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March 30, 2000
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playing hooky Beautiful day. Rain forecast for the weekend. "Don't waste it," a voice in my head screamed. At noon there was a free lunch. There is, of course, no such thing. Business meeting lunches prove that beyond all doubt. People will only stay eight seconds on a WEB site if they aren't given something they want, something of substance. I know this because people giving long speeches in meetings often cite this figure. People will apparently sit still far longer than eight seconds with no appreciable reward other than drawing their salaries. So I took a half day of vacation and spent a pleasant few hours reading in the cool, sun-dappled back yard. The Japanese maples are moving through their red stage. The little gecko who owns one of the large pots sunned himself. The oak trees pushed their unwanted leaves off and the sun shone through their new green. Live oaks mean fall in the spring. The little dog stretched and yawned and snoozed on the patio. SuRu joined me, taking a half day of vacation herself. A few days ago I posted a picture of the gecko's planter. I was, in fact, trying for the gecko, but he scampered off while I focused. But I posted the picture with the glass float because it was interesting. Then I saw the faces. First, I saw two, one facing left, another on top of that guy's head, looking heavenward. I showed Forrest and he saw one looking right. So, hey, maybe it's like the Jesus tree. I tried shooting this glass float today from several angles. No faces. Shucks. Oh, well, the crowds would have surely scared the gecko. Visited Robert at the Heart Hospital. He looked good. Heart surgery is a serious deal, though. Invasive procedure tearing into the chest and pumping the blood for the heart while the surgeon works. Went to BookStop after the hospital. Wandered aimlessly, reading and talking myself out of buying things. There was a book on the bargain table about simplifying your life. One oddball suggestion was to have only two more plates in your house than people living there. Gee whiz, what if you want a few more friends over? I have a whole cabinet full of wine glasses. I have a stack of over a dozen cool dessert plates. These possessions I'm never tempted to toss out. Then we went to Central Market. At 5:30PM there weren't many people there. I hadn't been there in a long time. Forrest has been slipping over there before I get home from work. It's nice without the crowds. They have a closed-circuit TV now which shows scenes from around the store. Is this so you can spy your friends or celebrities? Or is it really for security? I watched on the monitor as Forrest read the Chronicle by the stand in the cafe. The monitor would show the checkout lines, then another scene, then flip back to him reading the Chronicle. They should put it on the Internet. A beautiful piece of tuna and a few necessities and we came home and had dinner. After dinner we sat in the yard some more and read until we lost the light. We filled out the Chronicle Restaurant poll. In Austin, a restaurant poll has three categories for Mexican food. There was a bit of press a couple of months ago about a Cornell study about competence and self-confidence. (OK, so it takes me a long time to get through my newspaper stack.) It was fascinating, but not surprising I guess, that "those who scored lowest on the objective tests scored highest in their own self-evaluation." I often think about how different each person is from all the others. I hear a co-worker out of sight start a sentence. I know who it is. I see a glimpse of a person going into a room. I know who it is. It's fascinating how easily we do this, isn't it? |
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"..creation is in part merely the business of forgoing the great and small distractions." E.B. White, Here is New York |
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maple red
gecko green
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