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Only in Cambridge could they publicly nail down the date that time first appeared. Oddly enough, time seems to have predated Harvard University by only 25 years.
Feeling pretty angry about how I spent my day so far. Pretty much alone--surrounded by people--but alone, nonetheless. Pretty energetic, I guess.
And does it ever need cleaning. Feeling pretty good, getting some stuff done. Good energy.
Reading a short story by H. P. Lovecraft and taking a break from the dog and family. I'm tired and have no energy, and I just want to go to bed and start fresh tomorrow.
And making dinner at the same time. I should get extra points for that except it is just spaghetti. Feeling kinda low about work situation still, but I have pretty good energy. Family is out at the soccer field in the dark.
Nothing like a well-written book on Political Economy. Feeling pretty good, pretty energetic. Alone downstairs, the family is upstairs watching Emeril make Halloween goodies. Scary.
Standing out in the rain talking to my Brother, who just started his own blog on wordpress. My brother is a consumate story teller, so I look forward to reading what he has to say. Excellent picture with the pumpkin there, puts mine to shame.
I'm out here with the dog, who was too wound up to be inside the house. I think she's calming down a little by being out in the cold. What I was thinking about when I took this picture was a little odd. I was thinking back to graduate school and one of the classes I disliked intensely, but always enjoyed the lecture portion, well, almost always. The professor always told stories in class, which were generally entertaining, even though it is not an era I think much about. But tonight I was because I was remembering a story about Abraham Lincoln. Lincoln had just gotten some sort of triumph over one of the members of his twisted cabinet and he remarked to somebody, or in his journal, or something "Now I have a pumpkin for each side of my saddlebag." One of those sayings that was killed by 20th Century technological developments, I suppose. And yet I'm not sure to this day what the Hell it was supposed to mean. I'm going to bed early. A tiring day and I am not doing well in general.
The wind last night blew our gazebo off the back deck and into the yard, leaving the deck furniture pretty much untouched. It's bent a little, but mainly looks like if we are careful we can put it back together next year. Feeling pretty good and pretty energetic, although I woke up on the wrong side of the bed this morning and snapped at my lovely wife first thing. I'm doing better now, I think.
Actually I finished playing with the dog and my lovely wife and I are trying to calm her down and cool her down so that she will stay on the bed and we can get some work done. Not much energy, but in a pretty good mood, considering the week's constant stream of changes.
Playing with the dog
Doing some thinking about somebody else's money in a very unstable work environment. The temperature is now 82 degrees in my office and the office is getting smaller. There are people around, but they mostly are mad at each other or gossiping about our situation. I am tired and anxious and have been alone much of the day. Pretty low energy.
I had to get an "A" string for my son's viola, so I went during my linch hour. Very helpful people here. The owner strung it herself. I was thinking mostly about how this store and Jiffy Lube are now surrounded by Indian restaurants and grocery stores (and a huge temple). Completely different makeup of this part of town from five years ago.
Rainy day, and I had to park out by the nuclear reactor because, I think, the gate was broken and students pulled in and filled up the lot. Anyway, definitely a stressful day, and there will be others this week with which to chase it. Spent considerable time with others today, but I am alone now and going home to play with the dog. Pretty good energy level, but kinda drained, mentally.
For some reason, the text I send along with these messages is getting garbled, so now all that comes through is the picture and the title, without the data. Oh, well.
At any rate, I'm feeling pretty weird about work. I have spent much of the day with other people trying to interpret recent events, but unfortunately am just as confused as I was when I got in this morning. Wish I could write about it here without revealing too much, but I can't. Suffice it to say that I am thinking a little too much about the future and am a little shell-shocked about the turmoil of the last few days. Low energy, but am able to function pretty well, considering.
Had to find a bridge that was open because they were running the Bay State Marathon in Lowell today. All but two of Lowell's bridges were closed to traffic. I had forgotten about it this morning. But I also did not realize that it was going to be most of the bridges because I typically only use one of the (the "temporary bridge" the Roarke Bridge. So I assumed that that would be the only one they closed. But no, the organizers apparently were looking for a nice finish along the Merrimack.
So since I was late I ducked upstairs into the traditional room-where-you-go-if-you-are-coughing-or-have-a-baby-that-might-cry-or-something-like-that: The Bacon Room, which above the action and is also where the service is taped from (thus the video-cam on the left there and the tv monitor). It's named after the Bacon family, who must have contributed a great deal to the town and the church (above and beyond the Flemish Chandelier, that is).
A rather excellent sermon today, which I will write about soon in my other blog.
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Pretty day, with gusts of cold wind. A nice town with some huge houses. A really crappy soccer field, though. We didn't get beat as badly as we did last time. Most of the team really hustled and got in their way. I'm hanging out with the other parents, but not really talking to anybody except quips about the game and such. Some laughs. Pretty good energy, considering, and having a pretty good time. I just can't string coherent thoughts together or focus on anything in particular.
Getting dinner at Panera in Drum Hill. That's not a flash. I don't know why it is so bright. Pretty good energy and feeling pretty good, although I'm concerned that the kid is sick again. I'm thinking about how I hate it when people ask me my first name when I order food. They give me a buzzer that goes off, and they don't even bother calling my name, or anything else about the order. I actually had to make them tell me what was in the bag, 'cause I had no idea whether they knew it was me they buzzed. Anyway, why do they need my name? Too many years of having it mispronounced have gotten on my nerves. But when they ask for it, I give it.
This is not a picture of said wife. This is Maggie asleep at the foot of the bed. I like her so much when she sleeps. Anyway, my thoughts are a little confused, because this time of day is when I start to wind down, well, crash, actually. I can watch tv after 9:00, or read, and I can listen, but not really actively, unless it is something that is of vital and immediate concern to me.
I was walking the dog around the neighborhood taking pictures when the alarm went off. I was thinking that these pictures I am constantly taking now have shown me that the world is an incredibly beautiful place, and that that is something you do not often notice when you are living your life. This pictorial diary thing is forcing me to stop and look at the beauty that surrounds me. So, yeah, I'm feeling pretty good (although not exactly in a "flow state," as the data shows). Good energy and alone with the dog, who tugs constantly at her leash, making it difficult to take non-blurry pictures.
I'm sending a book to sombody who requested it through PaperbackSwap.com. All alone and I'm thinking about this other person who requested a book from me last week. When she received the book she asked to have her credit returned to her because it was a hardbound book and she had requested the paperback version. I'm one of those people who always looks for a hardbound version first, because they are of better quality and they last longer, and it is not so obvious to everyone what exactly you are reading (I take off the dustjacket and throw it away because it gets in the way of reading the book, which slips out of the jacket constantly). I'm not alone in this. Some people want PBS to revalue hardbound books as two credits. And they cost more to mail.
I guess that what really annoys me about this is that to give her her credit back I have to add her to my "Buddy List" in PBS. She's not a buddy. She is a person that is going to get away with a free book that is nicer in most respects than the one she ordered.
So I have energy, but am using it being angry, I guess. And I'm not terribly happy.
Just dropped my son off at school, which like many of the institutions in this part of New England is housed in a renovated mill building. That red thing there in the middle is a part of a generator of some sort.
I was thinking, as the alarm went off, about how my son was desparately trying to get out a sentence he had memorized to recite for his teacher. He wanted to show her a copy of Shel Silverstien's book Runny Babbit, which alters the words of poems for comic effect. He had altered the words of a little speech accordingly and had a lot of trouble in the heat of the moment making it come off right, partially because I had been distracting him just before that asking him to spell some words from his weekly list (collar and ankle).
Feeling good, but not necessarily about distracting him.
The alarm went off last night when I was making dinner and I forgot all about it. I just picked the phone up and am taking the dog for her morning walk. Feeling pretty good and energetic. I'm not sure that I'm actually thinking about anything in particular.
There is this time in the morning when I have to hang out with her (or have to foist her on the kid, which is sometimes worse, because then I feel guilty). We have eaten breakfast and I have to wait just a few minutes before foisting her on my lovely wife. So I went out to check the temperature and noticed that there are some nice fall colors, finally. We should seriously think about planting some sugar maples in the front yard. This neighborhood is maple-deficient.
Maybe we should secretly plant some maples in the front yard of the neighbors across the street.
Pretty good energy and glad to be going back to work, although there are some problems there that I'll have to deal with first thing.
These pictures over the last five days (except the one day that was missed entirely) were taken with a Nikon View camera, rather than the usual phone-cam. The wife had the phone for her business trip. the last three pictures, this one included, are again with the camera phone.
Returning from book and grocery shopping with my son. I wasn't going to buy any books, but he found this one by Darby Conley (Writer of the Get Fuzzy! comic strip) that had us both laughing involuntarily at the store. So I caved.
Generally a very stressful day, trying to get back into our routine now that his Mom has returned from Atlanta. And weekends and holidays are not good times for me anyway. Too much freedom, I think--not enough order. Pretty good energy but definitely stressed out and ready to snap.
Having a pleasant time and some bitter green tea. I am thinking to myself that my son gets chocolate all over himself when he has a messy chocolate cupcake, but it he is at that age where I no longer mind helping to clean him up, because there is not the same amount of physical contact with him as when he was younger. Used to be I'd have to constantly help him, change his diapers, clean him up after dinner, etc.
Pretty good energy, although today is a bit of an adjustment for us. And I'm so sick of the dog.
Just wrapping this one up, which will be nice. Feeling pretty good about it, and pretty good energy, I think. Been alone here most of the day.
That's a train in the distance. We were sitting there and listening to NPR when I decided that the kid didn't need to hear about how exactly those kids were killed in Pennsylvania yesterday. I asked him what sort of music he wanted to hear and gave him some choices, because he doesn't really know any names. He wanted to hear "Time," from "The Dark Side of the Moon," followed by some "pirate music," which is what he has called "Rain Dogs" since he was little.
Feeling O.K. Good energy, but not good physically, still.
This is the tunnel under the street to the parking lot. It used to have pipes on the walls and things hanging down and far fewer lights. Now it is kinda sterile and personality-free. A pity. I'm glad to be going home, and have more energy and am in a much better mood than earlier today.
Soup is just not enough, most days. I need to bring some bread to eat with it or something like that. I've had a few informal meetings and feel a little better than I did coming in this morning. A bit more energy, and a bit more hopeful about life in general, I suppose.
Not getting much done, though.
This was actually October 1, last night. I have already posted a picture of that book, because we've been reading it for months (or it seems like it). It is one of the longer ones of the series.
I am not having a good day, have low energy, am irritable, frustrated. So, the reason I posted a picture of Maggie playing table tennis two months ago is because I'm trying to remind myself of reasons why I should not strangle her. She is a good dog, but I am not dealing with her well, particularly at this time of night, when we are trying to get her to calm down and get ready for bed.
And the dog won't leave us alone. I am deeply frustrated with this animal. She is wet because it is raining outside, really pelting down, and I am not even going to towel her off. She can just sit there and bark and turn brown (that is what happens to West Highland White Terriers when they remain wet for extended periods of time, for some reason that I don't quite understand).
Frustrated, and trying desparately to be kind and understanding to spouse, despite the fact that I could really use some time alone. Low energy today, even though I took a nap in the morning.
