Tuesday, December 4, 2007

The influences in my life

My Grandpa is cool. Yesterday he asked me if putting more water in the ocean would eventually result in a drop in sea level. That is actually true--if you were to melt all the glaciers in the world the increased weight of the water would cause the ocean basins to subside and become larger, eventually sea level would be lower than it is right now--it will just take hundreds of thousands to millions of years to happen. My Grandpa introduced me to science--I remember many hours watching Nature and Nova, and other fascinating TV shows about nature curled up next to him on his bed. When I was about 8 my family took a trip to Canada, and one of the things I remember about that trip (besides heating up a nail in the fire until it glowed red-hot) was stopping at Mt. St. Helens. I'd watched a number of shows on the volcano with my Grandpa, and really seeing it with him was one of the coolest things we did on the trip. My Grandpa always wanted to see an erupting volcano, and he would watch anything on volcanoes. There's a volcano watching website he frequents (I think he still does anyway) so he can watch volcanoes erupting live. I wish he'd been able to go to Hawaii or Iceland, or someplace with an erupting volcano just so he could see one, but I suspect he never will.

My Grandma, Mimi, is also cool--she's still a substitute teacher and she makes blankest, quilts, hats, and stuffed animals in her spare time. She should really get onto etsy and sell some of her wonderful, home-made wares. Until she starts charging, I'm going to enjoy all the expertise and talent she shares with the rest of us! From her I learned to make bread, which is a skill I really value (as does Derrick :) ). She's been a great friend and as much a mother to me as my Mom (though don't ever tell my Mom I said that!)

I am so glad I have very curious and creative grandparents. I hope when I'm the same age as my grandparents I'm as active and interested in the world around me as they are.

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