Two More from Travailles

Greetings from Travailles

Tim handed me 6 photos from his parents that they thought we'd enjoy. This first one is a test of my new high speed connection. I'm not going to reduce this, as I usually do, to less than 100 mb. I'm just going to send it as is and see what happens.

Are We Rome?

I recently read an interesting, well written book comparing ancient Rome at it's height to modern America. If you google 'Are We Rome' you will find many links to reviews etc. It was interesting to read about Rome's history and see the parallels that we are repeating today. Below is an exerpt from a review on Amazon.com written by Daniel B. Clendenin: (i made the bold words)
"After a short prologue, Murphy devotes one chapter each to six parallels of "direct relevance" between ancient Rome and modern America. Both empires exhibit the symptoms of solipsism-- an exaggerated self-identity, the isolating effects of exceptionalism, ignorance of others, the presumptions of privilege, and sheer arrogance. Militarism characterizes both societies. Today America has 700 bases in 60 countries, and in any one year will conduct "operations" of some sort in 170 countries. Murphy suggests that our military is both "too large to be affordable, and too small to do everything it is asked to do." He then turns to how America has blurred the distinctions between the private and public (government) sectors, "the deflection of public purpose by private interest." Outsourcing government responsibilities might be effective and even necessary, but selling the public good for private profit isn't. The fourth parallel between Rome and America is the disdain with which both view outsiders ("barbarians") as inferior. Fifth, Murphy explores the complex notion of borders, both literal (eg, immigration) and figurative. Finally, in his epilogue he examines the "inherent complexity" of large empires like Rome and America. Are they ungovernable?"
An interesting observation was made in the epilogue that the 'fall' was really not noticeable until decades after it happened. Finding the peak of an empire is much harder to find than say the peak of a stock price. Many aspects of the Roman empire carried on even centuries after it's apex. After reading this book i wonder has America reached it's peak already? What can we do as a nation and as individuals to improve life in this country and the world? Murphy talks about his book if you click here.

Mighty Casey Has Struck Out!

Alas, for Paul and Faith and all their kids and the people of Roseau and all the people living in north western Minnesota and everybody in the world who likes to cheer for the little guy. The undefeated Roseau hockey team, tiny in size but mighty in spirit, the team the experts thought would win it all handily, met its tragic fate and got trounced by Hill Murray. What was it. . .the semi finals? So don't expect to hear anything from Paul for many a day. He is, I'm sure, numb and paralyzed with grief.

From the Archives

We borrowed a slide projector for 3 days from the library and then got my scanner running on windows vista. Here are 5 slides that were pretty good. It takes about 10 minutes to do each batch of 4 slides that become JPEG's. These are from 1976 except for the Halsey street house which is from 1971. Hope you enjoy them.

Beaten/Unbeaten

Global warming? Bring it on. Yes, it's been very cold up here for the past month or so. I'm sure that's why I haven't been posting lately.

JaNae was a battered wife in the one-act play this year. Their play, 'Dragons', was very good. It took first place at sections. They certainly would have won the regional competition, also, if the judges would have chosen the most emotional play. JaNae did a great job, as did her make-up team.

While we're on the subject - the Roseau boys hockey team is 25-0 this season. They're rated #1 in the state heading into the playoffs which begin tomorrow.

And, speaking of hockey, the girls hockey team is headed to state for the first time. They will be playing their first game on Wednesday.

Frozen Computers???

I heard that Paul had some cool weather way up there in Northern Minnesota. Have your computers frozen?? We haven't seen any blogger postings lately. Have you begun to thaw out yet?

Christoffer is a homeowner!

Here are a few shots of the house CBS bought a few weeks ago. He is about 4 miles away from us.

Stepping Boldly into the 21st Century

The Lindstroms have been quiet for awhile. One reason is that the Lindstroms have moved from a dial up connection to high speed access. We have been spending the past few weeks enjoying the new "wonderful world of color"!

Things have been quiet here (quiet is good). So as an excuse for announcing our coming out I have posted a picture from the delightful "three kings" celebration at Greg and Denise's house, documenting my wife's thorough delight and approval of the anticipation of the wedding of Amy and Jadon.

Christmas Day

This post finishes the items on Christmas at the Lindstroms. One tradition we have is to work on a puzzle.

The puzzle needs to be difficult in some way or other. This year there were two dimensions to the difficulty. The first degree was color: every piece was a shade of blue.

Second was speed: we needed to put pieces together faster than Pepper could pull them asunder.

More Egg Nog for crying out loud!!!

MORE EGG NOG PLEASE!

Apparently, I wasn't the only one hitting the Nog. I haven't used my camera since Christmas and lo and behold what I found! A good time was had by all, I think. You decide who had the most fun!

What do you all think about the movie SICKO?

I think we need to have a little more feedback and politics on the blog. What are your opinions on this subject?? How can we fix health care in this country??? We watched this movie at work last week and thought it was pretty good since our medical benefits have been getting worse and worse over the years. It was very well done for a documentary.

Splashzooka 65

I hate to introduce a sour note into all this Christmas cheer but the white elephant gifting at the Lindstrom household had its problems. I submit the Supersoaker CPS Splashzooka 65.



1. Before any gift was opened I made a public announcement stating specifically that one of the rules of participation in the white elephant was that everyone must take home with them the gift they selected. Shortly after everyone left, this was found laying on the couch. Now my sons are no snitches and so even though they knew whose it was they refused to tell me. They did give me a hint - the culprit's name rhymes with "Gosh".

2. But even more important. Before we commenced the white elephant opening, I proposed a rule that every white elephant gift had to be fully functional. I was readily booed and scoffed. But I will not be bulllied! There is a difference between a "white elephant: and "garbage". Item in point is the above mentioned Splashzooka 65. I have explored this device up and down the internet and can state categorically that the Splashzooka 65 is worthless unless one has a Q.F.D. (quick fill device). Without the corresponding Q.F.D. this item is not a white elephand but garbage.

A Holiday At Home...

Since everyone is getting out there Christmas pictures I thought I would share some from our Christmas day celebration here in Lakeville. It was pretty relaxing with a nice brunch to start off the day. Once we were finished with presents, we plunged into a game of Monopoly that ended up lasting for four hours. I think we'll choose a shorter game next year. It was nice to have everyone together. Amy's been gone for the last two Christmas' in Australia and the year before that I was in South Padre Island.

Chrstmas in Alaska

After looking at the priceless ceramic holy cows for
two posts i thought you might be ready to see Christmas from Alaska.

The Cattle Were Lowing

I think I've got it! A mere two weeks and it's solved. We were putting away Christmas stuff and I noticed a family resemblence with our nativity scene and the five cows. My (tentative) conclusion is that it is a member of the nativity.

The Yellow Cows

At the behest of the Roseau Clan we did white elephants. I forgot to take pictures of that event. Perhaps someone else did.



Anyway, this is what I got, and I am devoting all my mental energies this coming year to figuring out what it is. I've shown it to many people. A medical friend thinks they're cows, so I'm going on that assumption until I hear otherwise. But to my mind the "cows" look like professional cartoon characters from somewhere or other. I know this site is exposed to the entire blogosphere so perhaps there is someone out there in the wide world who can help me out.



It has five small holes at the tips of the fingers and one larger hole on the bottom. Those four tiny black dots are pieces of rubber.

Christmas Eve II

There were more people taking pictures than there were people having their pictures taken. (Does that even make sense?)


The kids didn't need any eggnog to start acting silly.

Eggnog!

As usual, Steve provided the eggnog and pickled herring for Christmas Eve. But this year there has been a lot of speculation about what exactly went into Steve's eggnog. For example here is a picture of Greg before he drank the eggnog.

And this is Greg after the egg nog.