Sunday

July 23, 2000

"Simple pleasures are the last refuge of the complex."

Oscar Wilde, A Woman of No Importance

is that...rain???

it's a real....

mess, isn't it?

For a while now I've been writing a pretty literal account of things as far as I could do in a public forum and I've been writing in the present tense. I'm going to make the thing a little more free form and see how that works.

simple pleasures of a woman of no importance

The day just drifted away. You know: little projects, little entertainments, eating, napping, even some small measure of domestic effort.

SuRu felt bad enought today to blow off the walks. And though I was ready and energetic enough to do it, the thought of the heat stopped me. Besides, it seemed nice to just sit in my office and do my thing without a rush. It seemed a little overcast outside. Dare I hope for rain? Nah.

FFP went to Westwood and I would have, too, but then I wouldn't have been sitting in my office doing whatever I wanted to, would I?

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I did go out to the parents' house. It's only 15 minutes to get out there, not a big trip. I tested all the features on their portable/answering machine/caller id/memory phone. It's a cool phone. I have been looking for a new phone for my office for a while. Maybe a three line one. You can't really see the mess of phones in these pictures. It's really a sad state of affairs in here. It's worse than it looks.

And when the rain came today...well, everything in this room but Buzz Lightyear, the cow clock and one laptop booted. And the laptop was connected to a modem which had to be cycled. Still, everything was back to normal in about fifteen minutes. And the rain was so nice. I stood and watched it rain, noted how much better the gutters worked since cleaning, listened to the sound of tires spitting water. No rain for 33 days (they said on TV) will do that to you.

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While I was at the parents', I also replaced a couple of phone cords with longer ones. ("Don't put the phone by his chair...he won't answer it.") I checked Mom's computer (which is an ancient IBM Thinkpad that I gave her) and she had managed to exit Solataire...and hasn't learned to start it again. Oddly, she is learning some things, though. She can play Solataire. And she can almost remember how to go from message to message in her e-mail and scroll the messages.

I played a couple of games of Bridge, too, because I had Bridge on that computer and I thought the parents might get home any moment from their church thing.

I cleaned up an old fan and put it in the laundry room so that Mom would be cooler while folding clothes, I opened a box with a little woven throw Mom had made and covered the trundle bed with it. (She liked the look of it, she said later...it 'showed off her work.')

I got everything done I intended and got tired of waiting and went home. They got there shortly after, I think. There was a luncheon at church. I'm thrilled they've got their social life going.

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Yes, I donated. (What? What's she talking about?)

I read other online journals. My regular reads are on the links page. I prefer them, snoopy-wise, to reality TV. And what sentient person wouldn't? I don't regularly read Bad Hair Days but I guess this one started a 'donate button.' Sort of a shareware concept of WEB journals. One I do read, The Book of Rob , added one, too. Rob is young and bright and even a Texan (although he lives in New Haven, Connecticut). He amuses me, his baby is cute. So I gave him $25. It seemed daunting to do it because he sells himself in increments of 25 cents so I had to buy 100 of them. Should these folks feel bad asking for donations for their art? No. It is SO much better than those annoying popup ads. Someone has to pay the piper.

But you won't see it here. It's all about me here. And as soon as you sell it (for 25 cents a pop?) you have customers. Now this doesn't mean that I won't take huge royalties when I finally write my novel or screenplay. But this is free.

And Rob was a little wrong when he said people are just saying 'look at me!' Sure, that's going on. But I use the thing as a reference for my life...and the WEB makes it accessible from almost anywhere. I find myself shocked when others read it. How dare they? Silly, huh?

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We watched the DVD of "Angela's Ashses" while it rained today. It was appropriate because the set was streets with drainpipes dripping even when it wasn't, apparently, raining. It's a dreary tale, isn't it? All that money down the tubes for booze.

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Which reminds me. Forrest and I spent a lot of time going over the linen, glassware, china and wine situation for what is known among the six lucky participants as "Al's Big Night." You'll be hearing more about that here.

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It was one of those days that just got eaten away.

The parents came over here and almost emptied our storage area of their stuff. I put the rest in my car to take in the morning. (Their house being convenient to work has been a blessing many times over already.)

I organized photos on the computer.

I read some things about Dreamweaver.

I read some of the enormous pile of newspapers.

I ate a bunch of stuff right out of the refrigerator like cheese and carrots and lunch meat...both here and at my parents while they weren't there.

I watched part of "Devil in a Blue Dress." I sort of watched "King of the Hill." It was probably a rerun. But Bobby a lama? Hilarious. I watched part of a 1936 movie with Clark Gable called "San Francisco." Great effects for the time.

I didn't get the office straigtened up. Are you surprised?

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