Tuesday, 7 September 2021
Here we are, precisely two weeks after the last post. So let’s get to it.
Some minor things. Life has gone on as usual.
DYL Gathering
The next evening I attended a gathering of four men who had met — back in 2019 — to work through the book “Designing Your Life” in an effort to think about how to manage retirement. It was nice to see everyone (this is not our first reunion so it’s not the case the 2 years has passed ), and to catch up. Unlike our previous gatherings, I dug up my notes from our original working sessions, and looked through my the thoughts and aims I had developed then. I was interested to see how consistent my aims were, and how — with the exception of traveling places to do hiking (derailed by Covid and exacerbated by the fire-intensive summer we’ve had — I’ve achieved most of the things I set out to do. Not always ‘on time,’ but that’s not so important. Actually, the only item I was a bit laggardly on was making writing part of my life, which has been the focus of this summer’s classes and other activities. While I don’t attach a lot of importance to setting out a plan and adhering to it, this summer I’ve felt a bit adrift, and so at some level it feels nice to recognize that I was nevertheless on a course I’d mapped out some time ago.
Grand Canyon Hike Prep
Also last week I had a training hike with KC, in preparation for the Grand Canyon trip. In the last two weeks, the probability of that happening has changed from a bit iffy to pretty certain: bad weather (excessive heat) could still derail it, but most other issues have been resolved. In particular, if other members of the group decide to cancel, we’ve learned that we will still have the 4-person cabin to ourselves, which is essential (to us) with the delta-fueled wave of Covid on the rise. So, hopefully, in about nine days, I will be in Arizona.
Other stuff
- We had a three nice dinners with friends — two dinners here, and another dinner elsewhere.
- Last week I had a medical appointment that raised some issues that I will need to deal with in the future, that I am not going to discuss on a public blog. Nothing wildly unexpected, and nothing immediately, or even intermediately dire.
- My Loft essay class has been canceled, and the alternatives of interest were all in the evenings — of which I don’t want to devote more than one to classes — so I will only be taking a science fiction and fantasy course. That starts on September 15th.
- But the loss of the essay class is not such a big deal, because I have started an essay project with a friend. Our plan is to read the Oxford Book of Essays — a chronological sampling of English essays from the 17th Century onward — and discuss them, meeting every week or two. (Initially the plan was to meet every two weeks, but the first meeting was enjoyable enough that I think we may meet once a week.)
- We have also made our plans to travel to Los Cabos for two weeks in November to spend time with our friend. This is an attempt at a re-do fo last year, which we canceled out of concern for Covid, but I think it’s highly likely that we will go forward with it this year.
Fiction: Plot Extraction
On the fiction front, I’ve continued my plot-extraction project, and now have 26 pages of notes. I think I will continue to pay attention to plots, and how writers ‘do things’ in novels, but I am at the point where continuing to focus on it is going to be a distraction, or at least a method of procrastination, so I need to figure out how to wrap it up and move forward with the writing.
So, I think that brings us pretty much up to date.