I do love work-at-home days, even when they involve a dentist visit. Also, feeling a bit smug because (it was a two-doctor day) the eye doctor says my right eye is down to 20/18. The left is always a bit weaker, but when ‘weaker’ is 20/20 I’l take it. On the down side they’ve felt a bit dry lately, but he gave me what he called “stickier” eyedrops that should help. Hopefully it’s temporary. Also, I don’t think my eyes are focusing well together , but I know it took a while for them to learn when I first got contact lenses so I’m not worried. (When I say the left eye is “weaker”, I mean not only in visual acuity; my eyes have never focused together well and when I was little the left one tended to turn in and I had to wear an eye patch for a year when I was about three. Beige plastic clipped to my glasses, not a cool pirate style. I can still cross one eye, which I think is not normal.)
Bad news and good news on the Kindle front – yes, I’ve been buying from Amazon again since they did fix the #Amazonfail problem promptly, though the lack of apology still leaves me a little skeptic. Anyway, the third Erec Rex book is out now but not yet available for Kindle. On the plus side, when looking up Andre Norton books for Shweta’s list of YA fantasy books about characters of color, I learned that all of her Magic Books are available on Kindle. I promptly bought two favorites and one I hadn’t read yet.
And neatly tying everything together, in Octagon Magic I came across a quote pertaining to a Kindle situation. I mentioned on a discussion group lately that someone had asked to borrow my Kindle for a couple of days. That was a little painful for me because I was in the middle of a (900+ page) book, but it’s not like I don’t have other reading material around, or like I mind having multiple books going. Anyway, someone on the list responded earnestly that I shouldn’t loan it, and if I did I should make sure it was insured, and anyway taking care of it was too heavy and risky a burden to put on a borrower. I was a bit shocked because I hadn’t even considered not lending it; the person requesting has been exceedingly nice to me. For instance she and her husband have invited me to dinner several times when they knew Ted was away and I was alone. (Her husband works with us.) Even more important, she’s another reader expat, also a frequent traveler, so the circumstances that have made the Kindle such a blessing to me apply equally to her. Her husband told me they brought 15 kg of books back from the Netherlands on their trip a few weeks ago. In Octagon Magic there is the line, “Nothing, child, is too precious to give or lend to one who has need of it.” I’m more cynical than that – living by that motto you could end up giving your rent money to a junkie – but it certainly applies in this case. And there *are* trustworthy people, and this is one of them or rather two. (In the event, she returned it via her husband the next day – I’d expected her to keep it for a couple of days.)
Despite the Norton purchases, tomorrow I will go treat myself to a visit to one or both of the good bookstores – they’re only a few blocks apart. I’m debating whether I dare to take the MRT (train) on its first day open in my neighborhood. I’m sure it will work fine, I’m just worried about huge crowds. It will also depend on whether it’s too hot for me, since the bookstores are a good walk from the train.
And finally, I can tell the partner in life and crime has been away too long when I start getting weepy over the daughter I don’t have because of an ABBA song. (Er, getting weepy because of a song. No ABBA song has anything to do with our decision not to reproduce.)
You were in my dreams night before last. I remember specifically inviting you over because it was July 4th and Ted was away. At dinner you and I were trying to explain why we were so upset that on a blog meme we’d both answered a question about which movie star we’d like to make the next hit movie we’d both chosen mega-famous men instead of women actors from our age group. Our unthinking sexist bias was most distressing and no one else understood what the big deal was.
Odd, eh? ~LA