Mid-July 2009

Dear Ones, Loved Ones, Loved One, and Friends,

Many moons have risen since I’ve added a familial update and otherwise kept you informed on the comings and goings of the Oberg / Connor family. It’s been a busy year, a doozy, even by our standards. Since last July, we have sold a house, rented to own a house, and bought a compound replete with concrete lions, three sheds, and a fig tree. Other things happened too, I’m sure, but the figs, by God, they look yummy.

The kids have all grown taller and tougher, and Chaos is typing away, waiting for one of his offspring to become Chronos and rearrange the power structure: that is, I felt more obsolete yesterday than I did the day before, and today, well, you can imagine, I hardly feel the need to draw my own breath. But I’ll be more specific:

Zac decided this year to become the tallest member of the household, putting me in a steady third (though I suspect Sam will occupy that honored spot before he reaches high school). He’s making his way through the ranks on the rock-climbing team, pulling himself up one hold at a time. In fact, he’s probably at the gym now. He took time this past winter to teach himself about electromagnetics and proceeded to build a motor out of some cardboard from a case of Yeungling, some Romex wire from the shed, and twelve dollars worth of magnets he bought on line.

Sam decided to study the Rubik’s Cube -- his best solve time is a minute thirty-one seconds, which is well faster than I can scramble the cube -- and he’s working daily to improve. He, also, competes on the rock-climbing team, but is taking the summer off to chop wood and keep an eye on my parents. A major triumph and joy for Sam this school year came when his band took second in a state-wide band competition, and would perhaps have done even better if the flautists had held their instruments at the requisite thirty-seven degrees, instead of thirty-nine and thirty-five.

Naomi, of course, walks mostly on her hands and that only when she’s not jumping. She advanced from level one to level three gymnastics this season at our local gym, and hopes to join the preteam team this fall. In school, she has fallen in love with math and is a member of the advanced learners program for such things. And in June she started reading the _Harry Potter_ series.

Leah runs everywhere, sometimes putting eight, ten miles on her sneakers in a day. Luckily, she often lists off to the side, so she ends up back at the campfire, and none of us has to stay in shape to catch her.

In the meantime, here we are in Pennsylvania, land of my progenitors. traci and I brought Leah, Naomi, Sam, and Desi in the middle of June and we’ll be here until the middle of August, leaving Zac to slug it out with North Carolina’s muggiest months. We’re at my parents' (Maga's and Pappap's) camp, making sure the Allegheny keeps listing off down to the left there. Traci and I are living in Pappap’s toolshed with the mice and the moths and a bottle of rum. Sam and Naomi sleep all but the windiest, rainiest nights in a tent. Leah usually tips over mid-stride and runs all night long in her sleep in whichever corner of the tent we set her down.

We’ve been here a month and I’ve started this update ten, twelve times, and each time I feel guilty and study for my PhD. exams instead. But I’m going to take a shot at being more diligent, more timely, more consistent in posting over the next few months, but, as some of you may or may not know, the best laid plans of mice and moths often end up petering out when something really exciting happens on The Deadliest Catch. So, here’s hoping nothing exciting happens on tv over the next month.

Take Care,
Jackson