Iraq

Arghhhh. Reading Churchill and Gandhi. How did I miss in all those Churchill books I read that he helped set up Iraq after WWI with the help of Lawrence of Arabia? Peter O'Toole has a lot of explaining to do. Churchill didn't want to spread his army too thin, so he hung on to India to help supply soldiers. Arghhhhh. In the game of Chutes and Ladders for my esteem, Winnie just took a nose dive down a very long chute.

Crash, Bang, Ding

I got my car in late 2000, so it is by no means new.  But I take good care of it and there has been little damage to its body.  Remember the tree that fell in the rainstorm on my trip East?  The tree fell away from the car, knowing how traumatized I'd be if it did any damage.

The geezer who hit my car a couple of weeks ago didn't see me as he backed out of his parking space. OK, maybe he isn't a geezer, but he hit me, none-the-less. $2000 in damages. And no end of head aches with estimates and goofy insurance people. MY insurance agent told me about deductibles before he found out if I caused the accident. I started to get defensive. But it was clearly his fault. He hit my car behind the driver's side door. I would have had to have been cutting wheelies in the drive to smack into his car that way.

In any event, this will all be done in time. In the meantime, I am not working. No work on my books until 6/19. Once again, I am planning a trip to Vermont and New Hampshire. This time, I won't be driving up there. After getting lost in the Fall, I've decided to take a train.

The Folly of Man - - And Woman

I've been carrying around Elmer Gantry on my iPod for some time.  It is so difficult to decide what to read next.  This was a hum-dinger, you betcha.  As I mentioned before, Sinclair Lewis is a great writer. I guess I'm not alone in thinking that.  And here we have the most self-delusional man in the history of literature. Maybe not, but he is certainly in the top ten. Elmer can't quite reconcile his desire to get into every woman's pants, to foist his belief in whatever he is believing at the moment on others, and to acquire as much power and money as possible. This is another of those books that must be listened to for complete enjoyment. The reader does various voices really well. What he does best is to tell about what predicament Gantry has gotten himself into now and then convey Elmer's unperplexed response to stepping out of the fire.  

Elmer and his wife go to Europe at one point and this section was almost as much fun as Twain's Innocents Abroad. Oh, we are/were such ugly Americans. Please say "were." I know that none of my friends would be so oblivious to the sorry image they are showing to foreigners (if they behave like Elmer Gantry.) But then, there is Sarah Palin. (Sorry, I just can't get that woman out of my mind; especially since she made such a fool of herself on the tape about how the media gave Obama the election.) Lewis thought very little of organized religion and, probably, small town America as well. In fact, he is said to have dedicated this book to H.L. Mencken.  H.L. was a champion athiest. That's why he found the Scope's Monkey Trial such fertile ground for scorn.

I've decided to take 3 weeks off to drive to California to visit friends and get my car registered. Peggy's Folly. But I almost cried at the Virginia DMV when they told me I had to get a Virginia driver's license to register my car here. What?!! When you've been a Californian for 61 years, that is just too big a hurdle to get over. It's so much better to drive for 5 days to get the car registered in it's rightful home. Right? If you disagree, you don't need to tell me. My brother already has. The lemonade in all this is that I will get to visit with my friends on the correct coast. That is very powerful lemonade.    

Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?

Not me!  You may recall that my last book involved the torture of terrorists and my sensibilites.  Mrs. Dalloway was a relief.  Karen and I talked some time about this.  We both remember The Hours that came out a few years ago.  It is based on this story, itself and the writing of it.  What fun to listen to this day in the life of Clarissa Dalloway.  I've read a lot about the period and place - London just after WWI.  That and remembering the movie made this slice of life even more enjoyable.  It all takes place in one day, but each character relates what is happening in this day with other parts of their lives.  And no one was tortured.

Unlike me and all my friends at The Times and its ugly step-parent, the tribune company.  They declared bankrputcy.  What!!!  I am due to retire at the end of this month.  I should be okay, but then, the idiot Zell should not have brought us to this point.  Should.  "Seems, madam, nay it is, I know not seems."  First they decide not to offer Kaiser medical care to retirees after I just got a fabulous team of doctors to keep me healthy, then I wonder if they will try to screw me out of other benefits that I had expected.  All will be known soon, I imagine, but what that all is...?   I'm sure Clarissa would tell me to breathe.

$2.60; 55; $158.50

Gasoline prices are sinking faster than my spirits. Can you believe $2.60 a gallon? I remember being thrilled with $3.80 is Wyoming in June. That's a savings of $15.00 when I fill my tank. My current question is, how many times to I have to fill my tank to save the money I spent paying for my speeding ticket.

Yes, a speeding ticket. One of the reasons we got good gas mileage on our trip across country was that we kept our speed down. That is just one of the many lessons I forgot after the trip. I was taking Natalie to Dulles Airport and was pulled over for speeding, going 74 instead of 55. This is me, looking devastated. But you will notice that the driver's side window is down.

This was just the last hit ($158.50) on my pocket book after getting the window fixed, two new tires and the thermostat fixed. Oh, and the new Ipod after my old one starting playing the wrong songs. I decided, none-the-less, to drive up to Vermont for the week. But as my luck would have it, I got lost. I will remember to take two maps next time. Karen tried to teach me that, but I failed to learn that lesson. I had a nice drive and ate some crabs in Baltimore. The good part is, I saved money on my motel rooms. I am going to have to work a lot of days to make up for this very expensive month. Or buy a lot of gas.