Musings on Andy Weir

 This is going to be kind of rambling, I suspect.

Andy Weir is a now very famous author who has published three books: the Martian, Artemis, and Project Hail Mary. 

He was a software engineer and total science nerd who wrote The Martian for fun and posted it free on his personal website.  He had written many other things before that, but The Martian was the most popular.   A bunch of people loved it (which is reasonable -- it is AWESOME) and asked him to put it into Kindle format. He did, priced it at 99 cents, and threw it up on Amazon.  It was enormously successful and a publishing house came calling and published it and it was a hit.  Then a movie was made from the book, which is also really good.

So I adore The Martian except for one thing, which is there is a lot of profanity. I don't like profanity. But it is such a wonderful book that I have read it several times and just skip over the profanity.  The basic idea is that an astronaut gets stranded on a Martian base in the near future and has to figure out how to survive while people on Earth struggle to rescue him.  The protagonist is funny and witty and so even though he faces life and death situations frequently, it isn't too heavy.

Weir wrote Artemis next and I read like one or two chapters and gave up because I really didn't like the main character.

THEN came Project Hail Mary, which was released in May.  Since it was destined to be a best seller, the Kindle version sells for $14.99.  I just can't handle that. I can't.  Wow.  Too much money for a book which I might have hated. Yes, I am cheap.  So I got in the queue to borrow it from the library and weeks later, I got it.  I read it this week. AND I LOVE IT.  It is so much fun, as much fun as the Martian but with way less profanity. The main character is a junior high science teacher turned astronaut who has to save the world, and Weir decided to make the guy less profane.  Which I appreciate a lot.

Anyhoo, I don't want to spoil the plot but will say that alien life forms are a big part of it.  The Martian is science fiction as is Project Hail Mary, but the latter is more "out there". We have sent probes to Mars, after all and know a lot about Mars; we have never sent a probe to a planet orbiting another star, so Weir had to be more inventive.  It is great fun and he worked on the science a lot.  Main character is very appealing.

One thing that pops up over and over is the concept of evolution. Of course. Because most scientists and science nerds believe in macro evolution.  By that, I mean that they believe life started somehow and evolved through millions and billions of years to get where we are now with people and many other animals and insects and reptiles and fish and hundreds of thousands of different kinds of plants.

I do not believe in macroevolution.  Now, smarter people than me do believe in macroevolution, and smarter people than me don't believe in it. I think it is not so much an intelligence issue as a world view issue.

I understand people believing in evolution. Most have been taught it is true in school, after all. But it does annoy me (a lot!) is that many scientists start with the following belief.

1.  There is no God, and therefore everything we see must be caused by natural processes.

No, just no.  Just no no no no no!  You don't START with an assumption that has not been investigated scientifically! In my view, there is every reason under the sun to believe in a Creator God because our world is too complex, our animals are too complex, our plants are too complex, WE are too complex to come about by chance! And the physical constants are insane in our universe! They are balanced so perfectly to permit life.  Every time I have a twinge of doubt about my Christian faith, I think about the universe and Earth and people, animals, and vegetation.  Because wow, we are truly amazing.

Case for a Creator by Lee Strobel is an awesome book that talks about all the ways that science points towards a Creator God.  

So it is a great book, Project Hail Mary, and also absurd in its own way, but that's fine.  It is tremendous fun.

  

Pretty Flower Pictures Plus Our Anniversary

 

We celebrated our 24th anniversary last month.  Kevin was having a good foot day so we went to nearby Wegerzyn Gardens.  It is a lovely place full of flowers and they have a great kids area.  I have vague intentions of taking the children there soon but we will see. Life has been busy.

Without a doubt, Kevin is a very fine photographer with a special interest in sea life, flowers, and bugs.  We had a lovely time strolling around as I admired flowers and he took pictures and admired flowers.

24 years seems like a lot because it is. We weren't married until I was 27 and he was 26 so we aren't at the time yet where we have spent more time married than single, but we are getting there.

I am super thankful, grateful, and in love with my wonderful husband!

Friday Night Date

 Kevin and I have a long standing, running joke which is that if we are somewhere without the kids, it counts as a date.

So...yesterday morning, Kevin's gout flared up again.  He was hurting a lot to the point that it woke him up.  He called his doctor, who called in a new med to our pharmacy. He took a dose, then a couple of hours later took some ibuprofin for the pain.  (We realized he shouldn't have done that as they are the same kind of meds in some way...build on each other...whatever.)

So half an hour after the ibuprofin, he started feeling really terrible.  He felt like he was going to lose consciousness.  We were sufficiently alarmed that I ran him to a local emergency room. He couldn't really walk and felt like he was going to pass out.

They got us right in, did a bunch of tests, gave him benadryl and fluids, and a few hours later he was fine. Best guess is that the medication caused a major problem with vertigo.  For awhile, his blood pressure was through the roof but that was no doubt due to stress and/or meds? Probably stress?

So he is fine now.  They gave him anti vertigo meds.  We are thankful it wasn't a stroke.

It was a rotten date :-).

Gout!

 Last week, Kevin's left foot started hurting, a lot. It was especially bad at night, to the point that the sheet on his foot would hurt, waking him up.

He put it up and put ice on it and it was swollen and red and very painful, and eventually Doctor Google pointed us towards gout, of all things!  Henry VIII had gout.  It seems like such an old fashioned problem but it still hits people today.

Like Kevin.  We presume. He was not able to see his doctor on short order so he went to a Little Clinic at Kroger and the nurse practitioner said it seemed like gout.  She prescribed a steroid and an anti-gout medication and he is feeling better. He is seeing his regular doctor today.

It made for an interesting week all around. Kevin does a TON around the house, but with a lame foot, the kids and I had to pick up the slack.  The kids can do a lot, but we currently don't have any other drivers.  We hope Isaac will get his license soon (his driving test is in July -- the office where they do testing is backed up, like almost everything else these days.)

So I was driving all over creation and feel pretty stressed today as it is the first day of the week when I wasn't leaving at least once, or twice.  One time it was 3 times. Ugh.

I don't do well being gone from home a lot. There is a great deal to do here and if I am gone, the kids (who do a lot) lose track of things.

Kevin's new job has also been quite demanding though thankfully he has been able to hobble into our study and work from there.  I am thankful he is feeling better, mostly for his sake but for mine as well!

All in all a good week though, if not a particularly relaxing one. I remember, with fondness, my summers back in my teenage years. I mostly got up early and puttered around all day, though I helped with cleaning and other chores. But I had time, for example, to watch the Price is Right and play computer games a lot.

Now I am all grown up and I am busy, summer or no. But, busy in a blessed way.

Busy week

 

Rose turned 7 this week!  My baby is 7!

She also needs glasses.  I hauled six of the kids off to the eye doctor in the last few weeks (Joseph went a few months ago and the older girls are on their own) and it turns out Rose has astigmatism in both eyes.  That was a surprise, and I feel a little guilty about not bringing her in last year. COVID-19 made it hard to get into appointments and she was pretty nutty last year, but still ...

Apparently the curvature of her eyes is fine, but she has astigmatism. It was obvious that she wasn't seeing well in the distance, though she did fine up close. So on Monday, we will go and get her glasses.  Of course, Isaac and Angela and Daniel and Sarah are all getting glasses as well!  So far, only Miriam and Lydia have excellent eyesight.  The genetics are there for needing glasses.

We are still battling an annoying virus.  It has worked its way slowly through the family.  Daniel was pretty sick on Wednesday; he had a high fever and was miserable, but he got over it in a day.  Kevin has been sickest -- he is still coughing off and on.  

Speaking of Kevin, he has started a new position at the base.  This means a lot of extra work as he gets to know people and attends lots of meetings, etc.  So far, everything has been from home.  

I have three friends who were widowed with young children.  I honestly don't know how they do it.  For  that matter, I don't know how single moms due to divorce or separation do it.  It is exhausting trying to do extra stuff when life is already busy.  Kevin has been working a lot and sick, so I've been doing more this week.  Of course, I don't grudge it or anything -- it just reminds me to be THANKFUL that he is healthy and a hard worker.

I recently read a book called "The Prize Winner of Defiance, Ohio".  The focus of the book is Evelyn Ryan, a Catholic housewife who, in the 1950's and 1960's, kept her ten children clothed and fed through winning contests.  These were not 'sweepstakes' where it is all luck. She did jingles and the like. She was brilliant and hard working and won again and again.

Her husband, regrettably, was a total shmuck. He was an alcoholic, often verbally abusive, very occasionally physically abusive.  At one point, he took out a second mortgage on their home and didn't tell his wife. She only found out a few weeks before the loan was due. He had blown through all $4000 of the loan.  They only kept their house when she won the grand prize of a particular contest which allowed them to pay back the loan and pay property taxes.

She was an amazing woman.  I admire her so much for keeping on. She just kept forging onward in spite of the serious struggles of her life.  Her kids all grew up to be productive members of society and even her husband turned things around at the end of his life.

I am so thankful Kevin is a good husband and father!  I am thankful for my own father, who faithfully and lovingly provided for me, my brothers, and my mom!

Speaking of my parents, they have been raring to travel again and have multiple trips coming up in the next year.  They are wonderfully adventurous!

I have been setting aside 9 a.m. to 10 a.m. each day to write. That is not a lot of time but it has proven helpful in making steady progress on my latest book.  At this point, I have a lot of the plot laid out.  I am guessing it will be done in a few weeks.  Our latest book has done well though not as well as Longbourn Inheritance, which has been my most successful book to date.  Kevin is trying to analyze what makes a book particularly popular.

Isaac is working on getting his driver's license soon.  He has a test scheduled for late July, which was the first possible date.  Everything is backed up thanks to COVID.

Isaac is also taking a Calculus 2 class at double pace, so yeah, he is busy doing lots of math!

Joseph is taking a 1 credit class called First Year Experience, through Clark State University.

So both boys are moderately busy this summer.

Well, it is time for me to take my daily rest/nap.  I did get sick with the same illness Kevin did but am mostly over it. I am still a little tired though.

This Week in Pictures

 

The three youngest and I went to Pearl's Fen, a local park.  A butterfly decided I was wonderful and settled on me for a few minutes.  Or a moth?  

Pearl's Fen has a charming stream and a wooden bridge.

I know this is silly, but this picture makes me feel rich. SO MANY SCISSORS. We often can't find a pair of scissors because unknown people walk off with them and leave them scattered around the house.

The middle four kids just finished a big cooking class with Kevin.  It took them more than a year. Now they are doing their final projects.  Isaac made yummy BLT salad and asparagus.

The pool is open!  It was bitterly cold at first, of course, but now it is almost 80. The kids don't seem to care a lot but I do. I haven't gotten in yet but I think I am about ready.

Unfortunately, we got sick this week with some stupid cold. Kevin and Miriam are the sickest. It isn't terrible, just some coughing and fatigue and running noses.  I was a little sick Friday and Saturday and rested. Today I am better.

Food Issues

 I have been having various gastrointestinal problems for literally years.  Now they aren't a huge deal, but they are annoying.

A few weeks ago I realized that pistachios (which I love) seem to make me feel worse. I looked up pistachios and they are high in fructan.  There are other high fructan foods (like broccoli and asparagus) that seem to cause me difficulties as well.

So I severely reduced my intake of high fructan food and am definitely doing better.  That is awesome but...

I am already dairy intolerant, and a Type 2 diabetic, so I eat no dairy and low carb. Now fructan seems to be a problem, which reduces my potential diet even more.

Sigh.

I mean, on one hand, I am just grateful to have access to lots of food, and that I seem to have figured out another issue. On the other hand, seriously, BODY, what are you DOING TO ME??

I have been wanting to lose a few pounds and I have :-).  I mean, when you cut out whole sections of food that is apt to happen.