first day off

1. i have the next two weeks free. lots of half willed half(quarter) plans for travel based on half conversations with half friends. have to write papers and apparently i should think about filing taxes. i tend to file about every year on average for the last six years or so. i tried to borrow the sewing machine that the resident assistants manage but it's out at the moment.

2. "spring has sprung" does not translate into anything equally clicky. i have been back on my bike for about a week dealing only with winter's loose gravel leftovers (still potentially injurious) and not so much with ice. i miss riding. i miss riding in the city. to cycle safely in the city one has to be supremely focused and present. to really close down a lot of the connections that scream for attention all of the rest of the time and just do that one thing. focused time. mentally restful even if it is physically dangerous. most of my confusion and stress comes of managing too many connections too much of the time. i now think of life size and complexity in terms of numbers of connections requiring management and i am after a more manageable scale. i will really try to do some solo bike touring this summer.

3. there are big heady books written about a lot of things i am interested in but i am a bit intimidated by a lot of them. i don't have much history as a "reader". i have to use really awkward tricks to not get stuck in little loops rereading the same sentence. someone gave me a trick that works but it is just so awkward - i cut a slot in a piece that is the width of the page but no higher than one line of text. i can only see one line of text at a time and can't double back on myself. i think i should read some of that thoreau emerson crap or some serious anarchic bits stuff from the wobblies or just some modern naomi klein type stuff. a friend had something for class about localization -- in the sense of being the opposite direction of globalization that looked maybe like the right sort of thing. i want to read e.o.wilson and all this other itelli-crud but i feel like my reading commitment level is somewhere mid-high school. that i just don't know how to approach anything scholarly. i need training wheel recommendations. bunny slopes. dunno.