Paul Simari wonders:


I finally landed my dream job as an airline pilot. After all the years of training, all the hours logged in the air as an assistant pilot, everything finally came to fruition. There would be a lot of benefits to my new job. A big pay raise is the obvious one. Free airlines tickets anywhere in the world, great heallth insurance … my family was very proud of me, and I was proud of myself as well!

There was one major downfall though – nights away from my wife and four year-old son. American Airlines started me out flying international routes to and from London, which meant overnight stays in England several days a week. I would be spending much more time away from my family as I had in the past, and it would take a lot of getting used to.

My son, Ryan, would take it especially hard, I was sure. Every night before he went to sleep, I would always read to him for 10 minutes. It was our time to bond before he drifted off to sleep. He would look forward to it every day (as would I), and Ryan had difficulty falling sleep if I wasn’t there reading to him.

After my first couple weeks on the job, my wife Linda told me that Ryan just couldn’t fall asleep on the nights that I wasn’t home. He needed his daddy to read to him before he could fall asleep, she said.

I had just started reading him the newest Harry Potter book before I started my London flights. I wondered what I could do to soothe Ryan into falling sleep while I wasn’t there to read to him. Linda tried reading to him a couple nights, but it just wasn’t the same. He wanted to hear my voice.

That’s when I came up with an idea … a crazy one, but one that just might work. I bought an audio cassette tape online of the same Harry Potter book that I was reading to Ryan. I previewed it for free before I bought it to make sure that it was read by a male voice. It arrived in the mail two days later.

I set the tape to where I left off on the book with Ryan the night before, and asked Linda to put the cassette in the radio in Ryan’s room that night and press ‘play’. Before I left for work that afternoon, I told Ryan that I would be gone that night, but that I could read to him that night through the radio. He seemed a little puzzled, but said “Okay daddy!”

The next morning, my wife called me in London and told me it worked like a charm … she pressed play, left the room, and returned 15 minutes later to Ryan fast asleep with a big smile on his face. My idea was a success!

MUHAMMAD wonders:


O’ creatures of God! the most beloved of God is he whom Allah has given power (to act) against his passions, so that his inner side is (submerged in) grief and the outer side is covered with fear. The lamp of guidance is burning in his heart. He has provided entertainment for the day that is to befall him. He regards what is distant to be near himself and takes the hard to be light. He looks at and perceives; he remembers (God) and enhances (the tempo of his) actions. He drinks sweet water to whose source his way has been made easy. So he drinks to satisfaction and takes the level path. He has put off the clothes of desires and got rid of worries except one worry peculiar to him. He is safe from misguidance and the company of people who follow their passions. He has become the key to the doors of guidance, and the lock for the doors of destruction.

He has seen his way and is walking on it. He knows his pillar (of guidance) and has crossed over his deep water. He has caught hold of the most reliable supports and the strongest ropes. He is on that level of conviction which is like the brightness of the sun. He has set himself for God, the Glorified, for performance of the most sublime acts of facing all that befalls him and taking every step needed for it. He is the lamp in darkness. He is the dispeller of all blindness, key to the obscure, remover of complexities, and a guide in vast deserts. When he speaks he makes you understand whereas when he remains silent then it is safe to do so. He did everything only for God and so Allah also made him His own. Consequently, he is like the mines of His faith and as a stump in His earth. He has enjoined upon himself (to follow) justice. The first step of his justice is the rejection of desires from his heart. He describes right and acts according to it.
Surely, those who believe and the Jews and the Christians and the Sabians – whichever party from among these truly believes in Allah and the Last Day and does good deeds, shall have their reward with their Lord, and no fear shall come upon them, nor shall they grieve.

Holy Quran

claira.jones wonders:


When my sister’s daughter, Elenore was born, the found out she’s completely deaf in her left ear, and has about 50 decibels of hearing loss in her right ear. My sister just found out her 6 month old is completely blind in her right eye to go along with that. What kind of special challenges will my niece face as a result of her blindness, deafness?
My husband and I are going to take custody of her ( my sister is only 17, and doesn’t want to have to deal with her disabilities untill she is more ready, ie: an adult). She and my son, who is 8 will be the only children in the house. What should I do to help her in her developement?

David Brooks wonders:


I grew up in upstate New York, where the winters were long and the snow deep. Then after college, I took an opportunity to go live in Iceland for a few years, an even more extreme environment. So, for most of my life I have dealt with cold. I thought it would be a welcome change when I was offered a job in Phoenix. In my mind, I was thinking shorts, tanning, afternoons by the pool and the end to winter.

I moved in the winter and got a false impression of what living in the desert was going to be like. It was cool in the morning and comfortably warm in the afternoon. In fact, it was downright pleasant. Then the summer came rolling along and the thermometer just kept climbing ever higher. By July it was well above 100 degrees by late morning. It was so hot that I was often sent into a bit of a panic when I would go into my car and it was like 140 degrees in there. It would take several minutes for the air conditioning to start making a dent in the heat. My home has central air like most homes in the valley but it was costing an arm and a leg to keep my home cool. I am not talking a little expensive; I am talking like $600 per month. I was having trouble sleeping at night because it was so hot and when I left the air conditioning on all night I felt guilty about the expense of running the compressor so much, knowing that the power meter was just rolling and rolling. I needed to do something and fast.

My house is already fairly well insulated so what more could I do to improve its energy efficiency? My answer came when I looked at the cheap mini blinds that were covering my many windows and the fact that many windows had no blinds at all. I needed to improve my insulation and decrease the heat gain that happens when the sun shines through my west-facing windows.

I did some research on the internet and looked into solar screens and insulating window blinds. I learned that you can purchase solar blinds for your windows with views and honeycomb shades, also known as cellular shades, for maximum insulation. I have two large bay windows that overlook a nice piece of desert and I didn’t want to block out. So, I decided to purchase some opaque solar shades for those windows and triple cell cellular shades for all the rest. The triple cell cellular shades, so I was told, can improve the insulation properties of a window by like thirty percent. They weren’t cheap though. But what the heck, I was already spending $600 per month to cool my home. These babies would pay off in no time.

For my bedroom, I purchased a blackout liner for the cellular shades. For the rest of the windows, I just bought the regular variety. I installed all of the blinds and shades myself and I noticed a difference immediately. I noticed that my air conditioner compressor was not coming on as often, I noticed that the temperature in my home stayed relatively constant, kind of like a cave. I noticed that I could leave the temperature gauge at 72 degrees instead of 65 and it felt just fine. Yes, life was looking up and my desert experience was certainly getting easier to deal with. It turns out that new window blinds were the answer to this desert dweller’s prayer. Now if only I could stay indoors all summer.