January Reading

I've just finished reading another interesting book - The Truth - With Jokes, by Al Franken. It was an easy read, and it had a few jokes in it which made me laugh.

A few days earlier I finished reading A Team of Rivals, a very good book written by Doris Kearns Goodwin. Anyone interested in Lincoln, or history should read this book!

A few days ago a coworker hands me a book - it's not really a book as much as it is booklet. It's only a few chapters long, and it was written by one of Springfield, Illinois' founders - Major Elijah Iles.

The little booklet represents Isle's autobiography, and it dovetails quite nicely with some side reading of which I was partaking on the Todd family, of Mary Todd Lincoln fame.

The Todd family, and Iles' own family had both crossed into Kentucky during the same period when that region was complete wilderness.

A few generations later many families from Kentucky were migrating for the Great Northwestern Territory, which included Illinois.

It's hard to think of Illinois as a great wilderness, but it was then an ocean of grass as tall as a man on horseback.

My own family has roots which go back to the very beginning of Illinois' statehood, and I find reading about the early days of Illinois very addictive.


Illness Strikes Springfield Area

It seems currently that many locally are becoming afflicted with a viral, or bacterial infection which unfortunately has taken me into its midst. I left work early Friday after holding out against its effects until lunchtime.

Friday night was an entire loss. Intending to make Saturday a worthwhile opportunity for recreation, and leisure I had hoped upon an early rise, only to find myself much too under the weather.

Finally, my loving wife inquired if I'd ever get a start on the day, which inspired me to step out from under the covers, and into the cruel cold dizzy world. Now that I am awake I find that my spouse is napping - but my spirits are up.

So here I am now wondering what to make of myself - shall it be surfing the net, or cracking open Doris Kearns Goodwin's No Ordinary Time?