Long Burn

Walk softly and carry a big stick

Just look at all the time that has passed since my last entry. Where did it go? A lot of it went to correcting exams, teaching and taking care of a scientist from Tokyo. He brought a bunch of great snacks with him as gifts-- roasted bread sticks; dried and shredded fish and squid; strawberry cakes.
I took the day off Friday as a flex-time day. I had worked 14 hours the Saturday before helping host a workshop on photochemistry. And I will be working on Friday next week during the Danish holiday 'the great prayer day'. They used to have a lot of holidays named after various saints and there was a general consensus that it was too much, so they gathered all of the 'little' holidays into this one big prayer day. So I thought it was alright to spend the day at home yesterday. I did some laundry and as luck would have it the weather was simply fabulous, so I could hang the wash out to dry on the line. Worked like a charm. Nothing better than line-dried jeans and t-shirts. The clothes were so dry that the county agents declared them a fire hazard and made me take them back inside, away from all the barbeque grills and the cigarette butts being thrown out of car windows. The only thing was that the whole time I was outside in the sun trying to pin my boxers on the line or fold my t-shirts freestyle, the neighbors new dog was growling and barking at me. The dog is out of control-- very aggressive, looking like it is ready to rush the hedge, leap and shred me from nose to ear. And if I feel that way, what effect will the dog have on our toddler?
Next week I will be visiting the University of Paris to do some experiments. I'm really looking forward to it-- have not been to Paris before. I plan to sneak a few peeks at the city, but most of the time I will be working.
Our 9-year old had a scout overnight last night, a big deal for him because they slept in tents. It was of course wonderful weather for such a trip. His scout group owns an old farmstead at the edge of town-- store their tents in the stable and have a meeting room and kitchen in the house. There are some trees and a fire ring out back-- very nice.
I went to pick him up earlier today and watched their closing ceremony. Each kid got a patch with a tent on it that they can sew on their scout shirts. Then they lowered the flag from the flagpole and everyone saluted except for me. It wasn't my flag that was being lowered. I felt a little self-conscious, but that's just the way it is.
Then I spent the afternoon putting an extension onto the top of the fence between us and our neighbors, so we can't see from our kitchen and dining room into the whole south side of their house and vice versa. It also blocks our view of all the junk they have lying in their yard like a rusty lawn mower, a motorcycle and a two story metal staircase. Good fences make good neighbors, as they say. But will the fence have any effect on the dog?

posted by Matt_J @ 8:52 PM