The Way We Were

I have resisted watching this movie again ever since the first time I saw it. Because it's a heart-breaker. But today I broke down and watched it again. It's impossible to describe, but so beautiful. I always said Streisand was the prettiest ugly girl I ever saw, and Redford is incomparable.

Good Book

I just finished reading Lust for Life, by Irving Stone. It's a fictionalized biography of Vincent Van Gogh. Stone's note says that most of it is true.

Dog-gone!

As usual, I didn't remember that I had a camera until the dogs were gone. Dave came by to show me two dogs, 8-month-old Carly the German shepherd, and a white-and-black pit bull puppy to die for. But they were just to show, and to tell me that he bought Carly for $300 (half on credit), and that "the man" wants $150 for the puppy. This was a relief to me, because I really didn't want a German shepherd, although she's one of the prettiest dogs I've ever seen in my life and tried to climb all over me. And I don't want a puppy of any kind.

I want an older dog, already trained and wanting to go outside only twice a day. And healthy, with all the shots and bells and whistles. And not quite big enough to eat me out of house and home.

But if I could afford to fence my half-acre back yard, I would want the biggest, prettiest dog I could find of any age. That sounds like a collie or a Great Pyrenees. Or an old Basset hound. Or one of each.

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Ramey and I went to the LAC poetry group meeting last night. Had a group of ten people, although the weather wasn't pretty. Monday night I watched the second episode of "War and Peace." I had forgotten what a good story it really is. Pierre Bezukhov is one of the most sympathetic characters in literature, and I'm glad they got a cute, innocent-looking actor to play the part.

Snow Gone

I should have snapped a photo. Yesterday just before dark the 'hood had a layer of white, and my deck was covered with ice crystals. But today it's all gone. I was out of Coffeemate and pastrami, so I had to go to the store about 2:00 p.m. (today).

Poem for the Day

To a Snowflake

 

By Francis Thompson, 1891

 

WHAT heart could have thought you? --

Past our devisal

(O filigree petal!)

Fashioned so purely,

Fragilely, surely,

From what Paradisal

Imagineless metal,

Too costly for cost?

Who hammered you, wrought you,

From argentine vapor? --

"God was my shaper.

Passing surmisal,

He hammered, He wrought me,

From curled silver vapor,

To lust of His mind --

Thou could'st not have thought me!

So purely, so palely,

Tinily, surely,

Mightily, frailly,

Insculped and embossed,

With His hammer of wind,

And His graver of frost."

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3:00 p.m.: I've been standing at my kitchen's east window, putting things in the dishwasher and watching little snowflakes fall.
 

Ear Worm for the Day

Courtesy of ol' Hank Williams: "Take These Chains from my Heart and Set Me Free."

Lunch: Marie Callender lasagna, salad, Coke.
What I did this morning: Worked on UAB application.

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I watched the first episode of "War and Peace" on TV last night. I read the book, and submitted a detailed, illustrated book report on it, as a senior in high school. Also saw the first film back in the 1950's with a nice Jewish boy. I was in no mood to watch it again, thought it would be boring. But I got hooked. Pretty actors, even Bezukhov. Rose (Lily James) is Natasha, not as blonde or pretty as she is in Downton Abbey.

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I did manage to buy groceries yesterday, and get them up the stairs. Sort of got my gears going.

I Know I Can Move

Sometimes it feels like I'm turning to stone. But I know in my mind I can move. And it'll soon be getting dark, another day with nothing useful done. If I don't pay my bills, they'll come and repossess me. If I don't go to the store, I'll starve to death sooner or later. Man, I know old age is a blessing, but maybe I just haven't got to that point yet.

I'm so glad that I would take my mother shopping and spend 2 hours following her around in a store, without yelling at her once.

I dreamed Susan was getting married, Andie and I were setting the table for the wedding supper, and we had three wedding cakes.

Seven-thirty, and Some Things Are Well.

I was afraid to get on the scale, because I was almost sure I had gained ten pounds, what with all the cake and candy, etc. But no, still at 118, fully clad and shod.

 

"They [the fans] are welcome to the shirt off my back--they put it there." - E.P.

 

I didn't appreciate Elvis when he was alive. I thought I was too sophisticated to be impressed by a little old country boy. Then that day when I heard he had died, I cried out loud, the way I cried when my daddy died. It was incredible, as if the moon had fallen into the ocean, and the world was still turning around.

Reading

The book I'm reading now is Isak Dinesen: The Life of Karen Blixen, by Judith Thurman. I've started to read it several times before, but this time I think I'll finish it. From the photographs I've seen, she was rather pretty as a girl, but didn't age too well.

I've read her Out of Africa, Shadows on the Grass, and a long short story about some ghosts. Maybe some other stories, but I don't remember them. The film "Out of Africa" is one of my favorite movies, a real tear-jerker. "He was not ours. He was not mine. . ."

Today I have to pay bills and some other boring stuff. I hope to get all the decorations put away. Somewhere. If I ever get all the boring stuff that I must do done, I plan to do a bit of writing.

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"God made the world round so we would never be able to see too far down the road." - Isak Dinesen

Try, Try Again

This is Max. He's a 5-month-old shepherd/collie mix--or that's how old he was when this ad was posted. He's in a Locust Fork, Alabama shelter or foster home. At least I received acknowledgment of my email request, said it was forwarded to the shelter. Every time I look at this photo, I think, "Just look at that! Just look at the white tip of his tail!"

My Facebook friend Debbie posted a list of books to read, and I've copied it in this blog's left column. I've already just about finished one of the books, an old copy of The Song of Roland that I haven't previously got around to reading. This is the ancient saga/poem on which Browning's Childe Roland to the Dark Tower Came is based, as well as Stephen King's Dark Tower series.