The Paris Wife Concluded -- Soup's On! -- Plantings - June 5

Tuesday's late evening's doings took their toll on Wednesday morning -- definitely an Espresso morning!  Read a few pages of The Paris Wife, but had to rush to exercise.  Skipped breakfast, since I've basically evolved into a two-meal a day routine.

Final preparations to host a basic soup and sandwich lunch for friend John, including getting the felines upstairs.  Mr. Frodo isn't so bad, but Samwise is a shameless moocher, and very persistent!  Arriving a little early he was impressed into service to get food to table, whereupon we launched into a wide-ranging conversation, including wilderness cabins (his aspiration; my faded fantasy from the Last Whole Earth Catalog era of my life), music, movies, family life, and shared recollections of work at Ferris).  In years past the rush of work and responsibilities provided the vocabulary John and I spoke, but it's good to put the high pressure and tension away and just have a friendly conversation.

After lunch I had in mind to complete the porch roof painting that I had begun on Tuesday but the sky looked iffy (it ultimately did rain briefly) and I postponed.  I did, however, change into my painting gear -- clothes that have seen me through several rounds of painting our house (I've tried to do something every year we've been here).  So, while at work I was kidded about wearing a suit, I'm really proud of my old paint jeans!

Ultimately I decided to wait a day to complete the painting -- too much humidity wouldn't help the paint dry properly anyway.  So I decided to complete The Paris Wife, an obligation that I had to complete before Saturday anyway, since we're going to see Paula McLain, speaking at CMU. 

I found the final phase of Hadley and Ernest Hemingway's marriage very sad.  To the degree that McLain's work is fiction, in her rendering Ernest proposed a ménage à trois with Pauline Pfeiffer, suggesting the three move to Piggott, Arkansas, where Pauline's parents resided.  I had to remind myself that, at 62, I have an entirely different world view from a man of 28, in terms of what works and what doesn't.  Suggesting that  your wife accept those terms seems mind-boggling to me.  The prolonged exposure of Hadley to this toxic situation (at least in McLain's telling of it) leads one to sympathize with her.

Although the subject matter of these last few pages of the book were disagreeable, Samwise curled up on my lap and purred through most of my time on the couch.  With the clouds darkening the daylight coming through the windows it was nonetheless a mellow reprieve from an otherwise active day.

***

Toward the end of the afternoon the sun reappeared and I transplanted to seedlings I had growing in flats to my container garden on the second floor deck.  

*** 

In the evening I took care of some email correspondence and completed a Jury Survey form which arrived in the mail -- I've served on four juries -- in Indiana, Ohio, New Jersey and Michigan -- wonder what a jury summons might bring!