BOOKWORM

So what are you guys reading these days?

Right now I'm alternating between "The Rock Child" by Win Blevins, "Killing Pablo" by Mark Bowden, and "The Long Dark Tea-Time of the Soul" by Douglas Adams. I have 'em in different rooms throughout the house and tend to gravitate to where ever the book I'm in the mood for happens to be. I love spring break - it means all the time I normally spend reading student essays gets to be spent sampling books by choice.

I will be forever grateful to my parents for instilling in all of us kids a love for good books. They may not have had two dimes to rub together, but they always made sure our house was filled with good reading material. Language and literacy were hugely important to Don & Nancy Pendley.

So I am curious...what are YOU reading these days? What books have been the most influential in your life? What books could you read over and over? Any key lessons you have learned from a good book? 

Wanderlust

Eric asked if I have ever moved just for the sake of moving, rather than always following jobs or some other practical necessity. Nope. Every one of the ten moves I've made over the past 25 years have either been due to an employment change (lots of corporate transfers for Larry) or a housing upgrade. But I've sure dreamed about it.

I did a 10 day backpack trip in Tennessee years ago with a college class and fell in love with that part of the country. Then this past August, Larry and I spent some time in Alaska with friends doing some serious fishing and white water rafting. We had a blast. I've been in about 40 of the 50 states at one time or another. I've also had opportunities to spend time in Costa Rica and Fiji.

I may be too practical to just up and move on a whim, but I suppose I will always love to travel. Aunt Joy says I inherited my wanderlust from my dad. I have plenty of memories of Don Pendley dreaming of / threatening to up and move us all to Australia. He never did though. To the best of my knowledge, he never even visited the place. Still, he definitely instilled in me a hunger to see the world.

Larry and I are hoping to take another dream trip this year in celebration of our 25th anniversary, but we have not yet settled on a specific destination. Any suggestions?? 

Geography Lessons

As I looked over who has signed on to this blog so far, it confirms what I already knew.... What Frank and Jane Pendley started on that homestead in Oak Creek all those years ago has spread out to posterity all over the place. I know of sibs or cousins in the following places:

Arizona, Idaho, California, Colorado, Oregon, Washington, Texas, Michigan, Germany and quite possibly some other spots I am missing.

I am in Athena, Oregon. It's a TINY little agricultural community in Eastern Oregon, just 25 miles or so from the Washington border. We are half way between Pendleton, OR and Walla Walla, WA.

I am always intrigued by why people live where ever they are. In our case, Larry and I opted to follow his job which is why over the past 25 years we've lived in six states! Others may pick a place they feel an affinity for and then find a way to make living there feasible. How about you? Why do you live where you live? What's it like there? If you could live anyplace in the world that you wanted, where would that be?

To Blog or not to Blog - That is the Question.

Greetings fellow Pendley tribe members, friends, or total strangers, whatever the case may be.

I've been toying with an idea for some time now of starting a family Blog to provide a forum for sharing news, photos, stray thoughts or whatever else various extended family members would be comfortable hanging out in a public space. The genesis for this project comes as a result of several influences:

1) I've been regularly reading some tales on blogs by other people, and in so doing have had all my notions about privacy and community utterly challenged.

2) My current full time job is "Learning Specialist" for Blue Mountain Community College where one of my roles is to promote various uses of technology for enhancing teaching & learning. In that capacity I've had a chance to look at a lot of different ways that people communicate.

3) My other job is adjunct instructor for Wenatchee Valley College. I teach two on-line courses for them: Principles of Sociology and Sociology of the Family. Both classes make extensive use of threaded discussion. In my Family course I had a student say: "I wish I had a discussion board like this I could share with my family members who live all over the country. It would be a great way for us all to stay in touch."

So I thought, why not? I figured I'd go ahead and set it up, and then let individual tribe members choose whether or not they want to participate.

It is a little weird, I must admit, to have conversations with each other that ANYONE with an internet connection could access. So some basic courtesy and precautions are definitely in order. For example - it's perfectly fine to share anything about YOU and your immediate household that you are comfortable having displayed in this public sort of forum. It's NOT ok to disclose information about other family members- even if it seems totally harmless. What feels quite innocuous to one person may be perceived as quite private to someone else. So no "outing" others about their comings and goings, including upcoming vacation plans, last weekend's barbecue, cute kid sayings or anything else, unless you have that person's permission, ok?

I would imagine there may be some family members who will be appalled at the whole notion of this family blog. That's fine. They don't have to play. Others may choose to read occasionally to see what the clan is up to, but stay in the background lurking without ever logging on themselves. That's ok too. But for those of you who may be willing - let us hear from you!

I've got aunts and uncles and cousins I deeply care about but seem to have completely lost touch with. Face it, most of you only hear from me in an annual Christmas letter. It's not that I don't think of you other times of the year. I do! But correspondence seems to be a dying art.

So let's try this and see what happens. Perhaps there will be a few feeble postings and then it will die out all together. Or not. It's up to us.

Ball is in your court. Want to play?