Friday: The roofers come to replace a small section of roof over our kitchen. The good news is, they’ve showed up. The bad news is that they need to finish the job in one day, because the remnants of Hurricane Hanna are heading our way Saturday. They manage to do the job—yay!—but it makes writing almost impossible. There are men marching up and down outside my office window tearing the house apart. The initial work to strip the roof is so percussive, the pictures over my desk—“Mrs. Siddons as the Tragic Muse” and “St. Helena” (the patron saint of archaeologists)—nearly bounce off the walls. The poor, distracted cat is almost bouncing off the walls. Two pages seems like little return for all the effort I take to concentrate.
Saturday: Cook all day for dinner for eight. Storm hits. Later, dream about bats and water in the roof of the kitchen. Don’t know where the dream bats came from, unless it was watching
Anthony Bourdain’s end of summer special, which shows a clip of him caving in Jamaica. (N.B. He doesn’t cook or eat the bats.).
Sunday: Wake briefly at 4:00am to hear windows rattling with wind and rain. Hide under pillow and go back to sleep, hoping the dream bats will wait until a decent hour to show themselves. At the decent hour, it turns out there are neither bats nor water in the kitchen—hurray! A beautiful day, with little damage around; most of the big branches and trees came down during storms earlier in the summer. Neighborhood end of summer party.
Later, manage, despite earlier prognostications, to stay up to watch the premiere of "
True Blood." Dance around to the opening music, cheer at every mention or shot of
Charlaine on the red carpet, cheer when Sookie says “
trouble looking for a place to happen,” cheer when we see the Vampire Bill. Even though I know the story, I can’t wait to see the next eps. (N.B. I think the best review of "True Blood" so far is in the
Washington Post. They get it.)
And finally...hurricane season isn't over, and lots of folks are getting hammered pretty bad by the weather. Please keep them in your thoughts, and if you are so moved, please make a donation to the relief society of your choice. I have a few on my
links page, if you need some ideas. Thanks.
festival for Salem, Massachusetts, begins today and continues through tomorrow. I’ll be moderating a panel featuring fellow