Night-Time Privations

♠
Monk was feeling too restless to try sleep's luck at eleven last night. Pop got out of the theater by that time, too. A good reading of "Hamlet" was called for.

Monk only read until eleven-thirty, though, feeling that the little reading did its job, leaving him satisfied and drowsy. But he was tossing and turning past twelve-thirty. Then, still feeling as though he had gotten hardly any sleep, Bo needs to go outside earlier than ever at three-thirty.

Coming back inside from that wintry night in which the temperature dropped into the low forties, in spite of the sheer exhaustion, Monk was back to tossing and turning. He was on the verge of crying, being so frazzled of mind, being so desperately sleepy but sleepless.

I do not know how he woke up at six-thirty feeling as though he got a fair enough night of sleep, except to say that he has grown too used to such night-time privations, with this being arguably worse than having to live without a woman in his bed.

xXx

Night-Time Privations

♠
Monk was feeling too restless to try sleep's luck at eleven last night. Pop got out of the theater by that time, too. A good reading of "Hamlet" was called for.

Monk only read until eleven-thirty, though, feeling that the little reading did its job, leaving him satisfied and drowsy. But he was tossing and turning past twelve-thirty. Then, still feeling as though he had gotten hardly any sleep, Bo needs to go outside earlier than ever at three-thirty.

Coming back inside from that wintry night in which the temperature dropped into the low forties, in spite of the sheer exhaustion, Monk was back to tossing and turning. He was on the verge of crying, being so frazzled of mind, being so desperately sleepy but sleepless.

I do not know how he woke up at six-thirty feeling as though he got a fair enough night of sleep, except to say that he has grown too used to such night-time privations, with this being arguably worse than having to live without a woman in his bed.

xXx

Three-Day Weekends

♠
I guess that is a good enough place to break for the weekend. Telemachus is about to meet Odysseus after all those years and trials, and I am now between critical essays. I am going to make a three-day weekend out of "Copperfield."

I might be able to finish Mandelbaum's translation by the next library run, but since I am intent on yet another round taking us well into December, and I have a renewal available to me on the book, I need not rush. Whereas, I am doubtful about finishing the near-thousand-page work of Dickens', even with three day weekends. I would like to finish "Copperfield" by the close of this library season, not wanting to have to wait until the spring to get back into the story and finish it.

xXx

Three-Day Weekends

♠
I guess that is a good enough place to break for the weekend. Telemachus is about to meet Odysseus after all those years and trials, and I am now between critical essays. I am going to make a three-day weekend out of "Copperfield."

I might be able to finish Mandelbaum's translation by the next library run, but since I am intent on yet another round taking us well into December, and I have a renewal available to me on the book, I need not rush. Whereas, I am doubtful about finishing the near-thousand-page work of Dickens', even with three day weekends. I would like to finish "Copperfield" by the close of this library season, not wanting to have to wait until the spring to get back into the story and finish it.

xXx

Horizontal Curtains

♠
On the pre-dinner rounds with Bo, the neighbor's night beacon across the street lights up. Monk thinks again with bitter regret about mother's offer to put up horizontal blinds on his window, in addition to his vertical ones, instead of using the black garbage bag that he has been using to obscure that light from shining brightly into his room all night long. Those blinds would have been perfect! It serves to demonstrate how irrational Monk's aversion and negativity can be.

As Monk continued thinking about it, he realized that there is no reason why he cannot use his vertical blinds to cover all his window. After all, the reason why he could not before was because the younger Bo was wont to stand up at the window putting his forepaws on the window ledge. Looking at it now, I can still see how Bo scratched it down to brown wood. Bo would bark at passersby, especially other dogs and cats, and he would be pounding down on that ledge as he barked commandingly, scratching into the wood. Bo would just jump through the blinds when they were drawn across the window, wrecking the vanes a bit. Bo never jumps upon the window ledge anymore, and he has not done so in years, having stopped long before mother died.

However, the answer cannot be that easy and happy. Especially now, the winds are too strong to have the blinds drawn, making the vanes dance noisily about with every gust of air. With horizontal blinds, one could bring them down across the window, all the way down until where one keeps the window up, which is most of the way. The top half of the tall window is permanently closed. As I said, the horizontal blinds would have been perfect. But it is not often that windy, and when it is, it is also usually sensible to close the window that much more - in winter, all the way shut, or even very near it so that even strong winds would not be problemsome.

But we will give it a try. Experimenting a little with it now is not so encouraging. Though, it shows that even with the horizontal blinds, the neighbor's glaring beacon would be annoying because it comes in real low anyway. But these vertical blinds, when drawn across the window entirely, may do the trick. It would definitely help coming in and drying off after a shower easier, instead of Monk having to put up a poster to block the view.

xXx

Horizontal Curtains

♠
On the pre-dinner rounds with Bo, the neighbor's night beacon across the street lights up. Monk thinks again with bitter regret about mother's offer to put up horizontal blinds on his window, in addition to his vertical ones, instead of using the black garbage bag that he has been using to obscure that light from shining brightly into his room all night long. Those blinds would have been perfect! It serves to demonstrate how irrational Monk's aversion and negativity can be.

As Monk continued thinking about it, he realized that there is no reason why he cannot use his vertical blinds to cover all his window. After all, the reason why he could not before was because the younger Bo was wont to stand up at the window putting his forepaws on the window ledge. Looking at it now, I can still see how Bo scratched it down to brown wood. Bo would bark at passersby, especially other dogs and cats, and he would be pounding down on that ledge as he barked commandingly, scratching into the wood. Bo would just jump through the blinds when they were drawn across the window, wrecking the vanes a bit. Bo never jumps upon the window ledge anymore, and he has not done so in years, having stopped long before mother died.

However, the answer cannot be that easy and happy. Especially now, the winds are too strong to have the blinds drawn, making the vanes dance noisily about with every gust of air. With horizontal blinds, one could bring them down across the window, all the way down until where one keeps the window up, which is most of the way. The top half of the tall window is permanently closed. As I said, the horizontal blinds would have been perfect. But it is not often that windy, and when it is, it is also usually sensible to close the window that much more - in winter, all the way shut, or even very near it so that even strong winds would not be problemsome.

But we will give it a try. Experimenting a little with it now is not so encouraging. Though, it shows that even with the horizontal blinds, the neighbor's glaring beacon would be annoying because it comes in real low anyway. But these vertical blinds, when drawn across the window entirely, may do the trick. It would definitely help coming in and drying off after a shower easier, instead of Monk having to put up a poster to block the view.

xXx