The World As We Once Knew It...

Emily just informed me that yesterday marked the six-year anniversary of Pluto not being a real planet. I remember when this came out, although it doesn't seem like six years ago. How can Pluto not be a planet? What about all those clever models we made in elementary school with styrofoam balls and coat hangers? All the hours we spent memorizing the order of our sun's nine planets? What's next - George Washington actually wasn't our first president, or six times seven isn't really 42? How can we know what to believe when they keep changing the facts? ("Yes, Winston, Oceania has always been at war with Eastasia..." - if anyone still reads Orwell... )

It was also five months ago yesterday that we brought home our goats. Suddenly, everything we had previously believed about our lives was turned upside down. In the days when we were actually in control of our own time and space, Saturdays were for sleeping in late and watching old movies, laundry could safely be hung out on the deck (and we could also eat outside), the garage was used for storage of vehicles rather than hay bales, grain and goat care implements. Now we are slaves to gates (never, ever leave one open, even for a second!), guilt ("please don't leave us alone in this big, scary yard - hold us!), and goat droppings by the bucketfuls... though it's actually hard to remember when it wasn't this way.

I guess sometimes change isn't so bad after all.