A tiring day

The lawn seems thicker this year. Some of its plant species are new; I wonder if this is good or bad. I mowed again yesterday and, in one hour, used two full tanks of gas.

This afternoon I gave the first of the two lectures on Alasdair MacIntyre. “You spoon-fed the students,” said my Uncle Tim. “Which was exactly what I wanted you to do.” The broth I spoon-fed them was pretty diluted. My seven-page handout was neither very comprehensive nor very detailed; even so, the writing of it felt like hard labor, and at class-time I was exhausted. So were the students, several of whom fell asleep.

I’m always reassured when students do this. The most gratifying teaching evaluation I ever received said that one half of the semester was “boring but very important”; it told me that I was doing something right.

My cousin Vickie, who has been looking after Samuel during these guest lectures, was unavailable today because she has contracted a disease. Her place was kindly taken by my Aunt Sally. When I got home, I received a report of the many activities that Samuel was encouraged to do.

Stir-crazy

We had our first visitors in a while: Edoarda & Stephen, who brought furniture for our basement. Of course, they didn’t stay long.

We had a brief visit, last week, from my Aunt Sally & Uncle Tim, who brought diapers and towelettes. Also, a church friend brought groceries, but he quietly set them on our porch and went away.

♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦

Karin goes to her office but rarely sees clients. She staffs the drive-thru and answers phone calls.

Excepting my brief hospitalization, it’s been longer than two weeks since I last went out beyond our driveway. I haven’t done so at all in the daytime.

♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦

Now is the time to turn one’s thoughts inward, to reflect that all the furniture of the universe is contained in the basement of the mind.

For Spotify subscribers who listen to the Orb:

Previously inaccessible tracks of The Orb’s Adventures Beyond the Ultraworld –

• “Little Fluffy Clouds”;
• “Outlands”;
• “Star 6 & 7 8 9”;

and

• “A Huge Ever Growing Pulsating Brain that Rules from the Centre of the Ultraworld”

– are now accesible.