Just one silent world

While duty is heavier than a mountain... Twofold meaning for me in this expression.

Well, I've been working a good chunk of today, doing a consulting gig for a construction company owned by one of our students' dad, making them a website. I feel I kind of got Shanghaied into doing this, and I'm trying to figure out all the web stuff. Plus, they want me to make it like a super nice site, and I'm thinking, "Y'know, Computer stuff is like construction - you ask someone who has never done this before to make you something, cheap, oh, and make it as nice as someone who probably has been doing this for years and charges $100/hour, and you better not expect the world." But I digress, I'm kind of frustrated about this because I've been slowly working on it, now they want it done and the guy called me yesterday and said, "Since we are doing this on friendship basis, can you spend all day tomorrow, which is your day off, on it?" (That's a pretty direct quote). I'm now getting it done just so he won't bug me about it anymore, like the judge and the nagging widow, you know?

We played volleyball this morning since we probably won't get to play tomorrow. I learned some new rules, I might be getting better at the game, but then you have the incident that reminds you that you still have lots to learn. That's ok. I have fun.

Two of the families that live in a house on campus threw a costume & pumpkin party last night. I dressed up as Peter Pan (no pictures on the blog because I wore tights, and pictures might get me arrested for indecency. Heck, my housemate told me last night that if I didn't wear pants to walk down the street to the party, the guards would probably shoot me.) I did this because of the Kindergartener (and his 3 year old brother) that came over to me and said, "Uncle Russ, can you be Peter Pan for our party?" while his little brother nods. I'm a soft touch, I guess. Their family dressed up as pirates (the boys) and Wendy and Tinkerbell (the girls), so I was an honorary family member for the night. I also carved a pi symbol into a pumpkin for my pumpkin carving. It was a fun time, one of the girls made stick moose and was an Alaskan cowgirl, another was a cat, another braided her hair around a wirehanger to be Pipi Longstockings. We may not be the most normal group, but when we goof off, we goof off well.

I don't know if any of the rest of you have heard about the comet Holmes, but it's visible in the night sky, and so I jumped on my roof last night to find it. The one semi-beneficial thing about the power situation in Kabul is that there's not a lot of light pollution on our side of the mountains, so you can see things in the sky. I think I found the comet, and so does one of the girls that I told about it who went up on her roof to see if she could find it. That's kind of cool in my opinion. The whole thing about the comet is pretty neat, too.

I've been reading through col recently, and it has a lot of good words, good meditations. I find I'm entering a phase where the study becomes intensely personal, and sometimes giving voice to what I feel when I read things makes them as a vapor in the morning, fragile, fleeting under the smallest breeze, and other times, talking about them establishes them like a mighty trunk. And it's the same word. Who else but the ][ am?

Tonight, after prepping for the test tomorrow morning and eating supper, I went and worked out, showered, and then went over to the Mansion for game night. Only, most everyone else had dispersed, so it was just two of us for a couple games of Carcasson, which I may not be spelling right, and is played vaguely like Settlers of Catan. It was relaxing, nice fun. After a couple games, some other people played for a game, then we just hung out, talked and stuff. It was really nice, in combination with the party last night, I think this is some of the most fun I've had in Kabul. Even with the way the rest of life is (uncertain), I've had some enjoyment these past few days. I'm still wired, and I don't know how I'm going to wind down and go to sleep! Good times.

P.S. - Chapter the Ninetieth.