Those Italians: Titian and Rome

Winter                                                      Waning Moon of the Cold Month

Gosh, we’re losing our mojo here, 21 degrees now and freezing tomorrow.  This is the third week of January, the coldest week of the year.

Don’t know whether it’s my aging brain or the difficulty of the material, but I’ve spent some prime time on infinitives and indirect statements, while still trying to get the participles straight.  It’s fun and it’s getting me where I want to go, but I feel slow, web-footed at times.  On the other hand I am on Chapter 25, only 17 more to go.  After that, hey, only a few thousand more verses to go and I’ll have one book translated.

A bit more on the Latin tomorrow, then I’m diving into Titian material.  I’ve already finished the Grove Dictionary of Art entry on him, wandered around a few websites, but I’m looking to get medieval all over him, or Renaissance, rather.  The Renaissance and its step child, the enlightenment, are two favorite areas of study for me, so I look forward to leaning into the Titian material.

Well, yeah.  I do have to get groceries, too.  Always some fussy thing like getting fed.

Dreaming of the Far Away

Winter                                                  Waning Moon of the Cold Month

With Kate now retired, life has taken on a different, more relaxed rhythm.  She’s not hurrying to get ready for work, nor is she coming home tired, neck, back and hip on fire.  We don’t have that churn created by the world of busy, earn, comply, obey.  Both of us have an easier day, though we’re not quite used to what to do with evenings yet since that was her work time and my workout, end the day time.  We’ll get a new flow, one that will change with the seasons as the garden and the bees begin to demand more and more time, then subside as fall ushers in another round of senescence and transitions back to the cold, fallow months.

Travel is the one real potential budget wrecker we have.  I had some misspent time this afternoon looking at the National Geographic Expeditions catalog.  Gee, for only $65,000 a person you can fly around the world, stopping in exotic places along the way, staying in 5-star hotels including the Raffles Hotel D’Angkor in Siem Reap. I know that place, $500 a night and a hell of a good afternoon tea.  My $35 a night place was just fine, thank you.  Cheaper food, too.  That Amazon River cruise looked

Have to sign off now for the Legislative Committee conference call.