More sad news about Esmeraldas

Flooding, this time.

Here is a local report. Look for the video …

… which, tragicality aside, may interest readers because it shows what a typical Esmeraldas street looks like – at least, inland, away from the beach (which is now crammed with hotels, restaurants, etc.). The video shows Esmeraldas as I remember it.

In my time, the flooding was never this bad.

(The street in the video is actually a little south of the city limit.)

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After I read about the disaster, I went to Google Maps and found the lot where I used to live. It’d been vacant for some years. Now it has chain store on it – a Starbucks-like coffeeshop. That kind of store didn’t used to exist in my hometown.

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These have been tricky days for Samuel, who has decided that the living room is to be feared and avoided whether the curtains are open or closed. He’s been spending many hours in the basement. I’ve taken him outside, on walks – without incident – so his problem isn’t agoraphobia. He just fears the living room.

What about it, exactly, has been frightening him? The floor fan, perhaps. I took it to the basement.

Tonight, Samuel is watching TV in the living room. So far, so good.

The shipping news

These are tough times for the USPS. I ordered a book in early June. Although its shipping label was created in Saint Louis on June 5, the package remained in that city until June 12. It arrived in Memphis on June 13 and departed the next day. Thus far, not too terrible; but then, on the 15th, the package arrived in Springfield, Massachusetts, where it rested several days. Now it’s in Jersey City. I expect it to tour the eastern seaboard, and then maybe the Florida Keys, the Grand Canyon, and Las Vegas. Then it’ll rush like a shot to Indiana. I’ve noticed that everything that ships from Nevada comes promptly to Indiana.

Another package departed on June 1 from Eureka, Missouri. It, too, passed through Memphis. It appears to have become stranded ten days ago, in Detroit.

For what it’s worth, both packages contain apologetics textbooks.

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Here is a quite interesting review of Roger Crisp’s new book on the British Moralists. I’ve been looking for a good guide to this group of philosophers. Several are on the market, but this one seems best. Alas, the current price is $70.

But still! The buyer is made privy to such tidbits as this one:

The appeal of impartiality for Hutcheson [notes the reviewer] is in part due to his ethical aestheticism: “Impartiality has a certain dignity or nobility, which can be explicated in analogy with architecture: ‘the most perfect Rules of Architecture condemn an excessive Profusion of Ornament on one Part, above the Proportion of the Whole’” (116).

Try persuading partialists with that argument today. “Treat strangers on a par with yourself, or with your children, because an evenly ornamented building looks nicer than an unevenly ornamented one.” I’d like to hear that on NPR.

Home improvement

Today at IU I tutored someone who said, “I don’t think you should be getting paid to do this.”

Um.

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Wanna be my housemate/flatmate/roommate? Or know of anyone else who might want to be? My lease expires at the end of August. I’d like to stay around Keller Park, but that’s negotiable.

Funny, I care more about living near to my church than about living near to my job. (Yes, I’m very pious, but the main reason is that on Sundays the buses don’t travel.)

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More orbiting around those twin suns, Sabby. Their magnetism is irresistible. Last week I was with the male Sabby, the architect, and he was like, “I found some cool stone artifacts in the river. Let’s go haul them out.” And so we did that. I can’t remember what every cool stone artifact was, but one was a part of a century-old balustrade (I think the male Sabby said). We brought them to Sabby’s house and the male Sabby put them away. I’m not sure what he’s going to do with them. (His wife, the botanist, is like him: she’s always collecting leaves and flowers and things, which is a little strange and endearing.)

Then I saw their very old reel mower and felt a sudden compulsion to mow their lawn. And so I did that.

Then this week I was in Sabby’s kitchen, which they’re remodeling, and I had a sudden longing to help them to strip the floor. And so the next day I did that. I helped to tear out a thin layer of sticky stuff and a thin layer of wood and I pounded the exposed staples deep into the bottommost wood layer (see, I don’t know any of the technical terms). It was very extraordinary of me and I’m a little surprised. The female Sabby got me to help her to cook, an activity which wasn’t so extraordinary for me but which felt less effortful than usual.