4/4/23

 Tuesday, April 4, 2023

In bed at 10:30, awake at 4:13, and up at 4:40 with thoughts of Iowa-SCU, Iowa-LSU, PT appointment on Friday, painful back, CPP, hoping to doze off.  39℉ outside, high of 47℉, thunderstorms expected from 11 am to 1 pm, then more rain, .85" today  Wind NE at 8 mph, 1 to 19 mph today, gusts up to 34 mph.   Wind chills today from 31 to 42℉,  Sunrise at 6:28, sunset at 7:21, 12+52.

LTMW at 7:15 at a male cardinal on the suet cake now on the sunflower seed feeder with a red finch.  The female cardinal is feeding on the ground and now the male cardinal is back working on the suet cake.  The goldfinches seem to be disappearing.  Pudgy snowbirds pecking away on the grass and under the feeders, but I'm thinking of an NYTimes 'opdoc' animation I just viewed: 'She Was 300 Meters from the Hypocenter as it Happened about Akiko Takakura by Andre Hormann and Anna Samo.  Devastating.  Hiroshima.  Brings back memories of 1965 visit.

Pain Day.  A lot of CPP, some lingering back pain.  Pretty disabling.

Current Trilogy.  I'm reading Home by Marilynne Robinson on Kindle, The Mountains Sing by Nguyen Phan Que Mai, and My Detachment by Tracy Kidder, the latter two from the North Shore library.  I'm 30 pages into Kidder memoir in which he describes some of his early life experiences with his family, at his Andover boarding school, and at Harvard.  He led a very privileged life before being commissioned a 2nd lieutenant in the Army in 1967.  It's interesting comparing his life with Glory Boughton's in Gilead, IA, and Huong's in North Vietnam during the American War.  I'm having a lot of trouble reading the hardbound books, eyes keep losing focus, presbyopia.

Trump Lawyers' Press Conference.  Joe Tacopina reminds me of Luca Brasi in The Godfather.  Tacopina, Todd Blanche, and Susan Necheles remind me of scorpions in a bottle.  Tacopina is going to be a problem, insists on being the center of attention, seems boorish.  The other two were more  restrained.