That Sky. Those Waves.

The weather has been miserably hot.  Miserably humid.  I’ve maybe been whining about it without ceasing a bit. 

But all that weird weather has been making for some stunning skies and amazing evenings at the beach this last week.  I. Can’t. Even.

So, can I make a confession?  I get kinda judgy about words.  And I get kinda really judgy about “grownups” adopting kids’ trendy verbiage.  And I’m all like, I get really REALLY, like, I-Can’t-Even judgy about my peers sprinkling their conversations liberally with “likes”.  It literally makes me crazy.  (see what I did there? and even inside these parentheses?)  Judgy isn’t pretty and I’m not making a case for my-way-or-the-highway.  I’m just confessing.  And linking – for the first and likely last time ever – to Slate, who’s making a pretty solid case for defending the usage of I-Can’t-Even.  The author equates this silly phrase with the ancient Greek rhetorical device of “aposiopesis”, which is a “figure of speech wherein a sentence is deliberately broken off and left unfinished, the ending to be supplied by the imagination, giving an impression of unwillingness or inability to continue.”  (definition source: Wikipedia)  The Slate author shows how this particular rhetorical device has been brilliantly used by Virgil in the Aeneid, Shakespeare in King Lear, and even more [relatively] recently by … the Three Stooges.  I really like arguments that use the Ancients’ wisdom to justify and educate.  In her conclusion, the author asks & answers the question: “So are Americans suffering from a profound lack of ability to process their emotions? Maybe. Are they suffering from a profound lack of communication skills? Definitely not. They're simply doing more with less.”   But.  Much though I appreciate ancient wisdom and smart wordsmiths like Virgil and Shakespeare, I completely disagree with this journalist’s conclusion.  I think people today just want to sound trendy. 

And so, I-Can’t-Even has become the newest mock-worthy phrase in Kellerville.

1 Second Everyday: August 2015

This will go down in memory as the summer we went no where (not even a daytrip!!) and did nothing particularly special.  And yet.  It was still pretty great.  We were together.  Everyone was healthy.  There was lots of down time to do the things we like to do when we're not being busy ;-).

This month's distinctives did include College Kid going back to College and Middle Dude starting some "dual-enrollment" classes (counts for high school and college credit) at the local Jr. College.  Can I just confess?:  I have tremendously mixed feelings about using jr. college classes for Middle Dude.  Thus far, I've found the content of their poli-sci, history, and composition classes to be academically disappointing lacking and tremendously biased (while claiming neutrality).  So why do it?  Simply: Money.  Not so much for the immediate savings (online homeschool classes cost $600-800 each vs. dual-enrollment classes cost only minor fees + book expenses), but for the future college savings.  BECAUSE COLLEGE IS OVERWHELMINGLY EXPENSIVE.  So, there you have it: my financially-driven academic conundrum.

But enough on mental dilemmas .... here's some 1SE goodness:

Sunset. Big Waves. Frisbee. Cloudy warmth.

All the Kellers together.  And now the College Kid has gone back to college.  It will be awhile before all these elements converge again.

Galaxy-ography: Summer 2015

Things to remember about this summer … lots of great books, many beautiful butterfly successes (at beginning of summer) followed by many butterfly tragedies (by the end of summer – tachinid flies & OE parasites – bleck), College Kid taking summer school classes at local JC, moderate temps and cloudy days all the way thru mid-August, puzzles, palm tree pods, art festivals, frisbee & beaches.  All in all, a pretty quiet summer.  College Kid has one more week at home, and Middle Dude begins dual enrollment (just two classes) at the local JC on Monday.  How is it remotely possible that school is imminently beginning again?!????