There are a lot of things that delight me.
I am delighted much of the time.
While lots of people blog about things that dismay them (and many of those things also dismay me), I thought I would enjoy noting down some of the things that delight me.
I love cheap books. I go to thrift stores and library book sales and come home with boxes full of books I have no room for. Half my books (honestly, well over half my books) are in storage, waiting for me to bring them back home where I can read them.
And yet, I'm surrounded by books.
I daydream about reading all these wonderful books. I take small paperbacks to the bus stop with me - Teach Yourself French, A Brief History of Japan, The Portable Greek Historians.
I had the great pleasure of seeing and hearing Alisa Weilerstein and Inon Barnatan perform at Herbst Theatre on Thursday night.
I've been listening more and more to Pandora, the online music site that lets you define your own radio stations.
San Francisco has a composting program, but I could never tell the criteria for getting a compost bin set up in apartment buildings.
As of this week, to my utter delight, there's a compost collection bin in the garbage room and a fabulous little breadbox-sized box in the apartment.
The garbage company thoughtfully provided a starter box of biodegradable plastic bags to line it.
Having a few days off around the 4th has really been a treat.
Yesterday, feeling like I had a bit of spare time to spend on something I'd enjoy, I sat down to restring my acoustic guitar.
Karen's Weekend Assignment this week asks about something beautiful.
Karen's Weekend Assignment this week asks about favorite types of books. My favorite genre at the moment is extremely specific:
John McPhee books.
Ink runs from the corners of my mouth.
There is no happiness like mine.
I have been eating poetry.
There are a lot of great book recommendation threads on Ask Metafilter, and I have a long list of books highlighted there that sounded interesting. The Control of Nature came up in two or three threads, so I requested it from the library.
Late last night, I got to see the Dog Star.
There was this bright, twinkly object in the sky. It's hard to see the stars sometimes; the fog and the city lights hide them.
But this light was clear - and lovely.
I got my binoculars and stood watching it for a while. I was amazed that such a rainbow could appear in a tiny point.
Thanks to Stellarium, I was able to learn that it was Sirius. (Venus and Regulus were visible, too, a bit further east.)
It was lovely - a moment I want to hang on to, a beauty I want to keep.