Back home, and once again feeling like part of the problem

I just had one of those great vacations where almost nothing happens.

I knit two pairs of mittens for felting. I think that knitting mittens is finally out of my system. It all started with me wanting a pair for myself to keep my hands warm, and I had to knot five pairs before I could knit one for myself. This weekend I will shrink wool, and I will be done with mittens for a while.

I stacked firewood. As usual, a few trees had come down on Dad and Joann's land, and we cut, split, and stacked the wood.

I wrote a case study for my grad course that was an exercise in tedium and make-believe. Perhaps my grade will reflect this attitude.

I went for long walks with Robert, and we worked out the issue that has been bothering us. My point off view did carry the day in the end.

I saw movies via my dad's digital projector. We saw The Illusionist, Network, In the Line of Duty, The Lady Vanishes, and Austin Powers International Man of Mystery. We capped the week by watching The 11th Hour. This film makes an interesting bookend with An Inconvenient Truth. It leaves me no more convinced that there is any meaningful way that I can make a difference.

The 11th Hour paints with a much broader brush stroke that Al Gore's movie does. Person after person talks about his or her perspective on climate change and other environmental problems. The movie does its best to end on an uplifting note, but the focus is on philosophy and attitude, not on concrete actions I can take here and now to shrink my carbon footprint.

So much hope that technology is going to save the day, save the world - so little technology at hand that changes the way we live.

I think we have placed a very heavy burden on my daughter's generation, and she agrees with me.

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