About the Peanut Gallery…

“Do all these blog things come with peanut galleries?”

“I believe so, Lilly. Is that a problem?”

“It’s just that I am beginning to like the view from this window. I like the study, here, and the way we all sit around so comfortably and discuss things. Like sort of a family den, you might say. The kind where it’s perfectly alright to say anything that’s on your mind because it’s your own family and your own den.”

“Whatever does that have to do with peanut galleries?”

“Well, don’t you find it’s an odd feeling, Ann, to have someone looking back at you through the window… people from the other side?”

“I tend to forget it’s even open. What about you, Professor?”

“Considering the multi-million vastness of the Internet menu, it would be a rare occurrence if anyone ever dropped by, much less piped up with a comment. Personally, I find it much more incriminating to have to be careful not to use any forbidden phrases. There's machine police out looking for them, and they can go through millions in minutes. New regulations and all that. As specific as one has to be in the field of science, it’s practically impossible for me to beat around the bush or exchange one phrase for another when it doesn't have the same emphasis. I’m more comfortable back at the lab.”

“Speaking of the lab, have the cousins come back, yet? They’re up next on the agenda, as soon as we finish the magazine updates.”

“I haven’t seen them around in ages.”

“I certainly hope they haven’t gone and wandered into one of your experiments. That lab is too full of dangerous things to be letting them flit in and out of it as freely as you do.”

“Experience is the best teacher, and children need lots of experiences. What I have in there is a lot better for them than too many mind-numbing video games. Besides, it keeps them occupied so I can at least get some work done once in awhile. Which is what I should be doing right now, instead of enjoying leisurely conversation and refreshments with all of you.”

“We should all get back to work. The truth is, we’ve done entirely too much of this lately. Blame it on the pleasant atmosphere, or whatever. But at this point in the blog experiment, I would have to say that – considering the amount of work we haven’t got done while we were writing it, it doesn’t make a good argument for continuation of the thing.”

“Nonsense, Ann – do you always have to throw cold water on things? We agreed to two weeks. I don’t think we should take any votes on whether it’s good or bad for us until then.”

“Our weeks, or the rest of the world’s?”

“Ours, of course. And you know very well what day we’re on because you keep track of it on that little calculator thing at the end. You’ll keep us in line, the way you always do. Meanwhile, would anyone like to use what time we have left as a bit of a vacation?”

“Certainly not!”

“I move we consult the peanut gallery.”

“It’s time to turn off the blog.”


What’s happening on the farm today: First week back in my winter office and I can see it has been taken over by wild things. Sitting as it does at the very edge of the woods, the regular occupants of the area were quite disturbed at having me invade their space by being visible through the large windows, again. So far this morning, I have been ranted at by the blue jay family, scolded at by squirrels, spied upon by a dark-eyed thing I couldn’t quite identify that kept peeping through the window, and plagued by a myriad of bugs. I guess it wasn’t such a good idea to grow vegetables under the windowsill, after all.

Habit status: Day 8 (with objections)