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February 2, 2000

The Not So Quiet Interlude

I rely heavily on routine to maintain my peace of mind. I do not need everything in life to operate on schedule, but I do like to have a bit of quiet time to myself each day. It is exam week at the local High School. Enforcing study time has been a challenge. "The Teenager" and many of her friends wrote their last exam this morning. There are teenagers everywhere, on the telephone, in the family room, on the computers, on the chat lines, downloading MP3s, playing MP3s everywhere. Yikes, so much for my routine and farewell to the quiet moment. I have been desperately trying to find a place to hide. No luck I am afraid, I will just have to weather the storm.

Today I have been attempting, amidst the noise, to organize my genealogy files. I have many letters from distant aunts and cousins, email messages from relatives that I have not met, and various photocopies of Births, Marriages, and Deaths. Determining how to sort them and where to store them is a difficult task. The email messages on the computer are now filed in various folders by Surname. Surprised that I have accomplished anything today, I am taking a celebratory tea break. I have even found a corner of the living room where I can pretend it is quiet.

We are preparing for an evening walk; I have not been out for four days. It is cold out there; we will bundle up. A quick trip to the library drop box will allow me to return the three books I read over the last four days. Do you notice the temperature flashing near the top of the most recent entry page? I saw this on Dee's site, The Coffee Bean Goddess and I just had to have one! Right now it reads -6 Degrees Centigrade or 21 Degrees Fahrenheit and cloudy. Since there is no wind, it is a very nice night for a walk, and it will be relatively quiet out there in the cold.