Couple of things

My housemate just gave me a book called How to be Funny. I'm not sure what he's trying to tell me. I never knew humor could have so much technique and theory behind it. It's going to take a lot of practice.

This morning I finally (FINALLY) felt well enough to go rowing one last time with the City of Tempe. I have decided that I won't be rowing with the City in the spring. The group of people I've been rowing with are great--I'll really miss the camraderie. The rowing itself, not so much. I'm going to switch to sculling instead. I just started reading Mind over Water, a rowing book, and of course it's making me want to quit everything else and just row. Oh well.

In other, totally unrelated news, yesterday I happened to read this in The Stranger. If you're a fan of GOOD weekly papers, read The Stranger. You won't be able to go and see much of the cool stuff it talks about, but they have the best movie reviews and good book reviews and, well, it's all about Seattle, so you know it's going to be good. Ha. I crack myself up. Today's journal entry is sponsored by The Stranger. Oh, wait a minute, no it's not. That's enough of a free plug for now, then.

ANYWAY. The above article is all about urban planning in Seattle--increasing the housing available within the city to accomodate the ongoing growth in the region. It's basically an article about all the things Seattle's trying to do right that the Greater Phoenix Suburbopolitan Area (GPSA) has royally screwed up. Don't get me wrong, Arizona is lovely. However, its urban planners need to go back to kindergarten, or wherever it is that one should go to learn some COMMON SENSE about urban planning. It drives me NUT! (as someone I know used to say)

Someday, I'm going to write a book about living in the GPSA without a car. This place is so ridiculous that I REFUSE to get a car, out of spite!

Stream-Of-Consciousness

Tonight was cool and quiet, so after I walked home from a movie I sat on the front porch and looked at the trees in our yard. They are four altogether, although the one on the opposite side of the driveway, the big tree, technically isn't ours, inasmuch as any tree can be ours. The neighborhood is old, and flood-irrigated, so in the winter our neighborhood could be a sleepy neighborhood in Anytown, USA.

In the past week, the big tree has decided that is now fall, and has covered our yard with a sheet of leaves, which will suffice as a replacement for snow.

As I sat there, I sensed that I was being watched, so I turned around to see my cat's two eyes fixed on me--she was on the dining room table, reminding me that she was all by herself and in great (yes, oh so great) need of immediate attention.

I'm in the middle of reading four books right now, some more quickly than others.

Make that five books.

Maybe one of them has an answer.