J.D. Salinger's safe contains....

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/us_obit_salinger

Salinger's safe. How crazy would it be to open that and read the contents?
(Thanks for sending this, Josh).

Can't wait to take students to Paris...

I'm prepping to teach about Gothic Architecture tomorrow and in doing so, looking through photos I took when I got to go to Paris. Here's Sacre Coeur,
or Sacred Heart--atop the Hill of Mon Martre. Gorgeous.

Remembering, in some sort of awe...

John Belushi, if he were still alive, would be 61 years old today. He's not the kind of personality that could ever age...but then he didn't have a chance, did he? He's been dead 28 years, which is so unblievable, that I first counted it to be 18 years. He'll be forever the counter-mainstream, on the edge young-adult character, uber-quick-witted and hilarious.

So that brings to mind: would you rather live short, live furiously and brightly, perhaps burning out young? Or live long and perhaps less brightly? A little more moderately?
(Are the two mutually exculsive? Can you live long and passionately? That's my intention. We'll see how it goes).

I'm getting old enough that the option of short and bright has sort of evaporated...but I still refuse to rust out or fade away. Charge on.

Identifying my errors relieves me of the awful burden of omniscience.

Identifying my errors relieves me of the awful burden of omniscience. I stole that form John McIntyre's blog, which I read with relish: http://twitter.com/johnemcintyre

Thursday in Humanities class, my attentive students pointed out a couple errors on hand-outs, etc. I beg fallibility. I'm not God. I'm just tryin' to teach some of what I've learned.

I love this attitude...can you imagine the awful burden of omniscience? I suppose when we start teaching, we think we have to know all. It's so nice to be old enough not to worry about that.

Freya saves the day

"Just plowed snow with the mighty little John Deere for the third time in 24 hours. The driveway appears clear. For the moment. This morning, the garden tractor got stuck in such a way that it blocked in my Durango, so I couldn't use that to pull it out. I put it in neutral, and got off and started pulling with armstrong power. (Good thing I lift weights?) I was making a little progress. Freya came bouncing up, grabbed my arm and started pulling and we got it out immediately! How crazy is that??? Good Girl."

Tuesday, January 4

I FINISHED the edits on Chasing AllieCat. What a relief, to get done before school starts up again next week. It's a better book. Brian, my editor at FLUX, was right. He suggested some cuts to ramp up the speed toward the end, when the mystery is getting solved, and he was right. Yippee!

Sunday, January 3: Communion Bumper

Yesterday, Tom and I took the rusty bumper off the front of my Durango. (I know it's a gas hog and environmental baggage, but I need it!--I couldn't get in and out of my farmhouse without it in this weather; I've pulled more cars than I can count out of the snow with it, including the guy who plowed out my driveway last week; and what other vehicle can haul a 147-lb dog and a road bike at once?)

We sanded the bumper and are painting it. Result: I now have holes in the bumper; the rust went all the way through! So I'll have a lovely white holey thing. Let's make that holy, and it'll be my communion bumper. That's appropriate for the first Sunday of the new year, right?

It's still -20 degrees out. Freya is unfazed. She still goes outside to take naps in the snow. Yesterday after the dog park, we both had white faces. Her icy breath made crystals all the way around her neck.

AllieCat: in progress. I'm happy with how it's going. I think tightening it is smart. There was a lot of flabby skin toward the end of the book.

Freya and editing AllieCat

Freya loves the snow. LOVES the snow. We went to the dog park this morning (very cold), and I came home and edited/revised for over five hours. Then when Freya got antsy, we went outside and played keep-away with her new green fuzzy Christmas stuffed bone for half an hour. Now we're back at it: she's pacing and chewing on things like toys and bones, and I'm back at the computer. Oops--now she's back outside. Maybe I can get another hour of work done. Maybe. And since I hit "save," she came back in with the fuzzy bone. Snoozing on the bed (the human bed). She's like a little kid: when she gets tired, she's all fussy 'til she settles down to sleep.

What a goofy Newfy.

Back to AllieCat. I'm editing the big mountain bike race day right now.