Book fairs = exhaustion
But I'm just now recovering enough from last weekend's to prepare for set up tomorrow at this weekend's. Those back-to-back events are such bad planning.
It's been two weeks since my last confession post, so just the high spots:
After two weeks of hideously too hot all over the state, we woke up this morning to actual fall weather, with slight overcast clearing into golden sunshine but still only about 66 degrees by mid-afternoon. Suddenly I am no longer a zombie.
We had a lovely though brief visit with K&C in San Diego before zipping back up to Santa Monica for the book fair, with much thoughtful discussion of the goals and benefits of a "sabbatical" (in this case three-month vacation from real work, not semesters off from school). B is looking to take some time to breathe. He hasn't had more than a couple weeks off at a time in about 20 years, so it's time.
The book fair was productive and we got to visit with a number of old friends and buy more books (also sell, but somehow that doesn't seem as interesting).
The quick stop by my father's on the way home was a little more painful, as each visit makes me more and more aware of his deterioration. Short term memory is going and until he gets his front bridge replaced (happily, that's supposed to happen today) he isn't eating enough to keep a bird alive. Worse, he's lost his taste for beer and wine, which used to be an enduring pleasure for him. Even the garden is getting to be more of a problem for him, as he gets more and more unsteady on his feet. He's finally accepted the walker. At least, most of the time.
Got home to delicious treats in the mailbox -- BPAL lavishness, including Crypt Queen (plus coffin) and Forum bottles of last year's Pumpkin Patch, Peony Moon and Sunrise with Sea Monsters. Unfortunately, also found that raccoons or other rowdies had once again found the cat food and dragged the plastic container across the house to the cat door, trying to chew through it. Miss Lucy was rushing around trying to get me to notice it for several hours after our return. Cat door is now officially closed after dark.
Sat down yesterday and gulped down Wilmar Shiras' Children of the Atom which is a period piece of SF that I've loved since I was about 12...rather dated, but still ...nostalgia has its place. And reading
rusty_halo on the Lymond Chronicles has tempted me to restart the whole series, which according to Dunnett should be read in the following progression: the six Lymond novels followed by the 8 Niccolo novels followed by a re-read of Lymond...to get all the references. But really, until I finish up Dance to the Music of Time, I'd better control that impulse. Still, 3/4 of the way through the Autumn sequence, so there's a light out there somewhere.
Okay, off to pack up more book boxes for tomorrow's set-up. At least this weekend we get to sleep at home!
It's been two weeks since my last confession post, so just the high spots:
After two weeks of hideously too hot all over the state, we woke up this morning to actual fall weather, with slight overcast clearing into golden sunshine but still only about 66 degrees by mid-afternoon. Suddenly I am no longer a zombie.
We had a lovely though brief visit with K&C in San Diego before zipping back up to Santa Monica for the book fair, with much thoughtful discussion of the goals and benefits of a "sabbatical" (in this case three-month vacation from real work, not semesters off from school). B is looking to take some time to breathe. He hasn't had more than a couple weeks off at a time in about 20 years, so it's time.
The book fair was productive and we got to visit with a number of old friends and buy more books (also sell, but somehow that doesn't seem as interesting).
The quick stop by my father's on the way home was a little more painful, as each visit makes me more and more aware of his deterioration. Short term memory is going and until he gets his front bridge replaced (happily, that's supposed to happen today) he isn't eating enough to keep a bird alive. Worse, he's lost his taste for beer and wine, which used to be an enduring pleasure for him. Even the garden is getting to be more of a problem for him, as he gets more and more unsteady on his feet. He's finally accepted the walker. At least, most of the time.
Got home to delicious treats in the mailbox -- BPAL lavishness, including Crypt Queen (plus coffin) and Forum bottles of last year's Pumpkin Patch, Peony Moon and Sunrise with Sea Monsters. Unfortunately, also found that raccoons or other rowdies had once again found the cat food and dragged the plastic container across the house to the cat door, trying to chew through it. Miss Lucy was rushing around trying to get me to notice it for several hours after our return. Cat door is now officially closed after dark.
Sat down yesterday and gulped down Wilmar Shiras' Children of the Atom which is a period piece of SF that I've loved since I was about 12...rather dated, but still ...nostalgia has its place. And reading
rusty_halo on the Lymond Chronicles has tempted me to restart the whole series, which according to Dunnett should be read in the following progression: the six Lymond novels followed by the 8 Niccolo novels followed by a re-read of Lymond...to get all the references. But really, until I finish up Dance to the Music of Time, I'd better control that impulse. Still, 3/4 of the way through the Autumn sequence, so there's a light out there somewhere.
Okay, off to pack up more book boxes for tomorrow's set-up. At least this weekend we get to sleep at home!