* Kind of at loose ends. I have a dental checkup tomorrow, which I NEVER like. And I'm probably going to have to postpone the having-the-new-nightguard made because insurance won't cover it and it's $650 and I don't have that kind of money to throw around until I'm SURE what this renovation is costing (I'm still holding out hope that since the windows didn't need to be taken out, it will be less expensive than the original quote, but then again - they had to use a LOT of siding)
I'll be happier when it's over.
* I redid a couple more Policy and Law lecture sets today. I think I have three or four left, all from the end of the semester. It's easy to run out of steam on these, though. But I also feel guilty when I"m *not* working - though I tell myself "if this were a normal August you'd probably be up visiting your mom and not working"
* I'm also kind of unhappy because as a prep for the painting (which the GC says ISN'T happening tomorrow, that it's still just preparation - because I texted him about my dental checkup in case Martin needed to have me pick colors), the painter guys have taped plastic film over EVERY window and I can't see out of the house, and that's unsettling. If I NEED to see out, I have to open the front door.
They did leave the door untaped, thank goodness, if they had taped it up I'd just have to break through to get out for the appointment. Maybe that will be done right before the painting around it is done.
I presume they'd tell me if I needed to leave the place for a day (though where would I go?) or even overnight (though it's a bit much I think to expect someone to pay for a motel room when they're paying so much for renovation already).
Maybe if I need to leave for the better part of a day I go up to Sulphur if the weather isn't too hot.
But I wonder how many days I will have to live not being able to see the outdoors? This is the kind of little thing that affects me a lot. One of the reasons I bought this house is that it has large, well-positioned windows - so many more-recent houses have tiny windows, or those windows up high in the wall that let in light but do not let you see out
* I do need to get my car in for an oil and filter change. I see the place I use opens at 8 on Saturday so maybe I try THAT? Every time I've tried to get in there's a multiple-hour wait, and they do not make appointments. I suppose the OTHER option is finding another place to do it but this is the one nominally associated with the dealership I bought the car from, and they have a loyalty program where every fifth oil change is free, so....and they're good.
* I finished "A Prayer for the Crown-Shy" the other night. It was good, but you pretty much need to have read the first volume ("A Psalm for the Wild-Built") first. One of the things I did not pick up on at first was that Sibling Dex had *burned out* on being a tea monk, that was why they went off to the wilderness (where they met Mosscap) and also here, why they don't do the ceremony at all.
In fact, at one point, Dex takes advantage of a hot springs they had visited before, but they say they feel strange and "wrong" doing it, because they had not done the tea ceremonies for people before - in fact, they had not done anything to "earn" the rest they are taking. And that's actually one of the underlying things: to quote John Muir, "A rattlesnake is good for itself," meaning a living being does not need to serve others in order to have the right to exist in the world. And that's something I find I get terribly caught up in (note my comment above about feeling guilty if I'm not working on teaching). But Mosscap points out that other things don't worry about this, animals and plants don't think of it, rocks just exist, and yes, that's the point. But I think a lot of people - and very possibly, people who experienced a certain degree of peer-rejection in their life - have an internalized feeling that they need to "earn" others' love, or their place in the world. And of course that's not how it works, but it's SO HARD to overcome.
And mild spoilers after here:
- the books seem to be intended to be a duopoly, so I don't think there will be a third one. On one hand, I'm a little sad, because it's a nice world to visit and think about. But on the other hand: Chambers wraps the book up very nicely and peacefully. It does almost feel like Dex and Mosscap could go on and have a lot more adventures.
- The thing I was worried about didn't happen. The robots apparently do have limited lifespans; when parts of them wear out they kind of decided as a group to just give up their existence, and to "become organ donors" to other robots. Yes, robots live longer than humans do, but it's implied Mosscap has been around for a long time, though this is now the first time it has encountered humans and traveled among them.
At one point, one of Mosscap's parts breaks - apparently it's something in the gyroscopic stabilizer - and I thought perhaps that was going to be an opener to a goodbye, but as it turns out, they were able to find someone to 3-D print a new part (melting down and recycling the broken one) so Mosscap lived on.
At any rate: it's an interesting world, with the type of tech they have (the genre is sometimes called "hopepunk" or "solarpunk" and yes, everything seems to be renewable, and a lot of the problems of energy and food have been solved well, and it's a nicer, more hopeful world. There is a credits system but not really money - it seems more barter based, but with a "what goes around comes around" idea - that you can get food and "pay" for it by helping someone other than the person who provides you food. Most likely that would not work in our society (too many cheaters), but it's an interesting idea). And the story itself, about relationship, and what it means to be in the world.
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