Storms outside and inside

We've had a few fairly dramatic thunderstorms recently. Tree branches waving, booming, lighting that seemed to want to enter our bedrooms. Mr. C crept into my bed around 6:15, saying that he was scared. The DQ slept right through the drama, coming in as the skies closed (is that right? skies open, then they close?)

It didn't take more than a few moments before we were into our own drama. The topic? The international dateline. It's west, said Mr. C. It's around the globe, said the DQ. It's a sphere, said her more mathematically inclined brother. You're an idiot, replied his older sister.

And I said, as I've said so many times, "why are we arguing over this?" Don't you sometimes wish you had a tape recorder so that in ten years you could hold on to these rivalries for your adult kids -- hoping that they will find them as funny then as you do now?

Then I asked them to explain about the international dateline -- if I knew what it was, I'd long ago forgotten.