Yesterday I gave myself a day to read. First I finished Ted McClelland’s The Third Coast: Sailors, Strippers, Fishermen, Folksingers, Long-Haired Ojibway Painters, and God-Save-the-Queen Monarchists. It took me a good part of the week just to read the title, which I found captivating. As a native of what McClelland calls the Freshwater Nation, I found a lot to like in his stories. (I had quibbles, but what the heck, I have quibbles with various translations of Genesis, too.)
He celebrated the kind of Up North I recognize. Food that is oh-so-good in direct proportion to how oh-so-bad it is for you. Time outdoors paying attention. Hockey and beer. Cabins–or Writing Studios and Bait Shops– in the woods with blue tarps covering the woodpile.
And always the lakes, never very far out of sight or hearing. We get itchy if it’s been too long since we’ve walked along the shore.
Lately, though, we’ve been spending some time walking up and down the drumlins, building up the old cardiovascular system, watching the leaves turn to old gold. It’s an open question whether we’re doing ourselves any good. Going up we huff and puff in satisfactory endorphin-pumping fashion. Going down we step sideways, trying not to break a leg slipping on wet leaves or tumbling over fallen trees.
People ask if I get spooked living out here. Mmm. Not really. I have Robo-Dogs, and I’m a bit of a piece of work myself.
So, I finished The Third Coast and dug into some more histories in search of my Civil War veterans. Finally, I picked up a paperback mystery and curled up on the couch with the rest of the pack. We had a good fire going, and it was quite cozy. I fell asleep in an awkward position and am paying for it this morning. It was worth it.
Thoughts for the day:
- According to today’s Writer’s Almanac novelist Norman Rush said, “The main effort of arranging your life should be to progressively reduce the amount of time required to decently maintain yourself so that you can have all the time you want for reading.”
- According to the message board outside the Eastport Baptist Church, “even Moses was a basket case.”
Torch Lake Views 
p.j. grath
October 24, 2009
Robo-Dogs!!! Love that spooky picture, Gerry! As for the gold, I noticed when I arrived home today that the silver maple in front of our house, which had mostly green days a day or two ago, now has yellow leaves, and on “Claudia’s hill” (to the south) there are golden trees against the dark evergreens. Overnight, it seems!
Glad you found some reading time, too. Or rather, made some reading time, which is what we have to do.
Gerry
October 25, 2009
We are definitely headed into the “golden grove” stage of autumn. The tamaracks are turning, too. Must be the last act of the Big Show.
I think I would consider reading time a “business expense” if I owned a bookstore . . . After all, how else to guide patrons to excellent literary treats?
uphilldowndale
October 25, 2009
Love your robo-dogs, I tried to fix a similar looking red-eye horse in my new swanky photo soft-wear, and I lost it’s entire head! I may have to read the instructions.
Gerry
October 25, 2009
I love my robo-dogs, too, even if they do spend entirely too much time on the sofa. I decided a long time ago that when I try to fix red-eye I simply make it worse. I usually end up with Zombie Eye, though–never managed to lose the whole head. Clearly you have way more dangerous software. My approach lately has been to look at flaws in my photos as design elements.
centria
October 25, 2009
Robo-dogs!! Oh those are the coolest photos. (It looks like everybody else thinks so too!) That book sounds rather interesting, especially if you can get through the title. I’ve been reading up a storm lately too, but nothing that sounds so educational. Won’t even share the titles with you. Do you like to read fiction, as well? And is that your house in the woods? Strange, I had an impulse to take a photo of our house yesterday.
Gerry
October 25, 2009
Yes and yes. I read quantities of fiction: Margaret Atwood, Jim Harrison, Richard Russo, Barbara Kingsolver, Rohatyn Mistry, Louise Erdrich, Nevada Barr, Stephen White, Sharon McCrumb, Tony Hillerman, Walter Mosley, Dashiell Hammett, Raymond Chandler, Earl Derr Biggers, Stephen King, Elmore Leonard, Dennis Lehane–OK, this is getting ridiculous. And that is, indeed, the Writing Studio and Bait Shop, which looks a lot tidier now since I spent all afternoon restacking my wood and tucking the blue tarps inside the railings, where they will likely stay until the first big blow of November. Sigh.
Katy
October 26, 2009
You must read the Daily Coyote…someone who gets her daily philosophy from church signs…I love the Moses was a basket case
Gerry
October 26, 2009
I had not heard of the Daily Coyote until you mentioned it here. Now I have someplace else to visit online.