March 23

 Good morning on a nice sunny day. Cool but the roller coaster of weather conditions continues. Early spring looks a lot like late winter. We had a few errands for the day: a trip to the dairy, the drug store, the grocer store and to pay rent. We are a bit fuzzy today because the cats simply wouldn't settle down and let us sleep. And even when the fuzzy little monsters weren't pestering us we kept waking up on our own. It seems that a number of people had the similar problems. Our favorite checker at the dairy mentioned a simply horrid night where even when she could sleep she had terrible dreams. I told her about our difficulties and the woman with two small children behind us mentioned how restless her kids had been. Something was definitely going on. Hope tonight is better.

We put a large stack of our DVDs on the player over the weekend. The Premier League seems to be on a two week hiatus. No games over the last weekend and none on the schedule next weekend. Just checked a the games resume on April 1. Oh well, I will head to our local library and check out a stack of their DVDs for Saturday and Sunday.

Stray thought: the Enlightenment was an era in which people thought the men could understand the mysteries of the universe and bring rational minds to bear on the complexities of human nature, the conduct of government, and social organization. I think the Enlightenment flame is burning out and the last two achievements of that era are crumbling. The United States Constitution was a rational document designed to balance human vices with human virtues to create a human and humane society. I thought a decade ago that the U.S. would see the 250th anniversary of the signing of the Declaration of Independence (next year) but would not see the 275th. Now I wonder if we will see the 250th anniversary of the ratification of the Constitution in 2039. I might actually live to find out since my mother is 94 later this year and in 2039 I will be 90. As far as the second great achievement, understanding the universe, the tool for that was science and there seems to be less and less confidence in what science "reveals."