I drove back and forth to Delton yesterday for Jeremy’s birthday. I had planned to ask Eileen to drive back if it was dark (because of my poor eyesight), but we left well before dark. We had a nice time. I hope Jeremy  (the birthday boy) had one as well. I suspect he did.

This morning I chose to do a Meijer trip instead of a Farmers Market trip since I didn’t think I had energy for both. Later we chatted with Sarah online.

I hope we can see her in person before too long. She seems to be a bit stressed by her life now: Covid, kids, family, numerous day trips. The increasing numbers of Covid cases are not encouraging. But I hope we can travel soon.

I have returned to reading David Foster Wallace. I do enjoy his prose style quite a bit. I have read most of his novels. I don’t think I have read The Broom of the System his first one. But I own a copy. I have been trying to catch up with his essays and short stories.

I have taken to keeping a stack of books next to my bed. I now retire to reading. My fake gin doesn’t affect my motivation to do some reading before sleeping. I’m still going to bed around 7. But now I read for at least an hour. David Foster Wallace books are sitting, waiting for me as well as other books by Zadie Smith and Octavia Butler.

I recently purchased Joy Harjo’s excellent anthology, When the Light of the World was Subdued, Our Songs Came Through.

I checked out a copy of this a month ago and did quite a bit of reading in it.  After purchasing my own copy,  I decided to begin once again and carefully read through the Table of Contents (something I do now) and introductory essays as well as all the poems. I learned to consider rereading by watching my grandson, Nicholas. He rereads books he likes constantly or at least he used to.

I find the poems in this anthology attractive. I guess I like outsider stuff.  A book of Harjo’s has been chosen as a community read here in Holland but I’m not sure which one.

I have books waiting for me at Readers World and the library to pick up. At some point today I will drop by and get them and then go post hymns at the church.

I am a bit tired from yesterday but not too exhausted.

Life continues to be good.

We are driving to Delton Michigan today to help celebrate the birthday of Jeremy Daum, Elizabeth’s husband. I have finished my morning routine (clean, make coffee/tea, stretch, exercise, feed cat continuously). Eileen is still resting.

One of the things that seems to be important to me to continue at this point is this silly blog. It helps me to sit and write each day. So what the heck. I’ll blog a little and then read until Eileen gets up.

I have been listening to Charles Ives string quartets. I wanted to look at the scores and discovered they are not on IMSLP (International Music Score Library Project). Dang. I was able to request them via the inter library loan. Ives does a lot of quoting of hymn tunes and melodies. I would like to see how he does that exactly. Hymn tunes are still attractive to me especially when used by Ives.

The silly podcast I put on yesterday’s blog about disinformation drove me a little crazy this morning. Both of the participants had an annoying tendency to end their sentences on a high pitch. I found myself listening less to the content of what they were saying and examining how they used that trending to an upper pitch of voice at the end of statements as is sometimes done with questions. I decided that it might be an indication that they were going to continue the thought in the next sentence. Good grief.

Despite this, I did find the conversation interesting. Here’s an article by the expert: Disinformation: It’s History – Centre for International Governance Innovation.

But speaking of being annoyed at stuff, I have discovered that City Journal, the site/mag that published the article on the suicide of Classical Music is actually sponsored by a right wing think tank. Sooprise sooprise. I figured this out after reading a lengthy debunking of why we need to mask up right now. Here’s the article (remember.. it’s crap!)Do Masks Work? | City Journal

Here’s a better article on Covid. Delta Has Changed the Pandemic Endgame – The Atlantic

Can We Ever Look at Titian’s Paintings the Same Way Again?