TATER TOT TIME AT RANCHO NON SEQUITUR

This week is by far the hottest of the summer, so of course the A/C went out yesterday morning.

I'm holed up in the basement kingdom right now waiting for the A/C repair guys to call about whether they're coming today or not. The Dear One(TM) and the four clowns are packed away for a day's activities inside: they're off to the newly opened Target for back-to-school shopping, then to the mall for some clothes shopping, then to swim practice this afternoon.

Needless to say, I'm having one of my "Pa Envy" moments, where its painfully aware how deficient in the daily survival skill set I am from "Pa" in the Little House on the Prairie series. Pa would know how to build a whole new heat pump from scratch, using his trusty axe, some bailing wire and maybe some linens from the the Olson's Christmas party. Me? I've got nothing.

Spririts are relatively high, though: The Dear One has decided to turn the narration of the day into that of a really bad reality tee-vee show, called "Hot House." (Motto: Their love was hot, but the house, zee eess hotter.) Which has kind of turned surreal, not to mention thoroughly confusing the heck out of the kids. At least she's not walking around with the video camera while she's doing it.

Sekrit message to INDCent Bill: and no, this doesn't mean that one of our favorite games is The Dear One pretending she's Jeff Probst, and I'm a naughty survivor who will do anything to keep from being voted off the island. Pervert.

Anyhoo, so as I said, I'm holed up in the basement, where the home office is located. It's stuffy, but relatively cool for now. How to describe the basement kingdom? The office is pretty large---it's directly underneath the family room, so it's not cramped. I have two large desks forming a right angle in the back corner---one of which is a door on two filing cabinets, the other a large wooden table. The door desk has been with me since early on in grad school, and has become sort of a good look talisman. The table is stacked pretty high with books, notecards, and files. The books at the front are predominantly on stuff dealing with the first Barbary War, as I'm writing an article on Thomas Jefferson's policy dealing with American Indian tribes, comparing it with his foreign policy decisions to deal with the Barbary pirate states. I came across the connection quite by accident, but there is a strong conceptual linkage between the two in his mind---the key to understanding Jefferson's Indian policy is to see it as part of his foreign policy, in particular his foreign policy dealing with "lesser" sovereigns. I came across a number of letters where he discusses both problems, and uses similar language to describe addressing them. At some point, I'll do a longer post and give a more in-depth explanation.

One whole wall is bookcases. I don't have as many books as Robbo does in his home library, but it probably evens out when I get to factor in my office at school. At home I keep the core of my American history/political development stuff, as well as most of my political theory and economic history books. At school its pretty much all the American politics as well as law & society texts. On top of the bookshelves I keep my junk----school mugs, autographed baseballs (I've got a nice Luis Tiant/Carlton Fisk one that I wouldn't part with under any circumstances), and a picture of my Dad and I standing in our driveway the day I left for grad school. While I've been back quite often over the past sixteen years, I didn't have any clue that it would be moving away from Connecticut for good. Such is life. Other junk is up there: lead soldiers from London, some framed and signed stuff, a clay head sculpture I did in seventh grade, my Eagle Scout certificate, and most prized possession of all: a student journalism award from my local noozpaper from when I was the high school newspaper editor. You know, I'm sure you've always sensed that about the LLamabutchers: we are award winning journalists, after all!

The last bizarre thing about the office are the maps: I collect old maps, mostly of the United States. Most are not originals but copies: my favorite of the copies is one I got in New Orleans a couple of years ago, which is a copy of a French map from 1825 showing the United States. There's another one that I got from the Monticello store showing the US in 1818, as well as some later western ones. I love old maps, particularly in the ways that they are "wrong" or incorrect, as the errors are windows into the limits of their understanding---kind of the opposite of Rummy's "unkown unknowns," the things you think you know but you don't.

Anyhoo, I'm going to try to get a modicum of work done, although the wall clock has the temp at 92 and the humidity well into the humid zone. Waaaah.