I haven't set my alarm since Monday, but mostly I've awakened no later than 5 -- Mr. Frodo and Samwise are frisky at that hour and gallop up and down our two stairways. Sleeping through their escapades is about impossible.
But this day, Saturday, after rising and reading, I'm began to alter (prolong) the 1 3/4 hour time for exercise to increasing the exercise component, bumping up my situps from 500 to 750, time on the elliptical by 25%, 25% more weight lift repetitions. No commuting = more free time! I spent a little time on YouTube looking for some more low impact routines to add variety to the morning grind. We'll see how that works out.
Meanwhile, I started this day on one of the house projects that was delayed last autumn on account of the weather --
Part of the frame of a backdoor had deteriorated over the course of several winters and had to be entirely replaced. I chose an oak replacement over the pine that had been there previously. In pulling off the wood some paint pulled off the siding, so a little priming precedes a final coat of paint for both areas. This is the other side of the "new normal" coin -- an attempt to get some house or hobby project done every day.
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The reading routine that I mentioned earlier has served well as I have made my way through a number of more or less interesting tomes. The routine was essential when I was enrolled in the Coursera.org course, Greek and Roman Mythology, taught by Peter Struck, of the University of Pennsylvania. I will speak more about the MOOC movement in a later post.
Professor Struck had us read the whole of Homer's Odyssey in three weeks (and much else in the other seven weeks of the course). While reading Homer I got to crazy idea that I should look into Thucydides and his History of the Peloponnesian War. I'm here to tell you, the experience has not glorified Athens and the Athenians for me!
I'm a couple pages shy of 500 pages into this work, and everything is crashing down on the heads of Athens, embroiled in a war against Syracuse in Sicily, and against Sparta and her allies. The heroic in Homer seems strangely absent in Thucydides.
Thucydides introduces us to the Sicilian folly by reporting how a good many Athenians saw the war as an opportunity to gain riches for themselves and their city. He also reports how some Athenian representatives later tried to woo the uncommitted cities of Sicily by citing Athenian good will (even though the historian prepared us, the reader, for the contrary view). And now, as Athens streams into Sicily, we are treated to the treachery of Alcibiades, a disgraced and exiled Athenian politician and general, who goes to the Spartan Assembly and spills the beans on the "true" motives of the Athenians -- a pure imperial lust for power. He tells his former enemies that Athens has a ravenous appetite -- first for Syracuse and Sicily, then Italy, Carthage, and ultimately all of Greece. Alcibiades is so convincing that the Spartans and their allies are motivated to fight back, and as they do, the luck of Athens begins to fade.
Missing from Thucydides is the art, music and culture of Athens to soften the blow of this quite potent militaristic view, and slogging through one battle after another is not exactly my favorite past-time. However, I'm this far, and will make it to the end, come hell or high water!
Thucydides constant reference to cities in Greece, Asia Minor, Sicily and Italy make having a good map nearby a must. Fortunately, when I was in Heidelberg (see "In the Weeds" May 15), I wasn't always quaffing the local brew! In my first tour of duty I completed a B.A. in History and Political Science at the European Division of the University of Maryland's University College. My fields were modern European and American political history, and one day I took myself to Heidelberg's Altstadt and visited one of the bookstores serving the University of Heidelberg community.
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