Hello

Hello all my fuzzy blog readers.

I am sorry for that, please forgive me.

I am back from...Lewisburg Pennsylvania.  I had a marvelous time.  Lewisburg is nestled in the mountains. I don't know what the mountains are called, but the sweet refreshing air was so... um... refreshing. And it's the kind of town where you drive ten minutes in any direction and you'll most likely be in the country or something. It was so lovely.  At night, I could look out the window and actually see a star-filled sky. I might be able to see five in Cleveland.  Oh, and I saw the big dipper for the first time in my life. And I could see the mountains from the window.  Altogether, it was a refreshing, calming visit...oh, I was visiting my grandma.

I thought you should all know that it is raining right now. Real raindrops from the sky! I woke up, and I heard the rain on my roof, and I felt a thrill run through my body. I'm sorry that y'all have to put up with my... uh... oddities, because I know that I have written about the rain over and over again on here, and you have had to read it. But where else would I ramble?  I've loved it ever since I can remember.  When I was extremely little, I used to say it rained because God was crying.  But then I learned the moisture rises and forms clouds and the clouds drop the rain or something like that...  but it's still fascinating to me to watch the rain.

I'm a little restless because I want to find something worth posting about and I"m not quite sure where to find it...

"The sober person lives deeply. His pleasures are not primarily those of the senses, like the pleasures of the drunkard, for instance, but those of the soul. He is by no means a stoic, on the contrary, with a full measure of joyful anticipation he looks forward to the return of the Lord but he doesn't run away from his task." ~ William Hendrickson

I'll just end with that, and perhaps this post will have been worth reading. :)

The Desk

You aren't allowed to make fun of me. I forbid it.

Ever since I was a little girl, I always dreamed of having my own desk.  I dreamed of doing my math at it.  Maybe the desk would help math be more interesting, because to me, a desk was absolutely romantic and idyllic.

But I never really got a desk.  It remained as a sort of childish dream.  And a few days ago, when mommy and daddy said they thought I needed a desk, I grinned and smiled like a baby.

I was so excited.

The desk that I was to have belonged to my great uncle when he was young.  It was an old-fashioned roll-top desk that had three drawers on the side, a draw inside, and a drawer "beneath" so to speak. I. was. so. excited.

And I got that desk! My aunt and uncle were kind enough to bring it when they came to visit.  It has a little chair, and it's just perfect! It's not big, but I feel so nice and cozy when I sit down at it.  And the thing I love about it is that it belonged to my Nana's brother, that it's old and old fashioned, and that it's not perfect in its appearance.  This is my little idyllic desk!

I just had to tell you all that, because I am so excited to have a desk to do stuff at!  I can hardly wait to fix up the corner of my room where it's going to go, and put stuff in it... and... :D I'm happy.  God is so good.  Even though he's made me wait a few years for this desk. :D


 

Striving After... What?

Hello.

I has been thinking. And yes, I know that is bad grammar.  I am in a sensational mood.  I do really love tea, and my lovely brother just made me some.  That, combined with a sort of somnolence that seems to hang over me like a shroud puts me in a rather odd mood.  And I start asking questions.  Questions that I know the answer to, but that I like to ask anyways... Because, in a rather odd way, it makes me rethink the whole philosophy, and then that makes me ask more questions.  It's rather bothersome, sometimes, but that's alright.  I don't mind today.

Today, I think the weather is affecting me.  It's so cold, it's so grey, it's so bleak, it's so hard... and so white.  It makes me passive, like it doesn't matter what happens.  I have the mindset: "Who cares? It's cold anyways." As if that will answer every question.  But it won't.  And I found myself asking...

How much is too much?

Where is the correct balance?  How do you know where to find it?

How little is not enough?

How do we find out our "brain" capacity before it's too late? This is a very me question.  In other words, I want to know how much my brain can tolerate before it explodes.

How do we find the courage to face a fear that can hardly be described as a fear?

How do we find the difference between sloth and really not being able to handle something?

I really don't know.  The only thing I know how to do is to trust God.  I know that courage comes from God, not man.  I know that wisdom from my own heart is bound to be deceitful, but I know that God will guide me to make the right decisions, and that the wisdom comes from him.

In fact, I know that nothing comes from myself, but everything comes from him.  He satisfies every need, he fills every gap, every chasm in our soul.   He binds up our brokenness.  Think about that.  We don't need anything, but Him.  He satisfies our every need... He fulfills our every desire... And it's not by giving us what we want, it's by showing us what we need, and that is himself.


That doesn't mean our life is struggle-free, though.  There are still these questions.  For me, it's this.

With regards to school, this constant studying that I must do in order to graduate absolutely horrifies me. Not that I hate it, but it makes me ever so tired to think about.  I wish that there weren't any set time for graduation, but that I could always be learning at a leisurely level, through all the years.... but that's the catch.  If it pleases God for me to get married, and have a family, I probably won't have time to study like that.  That's why I have only 2.5 years to finish all this school.  I know I have to finished it because, even though I don't know if I'm going to get married or not, I have no idea what my life holds, and I need to try and be prepared for whatever it is.  So that's how I know to persevere with my studies.  But how high of a level should I try and reach for?

So, for now, even though I have fallen behind due to health issues (grin), I have set in my mind to not try and catch up, as that might make everything worse and unbearable, but to continue at a slow, yet steady pace.  Fast enough to get done what needs to be done, and slow enough to let it sink in, and so that school won't be the only thing my life is centered around. :P

And I know that the title of this post has next to nothing to do with the actual post, but it was random, like my mood.

Thanks for reading. :D Leave your comments, please. :)

Tagged

Emma from Literature and Laughs tagged me in the following post. :)  Here goes...

What are six names you go by? Ruby, Rubert, Rubes, Rubix-Cube, Ruby Jean, Rubs.

What are three things you're wearing right now? A shirt, pajama pants, and blankets. :P

What are three things you want very badly right now? Halfchaps, snow, and a willing spirit.

What are three things you did last night/ yesterday? Wrote an essay on early Britain, folded laundry, and cooked meals.

What are two things that you ate today? Black beans with chicken and rice, and chicken soup.

Who are the last two people you talked to on the phone? Mother, and Candice (my riding instructor.)

What are two things you're going to do today/tomorrow? Finish school essays, and books. :D

What are your three favorite beverages? Water... ginger ale... and rootbeer. :D

And now I have to tag people! I tag Chloe at Life In My Strawberry Patch, Jordan at Ramblings of a Princess, and anyone else who wants to do this can say that I tagged them. :) Copy and paste this into a post, delete my answers and put in yours.

~Ruby

Of All The Extraordinary Places....

Home is the best.  I've realized that home isn't where your house is built, but where your family and loved ones are.  The great traveler Richard Halliburton loved to go to countries, and experience everything there is to experience... like sleeping on top of the Kheops, or sneaking into the gardens at the Taj Mahal for the night, or climbing the Matterhorn in the dead of winter... and he almost always rode first class on the train with a third class ticket.  But even he said that traveling only makes one appreciate one's home all the more - it makes him eager to be back home.  As astounding as foreign places are, as wonderful as they seem, everything is nothing compared to the warmth that exists within the family.  I suppose I am talking from personal experience, so please keep that in mind as I continue.

Dorothy, in all her adventures in Oz, though it was all exciting and wonderful, yet said in the end: "There's no place like home."  As awful as "the witch" (I forget her name before the dream) seemed, Dorothy was more than happy to go home, and find everything the same.

"Home is where the heart is."  It's true that the people we've grown up with, the people who have seen us through everything and have been there through all our failures and mistakes... not just the bad times but also the best times we have.  These are the people we know the best, and love the best, and where they are is where we long to be.  When my older brother left home to go work down in TX, and later in FL, I felt like one of my limbs had been torn out.  And how happy we were when he came home! What joyous, happy times! I wish they would always come back, but the fact that they won't makes the memories all the sweeter.

We went to London in September, as all of you saw by the posts I did while there.  And we missed home very much.  It was exciting and adventurous being in a different place... a country with history hundreds of years older than ours.  (Meaning that Jamestown was founded in 1607 and everything... though Columbus visited there in 1400's, and Vikings before that... there was hardly anything going on before the English came.) It was thrilling.  And today, I found myself wanting to go back.  There was so much we hadn't seen... but then I thought, there is so much we saw for real that a lot of people haven't seen.  We were blessed by that trip.  When we saw the moist atmosphere above North Carolina on our way home, I thought: "Ah, America.  How lovely to be home!"  And then Philadelphia... And all the security people smiled and said: "Welcome home."  And I thought... No matter where I go, nobody from that country will say "Welcome home" to me... Nobody who works in the airport and is a complete stranger.  Because that's not where I belong.  It's here, in my country, with my family, and as long as my family is together, as sappy as it sounds, there will always be joy.  And being together will help us all to get through anything.   If we ever moved, we would still all be together, so who cares where we are?  This is a huge conviction for me, especially since I don't like Cleveland all that much.  But in spite of it all, I am happy, and I do have my siblings, and both my parents... what cause have I to complain?

I love being home.  I love visiting places, and I love coming home and sleeping in my own bed.  It's one of the most wonderful things in the world.  I love coming home and talking with my dear family for long, long hours. (Well, I love doing that anyways, but there's something especially special about it when you come home.)  I just absolutely love it....

Oh, do you know that the BEST is??!!

FAMILY VACATION! :D

Once Upon A Time, There Was The End

So I got thinking today... in some movies you might hear a line badly said that goes something like... Girl: "This is the end." Guy: "No, this is just the beginning." [End of movie.]  Okay, so maybe I haven't actually ever seen a movie like that, but I know that I've read it somewhere... People say: "The end... or rather, the beginning." But can the beginning of something have an end before it has begun to begin?  I found something comical in the whole idea... What if stories were written backwards?  "The End.  They got married. He visited her. Bobby met Sally.  Bobby was lonely.  Sally was lonely.  Once upon a time."

What if time was backwards?  For instance, what if, instead of growing older, we were growing younger?  If a building once built was old, but got younger just because it happened to be there when we were born? It's confusing, isn't it?  Wouldn't it be strange if there was no time at all?  If people ate when they were hungry, slept when they were tired, and worked when they were not doing the other two?  That would be an odd world.

"This thing all things devours:
Birds, beasts, trees, flowers;
Gnaws iron, bites steel;
Grinds hard stones to meal;
Slays king, ruins town,
And beats high mountain down."

[Gollum's riddle to Bilbo, from The Hobbit, by J.R.R. Tolkien] --if you don't know the answer to this, try and guess! leave your comments. :)

If there was no time, would we all live forever?  In heaven there is no time, but in Earth, we are bound by time. We must awake at a certain hour, be off to work at another, eat lunch between such and such a time, make sure dinner is on the table at this hour, you must get so many hours of sleep... and it all starts over.  And yet, this time during which we do pretty much the same things over and over again, is so filled with interesting things that we never truly experience something awful called monotony. The poor person who does encounter monotony during his journey through Life (or Time) must have so much taken out of his life in order to make it monotonous.  This is what his schedule would look:

Sleep.
Eat.
Work.
Eat.
Work.
Eat.
Sleep.
[repeat]  He eats the same thing for Breakfast, the same thing for Lunch, and the same thing for Dinner.  At work he does the same thing.  When he sleeps he never dreams.  His imagination is dead, and a reality colder than real reality has seemed to grip his mind.  What a sad life!

There is no monotony (or there should not be) for a Christian.  Every day we are challenged in different and sometimes interesting ways.  We are every day seeking new ways to serve our King, and every day we wake and exclaim: "This is the day that the Lord has made - Let us rejoice and be glad in it!"  If an Intelligent Designer made the Earth with so much beauty and so many happenings in nature, how can a human, who is so much more beloved than the sparrow [Matthew 10:29-31], experience of a life of monotony while serving Him? It's really impossible.  Monotony implies boredom; dullness.  If we really find the Christian life so bored and dull, then something is seriously wrong with our relationship with Christ.

In case you were wondering, I didn't have anywhere I was going with this.  I was just writing down my train of thought as it came. :-)  Comment with any further ideas or comments or anything.

Ramblings Of A Tired Girl

I'm sitting here trying to think of something to post about, and realizing that that's a rather pointless thing to do. However, I've decided I want to write something right now because the idea of going upstairs to read Great Expectations isn't very thrilling right now... and I would like to do something thrilling. Writing is thrilling, you know, at least for me. :D The reason Great Expectations can't be described as thrilling is because Chloe told me how it ends, and it renders me extremely sad, you know, because I don't like it when people can't marry the person they love.

I was reading the Bible yesterday, and I saw in 1 Corinthians (I think it's 1 Corinthians?) the passage that says: "Do not be children in your thinking. Be infants in evil, but in your thinking be mature." I think that's what it says. Anyhow, I was really convicted, because for an extremely long time I did not like the idea of growing up. Can't say that right now it's too appealing, but honestly I was convicted. I want to be a child. I delight in those little childish things. I really love being a girl, and I'm filled with a kind of bliss (ya know... bittersweet...) when I look on all those memories I had from my really early days. I'm still young, but I'm furiously enjoying my youth as passionately as possible, because these days will never come again, and I know that I'll miss them. But that verse convicted me. I do need to be mature in my thinking. I was a child, but I'm growing up, and my thinking needs to grow up with me. I'm not exactly sure how to be mature in one's thinking, but I do think that it can start with studying the Scriptures, and one thing I dearly want to learn is wisdom, which will help me be mature in my thinking.

Do you know, I'm rather sorry that I can't write anything better than that tonight. It's almost impossible you know, for me to do better tonight. I'm in a strange state of mind, and that state of mind is telling me (I don't know which part of me) that I need to go to sleep. And as an end note, I don't like it when my foot goes to sleep, because it means that it's going somewhere that I want to go without me.

Running....

So... Today Chloe and I took the kids down to the park. While they played on the swings and went down the slides all different sorts of ways, we went running... probably about a mile.  But anyways, Chloe posted pictures of her running... So I thought I'd get even. :P

Today :)

Enough things happened today to make it an interesting thing to record.... And that's precisely what I'm going to do (much to your chagrin, I'm sure).

This morning I woke up at 7:00 exactly. The alarm clock is set so that the sound track to Gods and Generals goes off. After the first two songs, I decided I needed to get out of bed, despite the fact that my body was telling me I really needed five more hours of sleep. I stumbled downstairs and did my normal routine. After this I felt a little more alive. Breakfast was nearly ready when I got downstairs at 8:00. Mommy had baked pancake puff, a favorite with the Hopkins family. :) Since it was not quite done, Mommy said we had time to have our individual devotions, which we accordingly did. Then we ate up most heartily, because the Hopkins children are ravenous eaters, and love a good breakfast.

After clearing our dishes, each child went about his/her studies. Daddy gave us the assignment of studying as much about Saint Patrick as possible. I proceeded upstairs. I finished the second to the last chapter of Robinson Crusoe, which me down to Olivia were reading with mommy. (I was behind.) I did this while Chloe was on Peter's laptop researching Saint Patrick. I attempted today to do as much as I possibly could. (I did fail, you know... but I did get SOME things done.)

After this, I read some out of my Paul Revere book because I really wanted to finish it today, until I was called downstairs to finish Robinson Crusoe. We all thoroughly enjoyed it. And then I was free to go upstairs, and finish Paul Revere. Then I did my research for Saint Patrick, and when I finished that, I remembered that I was supposed to write an article for Olivia Howard's magazine, and the deadline was today, and I had done nothing. So I wrote it, and sent it off. Chloe came up when I was just about done, declaring her out-of-character-determination to go running. Of course I went with her, but we ran into a dilemma. There are two pairs of sneakers that are wearable for Chloe and I in this house. One pair belongs to Gabriel, and they are very big on him, hence even bigger on Chloe. The other pair belongs to me, and are only slightly big on me. Well... Gabriel had worn his on an outdoor job, so we only had one pair. Perhaps you didn't need to know all this. But I'm telling it anyways. :) So, I went running first, came back, and then Chloe wore my sneakers (with more than one pair of socks) and she went. Meanwhile, I.... well... um.... Spent some time doing something, but I can't remember what. I just remember that when Chloe came back, I let her use the laptop, and went to take a nap. I don't think I actually slept, but at least I was rested. Then Chloe got ready to leave for a college hockey game, at which the boy choir, of whom daddy is the director and the accompanist, had to sing.

When they had gone (daddy, Peter, Chloe, Gabriel, Duncan, and Luther) I tried to console Tirzah and Olivia (because they couldn't go) by showing them the crocuses blooming in the garden. (I really love flowers—who doesn't?) I then realized that since we were going to have a nice dinner with corned beef and potatoes, the house had better be clean. Well, the four main rooms were rather messy. So, I cleaned them up, and talked to mommy while I was at it. During this time, Mother mended a ripped sheet, and Olivia took a nap, while Tirzah played outside. Finally, when all this was done, I worked on a dishcloth I was knitting, and when I had finished that, I edited the article I sent to Olivia Howard, and then resent it.

I read one chapter out of The Count of Monte Cristo, and was just about to help Tirzah with gingerbread when my grandmother called from New York asking for help with some directions.... and after that, I helped make the gingerbread... and dinner was ready... (at 8:30) and then we ate and it was all very good! Daddy said the concert went well, and Duncan won a T-shirt because he and another boy in the boychoir partook of a contest out on the ice...
Whoever could eat a six inch sub within the space of two minutes first, won. And Duncan won. He didn't have a great appetite, but still ate up just like he normally would.

And then I decided to write this rather pointless post, and if you even got to the point of where you're reading this, good job! You have a large amount of perseverence. :P



(this is a picture of our dinner... corned beef, potatoes, cabbage, carrots, and parsnips.)

I know it's kinda blurry... but oh well!

~Ruby

χλɷɩ (It Means... Blooming)

Usually I don't advertise my older sister on the web, but this picture was irresistible. :)

Brace Yourselves.....

Rachel edited this picture of me with the comment that I am Linguini's daughter. :P Isn't it lovely?

Growing Up

Last night I was thinking about when I grow up, and (Lord willing) am married and have a family. I realized that everything, everything will be different. I had just wrapped up a phone conversation with my friend Rachel Clarke. Even after I'm off the phone, I still laugh. But it suddenly dawned upon me that when we talk on the phone when we're older, she won't laugh the same way. We won't share the same kind of inside jokes as we do now. Olivia and I won't exchange the same kinds of letters. Ashley and I won't carry on the same way we do now. It will be like, "Yes, George is getting pretty big. He is starting to learn to read. How's Frank?" (Hopefully we won't be using those names.) It seemed to me that we would all be so unattractively mature in 20 or 30 years. Not that now we're attractively immature, but to me suddenly it seemed that being mature was growing up, and that thought is so unwelcome at this time.

It is always a good thing to enjoy childhood and youth, but it is not good to not want your childhood to leave you, and be caught up in thinking about it all the time. Because if you do, then you will have a very unpleasant childhood. And you will look back and say, "I could have had a marvelous time if I had not worried about growing up!" We must be thankful for the time that we are given. Of course, some people grow up faster than others, and I think I'm one of the slower ones. I'm in the very rear of the race. :) But it also does no good to wish you were older. Then you're thoughts will be, "Why didn't I enjoy my childhood while I had it?" I know some people (obviously elderly people) who have told me that they bitterly regretted not enjoying their youth.

Now I am not saying that I don't want to grow up because I'm afraid of everything that comes with motherhood, and the responsibilities and all that, because I know that in those things too I will find pleasure, even though there will be many trials to endure and get through. But the more I think about it, the more I like being young. If I could, I might even go to Neverland. :P Just kidding. I'm not that desperate.

When I thought about my approaching 15th birthday many months back, I always thought, "15?! I'll have to mature prematurely!" However, I'm finding that that's not true. Of course, I don't want to strive to be immature, but maybe I meant that I'll have to grow up prematurely. But as I haven't really done that yet, I'm thinking that I won't force myself to do it. Meanwhile, I can employ myself in various ways that are enjoyable, and yet give me training for when I finally do grow up. On my birthday, a friends mother asked me, "And are you excited to be 15?"
"Well," I said slowly. "I REALLY liked being 14."

But another thing I thought of last night was this. My daddy says that our generation (meaning their children's generation) is going to be hard. We have to become strong. We have to help raise a godly generation. I have a lot more I would say about this, but I can't put all my thoughts into the right words. But you get the general idea, right?

There really wasn't much point in this post, except that I just felt like I had to say something, and this was one of the easiest ways to do it. That's what usually happens with these kind of posts. I think my mind is a bit discombobulated. :P

L'auteur Malade Bientôt à être Bien!

Hullo my jolly good readers!

This post is written specifically to inform you (though I do doubt that some of you would hardly care) that I am on the mend, and expect to be completely recovered by Tuesday. As though I could name the day or hour of when my good health will return, but I am only saying that I expect it to return then... And I know I am sounding very confusing right now! As though you would even care whether I am well or ill... But I like to write, and since I can find nothing to write about except the state of my health, I am afraid my honest and highly esteemed readers, if they so choose to read my blog, must read what they find, which is an absolutely dull and droll account of no-one-in-particular's sickness. So, please bear with me.

I have a soar throat, a rather "congested" cough, a stuffy/runny nose, and fits of sneezing and wheezing which aren't that pleasant to those around me. Thankfully I won't die. And that is it. Was that so very bad, my dear patient and constant readers? (Well, for those of you who are constant.)

The only reason I have entitled the last two post names in French is because any other title in English would seem absolutely droll and utterly idiotic. These will be the first... (and perhaps last) of my posts entitled in foreign and unknown (to us that is) languages.

And now forgive the absurdity of this post, but because I am sick, I beg forgiveness of all my fair readers. :-)

I thank you profusely and prodigiously for getting through these unseemly and tedious post.

Goodnight, and farewell!

~Ruby

I Can't Think of A Title... How Droll

Okay.... So the past few days have been pretty hectic... Well, maybe the past week. On Saturday the Howard's had a huge yard sale, from eight AM to one PM. So Olivia (see here and here) and I got up at five thirty AM and made berry coffee cake for breakfast, then helped set up. Around eleven fifteen, I told Emma that I was going to go lie down for fifteen minutes. The next thing I know Olivia comes in the room and says, "Hey Ruby you might want to wake up... You've been asleep for four hours."

:P

Then on Sunday I took a two hour nap in the library... and on Monday I didn't have a nap because we went to Cabelas! Yay! :) That was so exciting. I'll have pictures up later, but I seriously was impressed, and their fudge is soooooooo wonderful!

That night we also went to Oglebay (I was corrected and told it is pronounced O-GAL-BEE ;) lol) Park. We got tons and tons of pictures by the pond, and Emma and I had loads and loads of fun rolling down this HUGE hill! I tell ya, if you haven't done that yet, do it, even though you might be 58 years old!!!!!! But the second time down, Emma got stung by a bee on her neck. Olivia got stung four or five times on her hip, and I rolled over a few roots of a tree on my way down the hill, which resulted in a huge black and blue and red bruise. Yuck.

Tuesday we went school supply shopping. I can't believe that season is almost here! You see, I stopped math this past Spring in the middle of a math problem and lesson. :P Bad me... But I am excited, because I want to go shop for binders and notebooks, etc., etc.. Yay! *excited*

Today was nothing eventful... We went on our daily walk (we've been walking 1-4 miles every day--no hyperboly) and took care of the kids and did the dishes, and made dishcloths, and then the Howard's dropped me off here! (At the Clarkes). Tomorrow morning I'll travel to Solon with Mr. Clarke, and my family will pick me up there at Mr. Clarke's office probably around lunchtime! I am so excited! But I thoroughly enjoyed my time here, and I think it was very good for me. :)

I will definitely be getting some pictures up for those of you who care... :P

~Ruby Jean

HILARIOUS!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j9b3lw6BB0s

You guys have gotta see this!

Simply A Post

Sometimes the days go by and one simply cannot think of what to say on his or her blog. It can really be the most disappointing and frustrating thing at times, especially when certain parties are begging the person to post about something when quite often the person doesn't know of anything that would be amusing or of interest to his or her audience. And now I find myself in this same position. Well, well, well, I suppose that I must write something, and I hope that whatever it is, my readers will enjoy it. Frankly, I myself would ramble for forever and a day, if I could, about anything, but I must not. And I hope, and am quite sure, that this will be the first and last of this kind of posts, however much enjoyment my readers may find in it.

And now I must be sensible. Speaking of that word, I used to believe that "sensible" and "sensibility" meant the same thing, only, they were used differently, depending on how the sentence was built. But by way of a dictionary, I was proved quite wrong. Sensible means "aware of" or "informed" as in, 'I am sensible of the difficulties;' whereas "sensibility" means the ability to appreciate or respond to complex emotional or aesthetic influences. As in the beloved movie when Mrs. Dashwood remarks to Marianne, "I think that might be carrying your romantic sensibilities a little too far." And now I ask my reader... Do I have any idea of what I am speaking of? Because I am quite sure that I do not know. Just an interesting thought... Although I daresay that my reader may not have found it quite so interesting as I did, and they are most likely "bored to death" like Lady Dedlock, who, in the end, did die. (But most certainly not of boredom... Read the book. Bleak House, by Charles Dickens.) Goodnight and God Bless!