Journal of a Sabbatical

December 7, 1999

concrete mix

Today's Reading: The Subtle Knife by Philip Pullman, Autumn from the Journals of Henry David Thoreau edited by H.G.O. Blake, Two Ornithologists on the Lower Danube by Kirke Swann, Love and Love Remade by Ned Clay

Clumping kitty litter is just another name for concrete mix. Messy concrete mix. PetsMart was all out of regular clay litter so I bought a jug of that clumping stuff figuring it would make cleaning his royal orangeness' litter box easier. Ha! I came home this afternoon to little solidified concrete footprints on the bathroom floor leading from the litter box to the toilet, and another set of such footprints on the toilet seat. While cleaning it up, I discovered that it sticks to everything that's the slightest bit moist: my hands, his paws, cleaning supplies, you name it. While he's trying to get it off his paws, I'm trying to get it off the floor, the sink, the toilet seat but every cleaning product seems to solidify it more. I finally start vacuuming the toilet seat. He won't let me vacuum his paws. He even tracked it upstairs and into my bed. Time to change the sheets, not to mention make an emergency run for clay litter.

On the book front, I finished The Golden Compass and started The Subtle Knife. I can see why Andrea is addicted to these books. Lyra, the heroine, is a tough, smart, sassy girl. A lot of the magical stuff, mythos, and what all is actually based on real scientific/philosophical concepts like dark matter. And I don't think it'll spoil it for any readers out there if I add that one of the key events is that at some past time the earth's magnetic field changed - something that sounds utterly mysterious and fantastical so I won't tell Andrea yet that that really happened.

Ned's poetry book finally came back from the printer. He gave Tom and me copies this afternoon at the coffee shop. We spent a long time chatting about poetry, Ned turning 50, life, the universe, and everything. The book looks really good.

The used book for which I ruined my life, Two Ornithologists on the Lower Danube, came in today's mail. I guess that was the last thing charged to my credit card before internet theives charged $16,000 worth of stuff to it. Talk about mindblowing.

Actually I don't know if it was ordering the book or trying to create a password to look at my balances on the bank's site 'cause both those things happened on the same day. When I tried to create my password on the bank's site, it gobbled all the information and then went into never never land trying to connect. I finally hit "stop" and then stupidly tried again later with the same result. That was about a week ago.

The day after I did that, I went into my local Radio Shack to buy a phone. My credit card was declined for being over my credit limit. That was pretty weird since the book was only $23 and the phone was only $69. I went immediately home and called the bank. They told me about the $16,000 in authorizations that had all come through in one day. Yikes! I cancelled the card and asked for a new one. Meanwhile, I have been without a credit card, making it hard to do any serious Christmas shopping, not to mention renting a car so I don't have to sit and wait for the car at the Honda Barn tomorrow. How inconvenient.