dancing on the sofa

Mistress!
Yes, Sam, I know.
Mistress!!!!!
It's all right, Sam.
Mistress! Mistress!

Sam's sofa is in a U-Haul somewhere between here and the new lemming headquarters. He keeps checking the spot where it (the sofa) should be and isn't, just in case it (the sofa) has reappeared. Then he attempts to call my attention to this loss. Hell hath no fury like a border collie thwarted in his stare.

Sam and it (he sofa) will be together again in a few days. Meanwhile, I have more boxes to fill. John Adams (or was it John Quincy Adams?) once observed that he had all his life had a passion for books, one whose folly he only felt when moving...

in my place

The alarmingly tall contractor came in with a final bill exactly @25 over budget. If anyone needs a roofer, let me know.

ATC tells me that everyone on his crew has at least 15 years of experience and is out of work because of the recession. I couldn't afford the new roof, not even remotely, but my insurance company funded purchase means that four families can eat this month. That's humbling.

a day for a good book

It's raining today, so no roofers. By this time tomorrow, my headache may have dissipated, just in time for them to start work on the garage.

Rob asks just how tall the alarmingly tall contractor might be - I don't have a number, but I can tell you that he is so tall that he has to duck to walk through my front door. he doesn't do the "tall person stoop" when he talks to you, which I admire.

I've been reading Linda H. Davis' biography of the cartoonist Charles Addams, as in the Addams Family. I have a weakness for biographies of the people who lived and thrived in the early years of the New Yorker. Occasionally they reach the point of smarmy intellectualistic elitism that offends even my ego, but this one is terrific. Much like the most recent biography of Charles Schultz, Davis intersperses plenty of Addams' cartoons in the text and she's clearly having fun with her subject, even while bringing the right professional tone. Addams comes across as a dedicated man with a sense of fun who enjoyed teh macabre atmosphere around him.

I'd rather be reading about Addams, but right now I have essays to grade. I am convinced that they reproduce in the night...

up on the roof

The chaps showed up bright and early at 7:00 AM to start the joyous process of tearing off the old roof here at lemming headquarters and installing a new one. The head contractor (the most alarmingly tall person I have ever met) warned that they "might make a lot of noise." I rather assumed that they would, which is why I apologized to most of the neighbors about it last week, though not to the man who likes to run his chain-saw at 6:30 AM on Saturdays.

lemming headquarters desperately needs said new roof; I sincerely doubt that the old one would have lasted another winter, and with all of the thunderstorms we've had in the last few weeks, I've had my worries about the old one lasting until the new one could go on. I'm pleased that the alarmingly tall person assured me that they would do all of the house today and then all of the garage "when it's dry" rather than leaving me with a sheet of plastic to keep out the storms which are due for the rest of the week.

Sam's deafness saddens me from time to time, but today it is a blessing. Had he working ears, Sam would be barking at full-on red alert, between the simple existence of several strange men here at th territorial headquarters which he is sworn to protect and defend, the oddness of their location (said roof) and the very odd noises that stripping off old shingles makes. Instead he's snoring away on the sofa, oblivious to the drama above his floppy ears.

on we go

Yes, the hell-spawn devil's-imp did survive my time away. Precocious neighborhood child found him quite a handful. He left gigantic clumps of fur around his various scratching posts, though with no noticeable difference to his coat. He seems vaguely pleasd to have me back, probably simply for my mere existence.

I did read a glorious murder mystery while on vacation, which I'll have to write baout, as soon as I get through all of these e-mails.

time for a vacation

I'm going away for a few days, just a quiet trip to share some peace with Sam. Precocious neighborhood child will be very well paid to look after the good cats and even the hell spawn demon imp. I fear what will occur when I am gone, but it will be great to leave the state for a while.

Meanwhile, let the bureaucrats deal with the problems - I'm going to sleep in.

subversive children's literature

"Scalia," Sunny said. She meant something like, "It doesn't seem like the literal interpretation makes any sense," but her siblings did not think it was wise to translate.

-The Penultimate Peril by Lemony Snickett, page 268