June 2020: What Is So Rare as a Day in June?

6/5/2020: Up a 5:30 AM again. I guess I’m on summer hours now. Prayers. Bible. Dressed. Planning to go for Lotto and DG later; want Dobie pad, sweetener, cake mix, frosting, and cookies. Meanwhile, some BI [Book Inventory]. My intention has been and is to handle each book, not just look at them on a shelf.

So I left at near 7:35 AM which was just about the perfect time, got a ticket, and went to D[ollar] G[eneral], where I got a call from Kam asking about breakfast around 8:15 AM; it seems Susan had already gone to work. After that I added 2 apple pies to my list; I still have $2. Came home and made Kam a couple of sandwiches of toast with turkey and cheese and took out the last chicken soup to heat for my breakfast. I was totally wiped out and after eating the soup and fell into a coma-like nap until 12:30 PM, when I continued with the BI, most of it proofreading what I already had. At 2 PM I had to start supper (fried potatoes take a long time on a hotplate) and wasn’t done until 5:30 PM. Took my fish and taters in. After all day, I only catalogued 10 books. It’s now a little after 7 PM; I’m going to count my tramp this morning as more than all my turns (it is!) and go on to the Rosary.

Kam came in and we watched “The Day the Earth Froze” until about 10 PM; the summer MST3K’s have officially started.

 

6/6/2020: Prayers, Bible, Medicine. Went out about 7 AM for my turns and photographed a huge spider out by the cedar tree out front. Cookies for breakfast, then later, about 10 AM, had 5 boiled bratwursts that Susan had told me needed to be eaten up. Went all day working on BI with a strange continuous intensity; today it was many Scholastic books, so more early memories. I stop and do research and add whether there are connected books that I don’t have and put things in chronological context. 

“Anatomy of a Murder” playing in the background during the afternoon. About 5 PM I went in to get a ramen and a couple of eggs, and they were just starting to eat Long John Silvers, which Kam and I had just been talking about a few days ago, about how we hadn’t had any for a while. Just as I was about to eat my ramen, Andy comes in with a plate with a little piece of fish, one big fat shrimp, 4 hushpuppies, and a lot of fries and crumblies, so yummy! As I continue with the BI, Svengoolie and “Bride of Frankenstein” on in the background.

 Finish BI for the day about 9 PM, then Rosary and bed.

 

6/7/2020: Up at 2:30 AM, when something struck me lightly on my right temple (probably a cockroach). I scrambled awake and searched my bed but saw nothing, but I was totally awake. Got up and caught up yesterday’s diary (which I had neglected for BI) then started in on Peanuts books (“Happiness” books and animation ‘novelizations’).

 Watched the St. James mass. Worked on BI. Went in at 10 AM to bake cake and they were just eating breakfast. Went in at noon to frost cake and got a ramen and eggs. Worked on BI until I finished the Kitchen Shelves and posted on FK[Finder’s Keep]. Walked my turns then made dip-dips for the family. Came in and prayed rosary at 7:30 PM. 

 

6/8/2020: Did all the usual Monday things: Prayers, Bible, medicine, turns [circling walks], wash, feed Kam, make chicken salad and boiled eggs, made broccoli salad, made supper of couscous and fish patties, cleaned up, made Kam grilled cheese, Rosary, posted, listened to GGACP, Daily Wire, House, and Flintstones, but mainly I worked on the BOOK INVENTORY, mostly the kid books in the clock shelves. John wrote me back some e-mails; he sounds depressed still, and with the state of the world (riots, fires, and COVID) who can blame him? I told him that all of my ‘juice’ is being expended on the BI right now; it is quite compulsive. Almost 11 PM. Must try to sleep. Posted on POB after more than a week.

 

6/9/2020: Aiyee. Started at 5 AM. Prayers Bible and Rosary, then began BI with Cabell books. At 7 AM did my turns. At 9 AM started the chicken soup and had eggs for breakfast. Read Mark Twain “Following the Equator”. 

At 11 stopped soup and went in. Came in at 12:30 PM and picked chicken, had lunch. More BI. Went in at 3:30 PM and started sausage, cabbage, and taters. Came in and laid down, then ate. About 6 PM Andy came and asked if I had seen Kiki [one of the cats] today, and I realized I had not. Started in on Gaiman books.

When I went out for my turns at 7 PM or so, it was a perfect early summer evening. The westering sun was alleviated behind mounded clouds, but its glory was still shining out in rays. The lavender and primrose jasmine were releasing their late afternoon perfume and the cicadas were still singing. Doves were calling drowsy at day’s end, and an owl hooted in the gathering shadows of the oaks. I saw a lizard squirming, shaking the bushes by the house where he had been trying to catch the last warmth of the day, but now startled into the shadows by my sudden appearance. The whole scene was somehow quieter, hushed, more solemn, with the thought that the cat Kiki might be missing, gone forever from this circle of falling silence. I searched the corners of the yard as I walked, seeking for the flick of her brindled tail, the glint of her green eyes. But there was only a cat-shaped hole in the jasmine bushes, leading down into trails untrod by mankind.

Worked till almost midnight to complete the Neil Gaiman books.

 

6/10/2020: Up at 6 AM. Prayers, Bible, got dressed. Left about 6:45 AM and went to TX Cooler and got a lottery ticket. Came home, started on the Pratchett books for the BI. At 9 AM made Kam bacon and eggs, then had some soup. Tired out by my walk, I laid down and slept. Got up about 1:30 PM. Had the windows open still all afternoon. Inventory. At 2:30 PM went in and started supper, making rice, thawing chicken. Finished by 4 PM. Came in worked on Inventory. Went in at 8 PM and made Kam biscuits and cleaned up; had rice which I poured soup on. Came out and settled down and finished Pratchett books about 10:30 PM. Rosary. Cleaned house and caught up diary. Finished Twain’s ‘Equator’ this afternoon, skipping the boring Boers. Have I won the lottery? I’ll wait to tomorrow to check. Bed about midnight.

 

6/11/2020: Woke up at 5 AM, laid around until 5:30 AM to try to sleep more, then up. Prayers, Bible (with some extra chapters, as I was reading the story of Joseph and his brothers and got caught up in the story) then at 6 AM turned off the AC. Time for a shower. Turns; a very cool morning. Started BI with the Greg Hildebrandt books.

 Watched Perry Mason. Moved on to the Annotated editions. Made Kam bacon and eggs and ate the leftover cabbage and taters. Worked on BI until 11 AM and break.

Finished Annotated shelf at 3 PM, and I think I am done for the day, and soon will start supper. I sent John the suggestion he write a film script for AGODP and it seemed to spark his interest; he said he would try.

I: A new idea came to me last night. If you are still looking for a project, why don't you brush off the ol' William Goldman and write me a shooting script for "A Grave on Deacon's Peak"? Creative enough to be engaging, and you don't have to build it from the ground up, and it would give us something to discuss. It wouldn't hurt to have a script ready for Yen to shop around, and it could whet my appetite for when I go back to Bob's Book 2, which seems to have gone into a summer sleep, edged out of the nest by the Inventory, which still obsesses me. Think about it. I would be very interested to see what could be whittled away and still have the main story told. But I think Frobisher must be in the prologue, no matter how brief.

He: An interesting proposal.  Being conceived in your dreaming mind, the story has been very cinematic from its inception.  I'll take a look at screenplay format guidelines and start playing around with "seeing" it- maybe I can kickstart my moribund creativity with your readymade tale. I've felt a few twinkling embers lately, which, believe me, I did not expect to ever feel again, the way things were going.  My faith is weak, but I promise you this much - I will try. Thanks.

I: Excellent! Right now, I am working on my annotated editions for the Inventory and was on Huck Finn when your message popped up. Did you know that the Sherman Brothers wrote the songs for the Johnny Whitaker 1973 "Tom Sawyer" and the 1974 "Finn" sequel? Write some songs too! You're good at that. But script first!

Made supper: chili, corn, rotini. Came in and started on BI again. Did my turns, then rosary a little after 7 PM. Washed dishes a little after 8 PM. Went back to BI and finished about 10:30 PM. 

Notes

Long summer days made short summer diary entries. Not to keep anyone in suspense, Kiki did turn up again later. My formatting on these entries changes when I pop pictures in; I have to try to fix that.