We use that discretionary time to perform personal tasks such as meal preparation, cleaning and of course traveling to and from the little house in the city, and all the projects we have undertaken at the little house.
Today, it all caught up with me. I didn’t want to go to work! I downright resented the whole idea of getting myself ready and heading out the door again, after putting in five full days of work. Despite my internal resistance, I made me do it, go to work, and it was fine. Oh to be two years old again and be able to pull out all the stops and have a full blown temper trantrum!!! But who would listen, who would care? Only Attila and he works the same long hours that I do, at a much more physically demanding job. It would hardly seem fair to impose a temper tantrum on my fellow sufferer. Besides, he would have every right to do exactly the same thing, and I wouldn’t enjoy that one little bit!
So here we are, two tired souls on a Saturday night. I think we will take a break tonight, after dinner. We will put our feet up and watch television. Well, not television, we haven’t had television reception for a while now. And not NetFlix because we haven’t had high speed Internet service for while now. But, all is not lost.
I will explain.
We have a TV and DVD player at the little house in the city. We actually have two CRT television sets donated to us, one from Terra and Lares and another from Luna and Janus. We purchased a $20 DVD player and we were in business. Terra and Lares lent us some of their DVDs which we have been watching occasionally since we were given the television sets. We have watched and returned the DVDs to Terra and Lares, with many thanks. While on vacation this month we were on the lookout for something interesting to view during the evenings, when it was too dark to work on painting the exterior siding.
While grocery shopping we came across a DVD package of the complete television series “The 4400”. I’d never heard of the series, we found it in a discount bin and it seemed that it could be interesting. And the price was right, $20 for the entire series, four seasons, so we took a chance.
We have been enjoying one episode per evening ever since. There are still a few episodes left to watch and tonight we will close the blinds, put up our feet, put the DVD in the player and watch the end of the series.
But until then, Attila is out in the yard dealing with the autumn leaves. I am sorting through bills, sizing up the bank account to see how and when these little gems can be paid.
Sitting here I just noticed the reflection of dancing flames in my monitor, from the masonry heater. Attila has spent the last week curing the masonry heater and today is our first full firing.
I turned to feel the warmth and caught site of Mist, grooming herself in her basket which is strategically placed in front of the roaring fire. Happy place, this is a happy place. And I am in it.
Well, it just doesn’t get any better than that, by my reckoning.
Worldly Distractions
Weather
8 °C
Condition: Cloudy
Pressure: 101.7 kPa
Visibility: 16 km
Temperature: 8.2°C
Dewpoint: 1.8°C
Humidity: 64 %
Quote
“People need to be reminded more often than they need to be instructed.”
Samuel Johnson
1709 – 1784
Note
“Samuel Johnson was the son of Michael Johnson, a bookseller, and his wife, Sarah. From childhood he suffered from a number of physical afflictions. By his own account, he was born “almost dead,” and he early contracted scrofula (tuberculosis of the lymphatic glands)…
In 1728 Johnson entered Pembroke College, Oxford. He stayed only 13 months, until December 1729, because he lacked the funds to continue. Yet it proved an important year. While an undergraduate, Johnson, who claimed to have been irreligious in adolescence, read a new book, William Law’s A Serious Call to a Devout and Holy Life, which led him to make concern for his soul the polestar of his life. Despite the poverty and pride that caused him to leave, he retained great affection for Oxford. …
In 1735 Johnson married Elizabeth Porter, a widow 20 years his senior. Convinced that his parents’ marital unhappiness was caused by his mother’s want of learning, he would not follow their example, choosing instead a woman whom he found both attractive and intelligent. His wife’s marriage settlement enabled him to open a school in Edial, near Lichfield, the following year…
A Dictionary of the English Language was published in two volumes in 1755, six years later than planned but remarkably quickly for so extensive an undertaking. The degree of Master of Arts, conferred on him by the University of Oxford for his Rambler essays and the Dictionary, was proudly noted on the title page. Johnson henceforth would be known in familiar 18th-century style as “Dictionary Johnson” or “The Rambler.”…
Throughout much of his adult life Johnson suffered from physical ailments as well as depression (“melancholy”). After the loss of two friends, Henry Thrale in 1781 and Robert Levett in 1782, and the conclusion of The Lives of the Poets, his health deteriorated. Above all, his chronic bronchitis and “dropsy” (edema), a swelling of his legs and feet, caused great discomfort. In 1783 he suffered a stroke… He died on December 13 and was buried in Westminster Abbey.”
Source: http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/305432/Samuel-Johnson