Chicago is famous for its Water Towers, but they seem go missing. It could be a kidnapping ring, aliens in search of water, or a monstrous child named Stewie shrinking them for his own reasons. AN ATTEMPT AT A PICTURE. hum, some control issues, but . . . Another frontier crossed, quick tell Spock!


OK, i thought I could do this daily. But . . . I am just too dull, too lazy or too tired. So a simple august observation to start: the days are getting shorter; the shadows longer earlier. We used to open the blinds at 8, now its 7; the sun used be up high all afternoon, now by the time I leave the offices its behind buildings.

I am reading THE DOCTOR IS SICK by Anthony Burgess; if you check my book catalog you will see he is very popular with me. The main character has a brain disorder. The cafeteria served stewed brains (a joke on the patients?); he left the hospital clandestinely wearing his street cloths and slippers . . . His wife is a bit of tramp (with license to be so). The main character, with the brain issue, is a linguist and insist the medical doctors call him Doctor.

so....

Have you ever wondered what God does when His PC crashes? Does he hit Start, All Programs, Accessories, then SYSTEM TOOLS, then SYSTEM RESTORE?

After He/She hits System Restore what divine choices appear when RESTORE MY COMPUTER TO AN EARLIER TIME, and the SELECT A RESTORE POINT pop up? How far back does His calendar go? Does God ever click '?' For help?

Being all knowing and all encompassing I kind of doubt it.

Now, if his calendar goes back, say 2500 years, and he chose that - 500 BC, for His sole (not soul) amusement what would happen to the Present? JUST WHAT WOULD HAPPEN??? Would I be here on the coast of Lake Michigan living as an aborigine? Or in a slave ship in the Agean? Or snorting magic Fumes at Delphi? Where would you be?

Or does He call a Holy HELP Desk, then damn thousands to a small font Hell when the 73rd voice prompt techie says "This is Mohammed, Sorriee but that is not a valid user code, please return to main menu." CLICK . . . Divine Anger then HELL for all?

Peace be With You.

We are on the mend as they say. I still hack myself unconscious, Paul still congested. But much better......

Having finishing Svev's ZENO'S CONSCIOUS, I picked up 2 or 3 books. I stared one on Grammar -Woe is I, easy to read a chapter then go back. What is not an easy read is My Life among the Deathworks: Illustrations of the Aesthetics of Authority by Philip Rieff. Egghead is an understatement, the writing is incredible, the ideas way way out there. YOU NEED a relief between chapters. a provocative anachronism . . .

So I read from cover to cover Anthony Burgess's ONE HAND CLAPPING. A funny quick read. Like Muriel Sparks in storyline (He would die again if he saw that comparison, he did not take too seriously little old lady at home typing literature). But then I guess he evolved. ONE HAND CLAPPING is about a married couple in a small English town muddling through life. The quirk: the husband has a photographic memory, they get rich, then . . . There are a lot of literary references, more than references they are so in your face in the book. A lot of nostalgia, an anti TV, anti Newspaper, anti pop culture (1961 ok) sentiments. AND SOME hilarity, some affection, some cheating, and even, even MURDER.

What to read next . . . .

and now a line from the NYT, to help you sleep easier (as the Polaris missile threat that popped up now and then in ONE HAND CLAPPING has abated leaving us but promised joy, right mousie?)

“The great problem is that Al Qaeda has moved far beyond being a terrorist
organization to being almost a state of mind,” said Simon Reeve, author of a
1999 book on Osama
bin Laden and his associates. “That’s terribly significant because it gives
the movement a scope and longevity it didn’t have before 9/11.”
(NYT 11Aug06 by Scott Shane)

now think along an old verse:

But, mousie, thou art not alane,
In proving foresight may be in vain,
The best laid schemes of mice and men,
Go oft astray,
And leave us nought but grief and pain,
To rend our day.
(Robert Burns, 1759 - 1796, TO TO A MOUSE On turning her up in her nest, with the plough, November, 1785)

HAVE A GREAT WKND!!

SUNDAY
Paul's cold seems to have been morphing to pneumonia the doctor said friday, and gave him a week's worth of strong antibiotics. They both agree I am the source of the cold. I have a vile cough still. Paul no longer has the 102 fever, or the wild shakes and trembling. Its incredible, since his accident any cold goes to bronchitis or pneumonia . . . no retirement in Alaska, that is for sure. Maybe summers?

Hopefully this will be a better week. We spend the weekend watching Mama's Family and Murder She Wrote. A lot of fun actually.

Ah, monday is right around the corner (one doctor monday, Paul's follow up).

Today Paul caught my cold, and colds and Paul equal one thing. Bronchitis in 3 days. (a doctor's appointment for next week was moved to Monday, and may be moved to Friday).

I finished CANNERY ROW and cannot say much I liked it. Its one of those titles that exists in your mind even if you have never read it. You know it means hardscrabble downtrodden folk more or less. But the comedy snuck in is incredible. I read it described as a low class utopia as most inhabitants were content, happy or alright. Those that were not committed suicide - so as not to harsh the buzz of the rest??

Got a bit cooler, not getting warm again. I am taking plop plop fizz fizz alka seltzer cold for my cold. Tired......

Another HOT day in Chicago. The walk to work was fine, this morning. I did cut through the hospital (Northwestern). It covers 2 blocks, the ground floors are mostly large open lobbies. The walk home, well when you open the oven to look at roasting chicken, that blast of hot air is what the walk home was. BUT IT IS THUNDERING, lightning and rain, and the temp has dropped from the mid 90s (heat index 106) to the high 70s. I opened the window, it was like opening the dishwasher right when it beeps finished. A bit steamy.

Still reading Cannery Row, and that short story is beautiful. Memorable characters, events, place names. This Steinbeck did know how to put words together in phrases, phrases into sentences, sentences into grafs, and graphs into chapters. A struggling couple, the husband says he does not want a picture of ham cut from a magazine on a platter again. Laugh then cry.

Today an old copy of PEYTON PLACE arrived, for Paul. He loves that movie. I have never sat through it, but read about the book. For me a few books, including WOE IS I - a book on how to write clearly. And a few others.

Time to catalog!

Tuesday. Very hot. I stayed home today, a sick day. Allergies or a summer cold. Reading Cannery Row (a short story by Steinbeck). A lot of fun. Paul and I went to the farmer's market, a Tuesday summer tradition. Outside for a hour and we were near dead. And you?