Another Book

Talking with Jude I remembered an idea for another book. Thoreau's Journals cover 24 years, 1837-1861, and he records, almost from the beginning, the first appearance of a large number (and ever increasing number) of plants. It would be interesting to spend a growing season at Walden and record first appearances today. Cooked a pot of Louisiana Pecan Rice. Lovely aromatics. I rummaged around until I found a book on rice and read that in the afternoon. I hadn't remembered that it can be grown on dry land, "upland rice", nor that the common method of controlling mosquitoes, before DDT, was to raise minnows in the flooded paddies. There's a terraced section outside Luzon, 200 square miles of country-side, that is beautiful, in use for a thousand years. Raising paddy rice is a way of life. Another book I have been working on: as of today I have 365 pages of my work that have been send back to me with a word or two of comment, they're dated, the time of sending is recorded, and they're sequential. It's interesting, also I read through 10 pages that were all the same date, March 1, but sequential years. Also interesting. The 'sequential' is interesting because it's available data, because of the computer, as is the time of sending, and it's an interesting (and obvious) method of storage. I'm constantly aware of seasonal cycles. Even if I was writing something slightly fictional, the seasonal progression would have to be correct. I thought about writing a book about someone like myself, speaking of slightly fictional. An old guy with a cane and a bag of oysters, walking in to his hut, talking to himself. Stops to pick some greens. He has some tangerines which he segments and toasts until they puff. He roasts the oysters on his cookie sheet, a piece of metal roofing, and he would listen to either Robert Johnson or Bach. There's a voice over, his voice, cracked and private. Basho:

firefly viewing---
the boatman is drunk,
the boat unsteady

The AC has been on a bit, to keep Black Dell down to 78 degrees. I hate the noise, but it's nice to not be sweating, and Black Dell has been my closest companion for fifteen years, two generations of her, and I'd much rather keep her happy than deal with her complaints. I do believe I have the backdoor threshold situation figured out, I think I can reuse the aluminum base, build up the sub-strate with a synthetic product, and forget about it. I just need to tightly close the door. It doesn't have to be an elegant solution. Of course, I prefer elegant solutions, but sometimes just closing the door is an adequate answer.