10/30: an afternoon out
We drove up to Heber Springs in the afternoon to visit Bridal Veil Falls and Collins Creek, figuring they would be less crowded on a weekday than on a weekend. On the drive back we finished listening to Perelandra.
10/29: a good day
I've been having some off days with low spirits and trouble focusing, but today turned out okay. I read a novel while eating breakfast. I went for a late-morning walk in the rain and took some pictures of leaves. After lunch I wrote Trollope commentary then read some of Marjorie Perloff's Unoriginal Genius. For dinner I tinkered with a sauce I made yesterday for vegetarian Mongolian "beef," and the results were good. After dinner I wrote more commentary and read more Unoriginal Genius. Chris showed me the bats living in our bat-box, and all three boy cats played with me and the string toy.
10/28: a new-to-me venue
...for early voting. I usually go to the public library near campus, but one of our neighbors said that there were no lines at the polling station in the municipal event center where she works, so I decided to give it a try. I was in and out with no more than 2 minutes of waiting. In these COVID days I'm thankful to have avoided a line. I'm also really grateful for early voting flexibility and for the people who work the polls to make it possible.
10/25: preparing
...for the start of a new week by making chocolate-raisin-flaxseed breakfast cookies. I'm already looking forward to having them tomorrow morning.
10/22: antidote for grumpiness
I usually buy "real" animal figurines, but this week I was feeling so unsettled, angry, demoralized, etc. that the "Grumpy Dragon" (that's the name it's sold under) seemed right. I thought it might somehow help me deal with my feelings--by acknowledging yet externalizing them in and through an unreal creature? I don't know. There was one in stock across town, so a few nights ago Chris drove us there after dinner so I could buy it. (I think he thought I might not buy it after all if left to my own devices; he was probably right.) It turned out the first one I bought was broken, so we had to go back and exchange it. Now the grumpy dragon has taken up residence on my desk, and today I took him outside for a few pictures. So far he seems to help my spirits!
10/21: quintet
Time on the lake this morning. Wonderful light.
Good news about the village monument in my childhood hometown. It had gotten knocked down by a driver a couple of years ago, and today it was finally restored.
A new job for a friend. She started today.
A mouse and a bat featured in Night on Earth, which Chris and I watched during dinner. The bat drank from a night-blooming cactus flower. The mouse made a victorious cry after fighting a scorpion.
Two owls hooting. Chris called me onto the porch so I could hear them.
10/20: adding
...radishes and carrots to the salad I made for dinner. Chris called it rabbit salad. I called it leporine. The crunch was good.
10/19: working through
...an array of tasks today, even with some trouble focusing at certain points. Recently I've been not-very-successful at using my daily to-do list as a schedule or agenda, so today was a kind of victory. The last thing on my list is "read," which I'm happily heading off to do now.
10/18: watching
...a documentary about Merce Cunningham with Chris. I especially enjoyed the clips of Summerspace, with choreography by Cunningham and design by Robert Rauschenberg. I also was grateful for the chance to share thoughts and impressions about Cunningham's work in general with Chris, as we were watching and after.
10/17: heading out
...to Woolly Hollow in the afternoon. I needed to widen my orbit a little, and it felt good to revisit the creek.
10/16: the pier & bridge
I've often stopped at the pier and bridge on my way to campus to take pictures of the reflections on the lake, but this semester I'm working at home so I haven't been there in awhile. This morning I drove out and took a few photos.
10/15: taking
...a camera on my walk today. I photographed some leaves, flowers, and tree trunks, but my favorite picture is this one of part of a shipping container.
10/13: taking
...a backroad as I was driving home today from Morgan. It reminded me of the roads in rural Pennsylvania where I grew up.
10/12: sitting outside
...in the downtown park and reading for pleasure. I finished my errands a little early and had a half-hour before my hair appointment, so I enjoyed my book in the autumn sun and air. And just for fun I sat near a sculpture of a girl reading.
10/11: watching
...a leaf in the wind. It was dangling from a single strand of a spider's web that I could barely see--so the leaf looked like it was floating, dancing mid-air.
10/10: fixed by noon
Last night we had to sleep in a hotel because our plumbing was on the blink. Chris got us first on the list for the plumber this morning, and the problem was fixed before lunchtime. It was something we definitely couldn't have taken care of ourselves, and I'm very thankful it wasn't a full-day or multi-day job.
10/9: creative exercises
I did an Odyssey remix in the morning. I took a page from the Butcher & Lang translation and used words from that page to make a 9-word sentence: the first word had 1 letter, the second had 2, the third had 3, usw up to 9. Then I found a way to arrange them on a page in a way that would enact their meaning somewhat. It was really fun.
In the evening I did a Crystal Bridges workshop on collage composition, and the first activity was inspired by Ellsworth Kelly's Brushstrokes Cut into Forty-Nine Squares and Arranged by Chance. That was a happy surprise.
10/8: heading out
...onto the lake after dinner. I think it was one of the best sunsets I've seen while kayaking.
10/6: a smooth exchange
It seems like my work interactions have been mostly glitchy over the past months (alas), but today--when I had to go to campus to get a large-format scanner to use--the hand-off went smoothly and pleasantly, and I am so grateful for that.
10/5: being grateful
...that Chris planted a large pot of autumn zephyr lily bulbs a year or two ago. The pot is right at the end of the walkway from our house, so we've been enjoying the flowers as we've been coming and going. Their bright white makes me smile, and though they look delicate they must be resilient to flourish amid the fall's fluctuating temperatures.
10/4: starting
...a new print novel: The Tyrant's Tomb by Rick Riordan. I decided to read all of The Blood of Olympus series and The Trials of Apollo series in time for the release of the final novel in the Apollo series this coming week. It's meant following a pretty strict reading schedule over the past month and spending a lot of time in Riordan's fictional world of teen and tween demi-gods, but it's been good overall, and it feels nice to be in the home(ish) stretch.
10/3: starting
...a new audiobook, Borne by Jeff VanderMeer. I've been interested in it since it came out, and the time finally felt right for diving in. I enjoy the getting-to-know-you stage of beginning a book; so much seems possible.
10/1: out of the house
Chris and I went flying in the morning. I read outside in the afternoon. I walked in the evening and then went to the pier to watch the moon rise.
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