![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
I set my alarm for 8:30am, to make sure I got up and fed the dog at a reasonable time, but I ended up waking at 8am because my feet were freezing. The temperature dropped into the fifties overnight, and the wind continued to be fairly strong -- it just swung from east-northeast to east-southeast. I got up to close a bunch of windows, and figured I might as well feed the dog then. I also let her out on a leash to pee, though I didn't take her for a walk since it was raining steadily, and chilly rain is miserable, particularly in a forest.
I went back to bed and got up for real shortly after 9:30am, at which point I dressed in yesterday's clothes, put on one of Dad's cruddy cabin jackets, and took Dottie for a short loop walk. (It had stopped raining, but the forest was still dripping incessantly.) Then I showered, ate breakfast, and spent the morning online and finishing Anna Karenina. Victory is mine!
I took Dottie for a second walk around 1pm, dropping the second dock board on the northern muddy patch of the Windigo trail as we went. I split some more logs when we returned home, and then quite sensibly spent the rest of the afternoon indoors.
I like gray rainy days when I have nothing to do and nowhere to be. They make me tired, both physically and mentally, but sometimes it's nice to have an excuse to sit around and think about existential things. And the final chapters of Anna Karenina are useful in that sense, since I find a bunch of Tolstoy's themes worth arguing. I mean, yes, we are bubbles of insignificance in the vast cosmos, here for no reason whatsoever. So what? That just means life can mean whatever we want it to mean. And really, if you think people can't be kind and do good without reference to an overarching god, what does that say about you? I think reason is not selfish -- or if it is, it's just reason that hasn't thought far enough. It is better for you, not just everyone else, to establish fair and just systems, since nobody can ever be top dog all the time, and the golden rule is sort of preemptive self-defense from some perspectives, regardless of any emotional/spiritual impulse toward fairness.
(I hear that after writing Anna Karenina Tolstoy only got MORE didactic. Since I already find his particular brand of didacticism annoying, I think I should not read any of his later works.)
Anyway, Mom and Dad returned to the island around 6:45pm, and we ate dinner around 7:30pm. Dad's reunion was fine, but not as well-organized as it should have been. (The venue was slightly too small for the number of attendees, so it was difficult to move around and find people he used to know.) I don't think we have any specific plans for Monday, though Mom has said she doesn't want to leave the island. That is fine with me. :-)
I went back to bed and got up for real shortly after 9:30am, at which point I dressed in yesterday's clothes, put on one of Dad's cruddy cabin jackets, and took Dottie for a short loop walk. (It had stopped raining, but the forest was still dripping incessantly.) Then I showered, ate breakfast, and spent the morning online and finishing Anna Karenina. Victory is mine!
I took Dottie for a second walk around 1pm, dropping the second dock board on the northern muddy patch of the Windigo trail as we went. I split some more logs when we returned home, and then quite sensibly spent the rest of the afternoon indoors.
I like gray rainy days when I have nothing to do and nowhere to be. They make me tired, both physically and mentally, but sometimes it's nice to have an excuse to sit around and think about existential things. And the final chapters of Anna Karenina are useful in that sense, since I find a bunch of Tolstoy's themes worth arguing. I mean, yes, we are bubbles of insignificance in the vast cosmos, here for no reason whatsoever. So what? That just means life can mean whatever we want it to mean. And really, if you think people can't be kind and do good without reference to an overarching god, what does that say about you? I think reason is not selfish -- or if it is, it's just reason that hasn't thought far enough. It is better for you, not just everyone else, to establish fair and just systems, since nobody can ever be top dog all the time, and the golden rule is sort of preemptive self-defense from some perspectives, regardless of any emotional/spiritual impulse toward fairness.
(I hear that after writing Anna Karenina Tolstoy only got MORE didactic. Since I already find his particular brand of didacticism annoying, I think I should not read any of his later works.)
Anyway, Mom and Dad returned to the island around 6:45pm, and we ate dinner around 7:30pm. Dad's reunion was fine, but not as well-organized as it should have been. (The venue was slightly too small for the number of attendees, so it was difficult to move around and find people he used to know.) I don't think we have any specific plans for Monday, though Mom has said she doesn't want to leave the island. That is fine with me. :-)
