It rained heavily today. I slipped and fell twice, slamming my left hand and my right knee into unforgiving pavement. When oh when will I learn to put on shoes with good traction when I see it's likely to rain? Tonight I'm sore in odd places, and I expect I'll be stiff in odd places tomorrow morning. When I fell the first time I had a full cup of coffee in my right hand. As I fell I extended my hand forward and up: save the coffee, save the coffee. It didn't spill. The paper cup crumpled a bit but I had my hot java to sip afterwards as I rubbed my knee ruefully.
We ordered Chinese food for dinner tonight. My fortune read, "You will travel far and wide, both for pleasure and for business." A good fortune for a travel agent, no? I spent a little time this afternoon researching my trip to Chile and Argentina. I'm almost certain now that I'll include some of Argentina, you see. I'm inspired to see both the Chilean Lake District and Patagonia. To do that, I'm definitely committing myself to a two week trip; I'm not likely to get that far south more than once although I never say never. I don't think I've taken a two week vacation in one big chunk since 1993 and our trip to Kenya. It seems infinitely daring to plan a big trip so far in the future during this uneasy period in my particular line of work, but I don't think we can manage to go by March, and if we miss the good weather on this side of winter down there then I'd rather wait. I'm enchanted with the lunar deserts of northern Chile, the beautiful lakes and glaciers south of Santiago, the incredible drama of the Torres del Paine and Bariloche, the legendary terror of the seas around Tierra del Fuego. I'd like to see penguin colonies, and alpacas, and the serrated spine of the Andes, and I don't want to be either freezing to death or peering through a curtain of mist and snow to do it. November should be just about perfect.
As usual I'm reading two books at once, one lightweight paperback which I carry back and forth to work, and one hardcover which I read at home. The paperback is Kage Baker's In the Garden of Iden (science fiction), and the hardcover is the end of Sharon Kay Penman's The Sunne in Splendour (historical fiction). I'm totally inspired to start reading translations of Ancient Roman historians and poets but first I need to finish some of the books I already own. I'm pretty firm with myself about not accumulating books I never get around to reading. If I've got ten or so sitting on the shelves then I don't even think about amazon.com or sneaking off to Kepler's to see what's out. Well, hardly ever. It wouldn't be any fun to have rules if you didn't break them once in a while.
I really must take care not to break anything else on rainy days like these.
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