Drie-en-sewentig

It was -12C when I left home this morning at 6.15 for school!  The ice and snow storm had made the driveway pretty slick.  I slid down the hill, but remembered to take my horrified foot off the brake and stopped myself from meeting up with the neighbour's quietly parked car. Such a strange solution to the problem.  Your every instinct is to slam your foot as hard as you can on the brake, to stop at all costs, the only way you know, but if you just lift your foot off gently for a couple of seconds, then apply pressure to the brake, and repeat when necessary, your car eases smoothly down the icy hill, barely skidding at all.   Our hill is always an adventure in the winter.

It is Einstein's birthday today, an amazing man in so many ways.
He had five children, which not many people think about when they remember Einstein.  He was a rebellious, free spirit all his life, looked at mysteries in different ways because of this, and came up with incredible ideas as a result.

His wife-to-be, Mileva, gave birth to a little girl, Lieserl, before they were married, when Einstein was just 22 years old.  She went home to Serbia in secret and no one quite knows what became of the baby, although there are many theories about her.  It seems that she was left with her grandparents and died of scarlet fever while still an infant.  
Hans-Albert was an engineer, who eventually worked for the USDA, on sediment transport, after emigrating to the USA a few years after his father.  He was an avid photographer and loved playing the flute.  He died in Massachusetts at the age of 70.  Albert left his grandson Bernard, Hans-Albert's son, his violin when he died.
Eduard became a scizophrenic, died at 55, after having been institutionalised for many years.
Hi second wife Elsa, who was his first cousin, had two daughters whom he adopted, named Ilse and Margot. 

He became a vegetarian in later life.  

Such a sweet face.

In his lecture at Einstein's memorial, nuclear physicist Robert Oppenheimer summarized his impression of him as a person: "He was almost wholly without sophistication and wholly without worldliness ... There was always with him a wonderful purity at once childlike and profoundly stubborn." - wikipedia.

Intelligent conversations were had tonight in our lounge, sitting in front of the lovely warm woodstove, with Matt P. and Nick, who both came home unexpectedly for the night.

Amazing, to talk about all kinds of things, like aesthetics and conceptual art and different photographers and cinematographers they have met, with these two huge giants who used to be little boys whom I carried.

And we talked of Winthrop, where we all lived once upon a time, and how one day I gave them a talk about strangers and how to behave when someone invites you into their car, or to go and look for a puppy, or some such, how you should say "No" loudly, and refuse to get into the car, and call an adult as soon as possible.  They were all nine years old and we had been required by the school to reiterate "the talk".  The very next day, after school in the afternoon, the boys were playing in the neighbourhood, and I peeked out of the window to check on them, and saw with horror that they were all three of them, getting into a huge truck parked in the street!  I rushed outside and hauled them out by their collars, so angry and frightened, and there was horror on their faces at my distress, and great surprise on the face of the sweet truck-driver, who was fixing something for our next door neighbour and was completely legitimate!

After having a good laugh, Matt P said, "But there were three of us!" And I said, "I doubt whether you thought that at all, actually looked around and thought, "We'll be fine, there are three of us after all!"  You just thought, "Oh look, a truck, let's get inside!"

The three friends and Luna last summer.  So glad they escaped the truck!