Weekly Ramble

I’m just going to ramble a bit about my week. I didn’t have the energy to write every day, but I did think about things and I have a bunch of comments rattling around in my brain. None of them form a cohesive story, but some of them might be worth reading about. Some of them might make you smirk.

They have no real order and this kind of post was inspired by Pico Iyer’s book “A Beginner’s Guide to Japan.” I paused the book I was reading (struggling through would perhaps be a better description) to read it. It is a pretty light read and while it isn’t telling me anything I didn’t already know, Iyer is a good writer and his words have a nice easy flow.

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My first week back at work was hard. At least the first two sunrises as seen through the bus windows were spectacular. The sun was a deep red and the sky was on fire. Many buildings and new condo projects block my view of it, but every time we came to a break in the steel and concrete, I got a fantastic view.

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On Thursday, I missed catching an earlier bus by about ten seconds. The staff tried consoling me by telling me that another one would be leaving in 15 minutes. Not only did I know that it would actually be 20 (they have electronic signs that explain this) but I also realized that the next bus would be slower and in more traffic. Basically, I would be home 30 minutes later than I could have been if the bus driver had seen me ducking out of view to tap my fare card. As you could imagine, I was rather inconsolable.

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Everyone at work seems to be interested in the online game Wordle. I too am captivated by the game and continued playing even while I was on vacation. Since we all do the game at different times, we have to take great pains to talk about it without revealing the word. As annoying as that is, I find that it adds to the mystique of the game.

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When discussing the weather at work, one colleague explained that it was going to rain the next day. Another colleague said that was okay since she “didn’t have to shovel rain.” I found this to be a truly inspiring quote.

We still get bits of winter in early spring and thinking that winter is over is a trap Mother Nature has skillfully laid for us. Putting away your boots or taking the snow brush from the car is courting danger. At the very least you could be accused of jinxing all of us.

Friday morning, I awoke to find it snowing. I thought it looked quite pretty in the older areas of my town that I could spot running perpendicular to my bus route. The older houses and large older trees which invariably surround their properties seem highlighted by the snow. Everything looks romantic under the snow.

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When I plan too many activities or tasks for my class we struggle to get through half of them. When I don’t plan well for my class, they blast through it like it’s papier mache and I have to resort to planning on the fly.

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Someone dropped (or left on purpose) and sandwich wrapped in saran wrap (plastic wrap) not too far from my bus stop. It has remained there for the past three days. I am surprised that none of the rogue animals we have in the area haven’t eaten it. I should probably pick it up and dispose of it….but then what would I write about Monday evening when I want to update all of you?

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Cycling season has officially started in my area. The club had their first meeting Saturday morning. Since we are still in single Celsius digits, I decided to give it a bit of a pass. I also haven’t paid my club dues yet. The fee is more than reasonable and the insurance that it provides is quite good. I am just waiting for a new credit card cycle and warmer weather.

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My Moroccan trip exposed me to a number of new foods that I am eager to incorporate into my meals here at home. My girlfriend has already made the carrot dish and this morning we had feta and blackberry jam.

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Some people were asking to see my photos of Morocco. I posted some on Instagram and you can see them if you look to the bottom right of this blog (if you are on the actual blog page and not the reader) or you can check out my link on Facebook–no need to friend me to see the pictures. Some of them are quite spectacular and need to get blown up and put on my wall ASAP. Here is the link https://www.facebook.com/anthony.lorbach/grid

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Have a good weekend everyone.

On Books

At the beginning of the year, quite a few of the people who qualify as “Facebook friends” wrote about their plans to read 50 books this year.  At the time, this struck me as a rather poor goal.  It wasn’t that I don’t like reading, or think that reading is a waste of time.  In fact, it is just the opposite.  I love reading.  I read everyday…almost.  I just didn’t think quantifying it into a number of books was a good way of going about it.

Does it matter how many books you read?  Does the number 50, in any way, suggest that you’ve done something?  I mean, if you read 5 novels by Dickens, you’ve probably read more than 50 books that are less weighty.  If you somehow managed to read every page of Proust’s Remembrance of Things Past, I would give you credit for 15 books.

A colleague of mine, whose son likes to read, had his parent teacher interview and was told by the teacher that his son should read more fiction.  His son likes more factual things–preferring statistical data and instructions to anything else.  My colleague wondered, would the teacher ask a student who only read fiction to read some non-fiction?  It seems everyone has a bias.

I hope these people who wanted to read 50 books this year have managed to reach their goal.  However, I hope that what they really got out of this was a love of reading and not a love of counting books.  If they did or did not reach their goal, if they read anything, I think they are a winner.

I managed to read 50 books this year, and might make 52 or 53.  I don’t post this to brag, because I could have read more or less depending on how I chose my books.  This year, I chose some harder books (Booker prize winners–perhaps chosen because they were difficult slogs) and some non-fiction books which required closer scrutiny while reading.  I enjoyed the variety of books I read this year, and hope I can keep it up, regardless of the number of books I finish.

I thought about trying to read all the Pulitzer Prize winning novels, or all the Governor General Awarded books, or all the Giller Prize winners (I am Canadian, after all).  If I were to do this, I wouldn’t put a time limit on it, but rather an unspecified hope for the future.

As for this week…. I got a couple of books of Darwin Award Winners out of the library.  I always thought that this was an internet only phenomenon, but indeed they have published books on these less than stellar representatives of humanity.  I figure reading about them should make for a few humorous moments while I am on the bus heading to work.