Thinking I should join the majority of the lunch-eating world & routinely have rice with/as lunch, makes me feel pleasant.

Actually making me pleasant is a whole other story, of course. Nasty, vicious brute with eight hands.

Pretty startlingly brisk out, enjoying it while it lasts.

Woke early, have mostly been lazily sipping coffee, pretty great.

Dog wants out.

Looking forward to show tonight.

Lovely evening.

Having some ginger ale, mind wandering dusty stacks, watching Ghosts of Mars.

File under ginger ale, ghosts, Mars, excessive use of the word 'lovely', etc.

Etc., etc.

Just made what will hopefully be a delightful stir fry with some delightful local asparagus. Will try some momentarily.

Work is feeling sillier by the day, making me feel stupid and tired.

Going to project Stagecoach onto the wall in a bit.

Made myself a frozen pizza for lunch, P. likes the crusts.

Hot lunch makes a nice change.

Still raining pretty hard.

Cold & rainy, last night fell asleep under inadequate blanket. Sigh.

Thinking about video I watched the other day in which a gallery owner was talking about the vocabulary of contemporary art, wondering why she said 'vocabulary' rather than 'conventions', pretty sure it would be more accurate. Generally, though, people's sense that art is a monolithic entity with either a vocabulary or conventions, a language or a society- well, it's just so misguided it makes me want to scream. Not even languages or societies are actually like that, much less art. Structuralism dies hard, I suppose.

What I mean to say is, none of these things actually exist, not as things, anyway. People imagine they understand their world, it's not theirs & they don't.

The contemporary 'period' is more complicated than 99% of human history put together, most people aren't fools enough to imagine they understand all that, but treat the present as pure intelligibility more often than not. The effect of focusing their attention on semi-isolated local zones, I imagine, neglecting all the drift, fuzziness, seepage around the edges, only notice the incursions with the broadest brush, say the effect of the 'economy' on 'art'. People's fields a lot like the field of vision in this regard.

Strange, alien world.

Should shower & get ready for work.

Went to Brattleboro, got tempura donburi, sushi, watched the rainy street through the window.

Have a bit of a chill.

Funny bouts of irrational sadness, always accompanied by cool but jovial rationality which makes light of them. They even sort of appreciate it.

Might have some dessert.

The wet air smells clean & alive.

Going to go get sushi.

Lunching on chapatis with strawberry jam & coffee, thinking about the contrasting emotional colors of being burned by crazy as opposed to non-crazy people, very different experiences, hard to know who to feel sorrier for. The non-crazy ones certainly seem more hopeless.

After eating & walking the dog, heading to Amherst to install some obsolete software.

Forget how much I enjoy strawberry jam.

Rainy morning, would very much enjoy more lazing about the house, getting ready for work instead.

Pretty lovely long weekend, last night, watched Follow the Fleet, fancy stepping, doubly fictional suicide prevention, what's not to love? Well, the whole Randolph Scott subplot maybe.

Keep scraping my hands messing about with walls, will be ready to paint soon.

Went & did some work, applied flea & tick preventative to P., made some quiche.

Just back to Greenfield. Been eating quiche, tasty.

Started feeling a bit poorly last night, might've been the too much sun, might've been cold onset, fell asleep among dogs, woken by dog conflict, feeling a lot better.

Going to run down to Northampton for work & packing & maybe some errands. Nothing like a new routine.

Just heard that we missed out on Chowderfest, sad.

On the other hand, bought underwear, did some spackling.

Enjoying a half lemon/half grapefruit soda.

Been catching up on labeling photos.

We decided we'd had enough of Cape for the moment & came home last night. It was, nonetheless, extremely lovely. Waded out to a sandbar in icy water, ate oysters, L. kayaked around the cove, etc. Got a bit too much sun, got home & passed out.

Woken at sunrise by dog fracas, strange foreign cat (from Thailand, apparently) had entered house & helped itself to indigenous cat's food. Chaos, hilarity ensued, cat removed from home without major injury, slept more.

Drinking coffee.

On the Cape, looking out over an attractive cove in which swans are breeding. Awaiting pancakes. Was going to be waffles, iron had problems.

Peretz wants to go clamming, L. is reading her Lincoln, pancakes have arrived, huzzah!

So often it seems that its when I'm at my most sensible that people are least likely to listen to me.

Moon, June, swoon, spoon, Rocky Raccoon.

Catch more bees with poems, I guess, really better at the cold reason. Doesn't sell.

Quite a day, hoped early start would equal early end to work, plenty of time to visit with loved ones, didn't work out like that.

Left work after a busy morning to walk the dog, across the street, a house was on fire, one I considered buying, actually. Took some photos until I was advised that the electric company had cut the power to work because they couldn't get near enough to just cut power to the burning house, went inside to deal with that, was busily powering things off when our UPS died & things turned off on their own. Waited a long while for power to return, brought everything back up, gave things a quick once over, then went home. Immediately called back to bring a database which should have come online automatically online. Went home again, started uploading my photos, called back to work because the electric company people had announced they were going to briefly cut the power again, took everything down, waited. Took them longer than they said it would, fielding calls from sweet young thing re: when would I be able to meet for dinner, eventually the power went & came & I brought everything back up again & split.

Walked the poor dog quickly then headed into town to catch the tail end of dinner, call on way regarding problems with data flow from Greenfield, sorted those out on phone. Had a beer & bits of others' dinners, went for espresso & rum cake, went & saw the "Young @ Heart Chorus" documentary, another call from work in the middle of that, nothing serious.

Anyway, pretty lovely movie, nice old folks having fun & being entertaining, a bit too much of the wide angle lens for my taste, can't have everything. Memento mori, like I needed reminding.

Really wishing I had more time to hang with the kid & his grandma, the spice must flow, I guess.

Having some ginger ale, should really take the pup for another walk, foot hurts.

Woke up early, started getting some work done, then hit strange, unexpected roadblock. Having some more coffee.

Fun plans for later, seems like a long way to later.

Should shower.

No longer a 99 virgin, enjoyed some fried chicken strips & a pepsi.

Settling into Japanese cartoons.

Met L.'s mom, she seems funny & nice, wishing I had more time to spend with her & the kid while they're here. Sigh, work work work.

Assert, contradict, repeat. Good to have a method.

Coming off a weekend that really felt like one makes a refreshing change, lately they've been zipping by in ways that have been making my life seem like one long workweek. Will be glad to get myself moved.

General screwiness of foot seems to be dying down, giving shoes a shot.