Hello again.

These first few weeks in Warrambool have been relaxing and, as strange as it may sound, it is very nice to be living a simple life of getting up, going to work, and spending the nights at the house. Maybe I am domesticating. Maybe.

For work, things with the house are going well. Stay tuned for pictures of the progress we have made. A lifetime ago I took classes to teach me how to do this, but I am still learning new things every day. And this is good. Hilko and I have hit a sort of pattern now with our job, one of those patterns where things happen in sync and no one really says anything. For example, Hilko drives both ways every day. We never really had a meeting and decided anything, it just sort of happened. There are also certain jobs that H and I prefer and so we do those and that works out well. Some nights we work late and we know that it is getting later than 5 or 6 as our patience with eachother gets thinner and thinner. That's when it's time to pack up and go home (Hilko's driving). Somewhere in the back of my mind I had always had this dream of me swinging a hammer and framing a house in the sun. I guess that now is my time to live that out. By the way, the hammer broke and I had to get a new one.

Living with the Bruce family has been one of the best parts of this experience. At first I wasn't sure what I would think of it, but I really like it. They have four boys and if there isn't a picture up of them yet, then shame on us and we will get one up. Anyway, the house is never really quiet but the noise that is in the house isn't the kind that popularizes birth control, it's the kind that is a sort of hum of activity and little people learning things and enjoying their lives. One of the perks is our arrangement is that I am a free-lance parent. If I feel like watching Aurthur with the boys or reading yet another Dr. Suess book (they have 70) then I can, but if I'm not in the mood, I can just go away. So I guess this is like a parenting/family life test drive. Actually on the issue of parenting, I've launched a bit of an experiement with the boys. I never really liked parents baby talking to their kids or even dumbing down conversations so that the little people would be able to follow. Maybe it's because I never knew why. I still don't. Nonetheless I've decided that I will talk to all the boys and actually all the children I meet as adults. That means no simplifying conversation or omitting large words or any of that. So far I like what is happening. Seems the little tykes respond in kind. You talk to them like intelligent people and they respond in intelligent ways as opposed to the gutteral noises and disjointed sign language that seems to be how most little kids use to communicate.
Andrew and Julie (Mom and Dad Bruce) are good for talks about everything from culture to current events to religion and anything really that you can imagine. At the moment I am borrowing this book and tape (yes, cassettes) series from Andrew that is about how to do speed math and speed reading and how to increase your ability to retain information. He also had me read a book about some of the military exploits of Australia back in the First World War. Needless to say, the Bruces are good company and quite kind in letting us bunk with them and their brood for these few months. In other news, Julie is expecting boy number 5 any day now.

When I am not working, I am typically reading. Yes, correct, it is boring and old-fashioned and not everyone is into it, but maybe one day it will be the rage again. I'll keep representing right on through. Readers unite! Anyway, there are a few books that I have on the go. One is David Copperfield, but I am only a few pages in so that doesn't really count. I did just finish a book called 'How to Start Conversations and Make Friends'Very interesting, and having finished it, I am eagerly anticipating making my very first friend. I've already mentioned the military history book and the intelligence expansion series, so that is most of the load. It's all very good and keeps me entertained. Reading this much has also got me thinking again about writing a book of my own. No promises, folks. Just an idea. Would you read it?

Two weeks ago I turned 25. I thought a lot about the whole thing, the aging thing that is. A lot of random thoughts came to mind. For example the guy who asked 'Are we moving through time or is time moving through us?'. I thought about the book I happened to pick up that quoted the author saying, 'Nothing exciting happens after 25.'(Ironic?) I asked God why do we have to age and grow older. Of course 25 is still young, but after 25 is 26 and so one. It's a one-way street. Sometimes this is a good thing, but sometimes I find myself depressed at the idea that I will only be getting older. In truth, I am actually running out of time. But if I take that apart, something that comes to mind is that I am not moving away from something as much as moving toward something else. I cannot reverse the march of time and neither can anyone else. Whatever things we have dreamed up to fight aging are really little more than rides at the midway: they are fun and we forget ourselves for a moment or a few moments but then they are over and we are back on the ground and reality is there waiting for us at the gate. This is a lot of philosophy and thoughts in words. I guess that they are the result of me passing this milestone. I'm 25. That's young if you're 60 and if you're 15 you're not thinking about it so you don't really have an opinion to share. Whether I cower or take it in stride I am still moving forward and getting older and that is how it is. Following all this thought and turning this concept around I've decided that this is a good thing: I will enjoy my youth(correction: I am enjoying my youth) and I will anticpate the things to come. They have a place in my story and for now I am Ok with that. Enough said.

Things with the family: they are good. We continue to get on well and there are plenty of shining and not shining moments as we go. Something that has come to light for me is that our best conversations have been spur of the moment. Something spurs a "Remember when?" comment and off we go swapping stories and filling in the blanks of the years that we have been absent. The funniest things are the moments of surprise when we realize something about eachother that we didn't know. There are plenty of those. Back when we were in the planning stages and I was thinking about how things would go, there was this idea in my head that we would just suddenly have caught up all the time that we had been apart and that would be it. Bang! All the questions answered. What I have found is that it goes one step at a time, one conversation at a time, and that there is a steady movement forward. There is a part of me that would like to streamline things and make them faster, but that is not how it works. So onward we go, one step at a time.

Cheers until next time,

E