2020 Diary: The End of June

6/28/2020: June almost over already! The Book Inventory is really eating up my days. Forced myself to stay in bed till 6 AM, then up, prayers, Bible, straightened house, and Church on YouTube. Father Dennis’s farewell sermon; he’s off into semi-retirement. Did my turns at about 7:10 AM, then began BI with Tim Powers. Finished at about 10:15 AM. Taking a break; then on to James P. Blaylock. I never know what a Sunday will be like, foodwise; I don’t think there are any leftovers left for Andy to bring out to me before they go shopping. Suppose I’ll go in for a ramen about noon. In the meanwhile, I have skunked tea and hard candy to keep me going. Nobody won the Lotto yet, so that’s good, since I didn’t get to play. Ah, Blaylock, can I do you justice?

With some naps, breaks, and lunch, I finished Blaylock at 5 PM, and posted him and Powers directly. (At about 3 PM Kam called me in about a bug in his room; I think it was an ensign wasp, a harmless bug that eats cockroach eggs; i.e., beneficial) Not a bunch of books; I am taking it easy for Sunday. Now I’ve only got the big bottom shelf on the left to do before I move into the home stretch with Tolkien. Excelsior!

At 5:30 PM prayed the rosary. Did some more BI, comics, mostly. At 7 PM went in to get a ramen and bread and made dips for S&A. Susan says the people at HEB were doing pretty good about the mayor’s order to wear masks in public. At 8 PM went out for my turns; it had been raining earlier but had cleared up enough. Went in and washed up. Destroy All Monsters! on this evening. Might do more BI before I go to bed.

And so I did, finishing only at 11 PM. Now I shall post it and go to bed.

 

6/29/2020: Started off the day at 6 AM with prayers and Bible. Started BI. Took an early walk at 6:45 AM. Started wash at 9 AM, started chicken soup, boiled eggs, made egg salad, made me a ramen, made cucumber salad, went in about 10:30 AM. BI. Nap from 11:30 AM to 12:30 PM. Went in, picked chicken, got my clothes, came out, called John (he was busy), then BI. At 4 PM grassed dogs, made fish patties and couscous, ate supper and more BI. Went in at 7:30 PM cleaned up and more BI. Finished the last of the bottom shelf on the left and posted on Finder’s Keep. Wrote John an e-mail: Well, I'm done cataloging for the day, having reached the end of one of the bigger bookshelves. All I have left to go are the Tolkien books (minus the Tolkien paperbacks, which I've already done). As of right now the catalogue has:

889 pages

157,484 words

1,856 books

I've handled, dusted, and looked into nearly every book I own, excluding comics paperbacks and Gold Key Digests [which I’ve since done]. If my calculations are correct, Yogi, I should end up with about 2000 books. Which is not too bad, considering I had about 3000 before I moved out of Loop Drive, and bought quite a few since. I wonder what it would be like to follow the fate of those 1000 books [that I downsized and sold] and see where they ended up? Although quite a lot of those words [in the inventory] are pasted from other sources, they were chosen because they said what I wanted to say about the books; the editing, as it were, was mine. And there's quite a bit of my own memories and criticism thrown in. In making this list I realized I don't have a copy of Gulliver's Travels anymore [I do now, an annotated one]. I suppose I can just read it on the Kindle if I have to, but it seems like a book I should have in my liberry. Just goes to show what I can do without; I probably have a dozen 'classics' I would never miss.”

Time for a rosary (10:30 PM) then to bed.

 

6/30/2020: The last day of June. I was up about 6 AM, did all my regular things, including a shower (which I haven’t been doing every day). Worked on the top shelf of the ‘Tolkien Shrine’ from early on but didn’t finish the 35 books until 8 PM. All day I haven’t felt good, had to drive myself along to cook (Kam’s breakfast, supper) or do anything, even the rosary. I’ve lagged all day. Forgot to put the mushrooms in the fried cabbage. Thank goodness the day is over. Right eye hurts too. John hasn’t called me back.

Me to John at 8:30 PM: Finished the whole top shelf of the Tolkien Shrine today: 35 books. It may not seem much, and I didn't write much new material, but I put some long thought and search into my entries. Today was sort of a drag; my legs felt heavy and I didn't seem to have any energy. I thought what an irony that I should reach Tolkien at last and not feel physically as inspired as I would like. Well, I can always add later if I want. The trouble with that is sometimes you go "Eh. What I've written I’ve written." I shall be glad when I finish this task. It hag-rides me to a certain extent and gets in the way of even my daily amusements. Well, off to Finder's Keep to post my daily batch. Hard to believe it's already the last day of June. The Inventory makes me lose track of time as well.

He to me, 11:50 PM: Glad to hear you are nearing the completion of your Task - it sounds like it has been the usual mix of laborious pain and enlightenment that accompanies most worthy efforts.  I will call you tomorrow - sorry I haven't yet- I've been swept up in a variety of chores as well and by evening I go on familial chill out auto-pilot.  Weird - I seem to be constantly hustling and at the end of the day when I recount my accomplishments, they don't add up to terribly much.  In the words of the Doors- "This – is - the strangest – life -I have ever - known!”

Notes

One of the odd things about keeping a diary is you begin to see patterns that you might not otherwise think about. Yesterday we had another birthday party for Kam, and I didn’t realize how similar the details were to one five years ago, down to the pizza, cheese dip, and mostly cards (with money) rather than physical presents. Of course, there was a more complete gathering, and Ollie and Julia have joined the cast and crew.

I had forgotten that I was posting the Book Inventory to Finder’s Keep before I had started Niche of Time; in fact, it was for the Inventory that I started NOT, and soon after; I haven’t posted on FK since then. And I've had some welcome expansion to my beloved Tolkien Shrine.