Tea at the Center of the Earth

Tonight we were watching "Journey to the Center of the Earth," and I was quite happy to see that Dr. Lindenbrook made sure arrangements were made for all of his expedition party to have a proper tea.  

When one considers the process involved in making a proper amount of tea, particularly when the participants involved have descended literally miles and miles below the surface of the earth, it is a glorious and wonderful thing to observe.  There, deep within the crevices and caverns in places down within the earth's crust, there's apparently time for proper tea.  It's wonderful, and I'm insanely jealous.  Wouldn't it be simply marvelous to have tea on a journey to the center of the earth?  I'll go ahead and answer for you:  yes.  Yes it would.

Obviously we watched this movie tonight, continuing the Jules Verne fest that we seem to be on lately.  It would stand to reason that we'd be watching "20,000 Leagues Under the Sea" eventually, but that remains to be seen.  I think the theme of late has been long and remarkable journeys, the older classic movies that Nana remembers, or at least ones that we know she'll enjoy.  She enjoyed this one, certainly.  But we did too.  This is one of my earliest recollections of dinosaurs, all those dimetrodons pouring out of the caves on the shoreline.  Yes, I've learned that dimetrodons may not actually be reptiles due to some additional holes in their skulls.  But no matter what you call them, the things look like lizards with great big fins on their backs.  They look like dinosaurs, so by gum, I'm calling them dinosaurs!

Tonight Madison was back in taekwondo leadership, swinging around her kamas.  Nana, Mom and myself were there to watch, as always, and there was a decent sized group of kids there to practice.  We'll see how things get tomorrow.  Lately, Hall County has been under siege with increasing numbers of virus cases, and it's been problematic enough to actually get their school system to do strictly virtual learning for the starting week.  No word for Madison's school thus far.  Nevertheless, again, a good number of kids were there for the first day of taekwondo of 2021.  Also, one of the students there was selling Girl Scout cookies - it's that season again!  So this super cute little Girl Scout was there with big sales dreams, a little speech about sales, and even her own website!  I impulsively bought two boxes of Thin Mints before the rest of my body realized what was going on.  If you’re looking for cookies, this girl is a tiny little future business leader, or at least in line to be the next Emperor.

Today I was over at the Botanical Gardens with Nana, the two of us retrieving the Christmas tree there that my parents set up for Christmas.  The trees on display were placed in the parking lot, and there we took down the ornaments that survived the outdoor weather for the last two months, and carefully packed them away.  Some may need some repair, but others will no doubt be seen on future trees next year.  From there, Nana and I were off to get some firewood and to visit Ye-Ye at Lowe's.  My mother was there too, so there was a nice conversation there in the parking lot.  

We also went over to Matthews Printing in town here, a company I frequent to deal with printing of the KidPak booklets.  We were looking into a delivery to California, but who cares about all that work-related stuff!  All I want to say right now is that first, they have the most amazing hard candies in there, these special candies that I remember only from my childhood, and have no idea where they get them from.  Secondly, they have these calendars that we use at the house every single year, and though they're not ready yet, they will be soon, and Mom is waiting on those!

Madison had a nice and lazy day, playing "Animal Crossing" and watching "Rebels."  Only one more day (tomorrow) of her winter break.  Meanwhile, I was able to get some writing done, and some work for KidPak as well. 

One thing I did do today was use the treadmill.  We got one, and I've committed to walk on this for a set period of time each day.  I'll integrate something to listen to as I get the habit set in place, but the treadmill seems to work fine, and at the end of it all I wasn't so winded.  The only symptom currently, in fact, is perhaps a lack of blood flow, the effects of getting up too quickly or feeling spontaneously dizzy.  Fortunately, the more troubling symptoms are gone.  Hopefully I can get this all figured out, but already I'm feeling a tiny bit better, and at least not as filled with fear about things.  To help with stress and blood pressure, I've spent a good bit of time reading in Discworld, and even soaking in our large tub.  But not at the same time!  But the Discworld has been so good to visit again - I've missed Terry Pratchett.

Tonight we said our prayers for a lot of the folks who are sick in this area, and we said our prayers for a good night's rest as well, of course.  Just prior to that, we were doing a small Bible study from Judges, followed by the last of Narnia from "The Last Battle."  We have two more chapters there, but it's almost over with there.  Time for some sleep, because we'll be starting a new day tomorrow.