(no subject)

When I wasn't reading Buddhism this last month, I was reading the last three Toby Daye books. Which were, well, um? Yes, I'm a suck for backstory, and yes there was *some*, but not nearly enough to scratch all the itches. I still don't know the whole story on Simon, or what happened to Luna or Rayseline, and somehow I thought this was going to be the Great Revelation that Told All. But in the end we just have Surprise!badnasty now secured off somewhere for the time being, just as Last Book's Badnasty is-- well, no longer secured, are they? Someone made off with the body of evidence IIRC, and since it was a library book I'm not even sure whether they were defunct or just comatose.

But that's the Toby Daye books. Never quite what I want but enough to keep me reading. (If only everyone didn't sound alike. Tybalt and Toby may speak High Style and Low, but they're saying exactly the same things when they do it.)

(no subject)

Heat is not kind to me, psychologically and in other ways. But busyness fills the blankness, and so I suddenly wind up with my cotton pants from the 80s neatly ironed, (chuffed of course that I can get into them: but they may actually be the early 90s, and I weigh less now than I did then); my bedroom sheers washed (once every eight years whether they need it or not); my shower curtain ditto; the bathroom sparkling from Merlin's Magic All Purpose Household Cleaner, mixed up by older brother; and a new shower curtain liner to replace the old cracked one. (May be too light a pink: I seem to recall I had maroon to start with, to block the hideous sun. But again, that might have been the old bathroom nine years back and its brite white tile.) These little tasks are something I'd never have done without great protest ere now-- I think I haven't ironed in this millennium at all-- but Buddhist patience or attend-to-the-moment mindfulness has kicked in, allowing me to unhook and rehook the curtains automatically, a fiddly job that usually reduces me to tears.

Merlin's Magic contains tea tree oil so I've sloshed a bit of it on the roof outside the study. To date have seen no new raccoon poop, but the spring is yet young and it's just a matter of time. The tea tree oil should discourage them.

Heat is kind in one specific way: it stops my hips aching. Put a Robax heat wrap round the lower back and got through my meditation session very well thank you. Second last one and not a minute too soon: uninspired is not the word for the way the seminar is conducted. Only plus is that one gets to talk to an absolute stranger and tell them things one has formerly kept for therapists, since no one else but the mythical Best Friend would be the slightest bit interested.