Wednesday morning wanderings

1) I usually skip the gym on Wednesday, and I did so today. I had a number of things on my schedule, and it made for a more relaxed beginning to my day. On the other hand, it was 33 degrees (.56 C) when I got up! They are predicting our first frost Friday and Saturday nights, with lows around 28 to 29 (-2.2 to -1.67 C)!

2) I had breakfast with a friend this morning and we talked about the resentment I mentioned recently. I find it helpful to discuss things with him. He is experienced, prudent and respects privacy. It was very helpful. I had done some exercises in advance and think I uncovered the root problem insofar as it is my issue and something I can address. We agreed that the situation that annoys me is not likely to change and it is something over which I have no control. I can often sort things out on my own, but hearing it from someone I trust is always useful. Thanks, Mark!

3) After breakfast, I drove to the library with a car load of books to donate. Tom has been bagging up books we do not plan to take with us to Madison. Our public library has three book sales a year, and many of the books that we own came from there originally. We had already taken lots of things over. Now we are getting more serious about it. Last night I took about 15 grocery bags filled with books (mostly hardbacks) to the bookmobile when it was in our area. My intention was just to show them what we had, but they offered to take them back to the library for us. This morning I took another 15 bags over. There are at least 30 more bags filled and waiting to go, in addition to a half dozen bags with DVDs and CDs. This will not be all, but we are saving some things until later. The library may be able to have another sale just from our stuff! It is, I confess, an odd collection -- cookbooks, history, novels, Catholic and Jewish religious texts and biblical commentaries, collections of things like Calvin and Hobbes and The Far Side, a generous helping of gay literature (fiction and nonfiction) and so on.

4) Then I went to Starbucks to do some writing. I decided to follow through on my idea of putting Starbucks time into Wacky in WhoVille. At least for today. I did make some progress, I am happy to report. Tomorrow is the feast of St. Teresa of Avila, and since she plays a large role in the John of the Cross novel that I had set aside, I plan to take that project out of storage, dust it off (metaphorically, since it is digitized) and see if at least I want to put the folder back on my homescreen as a reminder.