A Week in Review

Hello All. It's Friday morning, and I'm feeling reflective. Let's do a Week in Review .

Again
In my ever-lasting quest for a page layout that really suits me, I’ve changed my blog again. I’m still not sure how I feel about this one. You know, the constant changing may give you the best picture of me – indecisive. I honestly can’t make up my mind.

David McCullough
Last night I went to an event called A Celebration of Family History in the Conference Center. There's been a family history conference going on in town this week with lots of people from all over the country attending. This event was a part of that conference, and it was fantastic. I lucked out getting tickets. A coworker had some that he wasn't going to use, so I grabbed them, not so much because of my interest in family history, but because I really love David McCullough. He is the writer of the books “John Adams” (later made into a great HBO mini-series), “1776”, “Truman”, “The Johnstown Flood”, and more.

He had so much to say, and I wish that I had a pen and paper with me, or could just get a transcript to share with you. I will try to tell one of his stories. McCullough was an English major, and after graduation he decided to try writing a book about a flood that wiped out the small town of Johnstown, PA. He'd never done historical research or writing before, and wasn't sure where to start, so he went the public library and asked for information on the flood. They referred him to a book called the Dictionary of Biographies. He sat down with that and got to work. And now he's an acclaimed, Pulitzer Prize winning historical writer. Fascinating. He said that he hasn’t known much about any of his topics before starting a project. He just dives in. I think that's so interesting. Too often I, maybe all of us, think we'd like to do something but feel so unqualified. What if Mr. McCullough had let that stop him? We shouldn't let it stop us, either, none of us.

The Car
I get my new car tomorrow. Mom and Marla have been on the road since Wednesday. It takes a while to drive from Minnesota. I'm excited, but I'm also having a hard time picturing myself in a new car. I've driven the Honda since October 1996. Some of you have gotten married, had children, finished school, and bought houses since then. Meanwhile, I've been here with my car. Dad told me to take the Honda to a junk yard and leave it, but I don't know that my heart can take that. I keep thinking that I'll keep it around and just drive it every now and then. Of course, that means keeping insurance on both cars, and that would be dumb. I'll probably be sensible and sell it to a junk yard for the parts, and then cry a little. Silly, it is just a car, no reason to be sentimental...

That's it for today - just a short review. Thanks, as always, for your continued alliance.
You are loved.