Monday September 10th 2007
Today was another beautiful day. It reminded me of the middle of September in Iowa. The humidity of summer has left but the heat hasn’t quite all dissipated. That crisp warmth that comes only from the direct sunlight and a breeze with winter’s first messengers. People continue to warn us of the winter and I am fairly nervous. I hope we can get some more work done before the weather turns to cold.
We got a fair amount of work done today and I am exhausted. We just about finished filling in the back drainage trench with stone and built the doorframe and moved about 25 bags of coarse aggregate and sand in preparation for our new floor. Somewhat exciting, but as I lay in bed I can’t help but feel overwhelmed at the amount of hard work we have left to do. Even to get this place up from glorified camping to shanty living is going to take a couple more weeks of hard labour and to be perfectly honest, I am getting residually tired. The fatigue is not abated by the longer and longer nights of sleep we’re taking. And the more tired we wake up each morning the longer it takes to get going and the slower we’re able to work. But looking at what needs to be done before the winter we just don’t have the luxury of taking days off.
We cooked again for one of our friends in a real kitchen which is unbelievably nice. Brian and I are actually pretty good cooks if I do say so. Tonight, Brian cooked for the first time a cream of nettle soup (it was quite good) which is great to know how to do since we have a shit-ton of nettles and welp, they’re free. So there’s a great source of food. And I made a delicious pita bread salad and penne with a bean/leek/tomato/onion sauce. It was a wonderful dinner. We don’t normally cook soup/salad main course dinners on the stove/campstove in our little room. Wonder why, hmmph.
During dinner we watched this great television program they have over here that basically plays classical music but to music videos which while you might think sounds like a recipe for cheesy, it is a bit but it’s also pretty cool and I am beginning to really love classical music. Like I’ve said before I need to learn the piano and just start knowing the genre of art better. In addition, the great thing about cooking dinner for someone else is that they often will allow you to use their shower. Yep, another hot shower, living the life of luxury now. Somehow, it still doesn’t keep us quite clean and there is perpetually a garden living under my fingernails.
It’s weird living in a small town again. I can tell that I’m out of practice but that I’m starting to remember how to do it. I’m not sure how I feel about this. I enjoyed so much the liberation of moving out to the sprawling Inland Empire and greater Los Angeles area. Liberation unjustly implies that living in a small town is prison-like which is not always the case, although it certainly feels like it some of the time. But I enjoyed the new behavior set that came along with living in an area that was larger than my hometown, was filled with more people like me and the ability to get lost. But here I am back in a small town, smaller than my hometown (and in a foreign country no less) and I can feel myself ?reverting? I’m not sure that’s the right word, but revitalizing old instincts etc. It’s sort of like a survival mechanism which makes me laugh.
I bought Q-Tips! And now my ears are clean. And wow, gross. All the kids are back in school here and prance around town in their little uniforms which not only reminds me of my few years in uniformed Catholic school but also makes me think often of my little siblings. I saw pictures the other day of little Lilly all dressed up in her little uniform which is pretty much identical (except girl version, insert debate over gendered clothing here) to the uniform I wore at her age oh, about two decades ago (yeah two decades, oy). And the September weather made me think of Iowa. And high school cross country specifically because let’s be honest, from now on in my life that’s the only thought autumn will produce for me. And I’m glad to say, the feelings associated with cross country and autumn are still with me. There is a line in Once a Runner that comes to mind now that I’ve graduated and am forced not to think, but to think back to cross country and the like. It goes something like this, “the tiled locked room echoed booms, bellows and other sounds of ribald camaraderie that sports lend to young men, that they will consciously or subconsciously miss the rest of their lives.”
This is Cindy. You may or may not remember from such memorable occasions as Oona's class and Oona's continuation of class outside on the steps. Okay, I realize it's a tad creepy, but I stumbled onto your blog via facebook because that's what I do when I'm bored.
ReplyDeleteAnyway, your writing is a treat. And your experiences in Ireland inspire deep envy. Ah, the pleasures of manual labor intermingled with great books surrounded by breathtakingly beautiful landscapes. Can you feel the jealousy yet?
I have to implore you to read some Irish mythology while there, or better yet get it from the locals. Cuchulainn was pretty bad ass. Even more so than Bruce Willis.
It is not the critic who counts; not the man who points out how the strong man stumbles, or where the doer of deeds could have done them beter. The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena, whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood; who strives valiantly; who errs, who comes up short again and again, because there is no effort without error and shortcoming; but who does actually strive to do the deeds; who knows great enthusiasms, the great devotions; who spends himself in a worthy cause; who at the best knows in the end the triumph of high achievement, and who at the worst, if he fails, at least fails while daring greatly, so that his place shall never be with those cold and timid souls who neither know victory nor defeat.
ReplyDeleteTheodore Roosevelt, The Sorbonne, Paris 1910
I'll look into it Cindy! Thanks, no not creepy, we're all guilty.
ReplyDeleteFall will always be cross country to me as well. Thank you (and Kyle) for those wonderful years. I love the memory of watching all of you run at the IMS race - it was always a beautiful sunny day and a great course to watch you run.
ReplyDeleteLilly starts cross country on Monday - I guess she is bound to follow in your footsteps. First her Catholic uniform and now this.