it. Besides, even if it was the breaker, there's something wrong that it's being tripped now when it hasn't ever before.)
I hate to sound like a cynic, but... Our warranty on this thing is up in a few weeks. I could almost suspect them of stalling so they can make us pay them to fix it.
I spent most of yesterday reading The Poisonwood Bible. I got sucked in pretty hard, and couldn't put it down. It's the story of a family who, in 1960, travel into what is then known as the Congo in order to do missionary work. The story is told from the points of view of the mother and the four daughters of the family, in turn, each from their own unique perspective. The problem is that the patriarch of the family, a Baptist preacher, is more concerned with wiping out what he sees as sin than doing charitable works or helping the natives in any way. He thinks it should be patently obvious to these people that Christianity is the only possible road to salvation, and that they should have welcomed him with open arms the instant he stepped off the plane.
Throughout the book, he makes no attempt to meet the natives on their own ground, or even to understand them. I don't consider myself a Christian, but I found myself hoping for his redemption. I kept thinking, "If you would just be willing to take it a little slower, if you'd just be willing to compromise the tiniest bit, you'd have them." You catch more flies with honey than vinegar, as they say. I enjoyed the brief glimpses of the previous missionary, a man who had "gone native" and was much beloved by the village.
At any rate, if you're not up on your African history (and I know I wasn't, going into this book) this was a time of considerable political turmoil for the area, with larger powers (the U.S. among them) jockeying for control of the country's considerable natural wealth. And while this missionary family doesn't get involved in the politics, they are greatly affected by them. What was supposed to be a one year mission of mercy turns into... Well, I don't want to spoil anything for you - but more than one member of the family never leaves Africa.
I do have to say that the entire final third of the book felt like an overly long epilogue, and I think it could - and should - have been compressed into a couple of chapters. In fact, with just a touch more information given, the last third of the book could have been entirely replaced with the last chapter from each person's point of view.
My rating (though I don't usually bother to rate books) would be about 7 out of 10. Excellent story, engaging characters who were all very distinct and real to me, a history lesson the way I prefer them (that is, from the point of view of the people who were actually affected), and a moving tale... But the writing could have been a bit better.
Word of the Day: jog trot - a horse's slow, measured trot; a routine habit or course of action, esp. monotonous
Speaking of monotonous... The Word of the Day is beginning to feel to me sortof like those unbearably tedious exercises in grade school where we had to use each of our vocabularly words in a sentence... You know the ones. So, today's poll:
- River of Blue Fire by Tad Williams
Current Projects:
- nothing special
Diet Progress: 3 lbs lost
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