All blog, all the time.

It took a long time to go to sleep last night. Ann was communicating long and loud in the only way she knows how, off and on much of the night. It was a contrast from the night before, when, after a fit of colic, she slept more than four hours, and then for about three after a 3 a.m. feeding.

As I lay there not sleeping, it occurred to me that TV coverage of the war could be easily rationalized. Just dedicate one cable channel each to certain kinds of coverage. For example, ETV — Explosions TV, which would show explosions live 24/7, or on tape during lulls. Or EMTV — Embedded Media TV, which would show nothing but monocolored, pixilated reports from various battlefields. Or RBTV — Retired Brass TV, which would be former military talking heads day and night, speculating about the fog of war. Or DTV — Defeatist TV, on which the BBC (for example) could come out and say it’s against the war, and do it up like al-Jazeera. Or on the other side, JTV — Jingo TV, which would be led by Fox and other Murdoch minions.

With these channels up and running, regular TV could get back to the business of purveying goods unfettered by anything as unpleasant as war, and war watchers could go to one channel to get exactly what they want. Come to think of it, some of these channels might be big hits with some sweet demographics. I bet Explosions TV would go over well among 18-45 year-old men.

To wrap up my notes on Indy: I had toyed with the idea of extending the trip through the following weekend, but then got an estimate from an electrician on necessary repairs to the house, and thought better of it. Rationally, I know we need to repair these things, especially if we want to have any chance of selling the house this summer. The squeeze is on; the house has shrunk remarkably in five years, and we need a larger one.

Also, there’s the matter of my foot. But it’s such a little break, and doesn’t hurt much any more. It didn’t stop me from climbing to the top of the Soldiers and Sailors Monument. So it’s house repair that 86ed the trip-extension plans. As I said, I know this rationally. But lurking in my not-so-unconscious is the burning notion that the money would be better spent seeing parts of southwestern Indiana.

Now, that part of the world may not sound that intriguing, and I will concede the point, mostly. But it has the primary virtue of being near, and the other virtue of being unexplored. Also, there's one thing southwest of Indianapolis that I definitely want to see: the West Baden Springs Hotel. It’s supposed to be a marvel of early 20th-century hotel design, stuck out in the Indiana sticks. There are also mildly interesting spots on the map that may bear investigation: Bluesprings Caverns, and “the Devil’s Backbone.”

Maybe later.