Day of the Sun
Jun. 20th, 2005 12:25 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
howeirdWoke up on the newly reversified bed, and pulled the covers off with my left hand, as per habit. I'll have to work on that.
Got up at 7 just to shoot up & take meds, then back to bed. Nothing special to do today which required getting out of bed. Got up for real anyway around 10, phoned my baby sister at 11 to sing Happy Birthday to her (she's 46) and chat.
Today's project was re-doing the patio. Turns out the plants I'd lined the patio rail with (all 12 feet of it) had been bought in the winter when there was never any direct sunlight on the patio - the apartment faces west, the patio is on the east side. Summer tilts the earth just enough to hit those plants with sunlight throughout the day. It starts with a little of the northern part of the rail lit at dawn, and by sundown it has hit the southernmost part. So all my shade plants were becoming toast.
The plan was to put the plants, which are in 9 18" flower boxes, onto racks on the shady side of the patio, and replace them with something to keep the cats from jumping the rail. They proved they can jump it when I first moved in, but they can't clear the 6" which the plants add.
First stop was Wal-Mart, which is where I thought I'd bought the flower pots in the first place. I needed the trays which go under them as a first step. Turns out W-M doesn't have them. Next stop, Orchard Supply. They only had the 23" ones. Finally hopped on over to Home Despot, and found what I was looking for. They had the trays, and they also had 36" wooden flower pots. I was thinking originally of cinderblock squares with fancy cut-outs, but all they had were solid ones which would blow over in a moderate wind. I got 4 flower pots and 4 standard red bricks to weight them down, and a hook to hang one lone fuchsia.
Got home, set everything up, and in about an hour it was all the way I had it in my warped little mind. Time to let the cats out to test the new arrangement.
They both completely ignored the rail - didn't even think of jumping. They both tried to eat the plants. Pumpkin has a taste for fuchsias. Domino is more a gourmet, she went for the salvia and sage (both are very aromatic).
That done, I packed them back indoors, and took myself to Starbuck's where I finished the last of Dark Tower book 6 over a Venti iced tea. There were the usual distractions. One table was occupied by two young women and a young man - all in their late teens. It posed an interesting question of what I am attracted to. The man was not my type - lanky, skinny and Russian. All three were Russian, actually. The women were the dilemma. One had startlingly clear light blue eyes and a perfect alabaster complexion. The other had a stunning figure, high cheekbones and lovely silken light brown hair. The one with the eyes looked a lot like Rosie O'Donnel in shape (especially her face) and hair style, while the one with the figure had the harsh jaded look of a woman who knows how hot she looks, and how to use it.
If I had to choose, which one would it be? I don't know. Probably the tall blonde 40-ish woman with the average figure sitting at the next table.
The Russians left, and were replaced by another dilemma. This one was the good kind - either woman would be fine with me. A college-aged black woman with very dark skin, bright eyes and a slight figure was being tutored in accounting by a 45-ish woman with black hair, blue-green eyes and a petite build. They both looked much more intelligent than the two Russian women appeared. It is probably not a fair judgment, since the former were there to play cards and gossip while the latter were there to study.
Eventually I finished the book, and have to say I think I'm disappointed by one element. The author makes himself a character in the book. In a third-person work of fiction, I find this unattractive. I see the humor in it, and I see he's playing with something parallel to the dilemma of a time traveler meeting himself, which is why I'm not so sure if I'm disappointed. The "coda" at the end of the book is King's diary, starting with entries about how he started writing the series, ending with his death by being run over by a van after writing Book 6. I would have liked to see this at the end of the final book, not this one. I understand the effect he was going for, but the only way it would have worked for me is if the book was published, and I had read it, before the news of his survival had reached me. Since that news was on all the services within a week, there was not much chance of that.
Monday at 9am I should have a clue when I go to Iowa. They weren't ready last week, but maybe they will be by tomorrow. I would rather go this week than next.
Got up at 7 just to shoot up & take meds, then back to bed. Nothing special to do today which required getting out of bed. Got up for real anyway around 10, phoned my baby sister at 11 to sing Happy Birthday to her (she's 46) and chat.
Today's project was re-doing the patio. Turns out the plants I'd lined the patio rail with (all 12 feet of it) had been bought in the winter when there was never any direct sunlight on the patio - the apartment faces west, the patio is on the east side. Summer tilts the earth just enough to hit those plants with sunlight throughout the day. It starts with a little of the northern part of the rail lit at dawn, and by sundown it has hit the southernmost part. So all my shade plants were becoming toast.
The plan was to put the plants, which are in 9 18" flower boxes, onto racks on the shady side of the patio, and replace them with something to keep the cats from jumping the rail. They proved they can jump it when I first moved in, but they can't clear the 6" which the plants add.
First stop was Wal-Mart, which is where I thought I'd bought the flower pots in the first place. I needed the trays which go under them as a first step. Turns out W-M doesn't have them. Next stop, Orchard Supply. They only had the 23" ones. Finally hopped on over to Home Despot, and found what I was looking for. They had the trays, and they also had 36" wooden flower pots. I was thinking originally of cinderblock squares with fancy cut-outs, but all they had were solid ones which would blow over in a moderate wind. I got 4 flower pots and 4 standard red bricks to weight them down, and a hook to hang one lone fuchsia.
Got home, set everything up, and in about an hour it was all the way I had it in my warped little mind. Time to let the cats out to test the new arrangement.
They both completely ignored the rail - didn't even think of jumping. They both tried to eat the plants. Pumpkin has a taste for fuchsias. Domino is more a gourmet, she went for the salvia and sage (both are very aromatic).
That done, I packed them back indoors, and took myself to Starbuck's where I finished the last of Dark Tower book 6 over a Venti iced tea. There were the usual distractions. One table was occupied by two young women and a young man - all in their late teens. It posed an interesting question of what I am attracted to. The man was not my type - lanky, skinny and Russian. All three were Russian, actually. The women were the dilemma. One had startlingly clear light blue eyes and a perfect alabaster complexion. The other had a stunning figure, high cheekbones and lovely silken light brown hair. The one with the eyes looked a lot like Rosie O'Donnel in shape (especially her face) and hair style, while the one with the figure had the harsh jaded look of a woman who knows how hot she looks, and how to use it.
If I had to choose, which one would it be? I don't know. Probably the tall blonde 40-ish woman with the average figure sitting at the next table.
The Russians left, and were replaced by another dilemma. This one was the good kind - either woman would be fine with me. A college-aged black woman with very dark skin, bright eyes and a slight figure was being tutored in accounting by a 45-ish woman with black hair, blue-green eyes and a petite build. They both looked much more intelligent than the two Russian women appeared. It is probably not a fair judgment, since the former were there to play cards and gossip while the latter were there to study.
Eventually I finished the book, and have to say I think I'm disappointed by one element. The author makes himself a character in the book. In a third-person work of fiction, I find this unattractive. I see the humor in it, and I see he's playing with something parallel to the dilemma of a time traveler meeting himself, which is why I'm not so sure if I'm disappointed. The "coda" at the end of the book is King's diary, starting with entries about how he started writing the series, ending with his death by being run over by a van after writing Book 6. I would have liked to see this at the end of the final book, not this one. I understand the effect he was going for, but the only way it would have worked for me is if the book was published, and I had read it, before the news of his survival had reached me. Since that news was on all the services within a week, there was not much chance of that.
Monday at 9am I should have a clue when I go to Iowa. They weren't ready last week, but maybe they will be by tomorrow. I would rather go this week than next.
![[identity profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/openid.png){kind=small}
![[community profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/community.png){kind=small}
no subject
Date: 2005-06-20 04:35 pm (UTC)As for the book...yeah. I am still dubious about his inclusion of himself. I recently checked the last book of the series out on CD to listen to while walking to and from work, and sadly--I am less impressed with the story the 2nd time through than I was the first (and I had some severe misgivings the first time through). Obviously, I think it's worth sticking with the series through to the end, just to see how the author ends it. But for myself, I think the best of the series ends at the conclusion of book three. The rest...just don't do it for me that much. Although out of the latter books, Wolves of the Calla is probably my fav.
no subject
Date: 2005-06-20 06:22 pm (UTC)Nah, it's rude to stare. What got me started is I was at an open mike poetry night at the one and only coffee shop near my college, and this guy got up and read:
People
Watching people
watching people-watching people
It kind of gave me a license to stare. ;-)
just to see how the author ends it
Yuppers, that's how I am now. There's something to be said for the loose ends being tied up.
I have a protocol for what I do with a book when I'm done with it. The very best most excellent "I know I'm gonna want to quote from this thing" books go on my tiny bookshelf. If it's good and says "so-and-so needs this book" I send it to so-and-so. The next tier get donated to Goodwill or sold to the used book store (if it's good, someone else should get a crack at it). If it's so bad it hurts, I throw it away, so nobody else has to suffer. Once in a while a book is so bad I throw it away before finishing it.
The only time I can think of when I threw away a sequel book was when I made the mistake of reading the three B's Second Foundation Trilogy. The Asimov estate had given David Brin, Gregory Benford and Greg Bear permission to write what they conceived would have been the next three books in the series. I read the fisrt one, but threw away the second and never bought the third.
Meanwhile Dark Tower VI comes out in paperback in 3 weeks...
no subject
Date: 2005-06-20 05:07 pm (UTC)I think Rosie O'Donnel is hot.
no subject
Date: 2005-06-20 06:24 pm (UTC)She's too chubby for me. And way too chubby for that tux.
no subject
Date: 2005-06-20 07:38 pm (UTC)