Thursday Morning

After sleeping for three hours straight, when I got up for a bathroom run and to switch to the big room, I could not fall asleep again. I read a little, and then watched a little TV with a sweet breakfast of Pop-Tarts and tea. When I tried to sleep again at about six, it still didn't want to happen, and I just dozed here and there. After eight, I think I started to get some real sleep, not waking up until close to nine-thirty, which perhaps salvaged the night for me.

Incidentally, Ratso is still here for me to deal with. When switching over to the big room, I set the plate of food on the patio for Coco and Ash (Sammy was prowling elsewhere doing his moonlight prowling), and although I only left the patio and the plate unattended for a couple of minutes as I set up the big room for myself, I caught Ratso feasting away. I would have sworn that the cats would still be eating. Maybe Ratso manages to scare them away. He does have those disproportionately big jaws, fully set with what seem to be some pretty impressive teeth.

I was hoping Ratso might have been frightened off this territory. I will have to keep a close watch. Maybe I should keep a tennis ball ready (if I can still find one lying around in the house, neglected all these years without Bo), and try hitting Ratso with that. Or would that only worsen matters, maybe even make the opossum play possum, or make him turn around for confrontation? I have my baseball bat. Maybe we should fight it out. Ratso is teethy but I'm much bigger. It's a risk I'd still prefer not to the take, but I would probably win, and for keeps, though I would have to clean up a smashed up and bloody opossum.

Post-Nap

I am anxiously keeping an eye out for the UPS van for Bloom's collected essays on Mann's Magic Mountain. Though, I do not expect to start reading it until Monday. It is a used book. I am a little worried that it will be marked up and torn up and just ruined.

I intend to change my reading routine in light of my revived mania for Mann. I think, for a while (who knows how long?), I am going to spend one week with Lincoln and one week with Mann, keeping the weekends for fiction.

Right now, I cannot believe I am watching a movie of a guy fucking a little girl's doll. "Dungeon Girl" directed by Ulli Lommel, about an abducted 12 year-old girl. Judging by the list of her movies, she likes to play with provocative fare, but has apparently no idea how to carry it out. Whether this is because of her own artistic limitations, or the limitations that our culture places on such movies, I do not know, probably a bit of both.

Cable Guy

Another cable guy. Sometimes we go for months without one, and then it's boom, boom, boom, one after the other. Only Sammy was here, at the patio, or at least he was here until the cable guy came.

Grocery Weekend

Kay's here. Our grocery weekend is in full-swing.

I also just finished a chapter of "Team of Rivals", and since tomorrow is going to be short-circuited, being grocery day, I will start my fiction weekend early and resume Mallon's "Finale". Kinda nice.

KayPop

The hazards of walking down the hall and hearing the sounds of geriatric sex. If I were in my twenties, or even my thirties, I probably wouldn't be able to stomach it. It's not so easy now. But it is better than Pop stricken with a stroke in bed, calling out for my assistance to use the toilet.

Reading Life

My book came in , and, wow, it really does look as good as new. If I thought I was buying it fresh off the presses, I wouldn't have suspected otherwise. It looks brand new. If I wasn't well-engaged in my pop-novel, I might have forgotten about fiction for this weekend and begun my Mann week early. As it is, I can wait. I am really liking my reading life. Sometimes I can almost believe that it is as rich as a good social life.

Tiff

We're closing in on midnight, and I have only just now finished my preparatory work for grocery day tomorrow. I thought I was going to get a head start tonight, since Pop and Kay had a relatively early dinner, being done by eight. However, they went on to spend the rest of the evening assembling a new ... some kind of carrier, with wheels to roll. I cannot tell what it is supposed to be used for. I am only hoping it is something that Kay will take with her when she leaves, because we really don't need more junk cluttering our cramped house.

On the other hand, at least they called it an early day, going to bed at ten, which is highly unusual for them. It was a stressful evening for them, putting that gizmo together. I think they even had a bit of a fight in the process, in their frustration and inability. If I am right, their relationship is apparently mature and solid enough to withstand a decent tiff. It's not as though she went racing home in a huff. Still, I was hoping to take a shower tonight, but those plans got tossed aside. I am just going to have suffer greasy hair tomorrow. Well, it won't be the first time.