Adding Sums

The total amount, the price you pay, is often obscured in a folly. Fantasies and algorithms generate whatever you want. The bible is a shaky foundation. The early Catholic church is a fucking joke. The Dark Ages were extremely dark. I do a nice one hour talk about paper-making in the west, 1350, and movable type, 1450, and how that pretty much changed the game. Pork Fried Rice it is, there are always loin chops in the remaindered bin and I had everything else. I'm slower getting up in the morning, but I got to town in time for lunch with TR. Before he got there I had a nice conversation with Tyler, my banker friend, and another talk with the new Sociology teacher at the college. He's bought a row house, down on Front Street, a flood-wall away from the Ohio, it needs some work and he wants to pick my brain. He got the place for $25,000, and his mortgage, with insurance and taxes, is less than $200 a month. You can't rent a room, with shared bathroom and kitchen privileges, for less than $300. When I first moved here I thought about buying one of these, and living in town, selling my vehicle and getting a bike. But there was too much noise and I really needed to live in the country. Coming back home I stopped down at B's, for a cup of coffee, and he returned a stack of books that I now have to find a place for, and we talked about student debt and getting a job. Worked for a couple of hours, then decided to cook. Made a great pork fried rice, served with hot biscuits. Read a Thomas Perry novel. If I'm up at two or three in the morning, I sometimes check out what's on the radio because I often catch a couple of good blues songs. It might be a regular show, I don't know, and I never listen long enough to get the call letters. I was up tonight and it was John Lee Hooker, one of the great voices of all time, going on about his black snake. I played some more John Lee, then him and Bonny. Toast two halved biscuits for desert, with bitter marmalade. 28 degrees today, who knows tonight. I have a perfect banked fire right now. It's snowing and very beautiful outside, prismatic in my LED when I go out to pee. I have extra everything and I just made fried rice, I'm good for a minor siege. For a while I can't decide what to read, then decide to reread Flaubert. Always carry a book in your back pocket.