We've got a fire going in the study fireplace. We started the fire early this evening, around four thirty, so we could have a nice long night. Jean's been knitting several versions of a hat for baby. She went to the yarn shop earlier today in search of a pattern and some yarn.
The first shop she visited is the one in the fashionable West End. The place was nuts. She gave up after forty-five minutes of waiting for some help and went to the store she prefers (which is further away). This second store seems to be un-trendy (I like it already), and Jean worries that the woman who runs the shop won't be able to keep the business going. The woman showed Jean what the volunteers at the hospitals tend to use for baby hats, and Jean purchased some navy and yellow yarn.
What I didn't know was that Jean also went to a number of other places, including the mall. Malls are terrible places. I worked in several malls before coming to the University in 1988. It's not just the lack of natural light: the people who hang out in malls are scary. Probably the saddest time I can remember was Halloween, when bunches of parents who trusted merchants more than neighbors showed up with their kids. Shortly after six every October 31st the circular stream of little children in costumes would begin, and each store would position a staff member at the doorway to hand out candy. After an hour it was all over. How sad that our sense of community has become commercial.
At any rate, if I learned anything from working in malls, it's that you don't go there after Halloween unless it's your one-time Christmas-shopping visit. Jean for some reason forgot this rule and thought she'd just pick something up on her way home. I had expected her to be gone for an hour or more, but with all her travelling she was gone closer to three hours.
I'm going to get back to reading tomorrow. Last night at Borders all I wanted to do was rush home to get busy again reading the books that I've already purchased. I'm currently reading the first volume in Will Durant's Story of Civilization series, Our Oriental Heritage. I'm also reading the Bible front to back. My favorite literature is from the Renaissance and Restoration periods, especially John Milton. My current books provide background for the period, but they're also interesting by themselves.
I've also decided to start reading to baby. We learned not long ago from The Pregnancy Journal that her brain and ears are now connected, and she tends to be still whenever I talk to Jean's tummy. Someone asked if I were reading to baby yet, and it struck me that I should be. I've decided to start with The Hobbit, mainly because I've been wanting to re-read the book (as well as The Lord of the Rings), but also because Tolkien's work lends itself to recitation. I'm going to take it slowly, since reading is a bed-time activity. Jean falls asleep quickly these days, and I want to read it to her as well as baby. So I'll only read two or three pages each night.
It's cold enough for a fire, though I'll have a fire going if it seems even remotely cool outside.
It was another pretty Fall day in Richmond. The leaves (still drying, though not dry enough
to be raked) completely cover the front lawn. I wonder what the neighbors think.
listening: Breakfast in America (Supertramp); Toto IV (Toto); Solitude Standing (Suzanne Vega); Come On, Come On (Mary Chapin Carpenter); Rites and Passages (Indigo Girls); Sunday in the Park with George (Original Cast Album); Jesus Blood Never Failed Me Yet (Gavin Bryars)
reading: Esther; The Hobbit (J.R.R. Tolkien)
visiting: Xpeditions @ National Geographic
© 1998 Kevin J.T. Creamer