Airy Nothing Chatter

We can't go to Marco Polo's Restaurant without stopping in at The Book Bin and I can't go into a book store without getting something! I restrained myself and got only three books, but Iqbal also got three books and Alex got three LPs. Then I ended up surfing around at LibraryThing after I added the new books. I can't keep up with my flist and other blogs as it is, but I added more. ::sigh:: Well, at least I always have plenty of choice in what to read, online and off!

I also got a copy of Feverblau in the mail Wednesday. I got it cheap, and since it's no longer available new, I don't feel bad about it. Otherwise I really do try to get a new copy of the books of the writers on my flist.

Since I got my last review done and the next review book hasn't arrived yet, I can read what I want. Should it be some dense theo-philosophy (Teilhard) or a goblin story? Goblins win!

Mom has been bugging me to take her to a local used book store. This one is across the river and has street parking on a busy road. I wasn't keen on it. This week they are having a sale, so I gave in. Used books stores do well when we go into them.

A few weeks ago we ate at Marco Polo's and, at their new (and nicer) place, they are right next to The Book Habit. It makes for great after dinner perusing and I came away with an armload of books. I came away with more from the Readers Guide to Recycled Literature. (Don't you love the names of used bookstores?) Fortunately, because of their sale, I actually spent less. My focus today was poetry (6 books), although I also came away with some fiction and biography (5 more books).

I was going to work on my website some more this evening, but I think I will read instead. I'm almost finished with Outcasts United: A Refugee Team, an American Town (available April 21) and want to get the review written quickly. Goblin Quest is also waiting for me to get back to it. I had started it when Outcasts United arrived and found it delightful. I stopped only because I wanted to get the review done in timely fashion.

I also want to see if I can start some poetry today. It's nagging me. A different kind of nagging. Usually the poem is already starting in my head when it nags. Now I simply feel the urge to write with paper and pen. I'm not sure what to write, but the word 'butterfly' keeps coming to me. And then I thought 'chickadee,' though that may simply be because I have a plush chickadee here on my monitor. I'm off to see what's in my head that wants to come out. (and that made me think of something creepy or even gruesome a la Alien).

Yah! I stepped into the shower this afternoon and the water is set to 'very hot,' but it was barely warm. I like hot showers, but someone (who knows who he is) likes very hot and long showers. We keep our hot water tank hotter than recommended and still he manages to make the hot water tepid. We need to invest in one of those 'on demand' tankless, hot water heaters.

In other local news, March weather, this year, appears to be very much of the "Wait five minutes" variety. Five minutes ago I was thinking what a lovely, sunny afternoon it was. Two minutes ago it was pouring buckets. Now it's just gray and drizzly with a light wind.

Really! I was going to tell you earlier, but I got distracted. I've "encountered" it several times. Iqbal says he has, too. It's in our bedroom, so no one else has felt it.*

Iqbal feels it at night when he's reading in bed or just after. I feel it in the morning just before I get up. We don't see. We don't hear. What we feel is a cat jumping onto the bed and walking around. I've felt it sniffing around my face. Sometimes it sits near my face and sometimes near my feet. When I open my eyes, I expect to see Llyan. She's good at opening doors if they're not latched tight. But there is no cat there and the door is closed. (And Llyan doesn't close doors.) Iqbal jumps out of bed and looks for a cat to shoo out, but again the door is closed and there is no cat in the room.

*Mom says she has had the same experience many nights. I didn't realize she experienced it, too. Alex never did, but he had Ruby in there most of the time, so he wouldn't think anything about it if he felt a cat jumping onto the bed. (The main reason we kennel Emily at night is so that she doesn't disturb Mom at night.)

I'm happy that it seems to be a friendly cat. The real live kitties don't seem to be bothered by it. It's obvious that cats used to live in this house. The lower level woodwork was shredded in places. Even if we hadn't put a door in the doorway of what is now Mom's room, we would have had to replace the door frame. We also had to have the place cleaned of the cat smell before we moved in. The carpet cleaners did a good job, but still, when it's wet out, if we don't keep the lower level warm it has a lingering odor. Fortunately, Mom likes it hot. When we redo the floors, we'll definitely be using a blocking paint before laying down new carpet and tiles (gonna have "wood" interlocking linoleum [or whatever it is] strips for the main room).

Dreams are so weird. I dreamed that there was a wedding. I don't remember a lot of that part of the dream, only that it was going to happen in the UK and there was a lot of racing around to get everyone prepared to go there and then to make sure they had the information. There was a last minute change that required me (but it wasn't me) to get some new information onto the website so people would know where to go. I don't even know who was getting married. It wasn't me. I was a flunky.

But then that dream morphed, as dreams are wont to do, into something more nebulous. That is, oddly, the part that stays with me most, however, because I was coding my life. I don't remember the life, only the coding of it. My life. Everything I did had to be coded. Everything I would do had to be coded. Essentially my life was reduced to code.

That's when I woke up. I was thinking about it and, in a way, it's true. In this computer age, it seems that, at least for the younger generations, everything has to go online. We blog. We twitter. Our phones now are like GPS devices, so our friends know where we are every moment and can reach us at any time. Young folks hardly talk on the phone any more, but they are constantly texting each other.

In other words, everything we do is ending up as code, something more true for the younger, more cellphone and internet savvy population. I dunno. I like the internet. I like chatting away on my blog, whether or not anyone reads it. I like posting photos and videos. And, I enjoy reading and viewing other's posts. I certainly like the ability to look up information, too. I'm not as keen on cell phones, but maybe if I had one that did everything but wash my dishes, I'd be hooked.

The thing is, all of this keeps looking more and more like Big Brother and The Matrix combined. That's scary. Part of me says it just means we need to be careful and part of me says we're lulling our caution. I guess the answer is to find that place between blindness and paranoia.

I definitely woke up thinking, today.