delights

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.

- Mark Strand

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.

Things timed out well with my consulting clients this year, and I was able to take the ten days or so around Christmas and New Year's off (almost completely - there were a few bits of work to attend to, but not much, thank goodness).

The problem with wanting to learn everything is that everything I learn makes me want to learn more of everything else.

I picked up some paperback Homer, both Odyssey and Iliad, at the big library book sale this year. Then, somewhere, I stumbled across a book called Homeric Moments: Clues to Delight in Reading the Odyssey and the Iliad. (I think I was just poking around in the library's online catalog.)

I had the great pleasure of seeing Sweeney Todd at ACT this week. It was actually my second time - I was so amazed the first time that I wanted to see it again. I'm glad I did (although I had a better view the first time).

Last weekend was was one of my personal holidays - the annual Big Book Sale put on by the Friends of the San Francisco Public Library.

I like to go on the final Sunday, which is dollar day - every book is a buck.

Past years, I've sometimes hovered around the $200 mark, which is a lot of books if you live in an already-book-filled apartment.