2 a.m. on Wednesday: awake again after 3 or 4 hours sleep on
the couch, despite good resolutions.
Remembering that Wednesday this week is GARBAGE DAY (and there shall be
great rejoicing), got up and got the debris out to the curb. Cleaned out the cat-box while I was at it,
because, after all, why not? And the cat
was mighty appreciative. Temperature
just above zero Fahrenheit, dead still, about an inch of clean new snow. Quiet.
Located the blessed keys Tuesday morning first thing, thanks
to beloved Daughter Unit. These were my “spares”
on a Fierce Purple nylon climbing sling (all the lanyards I saw looked
suspiciously flimsy) and a couple of carabiners, one of them also Fierce Purple
(church keys). I have to unlock five
doors in succession to get into my office in the morning, most of them
two-handed; that is, they require one hand to turn the key and the second to
pull the door handle, as pulling on the key alone damages the lock. Two hands accounted for, we hold the purse,
the book-bag, the shoe-bag in our front teeth, perhaps? This is one of those “Meanwhile, back in
Canada…” problems, obviously.
So I have a car-key for the ignition on its own, in my
handbag, and a house-key on a modest ring carabiner’ed to my handbag, and
duplicates of both, plus church-keys, on the around-my-neck arrangement. The Rambler likes to be SURE.
Staff meeting consisting of some parts planning, some parts
coordination of schedules, and some parts overlapping simultaneous literary
criticism in portions nested one within the other like Russian dolls (well,
yes, you DO have to be there…).
Read some things and wrote some things; conferred with
colleagues. Long and uplifting
conversation on how we discern and play the end-game as well as possible (“fastened
to a dying animal,” thank you Mr. Yeats).
We also duly deplored the outcome of the C of E General Synod re: women
bishops. I came away late afternoon for
home via the Beloved Defunct Vice-Regal Person Memorial branch of the city
library. Turned in Robert Parker and
Zadie Smith, and played with the catalogue for a while and checked in with
young-uns via Facebook (also accessible on library computers). Borrowed some Wendell Berry essays, some
David Foster Wallace essays, a collection of Dickens’ letters, and Lemony
Snicket’s Horseradish. The last because I had a short loan Tuesday
morning of The Latke That Wouldn’t Stop
Screaming by the same author. A “well,
well, well” moment if not precisely an “Aha” moment.
Home at last. Brought
in the mail. Listened to the phone
messages. Nuked some not-too-terrible
frozen cannelloni, and ate them. Had a
glass of wine. Watched the news. Fell
asleep.
Now 4 a.m., and gentle thumps and bumps outside (with
squeaky new-snow footsteps) indicate delivery of the newspaper. The Wonder Cat is all
we-stand-on-guard-for-thee inside the front door, so brave (such a fraud).
A funeral today (afternoon)…a lot of reading and writing and
some domestic re-arrangements, I think.
And now, a cup of tea and one of the new library books, for
a bit.
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