Memories from book stores

I read most things in an electronic format now - Kindle ebooks, Texture magazine subscription, National Review Online for conservative commentary, news sites on the web to keep up. But I still love book stores.

I have a lot of good memories involving book stores. Growing up my family lived 30 minutes outside of the town we were near. Occassionaly on the weekends we would go into town and go to a book store to get something new to read. I would buy another Peanuts/Charlie Brown paperbook and a new Star Trek book while my mother would buy a couple of new mysteries to read. Dad didnâ?Tt read for pleasure then. My brother was hooked on comic books so he would get the latest Hulk, Batman, or whatever.

When the mall was built we would go to the book store there. Just as much fun but so much more to see. I enjoyed the smell of the pages, all the colors and sizes of the different books. Picking the book I wanted to read was so difficult because I knew we wouldnâ?Tt be back for a few weeks, so I would take forever to decide which books to get.

Mom worked at the library for a while. I enjoyed going there but it was always disappointing when I had to take the book back. And they were covered in plastic so I couldnâ?Tt actually touch the book. Weird.

Mom taught me to respect books. Never to break the back by folding it over so it could be held in one hand. Never to dog-ear the pages to mark where I was. I took pleasure in folding a blank piece of notebook paper in half width-wise, then folding it half again, then one more time to make a bookmark. I tried to use a new piece of paper for each book and then leave them in the book so Iâ?Td have it when I read the book again. Eventually the bookmarks took on the smell of the pages, which I thought was cool.

My mother also taught me that if I kept a book with me at all times Iâ?Td never be bored. So Iâ?Td carry a paperback book with me everywhere I could. Riding in the car Iâ?Td have my nose in the book and escape to wherever the book was set. It was wonderful.

Ebooks revolutionized my reading efforts. I didnâ?Tt think a dedicated device made sense so I resisted the early Kindles but I used the heck out of ebook apps. Fictionwise was my first favorite site to buy books on, though I wished that they cost less because I wasnâ?Tt getting a physical copy of the book. Barnes & Noble was one of my favorite stores so I used their Nook reader and loved when Fictionwise was bought by them. I started buying ebooks from Amazon and loved their Kindle app, which Iâ?Tve used on every smart phone Iâ?Tve owned as well as on my iPod Touch and iPads. I finally bought a Kindle to use at bedtime and have enjoyed the Paperwhite Kindles as they have gotten thinner and waterproof. And with ebooks I carry a whole library of books with me wherever I go so I am never bored.

We tried to teach our children to love bookstores, too. On Friday nights weâ?Td go to the local Books-a-Million and let them play with the trains in the childrenâ?Ts section while we browsed. Weâ?Td encourage them to get into series of books and buy them one every few weeks. It was fun!

And as book stores have changed Iâ?Tve enjoyed the changes even when they didnâ?Tt make sense. The coffee, the games, the puzzles and brain teasers, all were fun additions to our book store adventures. But I still love the smell of book stores. Amazon is awesome but the experience of buying ebooks just doesnâ?Tt compare to a physical book store.

Iâ?Tve got some great memories from the book stores Iâ?Tve been to. Wonderful!

I had speech therapy

When I was a child I was tested at school for different things. At one point the school said I had scoliosis, that disease where your is curved and as you grow it gets worse and worse. That turned out not to be true - my back is fine.

I was also diagnosed with a speech impediment. They said that I had a lisp, which I still have. Itâ?Ts not terrible, but it gets worse when Iâ?Tm. tired.

So I had to go to speech therapy. I grew up at a time when it was embarrassing to have to go to something other than your normal classes. They would come and get me, then I would go to the front office and go in the little room where a lady had me read and gave me tips on how to say â?oessâ? without sticking my tongue out.

I guess it worked. Every once in a while people will give me a hard time about the way I talk. I remember I went on a fam trip (flew in the cockpit to observe how the pilots interacted with air traffic control) and a pilot recognized my voice because of my slight lisp. But otherwise itâ?Ts been no big deal.

I still donâ?Tt like the way I say zero, though...

Hard questions about God

Reading the Bible it almost seems like God made everything, the devil messed it up, God spent a long time angry and disappointed, sent son to bridge the gap, and is waiting to send son again to destroy all and make new.

This is considered blasphemy by some. But it tells the macro "storyboard" sequence that I see as I read it over time.

My hard questions about God:
- If God is the same yesterday, today, and tomorrow why does it seem like he changed?
- When God was disappointed in Israel awful things happened, like the ground opening up and swallowing people, snakes everywhere killing people, a flood, and other stuff. What will happen when he's disappointed in me?

I don't know, I think about this stuff when I slow down and take the time to think. Sometimes I wonder if I should do it more often...

Dealing with Alzheimer's

My mother-in-law is 90 years old and has Alzheimer's. She is a happy person but when things are different she gets nervous and reacts poorly. But gets over it quickly and is accepting of her "forgetfulness".

My wife has dealt with it well but is starting to slip. Recently she went to see her mother. She told me that she sat out in front of the full-care facility for a while wondering if her mother would recognize her when she went in. It was worrisome to think her mother may not remember her.

The challenge for us is to accept the loss of memory and not get upset about it. Mom accepts it, why shouldn't we?

Just accept. That's what some religions teach. That's what some gurus teach. That's what tends to get me into trouble.

Such a challenge...

Being myself more and more

For much of my life I changed depending on where I was. At school I was quiet and shy, at home I was loud and fun-loving. When I started working I was quiet and determined, but when I went out with my girlfriend I was talkative and caring.

This dichotomy seemed almost like two personalities. I was angy a lot for a long time, and as I get older I think the way I compartmentalized my life contributed to my anger. It frustrated me that I had to be one way with one group and another more open way with another group.

So over the past 5 years or so I've made an effort to draw my worlds together so that they overlap. I use the same cups and work and home. I talk the mostly the same, though I still cuss too much at home (bad habit). I slowly becoming "whole".

That's where this place started. My effort to become wholly David is working, and I'm enjoying the things I am learning as I go through this process.