Stuck in the Doldrums

Above you can see pictures of a virtual tour of a tomb within a pyramid, something we were journeying into earlier.  Madison is heading into Africa with Social Studies, this after a good bit of time spent in Southeastern Asia.  She's starting with geography, and based on our typical curriculum requirements, it seems inevitable to both of us that they're going to talk about pollution next, instead of history or culture.  That's been the pattern, anyway.  Regardless, Africa is an interesting continent, of course, and there are plenty of extra things to do to support the exploration of the dark continent.

Other assignments for today involved random photography, which is basically a way of saying, "take what you've learned and take a picture of anything."  Which should be easy.  Madison also has other assignments, of course, as school goes on.  But she's doing well, still with strong averages, and hopefully destined to end out the year with all A's again.  It will be a very unique and unforgettable end to the school year though.  There's some chatter of when students will retrieve the items left in their lockers, or how yearbooks will find their way to each house.  We'll cross all that as we get to it.

So Madison spends a good bit of time working on classwork, and in fact more on Mondays because she works ahead of time on some assignments, sometimes inadvertently.  But that gives her more free time later on in the week.

Still, today she had time for her piano class again, which is still going strong with a new book, and using Skype.  While she was doing that, Daddy went off on a successful grocery shopping trip.  Still wearing masks and gloves, we were out there shopping.  But certain restaurants and places of businesses are now open, under the directive of the Governor, who is taking a lot of heat for this decision.  A visit to get groceries today made certain things clear:  grocery stores are just as safe as any other place.  You have all kinds of people coming in, some without gloves or masks, and others hyper observant of the rules.  You have all kinds of employees too.  It just varies from store to store.  Why should that be any different than a hair salon or fitness gym?  Do you trust the employees and the owner to follow guidelines to make their place safer?  Do you trust the customers that frequent the place?  If yes, then go there.  If not, then don't.  If the curve has been flattened, and the hospitals not overwhelmed, then that's the best we can do.  If the hospitals start filling up, then go back to stricter standards and go back to crushing people's jobs again.  But right now, things appear to be okay.  We'll see, of course.  It's all speculation.  But faith over fear.  We can't be kept hidden in our homes with fear, particularly when there has been scientific evidence to suggest we're moving towards a place of freedom once more.

Daddy was doing some writing today on the porch today, working on a new message for a Narnia series.  We're still reading that at night time, of course.  And we watched the second "Pirates" movie tonight, "Dead Man's Chest."  Now we've got all that music stuck in our head, and quotes from pirates and so forth.  Savvy?  Captain Jack is now stuck in the doldrums, which is such a great equivalent for the world today.  The nautical term "doldrums" is used to describe an area around the equator with little or now wind, a region pirates tend to avoid because you could be stuck there for a long time with no breeze to propel you forward.  And indeed, that's right where we are.  We have no breeze to move us forward, and we're stuck here, it seems.  In the movie, Jack Sparrow's visit to Davy Jones' Locker is more fantasy, of course, where he's in the middle of a desert on his ship, the Black Pearl, and is quite literally stuck going nowhere.  The end result can be a bit maddening, or at least more madness than usual for him.  It's such a great visual for where we are as a country.  We're stuck in the doldrums, and there's this inherent frustration in the fact that we're not moving forward, which is a direction we all would love to escape to.  Of course, on board our ship, we can still do the best we can.  But we can't wait to escape all this madness.

Just prior to tonight's main event, we even watched that short video, "Tales of the Code:  Wedlocked."  It is worth a watch!  It sets up a few things about the first movie, and is a short video that highlights the bride auction, what was part of the "Pirates of the Caribbean" ride for so many years.  The ride has changed because as we all know, pirates would never do something like auctioning off a bride, because that's pretty low behavior.  Of course, it's still completely okay to get drunk, steal everyone's life savings, drop people into a well, shoot others, and of course burn down the city.  But having a bride auction?  That's going way too far!

Tomorrow we visit "At World's End" once more, and dive into Davy Jones' Locker.  The rest of the Monkees might be there too.

It was a beautiful day outside today, the weather just right for a game of catch.  Madison was not spot on with her catching ability, but practice makes perfect.  What she is immediately fantastic at is throwing a ball.  She's got great aim, and she can put a little heat into each throw.  That might be worth investigating.  She has great coordination about getting the glove where it needs to be to make a catch - we just have to work on her actual catching skills.  No problem!  We've got plenty of good days ahead, and a nice front yard for that sort of thing.

While on the porch today, we were still doing a little bit of studying of the upcoming election ballot.  Yes, that takes a while.  We do a little at a time, so we can study everyone and make the right choice on the ballot.  We were looking at judges today.  The commissioner candidates are next.

The final bit of news today was difficult to hear:  

Just before the weekend there was a CT scan, and the analysis of the scan was discussed today, and it wasn’t great news.

The future is more variations of chemo drugs, and some clinical trial medication.  But if he does nothing the doctor said about six months life expectancy.  We think that’s a standard answer for this sort of thing.  Anyway, obviously something is going to be done, and that starts next Monday with a few treatments.

He’s upbeat, going for walks along the beach and so forth.  He seems in good spirits, though options are limited.  We’ve just been listening in with the doctor’s meeting, and phrases like “quality of life” are being thrown around, as there apparently isn’t a “cure."

Though it’s been tough this week, the doctor just told us, “We’re not at a point where we have no options.”  So there’s a small bit of hope.  Zena’s dad has gained more weight since last time, and he’s up to 136 pounds or so, and that’s good too.  And again, although he’s realistic, he’s also upbeat.  His attitude is the best it can be given the circumstances.

Don’t give us a call quite yet.  Today is a day to sort of absorb.  This is obviously super challenging for Zena.  Madison is pretty upset too, of course.

We continued to pray tonight, and asked others for prayer too.  It's been a tough season for everyone, but for some of us, it has been worse.