Rainiest Day Ever

Weekend Roundup:

It rained yesterday. It was not just a rainy day, it was the rainiest day ever in the recorded history of rain in West Nyack (don’t leave comments about Noah’s flood, that is a mythical event, borrowed from Babylonian legend that somehow made it into the bible) . I was afraid to look in the cellar, but as of about 7pm yesterday, it was dry. My amplifiers are safe.

I finished the kitchen floor. I did it in 7 weekends doing 15 to 25 square feet at a time so that the kitchen would still be usable while the thin set and grout hardened. I cut over 1000 small squares and triangles for trim pieces. I still have to wash most of it with muriatic acid so Erica can apply the floor sealant.

I finished my taxes. Erica and I earned enough so that we get only a tiny refund this year.

My brother Ward called, and after prodding him, he finally admitted that he and Amy were married a few weeks ago and his trip to Paris was actually a honeymoon. It’s about time!

I picked up Aspects of the Novel by E.M. Forster for 25 cents at a garage sale Saturday. It is an interesting read, but not a “how-to”. It’s a foundation for criticism. I am about 1/3 of the way through. I wanted to read it because John Shirley, on of my favorite writers, uses it in his online course. I can’t afford the course, but I was interested in the required reading. It is the text of some lectures that Forster did and it feels like a lecture as you read it. It moves right along and I am able to read it while the TV is on. This is my criteria for a good book lately. Is it interesting enough so that I can read it without getting distracted by the drek on TV. (Drek – Yiddish for dirt, trash, waste.) If I can read the book, it must be a good book. I could not read Portrait of a Lady by Henry James, but James is always slow in the beginning. I have been reading Rainbow’s End by Vernor Vinge for six months, but I can’t read it when the TV is on, because it is a dense book that requires concentration.

One Comment

  1. Jim Shannon wrote:

    At the other end of the continent in Vancouver BC earlier this year the residence's there and the lower mainland went through a record 28 days of strait steady rain. We get some rain here in Edmonton but not much. So far no rain this season. That's one of the things I like about Alberta is we get lots of sunshine.

    Glad your amplifiers are dry.

    Monday, April 16, 2007 at 2:48 pm | Permalink