Visits

This week we had guests. Sara came and left Ella with us while she went to Johns Hopkins to work for a couple of days. She and Ella left on Wednesday. It was great having them here and being able to spend some time with Ella while Sara was working. It seems amazing how fast grandchildren grow up. I don't remember such speed as I was growing up. On Tuesday Nancy and Jim arrived and stayed for a couple of days. It was nice that they had a little overlap with Sara and Ella (they'd never seen Ella). Nancy and Jim came with a loaded van. In it, among other things, were 7 boxes of dishes and glassware that Margot and Jeff had decided to jettison prior to their move to California. Margot had made them available to anyone who wanted them and I said we'd take them. At the time I didn't realize that she had a china store's worth of the dishes (she did say there was a lot of them but I thought that meant a dozen plates and maybe some desert dishes). Anyway, Nancy and Jim were kind enough to lug them up and we've already used some of the dinner plates. Many more of the dishes are awaiting unpacking. They are very attractive and I'm sure they'll get used, especially in the summer.

This was also the week that Barack Obama cinched the nomination as the Democratic Party's candidate for president - an historic moment for the United States even if it goes no further. He appears to have a message that resonates with many Americans, espically the younger ones. It looks to me like a battle between more of less staying the (economic, military, environmental and political) course (John McCain) or leaping into the unknown and hoping a relative newcomer (Barack Obama) can engender real change in our current direction. I am so worried about our current directions, both domestic and international, that I'm willing to give most anyone with a vision of an improved United States a chance. It will be tough and maybe impossible but, in my opinion, we need significant and lasting changes in our approach to the many real and large problems we, as a country, are facing. Not the least of these is our current acrimonious and extremely partisan three branches of the US federal government.