Third Weekend in September
Friday was a town day. We spent all day in town which never meets my definition of fun. Julie took a temp job to help an academic office prepare for a conference. Friday morning I accompanied her to town as she insured preparations were finalized and helped attendees with directions and parking permits. Once the conference started she was done with her responsibilities.
While Julie worked I hung bird feeders outside my office window, bought oil in preparation for servicing the Jetta, scheduled a front end alignment, checked a co-workers irrigation system (which had been turned off unintentionally), checked on renting a backpack and 10 degrees down bag for my son in anticipation of a Grand Canyon trip next month and purchased fifteen dehydrated meals (almost half of what we'll need). Julie and I met for coffee then drove to the mall for some shopping. While she bought new outfits I read. (More about the book in a few minutes.)
Friday evening Julie met two friends to celebrate their birthdays which are in September. I accompanied her to town so she would not have to drive after dark (which is hazardous due to less-than-perfect vision and scar tissue from radial keratotomy surgery before lasers.) While the ladies enjoyed dinner I stopped by the cafe at a local bookstore to write my last blog entry and listen to a local musician.
Saturday was a work day. I awoke to a long to-do list. First on my list was the kitchen range. It appears one of the cats caught a mouse, brought it in and turned it loose in the house. It's not the first time it's happened. Unfortunately, this mouse escaped and found refuge in the insulation of the kitchen range. An unpleasant odor brought this to our attention. I disconnected the range and took it to the deck and began disassembly to see if I could remove the insulation, clean the range and install new insulation. I quickly concluded this was more work than I wanted to invest in an aging kitchen range. We took a trailer to town and began shopping unsuccessfully for a new range. No store had one in stock that met our specifications. We've decided to make do with our range until we can find the right replacement, preferably a model with a spark ignition for the oven. Most new ranges use a glow plug that requires 300 to 400 watts of electricity. Rather than a brief trip we spent so much time that nothing else on my to-do list was touched.
Today, Sunday, was an ideal day. I accomplished several things, enjoyed mild sunny weather of 80 degrees with a gentle breeze and took a few breaks to read. I'm reading a biography, actually an autobiography, the first that I've read in years. (I think the last biography was Mahatma Ghandi and that was many years ago.) In keeping with my plan to read more widely I went to a used bookstore last week and walked through the non-fiction area. The first book that caught my attention was Naturalist by Edward O. Wilson. I didn't realize I was in the biography area until I opened the book. Fascinating! Yes, I know I've said that about too many books lately but I'm on a roll of good reads.
Back in the 1980s a biology professor at the school at which I worked at that time gave me a book, Sociobiology, and said, "Here. This will mess with your mind." He was wrong, I found Wilson's views in line with my own beliefs about evolution and related subjects. It's good to read Wilson's autobiography. I'm looking forward to the section where he discusses the uproar over his beliefs on sociobiology.
While in town yesterday I stopped by the local library and searched for books by Wilson. I found Consilience, The Unity of Knowledge. This is the book I read while waiting on Julie as she shopped. My opinion thus far? Fascinating!
In a few minutes friends are arriving with supper, a vegetarian meal. The weekend will end with good food, good friends, good memories.
While Julie worked I hung bird feeders outside my office window, bought oil in preparation for servicing the Jetta, scheduled a front end alignment, checked a co-workers irrigation system (which had been turned off unintentionally), checked on renting a backpack and 10 degrees down bag for my son in anticipation of a Grand Canyon trip next month and purchased fifteen dehydrated meals (almost half of what we'll need). Julie and I met for coffee then drove to the mall for some shopping. While she bought new outfits I read. (More about the book in a few minutes.)
Friday evening Julie met two friends to celebrate their birthdays which are in September. I accompanied her to town so she would not have to drive after dark (which is hazardous due to less-than-perfect vision and scar tissue from radial keratotomy surgery before lasers.) While the ladies enjoyed dinner I stopped by the cafe at a local bookstore to write my last blog entry and listen to a local musician.
Saturday was a work day. I awoke to a long to-do list. First on my list was the kitchen range. It appears one of the cats caught a mouse, brought it in and turned it loose in the house. It's not the first time it's happened. Unfortunately, this mouse escaped and found refuge in the insulation of the kitchen range. An unpleasant odor brought this to our attention. I disconnected the range and took it to the deck and began disassembly to see if I could remove the insulation, clean the range and install new insulation. I quickly concluded this was more work than I wanted to invest in an aging kitchen range. We took a trailer to town and began shopping unsuccessfully for a new range. No store had one in stock that met our specifications. We've decided to make do with our range until we can find the right replacement, preferably a model with a spark ignition for the oven. Most new ranges use a glow plug that requires 300 to 400 watts of electricity. Rather than a brief trip we spent so much time that nothing else on my to-do list was touched.
Today, Sunday, was an ideal day. I accomplished several things, enjoyed mild sunny weather of 80 degrees with a gentle breeze and took a few breaks to read. I'm reading a biography, actually an autobiography, the first that I've read in years. (I think the last biography was Mahatma Ghandi and that was many years ago.) In keeping with my plan to read more widely I went to a used bookstore last week and walked through the non-fiction area. The first book that caught my attention was Naturalist by Edward O. Wilson. I didn't realize I was in the biography area until I opened the book. Fascinating! Yes, I know I've said that about too many books lately but I'm on a roll of good reads.
Back in the 1980s a biology professor at the school at which I worked at that time gave me a book, Sociobiology, and said, "Here. This will mess with your mind." He was wrong, I found Wilson's views in line with my own beliefs about evolution and related subjects. It's good to read Wilson's autobiography. I'm looking forward to the section where he discusses the uproar over his beliefs on sociobiology.
While in town yesterday I stopped by the local library and searched for books by Wilson. I found Consilience, The Unity of Knowledge. This is the book I read while waiting on Julie as she shopped. My opinion thus far? Fascinating!
In a few minutes friends are arriving with supper, a vegetarian meal. The weekend will end with good food, good friends, good memories.
posted by Paul at 5:18 PM
2 Comments:
Sounds to me as though you need to add a couple of hours to the day. You folk stay busy.
Yea, my head gets dizzy just reading about it!
Post a Comment
<< Home