Don't worry, God understands,' Mom said. 'He knows that your father is a cross we must bear.

If you want to be treated like a mother, act like one.

I could see why Archimedes got all excited. There was nothing finer than the feeling that came rushing through you when it clicked and you suddenly understood something that had puzzled you. It made you think it just might be possible to get a handle on this old world after all.

My life is not just about the past.

It was good work, the kind of work that let you sleep soundly at night and, when you awoke, look forward to the day.

Mom could say that in hindsight, but it seemed to me that when you were in the middle of something, it was awful hard to figure out what part of it was God's will and what wasn't.

But I also hoped that [she] had chosen California because she thought that was her true home, the place where she really belonged, where it was always warm and you could dance in the rain, pick grapes right off the vines, and sleep outside at night under the stars.