digressions and busy-ness

Digression the first: There is something bizarre in CNN reporting that RUssia is using inflatable tanks in order to give the impression of greater military strength than the actuality. Churchill didn’t know how good he had it in those pre-CNN days when England used the same tactic. (OK, Chuurchill didn’t have it good at all in WWII. But at least he had an infrastructure that allowed secret-keeping.)

Digression the second: I am rereading Arthur Ransome’s We Didn’t Mean to Go to Sea, one of the Swallows & Amazons books. I think tis may be my first reread, since my initial rereading of the book can’t have been more than two years ago, so this time around I’ve been noticing how beautifully he sets everything up. It’s a bit astonishing how many little tiny unnoticeable (by me on first reading) things happen earlier on that set the stage for the later adventures; someone is always saying regretfully, “We won’t need that on this trip” and then of course they do. The only thing that bothers me is how many useful things Jim Braden just happened to mention, that we never got told about earlier on. (And of course the ending is one giant deus ex machina coincidence, but I can live with that. Especially as things would have worked out anyway, just not so nicely.) Also, I am thinking that these are the perfect books for people to have read who then grew up to read Josephine Tey – something about the way the characters understand each other in this book and in Brat Farrar is is very similar. Here it’s all narrated a bit more clearly, which makes perfect sense for something aimed at juvenile readers.

Digrssion the third: Last night I went rowing. On the way there I realized that rowing was eating into my social life, and it felt peversely good. For one thing it’s nice to have enough of a social life to be eaten into. (A bunch of the local Americans tend to go out for ribs on Thursday nights.) But it wasn’t that mostly; it was that it feels like being back to being a real rower with real trianing, when it starts to impact the rest of your life. It was kind of like old times, except that the rowing directly interefered with going out instead of just interfering because I had to get up at OhGod o’clock and couldn’t go out the night before.

What I was going to write about: My life is about to get hectic.
I’ve been thinking that I may go up to Amsterdam for the day tomorrow. On the other hand, maybe I won’t; this weekend and next will be quiet, but things are going to get frantic quickly. Next week I have nothing more taxing than (hopefully) a dinner with friends from Taiwan and an all-day offsite meeting where I have to present. But after that…

On September 19 I will be rowing in the Rondje Eindhoven, a few days later my mom comes to visit, we spend five days of her visit in London, then it looks like I may move to a new flat *while* she’s here (I’ll have movers to do the heavy part; I’m not making my mother do that!) then a few days after she leaves I go to Taiwan. I need to be there for a few days to help Ted pack up, but I’m going to go for two weeks and just work out of that office instead of this one. And then Ted’s here!

Of course, “insanely busy” is only one perspective on it. The other view goes, “blah blah blah scenic rowing tour blah blah blah vacation blah blah London” blah blah big new apartment blah blah routine work at my old desk with my old coworkers blah staying with my husband”. It’s much harder to whine about that interpretation.