Random Thoughts - The Brother Edition

Brother is putting away the ladder, having added a remote doorbell to our existing system.  This is after spending yesterday defragging and otherwise improving the health and well-being of my desktop and my netbook. He also fixed G'ma's telephone, which had been broken for a month or more.

He had the good grace to tell me quietly and privately that it had been unplugged, though he couldn't refrain from laughing as he said the words.  That's a repair that even I could accomplish.
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I played on the desktop last night. I've been unable to turn it on since November.  I spent a delightful few hours syncing and organizing and, once again, not saving my photos to a thumb drive.  Then I turned it off and went to bed.  It refused to turn on this morning. Brother thwacked it and blew on it and shook it and decided that it needed more care than he was able to provide.  He and Ryan at Computer Renaissance spoke geek for a while, and then told me to pay for a $60 diagnostic.

In situations like these, I do what I'm told.
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http://tinyurl.com/avdmln3

He came to class with me today.  We had a substitute. By the time the teacher had hit his stride, we were up to Euripides's Medea.

Compelled by the gods to love Jason, she led him to the Golden Fleece, chopped up her brother, poisoned her rival, threatened the king, organized a refuge for her exile, and murdered her children.

Is it a feminist screed?  Is it a parable about the Peloponnesian War?  Is she evil or just "the other"?  Was there anything admirable about Jason at all?

Only Brother spoke up for the man.  He made us laugh, he stumped the professor, he gave us cause to pause and think a moment.

It's fun when your guests steal the show.
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He's reading Little Women.  He's not finding it all that enjoyable, but he's started and he's going to finish.  He bought the larger print edition, the one with the pink cover.  The man has no shame.
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We spent an enjoyable hour in the hardware store, collecting the pieces for replacing my lime-encrusted automatic timer and irrigation connections to the raised bed.  For the first time, I knew more about what we were viewing than he did.  The friendly helper didn't mind his questions, as I basked in the knowledge that, for once, we were in an aisle within my comfort zone.

Of course, I was lost as he discussed the inner workings of the doorbell extender.  I didn't really need to follow it; he promised that all I had to do was use my ears.

That, I can do.
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He re-worked G'ma's phone bill and he'll tape the plug so it can never be dislodged and I'll get him to replace the hardware on her dresser which I've been meaning to reattach for months.  As he said when he was here in 2011, "some people like to fix things and some people do not."

Guess which side of the scale TBG and I rest upon.

It's good to have a brother to balance it out on the other.