I like big books (and I can not lie)

It's been a while since I read something that was too heavy to lift, so I put on my back brace and lugged around a book that is holding down bookshelves all over America: The Rise and Fall of the Third Reich by William Shirer.  You've probably seen the big book with the swastika on your parents book shelves, but has anyone actually read it?  Because let me tell you, it's 1147 pages.  Not including the bibliography or index.  Of course, if you account for the pictures, that brings it down to about 1147 pages, and then, once you take out the maps its down to 1147 pages.  That's right, 1147 pages with nary a picture or map to be found.  But don't worry, there are footnotes!

You all have a basic idea of the story.  Hitler starts up the Nazi party, gradually picks up some seats in the legislature during the 20s and then manages to get himself named Chancellor in 1932.  Over the next half dozen years he tells the same story over and over again, pushing around pretty much the rest of Europe.  Basically, he tells them, "Hey, I really need X, and if you just let me have it, then we'll be good, and we can all live together happily".  Over the 1930s, X happens to be, no more reparation payments over WWI, no more limiting Germany to a tiny little army, no more limiting Germany to a tiny little navy, Austria, part of Czechoslovakia, all of Czechoslovakia, and finally half of Poland.  It takes a depressingly long time for other European powers to figure out that he's got a never-ending list of stuff that he wants.  So, they have a big ol' war, he's pretty much crazy, he kills pretty much everyone he doesn't like (which is a lot of people) and finally he kills himself.  There you go, if you have small hand writing, I think you can get that on a 3x5 card.

The book was published in 1960, and extensively references captured Nazi documents, which provides interesting insight in to the fact that they were all crazy.  Page after page left me completely dumbfounded that 1) anyone could be so messed up and hate so many people, 2) he could find so many friends to help him in his cause and 3) so many people let him do it.

I made it through the book in about 8 weeks, and considering that I moved and started a new job during that time, I think that's pretty good progress.  It's interesting, though long and at times overly detailed, covering every conversation that every person had during negotiations, for example.  The best parts were when Shirer would quote his own journal or opinion, as he lived in Germany as a reporter from 1932 to 1940, and saw many important events first hand.

Birding

We went for a conference weekend walk along the Fox river (which runs through town here) this morning.  Near the end of our walk, we spotted a bald eagle circling over head.  Maybe he was looking for foxes or something.  (Fox River, ha ha.)  For me, it's the first wild bald eagle I've ever seen, except perhaps the pair the like to nest near the West Yellowstone entrance to Yellowstone.  Except with those ones, they don't let you stop as you drive past, so all you can do is stick your nose up against the window and hope that maybe one of them sticks its head out over the edge of the nest.  Anyway, it was neat.

Perhaps more surprising is the fact that it was Shannon who spotted it up there circling.  I suppose I will have to give up my nickname of "eagle eye" for at least a day.

Strangely ILL

Shortly after moving to Michigan, I recorded a few thoughts differences that I'd noticed moving across the country.  They weren't terribly significant things, which is really the most significant thing about the list.   It's pretty much the same story with Illinois.  The country seems to be pretty homogeneous, at least from my sampling which now includes 3 of the 50 states. But here's what I've got so far:

Illinois likes to charge you for . . . well, whatever they think they can get away with.
- There is a $50 registration fee for kindergarten, which is only 2 1/2 hours a day.  If you want full day kindergarten, they have that, but it costs a few thousand dollars.
- They charge you to drive on their roads.  From our house, it costs a couple bucks worth of tolls to get into the city.  And a couple bucks more to get back out.  If you get a fancy electronic box to stick on your windshield, you don't have to stop to pay the tolls, and they are 50% cheaper.
- Property taxes are significantly higher here than they were in Midland.  (And people in Midland sure liked to complain about those.)  Of course, I don't own any property here, so this doesn't have a large direct effect on me.
- We haven't gotten new license plates or drivers licenses yet, but when we do, I'm sure they won't hesitate to charge us.
- Oh! How could I leave this one to so late in the list: they charge you to take away garbage.  Sure, you might say that every city does this, but in St. Charles, you have to buy their garbage bags, or but tags to put on your bags for them to take it away.  I suppose the upside to all this is that if we don't drive, or create garbage, we can save money!

It gets dark really early here
We only moved a few hundred miles west, but we went from the western edge of the Eastern time zone, to the eastern edge of the central time zone.  The net result is that sunset is about 45 minutes earlier than it used to be.  Today, that difference happened to be exactly 45 minutes, as it turns out.  Official sunset time in St. Charles today was 6:32 pm.  And we just barely hit the equinox.  And we haven't come off daylight savings time yet.  By Halloween, sunset will be at 5:48, and by Thanksgiving it will be at 4:24!  That's about where it bottoms out, which, is a good thing, because otherwise I'd go crazy.  Twilight will be before 5pm, so I'll be driving home from work in the middle of the night.  The other side of this is, of course, that the sun comes up that much earlier.  But that still doesn't motivate me to get out of bed.

New Kind of Unemployment

It's been nearly 4 weeks since we moved to Illinois, and things are settling down, I suppose.  I guess it's been a bit of an adjustment going back to work every day and all the things that entails - seeing the girls less, showering every day - you know, stuff that grown-ups do.  For me, the transition to a new place is pretty easy.  Other than living in a new place, my life isn't that different.  I spend all day at work doing things that aren't totally different than the other jobs I've had for the last half-dozen years.  Shannon and the girls have had much more adjusting to do than I have.

But there is one thing that has been pretty weird, and that's a new kind of unemployment: we don't have callings.  I suppose when we moved to Michigan we didn't have callings for a little while after we moved, but that was three years ago.  Since then I've been choir accompanist, Sunday school president, primary teacher and Webelos leader.  Playing for the choir carried through basically the entire time we were in Michigan, and the primary and scouts covered the last year.  So, I always had something to do.  Not tons to do, but something.  My primary class only had 4 kids in it, but I had to have a lesson every week, the ward choir practiced basically every week, and we at least usually had a plan for scouts.  But now, Saturday night rolls around, and I don't have anything I need to do to get ready for church.  (Brush my clothes?  Shine my shoes?)  Ditto for Sunday morning.

And then when church actually starts, I don't have anything to do.  I guess I just go to gospel doctrine and then EQ?  I just . . . . attend?  I feel kinda like a free loader.  Now, I know that they'll get around to giving us callings soon, and I guess I'm enjoying actually hearing a lesson (which I hadn't done in a year and a half), but it still feels strange.  Our ward has had something like 14 new families move in over the last 5 months, so there's probably a bit of a back-log on bishopric visits and callings.  (Shannon is probably very happy that this also means that there is likely a back-log on "ask the new people to speak in sacrament meeting," too.)

I admit to not knowing a whole lot of boring organizational details about other churches, but I wonder if this is a somewhat unique LDS thing.  My impression is that other churches have a lot higher percentage of people who attend, but don't have other responsibilities.  And, from what I understand, when people do have responsibilities, they tend to be a bit more on a volunteer basis.

Anyway, if this year has taught us anything, it is that unemployment won't last forever!