Called on account of rain

Well, my planting and weeding plans will have to wait for another day. In the middle of the night I could hear the rain on the roof and it's been a steady drizzle ever since. Not that I'm complaining. It's rain and not snow. (although the clouds opened up a bit about an hour ago and I think it is snow just a few hundred feet up the "hill"). And I noticed that the leaves on the rose bushes are now visible from across the yard. It's amazing how fast things can grow once they get started. If it wasn't for this head cold, I might have even gone out in the rain to plant anyway. But it's not quite that warm and I'm not quite that well. So, maybe tomorrow.

Instead hubby and I went out for a late breakfast. We found a window seat looking out onto Main Street and watched the rain coming down, the clouds play magician with the mountains (now you see them, now you don't), the cars and people sloshing by. It was warm and cozy in the restaurant and the waitress said she'd missed us this last couple of weeks and she kept hubby's coffee cup filled to the brim, which always makes him happy.

Now he's off to work and I need to find something to do inside. I'm thinking maybe I'll make a start on sorting out my bookshelves. I've been finding it increasingly difficult lately to select a new book to read whenever I finish one. In part I think it's because I've fallen so behind on sorting out new additions that I no longer quite know what my choices are.

It used to be that I had one shelf that was the "new book arrival shelf" - I'd pile books there and then sort them into the existing shelves as time permitted. They would be separated into mystery, fantasy, urban fantasy, literature, "women's lit" (think Oprah books), and non-fiction and then the fiction was further organized within their categories alphabetically. But the shelves got full and I got lazy or distracted, it became overwhelming, and I stopped sorting things some time last fall. Instead of a little project it was suddenly a BIG project.

So, I might do that.

Or, I might sort, categorize, and burn CD's in my iTune files. I've uploaded a bunch of music, from my CD collection, from new downloads, from the kids' collections. I've mixed a bunch of them up into assorted compilations. But now my iTunes is full and it won't let me add anything new until I get rid of some of what's already in there. The problem is I don't remember what I've already burned and what's waiting for that step. Plus I don't know what William wants to do with the stuff he's got in there. Too, some of the CD's I've been using are now scratched and I probably should burn new copies before I dump the files in the trash. So, another project that needs an afternoon.

Of course there's always the option of simply making a pot of tea and curling up on the couch with a good book. I haven't done that in...... I can't remember the last time I allowed myself the luxury. I have started to read during the day again though, which is nice.

I used to read two books at a time. One with William, mostly during the day, and then another one just for me which was my bedtime read. There might be a nonfiction and/or some magazines sitting around that I'd occasionally pick up as well, but there was always those two reading books going on simultaneously. Then William started reading on his own and I dropped the daytime book and only read one novel at a time.

About a month ago I decided to "assign" William a reading book (he usually picks his own reading material) and to sweeten the pot I offered to reread it along with him. Not together, but at the same time. We both read it during the day, our two separate bookmarks bumping along next to each other first one ahead, then the other, like those mechanical racing horse games at the fair's midway carnival.

We finished it, The Bean Trees by Barbara Kingsolver, a few days ago. It was so lovely to have an excuse to read during the day that now I think I'd like to continue. Maybe we'll work our way through a few more classics before it's time to finally hand him over to the public school system this fall. I think William enjoyed being forced out his usual genre as well, as he chose another atypical pick for himself as his currrent read - Jack London's Call of the Wild. It's lovely, by the way, to hear him comment "This is considered a classic? It's an awfully short and easy book!" This from the kid who didn't really read on his own until he was 12, his usual selections now are usually long epics with lots of "big" words.

A few weeks ago I got it in my head to read the Jane Austen novel that is now a movie with Keira Knightley. I like to read the book before the movie, always, and besides my friend Deb went on and on about how much she loved Austen, so I figured I'd give her a shot. I was excited when I found the book at the thrift store. It's been hard to find time to read with all the excitement and travel this last week or so, but I did get started on it. I was a bit confused at the story line, it wasn't what I had expected. Shortly after that was when I took a second look at the little label across the top righthand corner of the cover and realized it read "Now a major motion picture staring Emma Thompson and Hugh Grant". Uhm, what? I wasn't reading Pride and Prejudice, I was reading Sense and Sensibility! Right author, wrong book. Oops.

But here's the reason I brought the whole thing up (other then the fun of showing everyone how dumb I can be at times) - although I'm enjoying the book, I don't want to give up on it, I'm finding it a bit too wordy (it was written over 200 years ago!) to read through the stuffy head and the late night mind fog present at my usual reading time, which is about one o'clock in the morning. So, I made a decision. I pulled a cozy mystery out of the pile and started on that last night. Much easier read. And I'm planning on saving Jane Austen's more elaborate wording for day time reading when my brain is working at a much higher power level.

Now that I've rambled on about rain and books and things I might do today, perhaps I'll go do one of them. After I take Rosie outside, that is. She's whining at the door. Of course, she's forgotten that it's rainy outside and when her little chihuahua paws hit the wet grass she's gonna decide she doen't have to pee that bad after all. But she won't decide that until I take her out there first.