A Personal Note

My work on a long post has been delayed by a severe need for sleep. There is a raccoon in the wall of the part of my apartment that passes as my bedroom (it is basically a 10-window enclosed porch, like the old "sleeping porches" of a past century). How this raccoon got in is a mystery, but its scrabblings and the chittering noise of its babies are somewhat terrifying to hear at close range in the wee hours. I have sometimes just avoided going to bed, other times pulled the covers over my head and assumed it can't break through to the other side. My lack of proper sleep finally caught up with me and no matter how many times I got up to blog, I couldn't do it. Back to bed and raccoons be damned.

Anyway, on my way to the library for books to read on the long weekend, I saw loads of honeysuckle along a fence leading from Lot 7 to Park Avenue. Just beautiful! and the scent was heavenly. Yes, I know it is probably counted as a noxious weed nowadays, but I like it.

Another thing on my mind besides raccoons is the impending paywall on our daily newspaper. My subscription runs out on May 31, but I have had access to the new system for the past week or so and everything I see is making me weigh the cost of renewing at a much higher rate. As people are complaining all over the nation, the news biz is not what it used to be, what with massive layoffs and regionalization of editing and other formerly local aspects of journalism. But to many, it has not yet become what it could be under the new demands for a multi-platform, 24-hour news cycle. I liked reading the E-Newspaper online, but I was disappointed at what is sometimes passing for news in the transition to the future. Witness the "story" above. (Click to enlarge.) Yikes!

Mau the formerly feral cat has been very attentive to the noises in the wall and if the raccoon gets in, I am hoping Mau will deal with it. He sits next to wall and listens to the scuffling, sometimes turning to me as if to say, "Let me handle this." Given that at four years, he has demonstrated in play-fighting a formidable degree of jaw-power, he could probably break the neck of any animal intruder in seconds. But then he pulls stunts like going to sleep on what's left in the bottom of a laundry basket, leaving me to fret alone.

My library selections included Joyce Carol Oates' "A Widow's Story." I was interested to learn that a friend who became a mainstay in her struggle with widowhood was the author Edmund White. He was one of the writers whose work I set out to read after enjoying "Eminent Outlaws: The Gay Writers Who Changed America." I read several of his books and was impressed by his urbanity and storytelling ability. Tennessee Williams was also cited in Christopher Bram's book and I picked up "Hard Candy" to add to the reading list generated by Bram's book.

While my program of reading and yard work may not seem in keeping with the usual beach-and-barbeque theme of the first long warm-weather weekend, it's enough for me. I will bring my camera to the ceremonies tomorrow at City Hall and the War Memorial to mark the real reason for the holiday.  See you there?

--Bernice