cellini's Diaryland Diary ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Pounding Things and Reading Hemingway My gmail password is FILTHY. It's a string of words that anyone would know on their own and not find offensive. But put them together, and damn. Tomorrow, Trish and both kids are going out of town to visit family out of state. WOOOOOO! I love having the house to myself for a weekend. I will get so much work done. I will also drink saison. And watch porn. Not getting laid is the only downside. I hope it will be warm in the evenings. If it is warm then I will hang out in the half-built workshop with the work lights on and drink saison and continue getting through this volume of Hemingway's short stories. A few months ago I decided that it is kind of lame that I'd never really gotten around to reading much Hemingway and so decided to make a study of his work. So far I've gotten through 'Green Hills of Africa,' 'The Sun Also Rises' and 'In Our Time.' I finished 'The Snows of Kilimanjaro' last night. I figure that I ought to read 20 or 30 other short stories, read 'For Whom the Bell Tolls,' 'Death in the Afternoon' and 'A Moveable Feast,' and then re-read 'The Old Man and the Sea.' This being accomplished, I will credibly be able to consider myself to have 'read Hemingway.' I did this with H.P. Lovecraft a few years ago as well. Lovecraft is easier to make a complete study of, as he died young and left a much smaller body of work than did Hemingway. I bought and read the 3 volumes that Penguin put out, which collect every scrap Lovecraft ever published and some that he did not. All I have failed to read are some of the letters, which I doubt I will bother with. Somehow I seem to digest an author better if I read all of the major works in a single go. It's like creating a class for myself. This worked with economics as well. I spent a couple of years devouring Adam Smith, Keynes, DeSoto and Mancur Olson. I have learned so much more this way than I ever did when I was actually in college. There's this blog of 'things white people like' that I have been reading and enjoyed of late. Google it and you'll find it hilarious. It perfectly encapsulates what I'm trying to strip myself of. Anyway, I'll have the place to myself. Huh. I could build while completely naked if I wanted to. I have total privacy on most of this property. Well, I wouldn't be completely nude. I'd have to wear my boots, for safety. And I'd have the tool belt on. Oh, either Lars or the blacksmith will be coming over on Sunday to shoot skeet. Not sure which. They'd not mix well in close quarters so I don't want them both there. Lars has first dibs so I'll see if he's definitely in. Paul would bring ammo, which is nice. I got another 4x8 sheet of plywood sheathing up after work. My arm is really starting to complain at times. Really acute pain where that tendon attaches in my elbow and similarly acute pain at the base of my right thumb where I broke that bone a few years ago. Soaking the whole assembly in a really hot bath helps. As does naproxen. I may look into some cortisone injections or something next week. It's not the pain that I mind so much as my whole bloody arm just completely giving out on me every now and then. Especially when you throw the carpal tunnel stuff on top of everything else. I'll be pounding in a nail and then my arm gets suddenly very sore and then the next time I move to lift the hammer it just doesn't happen. A minute or so later it gets going again. Whatever. Even in spite of this problem and the recurring injuries I'm still totally sold on getting back into heavy manual labor. If the right arm craps out on me then I'll just learn to do things with my left. 09:22 - 2008-04-03 ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- |
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