My gradparents, what a pair...

My grandparents live in a small town, not too far from the interstate between my state and Red State. I drive by their exit often, feeling guilty about not stopping -- but I'm usually with someone, or my Grandparents aren't home (they go to Florida for the winter). This time, I decided to stop and see them and I'm glad I did.

Grandma will be 90 soon. We've already had her birthday celebration, go figure..., Grandpa turned 87 the weekend we celebrated Grandma's birthday. Of course, since my family has very poor communication skills, Grandma was rightly confused about why she got the party and Grandpa didn't, but after the whole thing was explained to her, she relaxed and enjoyed the party.

I love to stop to see my Grandparents, but there are always patterns --

Grandma's last job was as a social worker. She's great at asking questions about what is going on in our lives. She's also fantastic at gently guiding us to do what is right, honest, fair or just plain good. Since she's an 'in-law', she is good at listening to others. I like to think I am more like her than like my grandfather. My mom and sister are/were more like Grandpa....

My grandfather was an environmentalist in the 70s... he piloted and ran a project to reclaim land that had been open-pit mined for coal. The idea was to re-build the lost layers and plant them with grasses that will allow the soil to gain nutrients etc... He also has some very strong views on ethanol and I remember as a kid riding in his uber-fuel efficient Subaru... before it was the car of the soccer mom.

Our conversation drifted between the topics of academia, science and debate. Both of my grandaprents saw the British touring team visit their university before WWII, and it left a lasting impression. It was a pleasant conversation, in that Grandpa didn't bring up how little college professors work... like he usually does.


*****Warning -- the usual dissertation / Grandpa tirade to follow... it will probably be the content of the rest of the post, so you can stop reading if you'd like...

Also, as usual, Grandpa trotted out the bound copy of uber-cousin-in-law's dissertation. I'm not sure why he does that every time I see him. I know the dude wrote one.

I also know the dude had the advantage of being married to someone with a trust fund and whose mother-in-law bought them a house to live in while he was in grad school.... so Dude didn't have to work or take student loans to supplement his income... heck, with rent paid by MIL and equity to buy a place when they moved on, Dude is an under achiever...

Dude also had access to scholarships and other kinds of research opportunities that I could not access. I really, really, really don't want to go into all of that with Grandpa, but I'm afraid I might do that next time I see the bloody thing come out of the bedroom.

Hell, with all of that support, the dude's dissertation should have resolved one of the world's great mysteries, attained world peace or at least produced a catbox that would clean itself.... or cats that don't crap. Instead it is an obscure work about something that doesn't matter...

On the other hand, my ethics of warfare topic actually applies to the real world. it isn't about some dead king somebody who is both dead and obscure -- it is about a topic that has immediate impliations on the lives of many.... so there.