after that it was always ten minutes to five in the castle

[freckles_and_doubt]

Hmmm. The day the Army of Reconstruction arrived, both the clocks stopped. I'm having difficulty not seeing that as some sort of omen. As the Evil Landlord says, it definitely bodes. Other negatives: there's a smelly chemical toilet next to the front gate, no surface on the patio, and the toilet cistern in my bathroom has sprung an exuberant leak, presumably as a result of all the bashing outside. It's all a bit apocalyptic.

Also, the house is filthy but I'm buggered from a day of maddened orientation planning (success of the day! the box of 1000 newly-copied orientation booklets I've been hunting with increasing panic for five days eventually surfaced, two inches from the right foot of the secretary who has assured me, straight-faced and without flinching on four separate occasions, that it was never delivered) and damned if I'm going to clean it, as it's just going to get filthy again tomorrow. Have concocted elaborate baked rice supper instead, and shall allow that to put a ceremonial tick in the "domesticity" box.

I hate not having my books to hand. There's a perfectly lovely Thurber quote about clockwork I really want to use in the subject line, and The Thirteen Clocks is sealed in a box in Sven&Tanya's guest room so I can't dig it out. Tchah, and likewise Phooey.

Comments

[stringgeek.livejournal.com]

You packed up all your books and PUT THEM IN A DIFFERENT HOUSE??????

ZOMG, I would be having fits. FITS, I tell you!

[extemporanea.livejournal.com]

There are small, restrained fits happening, certainly. I'm not quite complete without my books, and certainly not relaxed. Sigh.

I have completely and totally neglected to say all the necessary Gawsh and Strength! things about your op - hope you're on the mend and it's sorted out all the nasty symptoms from the last few months?

[stringgeek.livejournal.com]

:-) I am almost completely mended, and it seems to have completely resolved all of the issues, thank Dog! No heavy lifting for the next few weeks, that's all. I do have to say I hope that this is my last abdominal surgery, though--I'm getting to the point where I'm ready to tattoo a "do not open until Christmas" sign on my stomach. :-)

Srsly. I would be at the bookstore buying tattered used books that I wouldn't stress about getting dusty. I don't think I'd be able to function on any level at all without any books at all in the house! But then, I do sometimes treat books like security blankets. I am very impressed that you can! And I'm really looking forward to seeing more pictures of the deconstruction/reconstruction!

[extemporanea.livejournal.com]

I've retained one bookshelf full of the files I actually need to consult occasionally, plus the Bookshelf of Unread Doom, i.e. all the books I've either bought or borrowed and haven't yet read. Since there are 72 of them, I doubt I'll pine away for lack of something to read; I may just become terminally twitchy because I can't read old favourites at whim. Twitch.

Have never had abdominal surgery, it sounds unpleasant. One's stomach muscles actually work quite hard on a day-to-day basis, although you wouldn't guess from my current state of flab.

Which one contains Th...

[(Anonymous)]

Woot! I now have a reason to open all those boxes that are slowly warping space-time in the front room. The boxes are of course entirely pristine for lack of labelling, but the last box, unsealed, contains Tepper and Vance. Assuming The Evil Landlord has ordered the books with Teutonic thorougness, Thurber must surely be nestling nearby.

Re: Which one contains Th...

[extemporanea.livejournal.com]

Hmmm, interesting. If they're my boxes, they're labelled. He didn't label his, in a curious failure of Teutonic thoroughness. All my Thurber is in the one labelled "fairy tale", which may, on mature reflection, actually be in the garage or his study or something. I just live here. He disposes boxes.

Would you be a Sven or a Tanya, then?

Re: Which one contains Th...

[(Anonymous)]

Indeed, it is Sven. Sorry, I should have signed up, or off, or something. Meandered here via comovedy and salty cracker. I do sometime have real work to do, honest!

All the boxes I saw are unlabelled, so yours are more than likely covering up the portal to the Dungeon Dimensions that His Inscrutable Evilnessness keeps in the garage.

Re: Which one contains Th...

[extemporanea.livejournal.com]

Thought you were Svennish, by your turn of phrase ;>. Right, well, I hope the heavy weight of all the literary criticism keeps the Dungeon Dimensions duly suppressed. There might actually be some Thurber in the EL's boxes, actually. I infected him ;>.