Like a running blaze on a plain, like a flash of lightning in the clouds. We live in the flicker.*

by chuckofish

The weeks have flown by and added up to years much more quickly than I can countenance. This little guy turned 30 yesterday!

In lieu of parental advice, I’ll include this passage from a letter Vincent Van Gogh wrote to his brother Theo:

“The age of thirty is, for the working man, just the beginning of a period of some stability, and as such, one feels young and full of energy. But, at the same time, a period of life is passed, which makes one melancholy, thinking some things will never come back. And it is no silly sentimentalism to feel a certain regret. Well, many things really begin at the age of thirty, and certainly all is not over then. But one doesn’t expect from life what one has already learned it cannot give, but rather one begins to see more and more clearly that life is only a kind of sowing time, and the harvest is not here.”

Happy birthday, dearest James! Here’s to your next decade, which hopefully will not include extended periods of mandatory self-isolation, but will instead bring fulfillment and adventure!

Meanwhile, back in the reality of lock-down limbo, we soldier on. Tim and Abbie came to visit last weekend and we had a grand time (I took no photos). I made spicy sesame zoodles with crispy tofu for dinner one night and then made naan bread to go with the DH’s wonderful chicken curry the second night. We got very silly playing a drawing game online with the brothers, and we even got a few chores done. It was a perfect social interlude in our otherwise humdrum lives.

Having visitors inspired a few household improvements. We added pictures to our large mudroom wall:

Honestly, they aren’t so badly arranged as they look in the photo, nor are they too high on the wall. It’s an awkward space to photograph.

As mentioned in a previous post, we removed the stereo from the living room and, at least for the time being, have a corner full of plants.

The stereo removal brightened and enlarged the space nicely. Oddly enough, the living room is the only room in the house amenable to plants, so they are beginning to take over. Anyone need any houseplants?

Finally, here’s an update on my reading and watching activity:

I’m now binge-watching Community on Netflix. I’ve never been one for sitcoms but I can relate to the college setting and to lines like this:

And someday I’d love to say to a student trying to get out of something by crying, “This won’t work. The last time you tried this, I saved a vial of your tears and I’ve been slowly building up an immunity.” As usual, I’m very late to the party, but Community is funny.

I’m two-thirds of the way through Hilary Mantel’s Bring up the Bodies and very much looking forward to starting the final book in the series. I’m also reading a fascinating book on Environmental Problems of the Greeks and Romans, which included deforestation, soil erosion, pollution of water, air and soil, overgrazing, and wildlife and resource depletion, to name but a few. Evidently, we have been ruining the environment since establishing the first permanent settlements. There’s nothing new under the sun.

That’s about it for this week. Have a great weekend!

*Joseph Conrad, Heart of Darkness