scholarist

Over the lunch hour I returned yet another book to the library and didn't check one out! At this rate I may get things under control by Thanksgiving.

Did a nice thing this morning; I got up at 5.00 am as usual but instead of running I took a break. I sat at the kitchen table for an hour with a pot of tea and a notebook writing, writing, writing. Of course I had nothing to say but that didn't really stop me. I eventually picked up Kowit's book and wrote down a couple of things related to his prompts on memory. I haven't done that in weeks, really, and I should do it again very soon. Monday evening I came home so tired; got even more tired after chasing AW around the park for 1t minutes. After putting him down all I had the energy for was watching clever Monday night sitcoms on CBS. At least I thought they were funny. That helped. The NYRB came yesterday and I read a couple of stories, one about theOlympics, one about the "morale bombing" of Germany during WWII. I realized that I feel just a teeny guilty if I'm reading anything besides fiction.

Man, oh man, that was a long weekend. Pretty much every weekend I take care of the kids, which is fair because LW has them most of the week (even though she's working part time). She gets time to herself, or actually time to do chores she's been meaning to do all week. I get to hang out with AW who can be pretty fun and EW who can be pretty easy. Last week, though, was just a disaster for me, with all the work on a single project and all the tension that I took home; most of my spare at-home time was spent fretting on that project I was trying to get taken care of. I didn't get much of a break last week and so this weekend I was pretty tired and in no real mood to handle the kids. I did, of course, and I did it well enough I think, but LW kept asking me what was wrong (I couldn't bring myself to tell her...) and really I didn't feel the weekend was very relaxing at all.

I got up at 5.00 am, which I plan to do from now on, whether I run or not. I did run, 15 minutes, and the air was brisk, cool and a waning moon was at the top of the sky. I had a good run. I had a good breakfast, too, and a good shower and a good bus ride. Before I left I hugged AW good bye--he still seemed sick with the sniffles and a little groggy. EW came down with a bad case of congestion overnight, and LW seemed a little tired. I had a headache most of the morning, and I have a sore throat now...

Most of the morning I worked on a couple of things that needed cleaning up after last week, and I got them done by 1.30, shipping off spreadsheets where they had to go. Lunch was a bowl of ratatouille and some yogurt. I took a walk down the path and down State street. Its a cool day and the bright clear cool air made State street seem muffled and somewhat empty, like people were starting to move out. A pleasant feeling. I looked in Avols and UBS for copies of Gunter Grass...I want to start reading him after I finish Trollope, which should be soon. I read Local Anesthetic three or four times when I was in college, and I also read the Tin Drum. I never followed up on it. I have no idea why I want to read Grass...the idea came to me over the weekend. Maybe its an excuse to put off reading Walt Whitman.

I eat a lot of peanut butter crackers at work. I did this a lot last week--it was a tension-reducer, something to do with my hands when I was nervous. I had a few this noon with the stew.The taste lingers in the mouth. I'm afraid I might associate peanut butter and crackers with this rather stressful period, which might put me off the stuff for a long time.

Free trial

I have 37 days left on a 90 free trial that I more or less just lucked into. I have to say, I like Typepad, even though costs a lot of money. It probably has everything you need if you're willing to pay. Typepad is the solution for the "more money than brains" weblogger, although a more charitable way of putting it might be that its for people who "have some money and can't be bothered."

Myself, I like to tinker and comparison shop and over the last couple of weeks I've used a teeny WordPress setup I have here. The domain name cost me 9 bucks a year and I get 10 megs and a WordPress installation for 5 bucks a year. It works for me. I wouldn't scare anyone away from Typepad for anything; but I think I have better alternatives.

Last night after putting AW down, we watched the debates. I didn't want to at first, because I thought it would just annoy me. Then I noticed that Senator Kerry was doing pretty good. And that Bush was doing just plain terrible, especially on the cutaway camera where he seemed peevish, angry, upset. By the end of the debate I was feeling pretty damned good.

This morning I spent some time putting my impressions on shopiere and looking at the usual sites for their spin on last night (Kos, Atrios, Alternet and all those). Their takes agreed with mine, so I feel even better.

Also feeling good because I got that one spreadsheet done, the one that's been bothering me all week. It still needs work but SW was happy at how much work I've gotten done.

And I went running this morning. Yesterday I woke up at 5 and turned off the alarm. This morning I got out there for 20 minutes. So its been a pretty good morning, so far.

I got up at 5.30 and ran about 25 minutes, which is about the longest I go these days. I might ramp up to 35 soon. Two other things I’ve been reading lately are Ron Padgett’s Great Balls of Fire, which is sort of a comination of the most accessible and most obscure parts of the New York poets, and Roger Gough’s Selected Poetry 1967-1987. I’ve had them out of the library for a long time and I’m getting around to finishing up these (and some others).

Pens

What I did do was buy a calligraphy pen set at the UBS, along with a bottle of pigmented callilgraphy ink (the kind you're not supposed to put into fountain pens) and a neat spiral bound notebook with pages that have about four inches of blank space above the lines, for doodling and the like. This keeps from from thinking about that expensive Sheaffer Prelude I looked at yesterday...

Last night

When I got home last night, LW told me that she'd gotten an estimate for a humidifier/air cleaner add on for the furnace. Buy them together, we get a price of 800 bucks installed. People have said good things about these, like Michelle; they got one last winter and she didn't have one sinus infection all season. Eight hundred bucks is cheap if LW doesn't have to go through one of her 3 month sinus infections, or if we go through winter without everyone catching a cold each month.

Later last night I had to give AW a bath and I put Emmie in her co-sleeper. A couple minutes later I went in and caught her standing up and leaning over the side of the co-sleeper, looking at the floor, probably thinking it would be a good idea to jump. LW freaked, for good reason. I didn't handle bath time well last night...

Finally, I went to bed around 9.30 and started sketching in a poem exercise from Kowit's Palm of Your Hand. I really have to pick that book up used someplace, its so good for that sort of thing.

After running this morning, I had an early breakfast and then spent two hours with Aiden at the park. Several of his friends were there by accident and he had a marvelous time. Later he and Lynn went swimming; I stayed home with Emmy and squeezed in a little time for reading the NYT and blogging.

Running

Up at 5.10 today in order to run. Did 15 minutes in the moonlight, though by the end the eastern sky was begin to lighten.