Their new house is pretty great.  The backyard swimming pool was far nicer than what I expected, and the house is just very nice.  For the first time in years, my parents are excited about their dwelling and are actively working on making minor improvements and making it a home.  Their old place was not able to inspire such emotions, generally beating those prospects down to submission.  I've lived in sub-standard dwellings, I've stayed in sub-standard dwellings, and I've slept on damp basement floors of about-to-be-condemned-substandard dwellings.  Those places never inspired the embarrassment that I had associated with their home.  My standards are not that high, and I had problems stomaching where my parents used to live.

Like I said, in terms of moving, I didn't help much.  The main reason I considered the weekend to be a success was the hours-long conversation Friday night that I had with Tim in which he was convinced to go back to school.  He was busy complaining about how he was trapped in this system that's designed to make people slaves.  I simply told him that he should use his abilities and abuse whatever the system is willing to give in order to get status and change the system.  Idealistic?  Yes, but so it goes.  I didn't know if it had really caught until Sunday when he asked Mom what it took to get into Ball State, and if she could help him out with it.  Of course, she can, even with his less-than-stellar numbers.  He's talking about studying political science and economics.

If the weekend was otherwise a failure, then that coversation made the efforts worthwhile, provided he continues to follow through with it.

The past couple weeks have been generally poor in terms of mental health.  The stress of waiting (and waiting and waiting) of financial aid and the general crappy summer climate of northeastern Ohio are both strong contributors.  Otherwise, I just think my mind's in a rut.

The tide may be changing.  The thing I always liked about various intro classes that were electives back in the day was the exposure to new ideas.  Strangely, this sociology class of which I accidentally skipped the first week is doing a lot to inform my possible dissertation topics.  A lot of things that I've thought about before are gaining labels in this class.  Sure, I took "sosh" at Ball State, but it was during my more adventurous years when I attended classes like four times and got my "C-" out of each.  Of course, that "C-" didn't apply as the prerequisite for upper-level "sosh" classes at this campus, so I had to retake it nearly seven years after the fact.  Either way, it actually is proving valuable and it will feed into my dissertation well, I think.  Such stimulation and progress of thoughts usually cheer me up.

One of the air conditioners in my office room is dead.  That room is hot as shit and humid as an armpit.  And nearly as stinky.  I turned on the other (loud) unit, and am hanging out in the computer lab until it cools down a bit.