The North Idahoan

I thought it would be neat if I made a better effort at keeping this website up to date on the happenings around our home. There have not been a lot of things happening lately, but I have been working with Abby on riding her bike. She is getting pretty good at it. She still gets a little freaked out when she has to turn, but after riding for a ways I will stop her and show her how far she rode. She gets so excited about riding and we have a lot of fun doing it. I also get pretty good exercise trying to chase her,  but it is quite good for me.

Well, yesterday marked the end of Abby’s first week in the first grade. She seems to really enjoy it. She has a few of her friends from kindergarten in her first grade class, and there are a lot of kids that she has not met before. (There are four first grade classes and four kindergarten classes at Abby’s school, so the variations are endless.) Abby thinks eating at school is pretty cool (her words) but she wants to take a cold lunch. I guess she does not think a whole lot of the choices that she has at school. Big surprise there, kids complaining about cafeteria food.

Abby also enjoys riding the school bus. The stop is fairly close to our house, and there is another little first grader who gets on at our stop. (It is just the two of them.) On the third day of school, when I picked Abby up, I found that the other little girl is in our ward. I had met her father at church, but hadn’t met any other members of the family, so it wasn’t until I picked Abby up on Friday, and saw the other girl’s father that I realized who they were. Nice to know we have some friends from the ward so close to us. I asked Abby if she knew that the little girl was in our ward and she said that she did know. Funny girl.

It is kind of weird having Abby gone all day, but I am getting some quality work done. I am studying to take the Graduate Record Examination again in preparation for possibly (maybe likely) entering a PhD program next fall. I want to score really well, so I have been preparing for several months now, but now I have a lot of quiet time to do it. It is very strange to not have classes and such now, but I suppose that will likely change again in a year. (Cross your fingers.)

I received a letter just the other day from Boise State University informing me that they have added me to their adjunct instructor pool. Trust me, it’s kind of cool. It means that I could be appointed in any given semester to teach as many as three courses, on my own, with some supervision my a faculty mentor. I would be the actual teacher however. I applied too late to be considered for any classes in the Fall 2008 semester, but I will be under consideration for Spring 2009. The reason this really is great news is because teaching a few classes for a couple of semesters at a university like Boise State will give me great hits for applying for future positions. Yippeeeeee!!!!

This does bring me to another little bit of news. If I am not going to be able to teach this fall you might be asking yourself, what is David going to be doing? Well, I’ll will tell you. I have been able to land a full time job as a line cook at a new Shari’s restaurant that is opening here in Moscow at the end of July, so I will be making decent money. I know, it isn’t what I want to do for a career, and it seems like a major step down for someone with an M.A., and I suppose it really is, but it is work and it pays the bills. Besides, I have wanted to have the experience of cooking in a restaurant.

That brings me to my next bit of news. Tina and I are moving into a new townhouse. It is pretty nice. We had to leave our old apartment on June 30 because our lease was up and we didn’t want to renew it just in case we would be leaving Moscow for a teaching job. Since I did not really get one, and I was able to land the job at Shari’s we decided to go ahead and get a new place to live for the next year. (If I get the chance to teach at BSU we will have to figure something out because we signed a lease). In the interim we have been staying with some generous friends and packed all our stuff into our storage unit. I will be sure to put some picture of both the storage unit and our new place in my picture gallery just as soon as I take some. We can start moving in as of tomorrow.

Well, I suppose that is all the real news that I have for now.

Horwitz, Tony. A Voyage Long and Strange: Rediscovering the New World. New York: Henry Holt and Co., 2008.

The first thing I want to write about this book is that it is not your typical history book. That fact alone is probably what made this book such a joy to read, which is also not typical of history books. Horwitz has written a history book that is so much more. The history is there, but this book is also a humorous travelogue.

Horwitz describes his experience at Plymouth, Massachusetts when he realized that he, like many other Americans, was clueless about the exploration and settling of North America by Europeans. His main criticism of history education is that it seems to gloss over more than one century of history. He complains that Americans know about Columbus’s voyage in 1492 and then they fast forward to the Pilgrims in 1620, completely missing Spanish colonization of the Southwest and Mexico in the 1500s, or the fact that Plymouth was not even the first English settlement in America. A park ranger in Plymouth commented to Horwitz, stating that people ask her about “the Niña, the Pinta, and the Santa Maria. People think Columbus dropped off the Pilgrims and sailed home.” Horwitz decided to explore that lost century.

For the history in this book Horwitz examines the voyages of the Vikings, as early as 985 A.D. before proceeding to Columbus and his several voyages in the 1490s. Horwitz then proceeds to study Spanish voyages and explorations throughout the continent, from Cabeza de Vaca and his trek from Florida to the Pacific coast of Mexico, to Coronado in the Southwest and De Soto in the Southeast. All of this took place in the 16^th century. He finishes with colonization, first by French Huguenots and then the Spanish in Florida, the English in Virginia and finally Plymouth.

What makes this book so fascinating is the travelogue, which is mixed in with the history throughout the book. Horwitz traveled to each of the places he studied, tracing the path of history. He traveled to New Foundland to see the remains of the Viking settlement, the Dominican Republic and then followed both Coronado’s and De Soto’s routes. Along the way he meets fascinating characters, deals with erratic driving in the Dominican Republic and comes to an understanding of the amazing feat that was Spanish exploration of what was, to them, a new world.

This book is a good read and well worth a recommendation. The history is quite accurate without being dull or long, thus keeping the reader interested. Horwitz also manages, for the most part, to avoid the preachy condemnation of many modern historians, who try to apply 21^st century morals to 16^th century actions. The travelogue is often humorous and always fascinating, leaving the reader constantly wondering what experiences he will have next and what kind of people he will meet. Finally, Horwitz’s journey deeply affects him, but I will leave it to each individual reader to take what they will from this book for themselves.

You have probably noticed that I changed the title of my blog. I gave it a little thought, and I decided that the previous title was kind of dumb. So I changed it. There is also a little wishful thinking involved in the title of this site. I applied for a job working for the grad school here at the University of Idaho, and I really hope I get it. If I get the job then the title of this blog will be good for the indefinite future. If I don’t, well, we’re trying not to think that way.

I think this is also a good time to point out that I have tried recently to shy away from too many soap box moments, and make this blog focus a little more on family news. After all, I think that all my readers, (the few and the proud), are doing so to get information on the family as opposed to listen to me harangue about politics. Hope everyone enjoys it.

Is “a’changin’” even correct slang? Who knows.

Anyhoo. I love the weather that we get in Moscow. Today it is cold and rainy. Right now (3:30 pm) it is only 50 degrees. Yesterday it was 80 degrees. For anybody who has ever lived on the Palouse, this kind of variation should come as no surprise. It is part of the fun of living on the Palouse. The weather can be so unpredictable that making plans to do anything outside is always an adventure. For example, Abby plays micro soccer here in Moscow. Her games are on Tuesdays and Thursdays and we have soccer practice on Mondays. We have only cancelled practice for the weather once, but we have had three games cancelled. The kids who play their games on Monday and Wednesday have only had one game cancelled. Things can change around here quite a lot from one day to the next.

I actually love it a lot. I had a lot of fun over the weekend grilling and complaining about how hot it was. Today I can complain about it being cold, if I want to. (I don’t usually complain a lot about the weather because I can’t change it, so complaining doesn’t do any good). The fluctuation helps with the relativity of weather.

I noticed an interesting trend several years ago. It seems that in April when the temperature in Moscow finally gets above 40 degrees people put their jackets away and start wearing shorts when the temperature is above 50. In the fall, when the temperature drops below 60, everybody gets their jackets out, and the shorts start to disappear (which is not a bad thing). I think it is all relative. After surviving another northern winter of constant cold and snow (although generally not quite as much as we had this year), 40 and 50 degrees seems pretty warm. After a hot and dry summer where the temp is constantly above 90 for several weeks on end, 60 seems kind of cold. Relativity. Having a few days of weather like we did this last weekend with temps near 90, helps us to have some perspective and remember that 60 really is not that warm.

So, that is my report on the weather. I wish I could say that there are more exciting things happening around here. but there aren’t. When I have some real news I will definately post it though.

Saturday was graduation at the University of Idaho. I really enjoyed it because I was graduating. I wish it was warmer though, and maybe sunny. I was worried that it would rain and I wouldn’t be able to do my barbecue, but everything turned out just fine. I now officially have a master’s degree in history. Yee haw!

It is Finished!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I just had to do that. I submitted my thesis to the Grad School this week and I am going to graduate next week. I am extremely excited about that. I still don’t know what is coming after graduation, but I am just relieved to finally be able to say that I have finished my Master’s degree. When I have more information about jobs, etc., I will be sure to post that.

I was about to call this entry “Democrats don’t get it” because it is going to be about two prominent Democrats and why they should not become President of the United States. The truth is that Republicans really don’t get it either, but I will undoubtedly have my chance to write an entry about that later.

First up is the older of these two items, and thus has been bothering me longer. Hillary Clinton declared that we need to raise taxes on oil companies. She just doesn’t get it. Corporations really don’t exist. I know, it is a good legal entity, but a corporation is nothing more than the investment of individuals in a business opportunity. It is all about investing in economic growth. Raising taxes on corporations is only a tax increase on individuals, and not just wealthy ones. Tax increases are always passed on to the consumer, unless it is a tax on the corporate earnings, in which case it affects the value of the investment. That includes all those average middle-class Americans who have 401(k)s. Yeah!!! When Clinton says that we need higher taxes on oil companies what she is saying is that she will cause gas prices to rise. This in a day when rising gas prices are already leading to declines in savings and rising food prices. Brilliant! I certainly hope she is not elected. She would be disastrous for our economy because she just doesn’t get it.

Barack Obama, on the other hand, doesn’t get it either. Lately he has been all over the news because of his insulting comments about middle-class middle Americans. Why are his comments insulting? Even the political analysts on tv don’t quite graspt the reality of this. These people (I include myself in that group) don’t cling to guns, etc because we are bitter. We cling to these because we see politicians trying to take these things away from us. We see these attempts at usurping our rights and security as a move toward more government control, and Americans have a long history of wanting the government to keep out of our lives. We do not want a socialist (read: fascist) society. We want one that is open, in which we feel safe in our rights and our ability to take care of our own problems. (Unfortunately entitlement government is making too much head way and we see many of these things Obama was criticizing as some of our last holdouts against socialism.) I hope Obama is not elected president because he  just doesn’t get it.

What do you expect? Politicians really don’t get it.

I’m back after having been really sick for a while. I caught the flu and it has taken me a while to fully recover from it. I just had to write this to update that little bit of information and to ask the question, “What is going on here?”

I woke up this morning to snow. That is not incredibly strange as a little snow in March is not a big surprise in Moscow. In fact, the rain has been turning to snow overnight for most nights of the past two weeks, but it is usually just a small dusting of snow and it is all melted by about 9:00. Today however we got a lot of snow. School was cancelled for the eighth time this year. A snow day on March 27? What is going on here?