caleb walker

the new normal

One of the people in my writing group tonight used the term "the new normal." When a family experiences a crisis, things eventually get back to normal, but not the old normal. The new normal becomes ordinary, though it's not as good, as comfortable, as healthy as the old one.

eye-cicles

I thought I'd posted this, but it's been sitting here unpublished since Dec 22.

It's awful cold out today. And windy. Which, as my readers who live on the equator might not know, makes for a nasty wind chill. We hear reports on the radio like this morning's "It's four degrees out, with a wind chill of minus fifteen" and it makes us crawl back into bed and invite the dog in. I dawdled around the house this morning because I didn't really want to leave the house and go to work, and I was sort of planning anyway to drive so there was no reason to leave at 8:35 to catch the bus. Plus I thought the day might warm up a bit by 9:00.

The locks on my car doors were frozen. I tried using the lock-heater a friend gave me a couple Christmases ago, but couldn't figure out how to get results. So I popped the trunk, tripped the latch for the back seat, and crawled in that way. I parked on the windswept hill near campus and left the car unlocked (unless you're a car thief or my auto insurance agent, in which case I locked and re-iced my doors). The hill was particularly swept by wind this morning.

I pulled my hat down over my eyebrows and pulled my scarf up over my cheeks, leaving just my eyes to the elements. The wind blasted them, they watered and froze. I kept blinking so they wouldn't freeze shut, but still ice clumped around the edges of my vision.

coming attractions

Lots happening lately, but no mental energy left at the end of the day for writing.

1. I'm sporting eyeglasses now. I've worn reading glasses for a few years, but this is my first pair of real-world, honest-to-god spectacles. More later, maybe with a photo.
2. The car saga is not quite over. The old thing is parked at the house now, but the left-front tire doesn't hold air. Have to take it back to the Monro for a repair. More later.
3. The end of my job is looming like a... well, like the end of a job. I have a lot to do before leaving, and have been preparing for unemployment. More later.
4. KR spends this weekend in Philly. There were animal guts on our front steps this morning. I watched the final episode of Boston Legal last night. I have a massage scheduled for tonight. I got my first rejection note on my story yesterday. Intrepid Media is publishing a set of their best columns, and many of the included authors are buddies of mine (download it for free or buy the book like I did - at Lulu). More later.

I hope.

month-end catch-up

End of the month and I'm beginning my last post for NaBloPoMo at 11:30pm.

Tomorrow it's back to the office, back to the routine. I'm kind of looking forward to that.

Last night we had dinner with a bunch of friends, including the owners of a B&B in the Finger Lakes region of New York. I could listen all night to Michele tell stories about their life up there: her Amish neighbors, the horses (imagine six enormous work horses running loose down the road), ducks, cats, the birds. Michele is one of the few people I can count on to read this thing on a regular basis.

Tonight we watched all three DVDs we had sitting on the tv stand. A few minutes into Manhattan I said, "I wish our tv was bigger." The whole movie is shot in gorgeous black and white. (Here's the opening scene. It's in Spanish because the English versions I found were all in the wrong aspect ratio; they're squished.)

And that pretty much does it for NaBlo 08. I can't keep this up all year long so you'll just have to check back again in a few days. (Or do the RSS thing. It's a life-changing technology.) Thanks for reading.

just this.

I don't have much to say today. Just this, I guess: (1) I've spent an inordinate amount of time the past four days working on the website I'm redoing for my department. And the list of little tweaky things I need to fix keeps getting longer. Maybe I should spend a day just doing that stuff. (2) Over in the left column on this page it currently shows Olive Kitteridge, the book I'm going to start reading next. It's a set of linked stories well-reviewed by, I don't know. New York Times or The New Yorker or some publication with a state in its name. (3) My parents are coming for Thanksgiving. (4) I went to Trader Joe's today. That's not very interesting, but we always like going there. (5) KR comes home tonight, late. Probably well after midnight. Good thing I fixed the lights on the steps. The problem was burnt-out fuses in the first string of lights. (6) That is all.

eight a.m.

Because KR's in New Orleans (have I mentioned yet that KR is in New Orleans?) I had dog-walk duty this morning. Usually I have the night walk and choose to do it at 10 or so, when all the neighbors are usually off the streets.

But at 8am everyone's out. The young moms are packing kids into cars, students are getting in their cars to go to school, people are walking to the bus stop, other dogs are getting their walks. There was even a group of two couples--one couple holding hands--just, apparently, taking a walk in the brisk air. And everyone's so friendly. Even the high-school student I passed.

I suspect neighbors are insane.

PS: I decided to work from home for half a day and go to campus just for my afternoon meeting. The task at the top of my to-do is to migrate content from our existing website to the new one I'm building and I can do that from here, unshowered. I kinda stink, but its the stink of freedom.

the drive-by

KR called me from the airport tonight. She's on her way to New Orleans to eat ben-yays and poe-boys or whatever for a few days. At least I think it was KR calling. Whoever it was asked me to go to her traveling companion's house where she had left her car, and lock it. She thought she had forgotten--and this is where I'm not sure it was really KR because KR doesn't forget stuff like this--she had forgotten to lock the car.

I had an Amy's pizza in the oven at the time (I have just enough to last until she gets home) but after I'd polished it off I put Georgia in my car and drove to Squirrel Hill. I don't know, I thought she'd like to get out of the house for a little while.

So I was going to just do a drive-by and push the fob button on my copy of the key but out of curiosity I stopped and tried the door. Locked. I guess it really was KR on the phone.

wordless thursday

Taking a clue from the Simmer blog.

ny'er

I subscribe to The New Yorker mainly for the cartoons and the fiction. Lately, though, the fiction's been letting me down. I don't remember the last story I really enjoyed. Two weeks ago I skipped it after a few paragraphs. Last week it was a good enough story, but terribly short.

This week's issue looks promising. The cover is absolutely beautiful, framable even, with an "O" moon shining over the Lincoln Memorial. Some of the comics are really good (one, another). But I'm especially enjoying God's fistbump.

And the fiction is by Jonathan Lethem. Looks good. Except it's written in the form of letters. Urk.

stuff i like #2

One thing I like about riding the bus is that I feel a part of humankind without having to actually interact with humankind. We all sit together but apart, each doing our own thing. It's a different story at the bus stop. I've made a few bus-stop friends over the years and one of them comes to mind when I think about Stuff I Like #2 (fresh fruit and veggies).

This guy was a grad student from Singapore. One rainy morning when the bus flat-out didn't come, he had his wife come to the stop and take us (and his two little kids) to campus. I was able to return the favor and drive him to campus on another day when the bus didn't show up.

Anyway, one summer day he told me that he and his family had gone out to pick strawberries. It was the first time he'd ever had fresh strawberries and he couldn't believe how good they were. Believe it or not, I had forgotten how good they are, but the flavor came back to me vividly in that moment.

Then there's fresh tomatoes. And corn on the cob picked, shucked, and dropped into the boiling water all within a few minutes. And I remember, as a little kid, sitting in my grandfather's garden eating peas. He had put up a ten-foot electric fence to keep out the deer, and would shoot groundhogs and rabbits, but there wasn't much he could do about me.

These days we subscribe with an organic farmer, so during the summer and fall we get a weekly crate of fresh stuff. I'd recommend it, although our fridge is currently full of carrots.