Wednesday, February 21, 2007

The Turtle and the Hare

I've been struggling for a while as to what I should post next. The long hours of research have taken away much needed sleep, the cold winter here in Minnesota has been almost unwelcome with temps dipping down to -40 or even -50 below zero with the windchill at times. Today it warmed up, we took a much needed sled ride behind the 4wheeler in the snow, and then the snow began to fall so peacefully that all I could hear was the wind in the trees gently escorting the flakes down to the ground, every so often landing on the tips of our noses and eyelashes.

It's been tiring, looking through books and papers, Uncle Jerome has managed to point me in the right direction these past two months, and I've made significant headway into aspects of his life that were only too briefly touched on in other written accounts of his life. I can't help but trust he's guiding me, these little headways I'm making are coming so fast that I have a hard time keeping up with myself. Quite a few times I've laid my head down to rest next to the keyboard, only to wake up with a stiff neck and drool on my arm.


Ronnie emailed tonite, he said he's been tired these past few days himself. I think we're both trying so hard to make headway with our book that we're allowing ourselves to be drained by it all. I knew this would be work, I had no doubt as did Ronnie. But I think we need to be like the turtle, slow and steady wins the race. So, it's time for a break, or at least time to turn my attention to another aspect of Jerome's life, one that I haven't challenged myself with yet. Possibly one that is a bit easier to research than the timeline I am doing right now. Either way, I need to slow things up a bit. I don't think my poor desk can take my snoring and drool much longer.

St. Patrick's Day is right around the corner. This year I'm hoping to have a St. Patrick's Day dinner for our family, something that we've never done before in my own family let alone my husband's. His grandmother is Irish, so I picked up a shamrock plant for her and myself yesterday at the floral shop in town. It wasn't until today when I watered the plant that I noticed each stem had 4-leaf clovers, something I've never seen before. I called up my husband's grandmother and told her to look at her shamrock, and sure enough, hers also had 4-leaf clovers. Her other plant only had 3-leaf clovers. Whether they were genetically altered to produce them like this, or it was luck, I haven't a clue. But personally, I like to think it was the tried and true "luck o' the Irish" myself.

It's hard to keep my blog current as I can't give out details to our book, or the headways that Ronnie and I are making each week. But I assure you, the book is being written, and Jerome Collins' story will be told accurately. My head is bobbing, so I best sign off for now.