After encouragement from Mark, and Nancy, and Rita I checked the basement. The walls are damp and I can smell mildew growing but the floor is dry. The drain actually worked. Probably the one thing that's gone right in this condo complex. I can't tell if the new continuous loop thingie they installed on Saturday made any difference in the heat. I have been feeling perpetually cold since Sunday. I live in my cozy big Wickford, RI sweatshirt.
I made it to Andover only to find Starbucks and Bruegger's still closed. The health club above them is open today though. So nobody to schmooze with over coffee this morning. How will I find out whether Philosophy Larry still has a department? Whether David Bookstore has quit his ESL faculty post at Nothern Essex to vend used books over the Internet? Whether Tom's students can identify the 9 most commonly used words in the English language? Whether Julie's Elizabeth Stuart Phelps play is finally coming together? And why Richard can't drink coffee anymore? And a host of other burning questions? I had my coffee at the North Andover Perfecto's but the crowd there is all young mothers who talk about kids. Maybe I could learn some aunting skills from them, but I've never been able to connect with any of 'em.
Oh yeah, the rainfall total was around 10 inches.
The mockingbird looks disheveled. He is not singing the macarena or the car alarm. He's just looking wet. A flock of starlings is swooping back and forth across the parking lot again but not as many as the other day. Four blue jays are hopping around on the ground. Numerous lbj's (little brown jobbies) are hopping around too.
I have absolutely nothing on the agenda today. Nada. Zip. Perfect time to write a novel. Maybe I can finish it by tonight and get my mother off my back.
Oh yeah, another weird thing: my mother sent me a copy of her itinerary for the Asia trip. She never copies me on her itinerary. Kevin and Thomas and I play "Where in the World is Irene Egan?" every time she and Hilma travel. Reminds me of years ago when she was in the hospital having Kevin. Bobby and I would run around the house looking for Mom telling each other she was hiding in more and more outrageous places like "under the television" (we didn't have a television), inside the cabinets, on a bookshelf... or even in "Kevin's counter". Dad had built this pennisula in the kitchen with lots of drawers and cabinets and a changing table and counter space in anticipation of Kevin. So for the entire time we lived in that house we called it Kevin's counter. Billy was born. Donald was born. Thomas was born. It was still Kevin's counter.
Meanwhile, I put a lot of effort into my web page yesterday and it's still not what I want it to be. It takes so much work. How do gainfully employed people have the time to do cool websites? Who knows. So, on to face the day. Sun or no sun. Agenda or no agenda.