It’s been a hectic but joyful week and a half around here. Tyson and his family stayed with us for nearly a week, and though the kids spent some nights at Dawn’s house we had five guests and two large dogs for company most of that time. More often than not we had more guests for dinner, including my brother and his wife. Preparing breakfast, lunch, and dinner for that many people would have been even more challenging if grandkids hadn’t volunteered when needed. After Tyson and Jen left, we drove to Leavenworth and spent the night with Cory and Margaret and family. After an arduous return Sunday, I collapsed around 7:00 PM and woke up an hour later in time to get ready for bed.
Now comes the hard work — trying to get back on schedule. Though I originally planned on getting up in time to get to the gym for a much-needed workout, we ended up getting out of bed around 8:30, too late for a workout before the mobs hit the YMCA.
With rain forecast for the entire week and heavy rains throughout the day, I decided I would delay my outdoor projects and try to get in some reading and writing. I did manage to finish A House by Itself: Selected Haiku: Masaoka Shiki, a book I purchased a month or two ago. At a hundred pages, I figured it would be easier to finish than The Book Thief which I’ve been reading on and off — mostly off — for nearly a month.
Reading is a constant in my life. I’m more addicted to reading than I am to TV. I can’t imagine not spending at least a couple of hours a day reading something, whether newspaper, magazine or online source. Increasingly, I spend more time reading blogs or stories from Facebook posts than I do reading actual paper books or Kindle books.
Clearly I am not as addicted to writing as I am to reading. Reading is fun; writing is work. Recently, for whatever reason, it’s been hard work. When I started this blog I wouldn’t have imagined reading a book without writing about it here. In the last few years, I’ve skipped writing about far more books I’ve read than I’ve written about books I’ve read. Not sure why that it is, but I’d like to reverse that trend if I can. I’m still convinced that good writing and good thinking got together.