Tuesday Morning, Please be Gone, I'm Tired of You

Bill's Book Club

It has been cold lately here in the great north. Not really cold, frigid. It is the kind of cold that you would scarcely notice if it were 10 degrees colder. It all becomes relative after a certain point and we have reached that point. It is perfect reading weather.

The toilet in the half bath has been rendered inoperable due to a frozen supply pipe. I almost forgot last night and was actually in situ before remembering I could not avail myself of that particular facility. A quick jaunt up the stairs fixed my predicament so all was well in the end.

I am almost through A Walk in the Woods, which will be my 4th book of the year. Bill Bryson is so amazingly good. I can't describe how much I appreciate and aspire to his quality of writing, ability to tell a story and present difficult facts in a way that is palatable and meaningful without being forced and sort of nebulous. Thank you, Mr. Bryson. I look forward to the 3 other of your books I have selected for future reading.

Em bought me a book by a local man, a former columnist for the Grand Rapids Press by the name of Tom Rademacher. I look forward to reading it, too. I believe it is a collection of columns and stories about normal people from around here. I like that kind of thing very much and it was thoughtful of Em to buy it for me.

I think, though, I will take a break from the first person story-telling genre for a book or two just to keep it lively. Not sure what I will read next, but I will have to choose soon.

Something Good This Way Comes

I got a hold of the woman I used to work with and she is going to help me out. We haven't done anything substantive, yet, but anything is something and something is almost always better than nothing and since nothing is what I have had a whole lot of, I will take anything as a positive sign. See how I did that?

Re-connections

I am very pleased to have re-connected with a couple buddies with whom I used to work. Barnes and Noble is a place filled with a wide variety of people. They range from merely odd, to mentally very ill, but almost all of them are kind and wonderful people. You can see why I didn't fit in there.

Every unit I worked in, in every state was filled with enjoyable people of above average intelligence and certainly above average wit. Lew, regular reader, was the only source of sanity for me in New Jersey. When he got moved to another store, I knew it was time to leave. So I moved. Not solely on account of Lew leaving, but it didn't hurt. Lew was one of those with uncommon wit, like a restless whip in the hands of a dangerous man. Mike and Clayton fall into the that category nicely as well. I worked with them in Muskegon and we got through some pretty interesting times together. When I left the company, you know, we just had a hard time maintaining closeness.

Well, now we are at least making an attempt, so just like with the above item, even though nothing has happened per se, it is happening and I'll take it! Can't wait to get together with the guys and riff on some highly intellectual movie scenes or to reminisce. Whatever we do it will be time well spent. This much I know.

Furious 'D'

I am spending a lot more time in Detroit ('Angry fist shake here'). I am not happy to be on the road so much, especially in crappy weather. We all know about my feelings toward winter and driving in winter and snow and cold and winter. I don't like you, winter. Anyhow, I keep going back to the good things... let's hope they come! Soon!