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]

:-) 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.