4/25/23

 Tuesday, April 25, 2023

In bed at 10:30, up at 6:15.  36℉, high of 43, cloudy morning, sunny afternoon, .15" of rain overnight, wind NE at 6 mph, 2 to 11 mph today, gusts up to 17 mph.  Sun rose at 5:52, sunset at 7:45, 13+52.

Apartment living.  The city has given preliminary approval for the construction of a 25-story apartment building at Farwell and Curtis.  It looks pretty spectacular, with a rooftop swimming pool, abundant parking, and half the units with views of Lake Michigan.  It reminds me a bit of living in our condo in the Knickerbocker Hotel, and how much I miss the condo and the neighborhood.  We bought the condo for $81,000.  I can't even guess what it might be worth today.  It also reminds me, though, of what a tremendous change apartment/condo living would be from our lives in Bayside and outside of Saukville.  In Saukville, we had 4 bedrooms and almost 3 and 1/2 acres of land, including some bogland.  In Bayside, we have 'only' .62 acre and 3 bedrooms, but probably approaching 4,000 square feet of residence including the improved, and used, section of the basement.  Moving to an apartment or condo would involve some HUGE downsizing, physically, mentally, and probably emotionally.  Daunting.

RIP Harry Belafonte, 97.

Man Smart, Woman Smarter

I say let us put man and woman together

To find out which one is smarter

Some say man, but I say no

The women got the men beat, they should know

[Chorus]

And not me, but the people they say

That the man are leading the women astray

But I say that the women of today

Smarter than the man in every way

Ah, ever since the world began

Woman was always teaching man

And if you listen to my bid attentively

I goin' tell you how she smarter than me . . . 

Jack has me stymied.  As much as I enjoyed (not really the right word) Gilead, Home, and Lila, I just can't get into the last of the Gilead quartet.  I had expected this story to be perhaps the most interesting, though it would be hard to outdo Lila in that respect, but I am finding it just a drag, appropriately set in a cemetery, at night no less.  It is hard to get a sense of just when in the history of the relationship between Jack and Della this graveyard rendezvous occurs.  Also, hard to continue reading the dialogue reflecting Jack's moroseness and self-loathing or at least self-deprecation.  I need to take a break.

2 P.M.  A lot of pain today, all day and evening.