happy holiday day

Body aching today, from running after and carrying a sturdy 14-month old. I cannot remember when I used to do this with two children day in and day out. But I was young. Now this 63-year old is feeling her babysitting in her bones.

It's heaven today - not too hot, sunny, a breeze, and with that holiday stillness in the air. I rode down to Cherry Beach - apparently there's a new park down there somewhere. Didn't find it, but did sit for a bit under the trees beside the beach, watching the sailboats and families picnicking. A true summer holiday day.

Getting some library books read, to return tomorrow: 1982, by Jian Ghomeshi, very interesting to me specifically because he is also writing about the year he was 14-15. It's entertaining and poignant even if you know nothing about New Age music. I myself would have edited it down a bit. Less is more. But I enjoyed it. I did not enjoy and won't finish Random Family, by Adrian Nicole LeBlanc, not because it's not a good book - it's an extremely good book, beautifully written and breathtaking in its truth and scope; subtitled "Love, drugs, trouble and coming of age in the Bronx," it's the true story of kids growing up in poverty and what happens to them and their many children. Haunting. Unbearable.

And finally, I'm rereading The Boys of my Youth, by Jo Ann Beard, which is so good that I'm tempted to compare my own work and stop writing. She's a gorgeous writer, and this is a gorgeous memoir. Highly recommended. This is on top of the New Yorker, of course, plus other magazines, plus two daily newspapers and the NYT on-line, and, most of all, the bloody internet, which seems to devour a great deal of time. Happy time, watching kittens and Paul McCartney on YouTube, but still...

Today's quote: We've all heard that a million monkeys banging on a million typewriters will eventually reproduce the entire works of Shakespeare. Now, thanks to the Internet, we know this is not true. 

Robert Wilensky. 

I'm also looking forward to Part 2 tonight of a new British murder mystery series, "Broadchurch," which started last night on Showcase. Oh the Brits are good at that, setting up character, situation and incredible tension in a few moments and off we go. Perfect evening's activity after a day with Eli, when you can hardly move.

P.S. I just read the most superb personal essay by Jo Ann Beard. You'll never read better. Don't miss it.

Personal History: THE FOURTH STATE OF MATTER : The New Yorker

www.newyorker.com/.../1996_06_24_080_TNY_CARDS_000376447‎