Dichroic Reflections

assorted news and opinion

Assorted and random news:

• My husband and boat are currently in Oregon. However I did sort of manage a half-marathon on the erg this weekend - 15km on Saturday and 6km on Sunday. I took this morning off after realizing I hadn't had an off day since Wednesday, but I wish I had decided that before setting the alarm and waking up to it at 5 AM.


• Apparently there are fairy doors springing up in Ann Arbor.


• I haven't talked much about the Israel-Lebanon war here, mostly because it leaves me at a loss for words. How can Israel not respond to terrorist attacks on their country? How can Lebanon simply "throw Hammas out of government", as some are calling for, if they were legally voted in? But it's worth noting that only 1 civilian was killed rather than 40 in the attack on Houla. Maybe it does pay to warn people. Meanwhile I grieve for the one, while I rejoice for the 39 whose deaths were greatly exaggerated. If casualties on both sides of a war were reported side by side instead o each side only reporting their own, or at best reporting in separate news articles, I wonder if the wars themselves would diminish? Perception may not equal reality, but often it influences it.


• I have about two feet of the Trellis and Vine scarf done, but I keep having to be stern with myself to work on it. Partly that's just normal boredom with a long project, but another part is that the yarn I picked, while gorgeous and soft, just doesn't show this patteern well. I keep wanting to set it aside and start something else instead.


• I have finished and submitted the wine cozy pattern - I'm calling it Wooldridge, after a winery in Oregon we visited, because the name seems so appropriate. I've started a second one, and plan to give both to my in-laws for Christmas, maybe with one of those chilling sleeves you put in the freezer. (Maybe one with said sleeve for white wines and one without for reds?)


• I am hooked on these Marvel Essential collections. I bought Fantastic Four #4 and Uncanny X-Men #1 this weekend.


• I'm not so impressed with the Phoenix Public Market. Smaller than I'd hopes, the veggies were OK but not spectacular, and the handspun yarn vendor had mostly bulky weight stuff that wasn't too appealing in an Arizona August. Also I was stupid and drove the convertible, realizing only after I got there that I wouold have felt much safer leaving the pickup parked in a downtown lot.


• I seem to be much more productive when Rudder's not around. I think part of that is not wasting energy on things that aren't my priorities and part of that is that deciding what to do is easier when there's only one person's preferences and appetites to consult. I miss him anyway, though.

So that covers Rudder, rowing, politics, knitting, books, and local news. What else do I write about anyway?

One thing I've been thinking about is women who stay at home to take care of kids or just because they want to. (Not including those who have jobs where they work from home for a salary; that's a different situation.) In theory I'm all for the right to make choices, for women or men. Actually, I think sometimes men get shafted. I worked in one place where it was rumored that it was much easier for women to negotiate part-time work, because it was assumed they were caring for children, than for men. Even if the men were caring for children, even if the women weren't. My other caveat comes from a show I watched the other day. It was a reality show centered around helping people with bad financial skills get on track, and on this episode there was a woman and her fiancee who were living with her father, without paying rent. The woman was a SAHM "because I'm not going to go work at a job I hate, just to make money". The fiancee worked a whopping nine hours per week. Meanwhile the woman's father was working two jobs and going into debt to support this family.

Now, I agree that childcare is an important job and so is many other that doesn't pay, and I have a lot of respect for those who do it well. If you decide you can do it best by being at home full-time, more power to you, and if you sacrifice luxuries or spend a lot of time figuring out how to stay within your budget I'll respect you all the more. I know that often a stay-at-home's time and ingenuity can contribute immensely to the family budget. (Same goes for those who stay at home to pursue other non-monetary work.) But if you have kids, and they are not fed or clothed adequately - not in designer gear, but in functional clothing - just because you're worried you "won't like" an outside job, you forfeit any respect. If you survive by mooching off of someone else's hard work, the same goes. I'm not talking about a partner, who has participated in the decision to have one person stay home; that person is presumably benefiting by having the best care for his or her children or by having the house well-kept and comfortable. Or maybe he / she's just benefiting from having a happy and more serene spouse, having decided that the family has enough money to get by on one income. Whatever; it's having a say that counts. But when you mooch off someone who doesn't get a say in the matter that's dishonorable. And it raises my esteem all the more for those who struggle with the decision and do what they must, whatever it is, to care for themselves and their families.