A Handmade Wooden Ladder

Jovie, on my lap, eating her breakfast. The morning routine.

Hello friends. It’s Thursday night. All is quiet at the Palm house. Today, James puked in class, on our doorstep, in our bed and then in a bucket. Poor buddy. James told me that he feels like his stomach is backwards. Good description. Speaking of my children and descriptions, lend me your ear for a moment whilst I tell you Ani’s (who is seven) spelling list. I am sure I will be amazed for years to come at what my children are learning in class, but this spelling list, while it may be normal for seven year olds in today’s world, I tell you that I just learned how to spell these words last year. Here we go.

Vegetable
Valuable
Reliable
Probable
Portable
Terrible
Horrible
Invisible
Possible
Impossible
Responsible
Sensible

Now, I know there is a major theme/pattern going on here, but still, what happened to this list for seven year olds?

Dog
Cat
Mom
Dad
Bat
Ball

Or even,

Apple
Duck
Egg
Sock
Rope

Oh well, what’s a mom to do, especially a mom who loves “spell check.”

So, yesterday, I took the following much celebrated pictures - the telephone repairman putting up our new phone line. So, as of four o’clock yesterday, we had internet again. So, so great. At eight o’clock last night, a storm rolled in, and lightening hit our phone line and fried our modem. What? WHAT? Do you remember this same thing happening last spring? When our modem finally got fixed, after weeks, and then a big bus with too much luggage strapped to the top came and clipped our telephone line, the very same day. Anyway, but I can’t expect too much dear friends. I don’t mean to disrespect India with that statement, but the reality, at least in Ooty, is that what we try to do with modern technology, really pushes the limits here. And sometimes the limits get pushed too far. It’s the marriage between India’s simplicity and its desire to welcome the demands of modern technology. Oftentimes it simply doesn’t work. The guy who came to fix our telephone walked up to the house with the telephone line wrapped around his shoulder - like we do with Christmas lights. When they were hanging the new line, the guy used a hand-made wooden ladder to get up our tree, because our tree is sort of proxy telephone pole. So, when our internet busts, it helps to remember that most of the people in this country do not have running water in their homes. It’s really important for me to remember that.

Here he is. Bag of phone line over his shoulder.

And here are his two helpful helpers. Note the phone line just behind them at Sydney's "head level." It's not normally like that.

Again, phone line right past the door and above the deck chairs.

And there it is, the handmaid wooden ladder. Note the broken step in the following picture.

Oh me, oh my, dear friends. What to do? What to do?