Secondary Considerations

The very tall Thai yoga/masseuse person was watching us, D and I having a smoke after lunch, amid the raining Linden fall. She noticed I was walking hunched-over and mentioned she could do something about that. I had no doubt that was true, but I don't even take any kind of pain-pill, nothing, because it blocks you from reality, and I certainly didn't want a raven-haired beauty manipulating my lower back. Also, no one mops correctly anymore. I've done what I can, but I'm a voice lost in the wilderness. Fucking kids, they think they know everything. I usually just hit them hard, with something they don't know anything about, sweep them off their feet. You can only mop if you've learned to mop, there is no other way. The widely touted third path is a myth. It's a binary system, yes/no, on/off, black/white, there is no third way. I woke in the night, maybe three in the morning, and the power was out, I had to remember where I was, the floor, right, in the living room. Made my way to where the kitchen matches were and struck one, lit a candle, then the oil lamp I keep at hand. Put on my LED headlamp, so I could see what was in front of me and finished reading the Thomas Perry book. Most of today I read about Cassiano dal Pozzo, looking at the drawings he commissioned. Born in Turin, 1588, functioned as the Court Scientist under Urban VIII. He was an archaeologist, a botanist, a zoologist, a geologist, and the foremost ornithologist of his day; and he assembled a vast library of drawings. It's fair to say he presaged Linnaeus, and even hinted at Darwin in his interest in what didn't fit. Read too much, looked at too many pictures, and didn't eat enough, so I got a headache mid-afternoon. Made a mammoth baked potato, with butter and sour cream, salt and pepper, and chopped scallions. Ate every single crumb, and wiped the plate with a piece of bread. Got a drink, rolled a smoke, and went right back to the drawings. Thought about drawing as the first attempt to capture the thing itself: flat light, front and side view. These are the weighted, leather strapped gloves Roman boxers used. No joke, this is them. That set of drawings even shows you how to put them on. They must have made a wax cast, then poured it in lead, a set of knuckles that seated perfectly in your fist, bound with leather straps. Every detail is clear, I could make a set of these tomorrow. I don't want them, but I could. Lead knuckles pack a lot of weight. One glancing blow and you win.