Sunday Night Already? May, Already?

One small drawback to this time of year is that I have to remember to check the clock. Because, you know, it's still light out at 6, which is great! Unless you think it's closer to 4. And it isn't. Whoops. Funny how providing a cat lap for 2-3 hours this morning really took a chunk out of my get-things-done time .

Another small issue of the time of year?


The annual irony that I love to go out in the nice(r) Spring weather, and then it makes my head hurt. To quote Marvin, "Life! Don't talk to me about life."

Of course, most of my current stress has nothing to do with Spring issues. It's mostly waiting-for-Tuesday(-and-beyond) issues. But we'll focus on other things, shall we? Even if it has to be that damned kid next door and his unprintable basketball. Thud thud thud clang. Time to go in for dinner, surely, kid?

As it's the first of the month, it's time to look back at a few things for April: exercise and reading.


The exercise numbers were down, due to a combination of factors (such as: being out of town, being lazy, and trying to bike harder, not longer). Still, 139 minutes is way down from March. Oh well. I will endeavor to persevere, despite a dearth of positive reinforcement (basically, all I have to show at this point for this not inconsiderable time-and-effort investment is part of a sock).

Then there's reading. I'm on much the same pace as I have been this year, and read 21 books in April. Of those:

• 15 were new to me, and only 6 were re-reads
• I got 14 from the library (I love the library)
• a surprising number of them were good
  

Of course, if I don't like a book, I am not hesitant to close it, take it back to the library, and move on. When I was younger, I was more wedded to the idea of finishing every book I started, but one day I started a book and when I saw how the plot was developing (hint: very predictably) and grew frustrated, I decided I didn't want to finish it even more than I wanted to be a book-finisher, and felt liberated. Whew!

One of the books came from the library with enough damage that they made a note of it (so they'd know it wasn't done by me).


I love the note specifying the damage:


Now, to end on a pleasant note, here's a field full of very cheery weeds:


And the contentedness of a cat on a lap.