I had a session with D. today. He asked to work on the math instead of the reading. Memorizing the multiplication facts is very hard for him. He has severe memory problems. I wrote the problems we had studied on the whiteboard. He wrote in the answers. He got 9x4, 6x7, and 9x7 correct. They came up correctly. He was shocked. I was pleasantly surprised. Could we be making some inroads on memory? That would be fantastic. Then I wrote 2x3; he said 9.
There was only one other event worth mentioning for the day. I got myself a water storage cage. What is a water storage cage? It is a roughly 4'x4'x4' plastic container wrapped in wire, which holds 275 gallons of water. I'm in the process of preparing for the worst and hoping for the best. To that end, I went to Home Depot to look for another rain barrel. I already have one sitting in the backyard with 50 gallons of water. I figure always be ready for the worst. I used that rain barrel water to flush my toilet the other day after having our water shut off because I ran over a standing garden pipe. Home Depot didn't have a 50-gallon rain barrel, but the woman pointed to a water storage cage sitting at the store's front. I thought no. That's not a rain barrel. That's what my neighbor used to do his aquaponics farming.
I spoke to Scott when I got home. Yes, indeed, people use those water cages to collect rain run-off. I told him to look for one when he was out shopping for materials to replace the subflooring. He called and told me everyone was out of the cages. Apparently, Lowe's had them stacked up, and they're all gone. I'm not the only one preparing for the worst. I must remember to buy more toilet paper.
I got on Craig's List to find one. I found one- and on this island for $50 less than Lowe's was selling it for. B. went down to pick it up. He said the guy was destroyed by something, probably drugs. I had checked that it wasn't unusable because of previous chemical storage. The guy told me he had a water softener in it, cleaned it with soap, and blasted it with a firehose. Now, that monstrosity is sitting in my front yard, empty.
My original plan was to put it in the yard off my bedroom and fill it with the garden hose. Scott said it could, in fact, be used to collect rain from roof run-off. Now we have to find a place to put it. It will require doing something with the ground, which has to be leveled. This will be his next project right after the flooring is finished.
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Musings:
Some see the anti-abortion movement as an attack on women. The emphasis on reproduction is historic; it was established long before the concept of any human being having an individual right was even a twinkle in someone's eye, no less a woman having any rights. The emphasis was on making more babies, so 'our group' would outnumber 'their group.' There's strength in numbers.
When I was in grad school in Wisconsin, I had lunch with Elliott and his wife. He told the story of having premarital counseling with a rabbi. The rabbi asked them what their family plans were. Elliot spoke about their plans to complete their Ph.Ds. before having children. The rabbi said, "What about the six million?" Being the comedian he was, Elliot replied," I think we can handle one or two, but six million is probably beyond us." I laugh every time I think of that poor rabbi. That rabbi was not trying to control Elliot's wife. He gave no thought to her one way or another. He was thinking of the six million. Reproduction became a moral imperative of religious groups. It just so happens that it leaves women more hamstrung than men.
Taken out of the religious context, one can argue about the morality of killing a human in any form. Women whose children die as a result of their drug use can be charged with something or another. Their drug use did kill their unborn child.
I personally find the idea of having an abortion tragic. It is hard on the woman. I prefer that we teach safe sexual practices and pass out free contraceptives than push abortion as a solution. In this country, many groups are opposed to any mention of s-e-x in the schools, no less passing out contraception. These become moral issues too.
If we follow the principles advocated by religious organizations, arguing that abortion destroys a human soul, to their logical extreme -OW! Conservative religious organizations argue for contraceptive free sex between married persons only. Well, for now. But the concern for providing safe transfer of a soul into a human body can take an extreme form.
I haven't either read or seen Handmaid's tale; I understand it is concerned with controlling women for the purpose of reproduction. I don't know how my extreme vision compares but here goes. If the concern is for a soul, a religious belief, all women of childbearing age should be pregnant, breastfeeding, or working on becoming pregnant again. In our age of technology, we can invent a way to determine when a woman is fertile and make it illegal for her not to be impregnated whether her husband is available or not, whether she has a partner or not; the state can provide a stand-in. All this in pursuit of a moral principle.
Jeffry Dahmer's father spoke about having a bad mental habit attach itself to the sexual engine. I think it is just as dangerous when some idea becomes attached to a moral judgment, particularly in the case of a religious principle. It shuts down all discussion, all other considerations.
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