The *new* Barrow Downs photo page!

[alatar]

Originally Posted by Bêthberry

mrs. alatar has a great eye for design--the great shirts almost outshine the gorgeous kids--but why are you hiding your shirt behind the kids?

Thanks for your kind words. It was a rough weekend, and so I was taking advantage of the moment to sit.

And does she get one?

As a rule, no, she never makes herself one. As our family has grown, the dog no longer gets a shirt, and this year, the kit that she bought didn't have enough rubber bands, and so the kids' shirts look less spirally and more circular. Mrs. alatar said that next year she has to buy two.

PS. I hope you had a great Father's Day, with some sleep and the only hallucinations being those of celebrating fatherhood.

Thanks; not much sleep, though, but why would some greeting card industry-invented day be any different? Your mention of Father's Day makes me think about how Tolkien loved his kids, and how he wrote TH and LotR (somewhat) to entertain his children. That is so cool. And so...

Fathers, I know that you would face down a winged Balrog, or jump in front of that dragon-sounding locomotive that mysteriously chugs along in the Shire, or even cross the Gorgoroth barefoot if that's what it took to save your children and their mother, but I'm guessing that the opportunities to do so may be few and far between. So while you sit waiting with the endurance of Hurin, take a moment and put down the remote, turn off the game, postpone that golf outing or yardwork that is just so important to finish - even log off the Downs (until they're asleep) - and pick up a ball, a doll or even better a book and sit with your kids and focus on them. Read them the Hobbit; play LotR (light sabres serve as Anduril and Glamdring) or make up stories about the day-to-day life of Galadriel.

When that's done, help out their mother - clean up something, be the first one up when someone's crying at night, get up and get them breakfast, eat last at dinner - you said that you'd be on the front line for the Dagor Dagorath, and so waiting to eat, losing a little sleep, and doing without a few comforts surely doesn't even compare.


"Emotions!" alatar almost falls getting off his high horse, and goes to get his dictionary to see if his avatar is next to the words hypocrite, sanctimonious, and banned.