Sporting News

Pride is a costly affliction. Alex gave 25 million dollars away, so he could be buff. Mr. Manning and Mr. Brady both make over a million dollars a game, 30,000 dollars a minute whether they're on the field or not. Hard for me to wrap my head around. 45 seconds equals my yearly income. There's a disparity here. The CEO of Morgan Chase. I mean, really, come on, 20 million dollars as a bonus? I have a problem with that. I bet they have running water. Bastards. I suspect they just call a plumber if the drain is clogged. Clearly they never wintered on the ridge. Shit, I just lost a page. It's been a while, and I'm much more careful, but I was blind-sided. The weather was calm, no wind, a light rain, I'd been writing for a while, drinking hot tea. An introspective couple of days, I was distracted. Two deer entered the frame, and I went over to the window to watch them, I didn't SAVE, which I do almost automatically, and thus a page on American Tonalism was lost. I lost power three times this past weekend; last night, or early this morning, I was reading recipes for cooking lamb's head by an oil lamp. When the power came back on, this morning at five o'clock, I immediately made a double espresso. Keep your priorities straight. Mark and Charlotte out today, taking an African Show that C is curating up to Columbus, and tomorrow they're taking art back from the last show. TR and I were tasked with taking down the entire permanent collection and getting it in the vault, as the floor cleaners are also going to steam clean the carpet upstairs. Very bad circumstances, especially for the watercolors. So we spent the day moving art, commenting on paintings, bullshitting each other. He lunched on Mexican take-out at the museum with the ladies; I had a great lunch at the pub, sitting at the bar with Pete, the electronics guy at the University, and one of the funniest people I've ever known. We had the wait-staff in stitches, and the new owner was sitting right behind us at a table for four, I saw her grin. I hate having to break-in new owners. Walking in, I was carrying a pretty good pack, and I was stopping every 50 paces, to catch my breath and look about, when I heard B singing. I was below the curve in the driveway, so I couldn't see where he was, but I knew that he was carrying wood. He delights in this more than anyone I've ever known. After I round the curve, I have him silhouetted against the sunset, carrying one last piece to the woodshed. I sit on the back porch for a long time, before I go inside, a certain sense of accomplishment, that I actually got here.. Build a fire, and move on from there. Of course the phone is out, so I can't send. Spent a couple of nights in town, one because of museum business (didn't feel like walking in after dark, while it was snowing) and the ogther because of the snow. Today, though, Friday, despite the fact that it was still snowing, I decided that I had to get home, and besides, I reasoned, they should have the roads salted; four-wheel drive on Mackletree, which wasn't salted, and didn't pass a car, which was a bit of luck, because it had become essentially a single track. I needed to get home not just for my sanity but because next week is going to be very cold again and I need to rick-up some wood in the house and split some kindling. I have to be at the museum Monday, because the floor and carpet guys want to work, and I want to be shed of them. The house was cold, but not too cold, because the olive oil was still liquid. Nice walk in, crampons, a light pack, gentle snow. As so often in the past, the walk up the driveway mediates between two worlds. I stopped often, so I wouldn't be exhausted when I got to the top, and caught snowflakes on my tongue. It's a good transitioning practice, and by the time I had achieved the ridge, everything had slowed down. Got almost everything done at the museum, that I needed to get done, and can easily finish, with TR, on Tuesday, before the crew steam- cleans the carpet upstairs. Then I can start re-hanging all of the galleries and we can become a museum again. There's a gala opening scheduled for March 2nd, after that, I should be able to take some time off.