Tuesday, October 29, 2013

A Writer's Day

Well, this writer's day, he said ungrammatically, but authentically.

10:26 a.m.

A reasonably successful day so far.  I went to sleep just after 1 a.m. and woke around 8.  I groaned and rolled over trying to return to my dream.  It wasn't a particularly happy dream, but even my less than joy filled dreams are preferable these days to waking reality.  I did get up at about a quarter after eight and went downstairs.  My wife was still sleeping in her hospital bed in our former living room. Hmmm, it is now, in fact, a living room - the room where she lives and commands all those within her range.  Anyway, I tidied the kitchen, made a pot of coffee, reheated the one mug's worth remaining from yesterday, made my usual breakfast of multigrain toast and sliced cheese-like substance.  Then I made a large pot of chili con carne, fed the dogs and PC our cat.  I found time to check and see if our pension payments were in the bank [hers for disability, mine - I started collecting my government invested pension as I know I will never retire] - they were. I let the dogs out, and went outside myself, still in my pjs.  There is still one rose in full bloom, despite the very cold night time temperatures, and a few buds that may  or may  not survive to bloom.  I uprooted the radish plants.  The soil  here is hard clay - I have added a few loads of good, black topsoil over the years but it is still not enough for root crops.  No radishes, in short.  It is nice to breathe the clear, free air if only for a few moments.

Back indoors,  I made a shopping list of odds and ends to  pick up as I have to go out and get an oil change in the car at 1....I put Classic FM on my iPad [a London England classical music station I prefer brought in by a lovely little app called tunein radio].  My old iPad version 1 is not much use anymore as fewer and fewer things work properly on it, but it serves for music or for reading eBooks still.  Oh, and it works nicely for a new writing app called tactilize.com - I have put a few poems up on that neat little program.  They promise a multi-page format soon... I look forward to that!


What else have I done in these past two hours or so?  Oh, yes, my day job!  I am a part-time instructor at the University of Guelph's History department, and in the Electives area at the University of Guelph-Humber.  I spent a good half hour grading essay proposals - which reminded me of an amusing little 'card' I shared on Facebook yesterday:  "100 years ago we were teaching Latin and Greek in High School, today we teach remedial English in college' - amusing, but not terribly good for the future of writing!  And not terribly good for my mental health while marking assignments.

My wife woke up just around 10, and I made her breakfast - coffee from the pot, cheerios as she was so late she didn't want too much to ruin lunch at noon.... and I checked and stirred the chill... oh, yes, and I put the laundry in for a second rinse, then into the dryer.  I hear that the dryer has stopped now...

Time to finish my morning routine .....

Ciao for now

No comments:

Post a Comment