Deep Thoughts

My week on call is almost over, and in the last 2 days I've had 8 hours of sleep (in 2 hour spurts), and I am so tired that I feel more dazed than sleepy. Why are there so many English words that do not obey the "i before e except after c or when it sounds -ay" rule? And does anyone else have difficulty spelling the word gague guage gauge, or is it just me? As I was driving home, I caught the tail end of some radio program which commented that "The children of these (chinese) children will have no aunts or uncles" since said children were only children. Which got me thinking about how so many North American families have only one child, and that one or 2 generations from now, many people won't have aunts or uncles or cousins, and what will it be like to grow up without someone with whom you have a bond that is not as strong as your immediate family, and different than the links you have to your friends, and maybe you are close when you grow up or maybe you are not so close, but they are among the few people in your adult life that knew you throughout your childhood and played with you on holidays after dinner. And does this mean that weddings will be attended by friends and not relatives because parents are the only relatives still alive?