Creativity, marriage, and children

My lovely and informed bride recently came across a study showing that creative genius expresses itself early in men but is turned off--like a switch--when a man gets married and has children. As Albert Einstein observed, "A person who has not made his great contribution to science before the age of 30 will never do so." So there you have it. By these accounts, my creative endeavors have taken a severe nosedive. I suppose it's all busywork now. Or maybe by Einstein's reasoning, I still have a few more months to make my big breakthrough. Wonder what that'll look like.

Here's what it won't look like: the poor man's air conditioner. You see, I filled the bathtub with cold water this afternoon and then blew over the water with a fan, hoping to cool off the house. Something in the physics just wasn't right though; it didn't seem to work as planned. Only Chispita seemed happy about the set-up, but she was probably just relieved that I wasn't going to throw her in the bath as part of her "swimming lessons". She didn't exactly appreciate her previous lessons.

In any case, my wife has left me here for a week as part of her job. She and her staff and students will be staying in the dorms at Occidental College, so the kids'll get a taste for college life. Meanwhile, it's just Chispita and I on the homefront. Today I called my dad and we chatted for a while. At some point, I started hearing gunshots. One of his neighbors was either firing a 22 or playing a tape of firing a 22 to scare pests or something. He just said, "That's Texas for you." Indeed it is. I encouraged him to hunt down the source of it and give it a piece of his mind.

Then I went over to John Skidmore's. It was nice to see him. It had been about a year since I saw him. I also saw Jay and Mary Parker and their new baby - number five. Meanwhile kid number one is going away to college. That's five kids spread over eighteen years! The baby kept wanting to play with me; well if grabbing my hand, flailing your arms, and making bizarre noises is your idea of "play". The Baby also did crazy yoga moves like touching her face with her feet. It was a brilliant and creative move! Those youngins' better enjoy it while it lasts.