November: It 's open to possibilities, I guess
October was a mixed bag when it came to the pluses and minuses. November has begun with minuses, but it's early days; so maybe things will pick up. I have always loved Andrea McArdle's rendition of Tomorrow (or anything else she sang, for that matter), and I'll try to hold onto the mood of the song for the rest of the month. I think that her appeal was that she had such a sad-face, but her ability to really belt out a song with perfect pitch and perfect breath control was amazing.
Although November's weather is the beginning of the dark ages of the year, I have a good chance of a nice Thanksgiving, whether nearby or in Virginia; it is my favorite of all the holidays. In spite of the fact that a visit to Wilmington ended up being canceled yesterday, there is still a good chance we can arrange a visit during the latter half of the month.
The next ten days will, I think, be very routine: chores, projects (if I can get myself motivated to attack one or two of those), reading, and the inevitable puzzles. I have to restrain my major-shopping urges so as to justify some big travel expenses in December.
My reading at the moment has breadth if not depth. I'm finishing up Hicks Stone's biography of his father, Edward Durell Stone. By this weekend, I'll be into a collection of essays by Christopher Hitchens, a book of assorted bloopers collected by Richard Lederer, an autobiography by Bob Edwards (former host of NPR's Morning Edition), and one that I hope will be quite fascinating: a history of the discovery by Europeans of Buddhism. The Stone, Hitchens, and Edwards books are hot off the press; the other two are older publications. There is also a history of Scientology just out, which I will read later this year.
My recent subscription to The New York Review of Books has turned out to provide a lot of pleasure, as does the subscription to Games Magazine that Jake Overton so generously gifted me. The NYRB comes twice a month and gives me the chance to read lengthy reviews of more books than I could ever read in full. There are also articles that relate broadly to the arts, philosophy, and history.
You can see that I just needed to ramble a bit today before trying to do some of the less pleasant chores that face a lot of us every week.
Although November's weather is the beginning of the dark ages of the year, I have a good chance of a nice Thanksgiving, whether nearby or in Virginia; it is my favorite of all the holidays. In spite of the fact that a visit to Wilmington ended up being canceled yesterday, there is still a good chance we can arrange a visit during the latter half of the month.
The next ten days will, I think, be very routine: chores, projects (if I can get myself motivated to attack one or two of those), reading, and the inevitable puzzles. I have to restrain my major-shopping urges so as to justify some big travel expenses in December.
My reading at the moment has breadth if not depth. I'm finishing up Hicks Stone's biography of his father, Edward Durell Stone. By this weekend, I'll be into a collection of essays by Christopher Hitchens, a book of assorted bloopers collected by Richard Lederer, an autobiography by Bob Edwards (former host of NPR's Morning Edition), and one that I hope will be quite fascinating: a history of the discovery by Europeans of Buddhism. The Stone, Hitchens, and Edwards books are hot off the press; the other two are older publications. There is also a history of Scientology just out, which I will read later this year.
My recent subscription to The New York Review of Books has turned out to provide a lot of pleasure, as does the subscription to Games Magazine that Jake Overton so generously gifted me. The NYRB comes twice a month and gives me the chance to read lengthy reviews of more books than I could ever read in full. There are also articles that relate broadly to the arts, philosophy, and history.
You can see that I just needed to ramble a bit today before trying to do some of the less pleasant chores that face a lot of us every week.