Lost Page

It's been a while since I lost a page. A teeny blip on the grid, a one second outage. Editing arranged by the power company. Went outside to walk it off, saw a very large rattlesnake with a mouse in its mouth. Five feet long, male. Smelled of cucumber. Back home, distracted, made an omelet that I completely covered with a gravy made from browned butter and the common Agaricus fairy-ring mushroom. There's one place, down near the bottom of Upper Twin Creek where I often get two or three pounds. I need to get serious about the coming winter, summer break is about over, so it would be good to cut my reading back to four hours a day for a couple of months, then I can begin my fall and winter term, which, at this point is Survival 401. It was hot yesterday, so I think the power blip was the result of a great many window AC units being switched on at the same time. Home from work, get a beer or a gin and tonic, sit still and try not to sweat. Since I have to provide my own reference library, I have to project ahead in what my interest would be. I'm interested, right now, in sheep, when lamb becomes mutton, and lamb recipes. Lamb in the west, is a sheep less than a year old, free-ranged on mountain grass; lamb, in coastal New England, was a much smaller beast, served whole, at Easter. I'm interested in that whole goat/sheep thing, domestication, then draft animals, how a root became a plow; I order a couple of books to buy, then order a couple of things on inter-library loan. I have to say, springing to my own defense, it's very easy to get information. Iron is strong, no question about it, but four inch thick oak planks, on twelve-inch centers is pretty fucking strong too. I have people I can call, with specific questions, assuming I have a phone, and they can refer me to other people, so I can usually find out what something is, its chemical nature or what it's called. A very excited call from China, this guy I know as White Fang (Chinese students usually assume a western name, unless their name in Min or Yan) and he was calling to tell me that the Chinese language was also completely ideographic. If he said something about a fox in the snow, he was probably referring to his girlfriend. Lord knows, even with a huge collective base, we seldom say what we mean. It would be easier, but that's asking too much. I ran an experiment, a few years ago, where people were asked questions going into and out of a tunnel. Mostly they focused on the light. The end of the tunnel, complete bullshit, but it sounded OK. None of this makes any sense, I can sit back with a drink, roll a smoke, but none of it makes any sense. You're doing what because of what? I'd rather not reply.